Where do the Ascian black masks come from?

[KageTokage]

I did find it a touch odd that the black masks were mentioned in 5.3 as being part of Elidibus' scheme to build faith in the Warriors of Light, as they had long since fell into obscurity at that point, with the bulk of their appearances being in ARR and only showing up again in the HW SMN quests.

I have doubts they'll ever go into the specifics of how they fit into the scheme of things unless the remaining Paragons decide to get up to no good.

On the subject of the masks, I'm also left questioning who wore the strange masks we see with Hades and Zodiark, as it implies there were people outside of the Convocation who wore "non-standard" models. I suppose it could just easily be a stylistic expression of the mental state of those Ancients who sacrificed themselves to summon Zodiark as their shapes evoke feelings of sorrow, anger, and despair.