Mask Culture

Mask culture is a phenomena effused throughout all Jhoraelian cultures. Citizens identities are tied closely with the masks they wear over their lifetimes, denoting social status, level of education, profession, and personal passions. Material, shape, color, and placement of embellishments can convey a wide variety of facts about the wearer to those viewing. Each country has historically vital masks and socially understood guidelines when it comes to creating new masks.

Masks most frequently cover the whole face, but at the bare minimum are expected to cover the eyes.

Etiquette within mask culture
Seeing another without their mask, particularly by force, is one of the greatest taboos. The act of intimacy is on par with seeing someone completely unclothed and is seen as highly improper. Maskless interaction is saved for close family, lovers, and intimate friends.

Given how masks obstruct the face, dining and drinking in public is approached differently. While many masks feature designs that make the mouth accessible in some way for the act, it is still seen as unseemly for any stranger to witness. Most Jhoraelian restaurants feature several private rooms where food and libations are served through windows or by servers who announce their presence before entering, leaving close groups to their get-togethers. There are open-room establishments throughout Jhoraelia, particularly in the last decade as Anorien culture has introduced itself, but these are seen as seedy locations for the most part.

In death, the mask is typically removed by a loved one and replaced by white cloth. What follows depends greatly on the country of origin. Amilans wear the same mask much of their lives, and this is kept by the next of kin or significant other on an altar in their home while the body is taken to Gyrth i Lorë. Mithrans, who change their masks as often as they feel the impulse, have their coffins festooned in their life's masks before the whole lot is cremated, ensuring no one can adopt their life's guise. Thoniens masks, often made of trophies from their life's hunt, are disassembled and dispersed through their family, friends, and teammates, ensuring that their torch is carried on through the lives they have touched.

To mistreat or destroy a dead person's mask is said to draw a curse upon one's self.

Specifics by country
Every country within Jhoraelia has commonly used materials in their masks which can be useful in decoding where the wearer hails from. While these lists are by no means all inclusive, they're a helpful guide, particularly for foreigners.

Amilnorë
Amilnorë is well known for their theistic lives and iconography. Their masks are most often those of gilt embroidered cloth, skillfully carved and painted wood, and colored glass. High ranking religious officials wear thin stoneware masks, and those priestesses devoted to the service of Pharasma and the Amillë are well-known for their identical porcelain masks cast in the guise of the Amillë's own face.

Thoniel
Thoniel is infamous for its "dead gods" and the prevalence of dragons within its borders. Many Thoniens fashion fearsome masks out of bone, dragonhide, claws, and burn-etched wood. Those Thoniens who favor themselves as pirates forego masks in an act of solidarity with those slaves they would set free, who are denied masks as a way of denying personhood; these elves often weave their hair with the mythril chains of past victories.

Mithras
Mithras is well known for use of precious metals taken from its coastal mines, but the eleven principalities distinguish themselves from each other based on their exports.
 * Arafaine makes use of white adamantine from their prison mines, frequently gilt and dyed red.
 * Celafore is known for clay and painted masks accented with shed tiefling horns, owed to their historically high slave population. Masks sculpted into the guises of demons are common.
 * Daakon uses many of the dark woods from their timber trade, usually etched and filled with colored resins, favoring arcane runes and sigils. Those who train as Seekers in the magister's Reliquary are a special case, usually wearing full-head apparatuses made from meteorite.
 * Divaand houses the northernmost tradeport of Jhoraelia as well as some of the best textile artisans on the continent. Most masks are those of thick, embroidered silk, set with valuables that proclaim one's trade.
 * Duartham is the largest exporter of diamonds in the world, and the stones can be found sewn into even slaves simple cloth masks. Duarthan masks are easily picked out for their three-quarters design that lets the wearer's hair out.
 * Fensaah favors the use of paper and simple cloth. The country is the sole theistic principality of Mithras and pays homage to the goddess Pharasma by traveling into Gyrth i Lorë and taking rubbings from ancient gravestones and crypts to wear upon their faces.
 * Foradahl makes great use of crystals and coppers, forming masks that often also include matching hair ornamentation, focused on enhancing divination abilities.
 * Galdor favors no-nonsense, guise-less mask and helmets cast in steel and reinforced against piercing.
 * Saffore presents a unique cultural rite wherein Safforan children are frequently taken to the Whirlpool Seas upon their cusping adulthood to dive into the perilous sea and retrieve the clump of iron corral that would be carved into their mask. Most retain a piece of this coral throughout the changing masks of their lifetime. Unique, shell-inspired masks are common.
 * Vaash made popular the scandalous half-mask design, covering only the upper half of the face. Their economic reliance on tourism and gaming drives those from Vaash to make their masks as flashy as possible to attract livelihood.
 * Xione makes profuse use of gold leafed steal in their helmet-styled masks, most frequently in animal shapes.

Historically relevant masks
Several designs are considered taboo or too revered to be used as everyday masks for any commoner. Use of or similarity to such masks is often met with social ostracization or, in extreme cases, violent retribution.
 * The Face of Amillë, or the Face of the Mother, is a special porcelain mask carved to resemble the face of the allegedly immortal head of the church and defacto queen of Amilnorë for over a thousand years. It depicts the narrow, half-lidded face of a somewhat plain but lovely elven woman cast in flawless white porcelain and is fastened to the head with indigo silk ties. Amilan priestesses of Pharasma famously wear half-mask versions of this famous guise. Some Lloraelian travelers have pointed out a striking similarity between this mask and the face of their own immortal Empress.
 * The Godslayer Mantle is a mythic Thonien mask of unknown design said to have been worn by the warrior known only as Godslayer when they struck down the last of the pantheon. While no one knows what the mask looks like in truth, many hunters and freedom fighters keep plain, hooded mantles in their homes for good fortune in Godslayer's memory. Those who meet strange ends are said to have crafted a mask too close to the true mantle and were struck down for disrespecting the tale.