Reincarnating another thread:
Kasatha are described as tradition bound, but we're only given two examples.
The first shows up in all their art - Kasatha keep their mouths covered. This is easy to explain - mouths are bodily orifices, and Kasatha wear masks for the same reason humans wear pants: they don't want to show off either end of their digestive tract.
Surprised nobody seems to have mentioned the following possibility on these messageboards -- at least, searches for "Kasatha pandemic" and "Kasatha epidemic" don't turn up anything at all, and a search "Kasatha mask" doesn't turn up anything related, with this thread seeming to be the closest result.
Maybe Kasatha wear masks because they have had bad experiences with pandemics of respiratory diseases. This would be especially relevant when traveling for very long periods on a worldship. Now, they might well rationalize the tradition as described in the original post, but guarding against infectious disease transmission might have been the original incentive.
Humans and other species are then all being a little gross, but they're another species, so it's a bit more like seeing Donald Duck never wear pants than being outright rude.
{. . .}
If Kasatha do remember the original incentive for wearing masks, they might also see Humans and other species as living dangerously -- especially in a crowded enclosed environment like Absalom Station that probably has large sections that have air filtration of dubious quality.
And now (even at the risk of immediately derailing my own thread) I want to see a Duckfolk race . . . .
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An interesting possibility, but they were wearing the masks back when they were using wood and stone tools. I'm not sure that translates to a fear of disease.
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It is more likely that the masks started off as dust masks, as they are originally from a desert planet.
In the Wheel of Time series, there are two instances of where dust masks turned into cultural traditions. The first is now nowhere near dusty areas, but maintain wearing a veil for modesty/propriety reasons, even if the veil is sheer silk. They even use light-weight chainmail veils for their helmets. The other group still lives in a desert, but uses the veil to signify their readiness to kill.
An interesting possibility, but they were wearing the masks back when they were using wood and stone tools. I'm not sure that translates to a fear of disease.
People here figured out that masks were of some protective value against the transmission of disease even before they figured out germ theory (and in a way, they sort of had partly figured it out, given that "miasma" could be interpreted as air full of microscopic droplets containing pathogens). Check out Medieval (actually Renaissance) Plague Doctor masks.
It is more likely that the masks started off as dust masks, as they are originally from a desert planet.
In the Wheel of Time series, there are two instances of where dust masks turned into cultural traditions. The first is now nowhere near dusty areas, but maintain wearing a veil for modesty/propriety reasons, even if the veil is sheer silk. They even use light-weight chainmail veils for their helmets. The other group still lives in a desert, but uses the veil to signify their readiness to kill.
{. . .}
It's easy to see how such a thing could also develop from desert dust masks (people would eventually notice that those who kept their masks on after coming in from the dusty outside environment into an inside respiratory disease-infested environment would be less likely to contract or transmit disease than those who took their masks off at the first available opportunity.
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For it to have become a permanent cultural norm, kasathan society would have needed to be inundated with airborne diseases CONSTANTLY for a prolonged period. That is something that the writers would likely have mentioned.
Their home world is notably a desert planet, the mask tradition likely evolved from dust masks during a period when buildings and other dwellings where not perfectly sealed against dust and sand particles.
Has it likely helped prevent the spread of airborne pathogens throughout their history? Sure. I'd even bet kasathan doctors, upon arriving in Pact World space, could only shake their heads in dismay at the easy spread of respiratory illness among the local species.
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(Not to burst anyone's lore-bubble, but it's because kasathas, like shobhads, are races seeded by witchwyrds, and witchwyrds cover their whole heads to make them harder to identify and get a read on; this species inscrutability gives them an advantage in commerce, which is central to their culture. So kasathas picked it up from their progenitors, who did it because they really like haggling :D
But, as always, if that explanation doesn't sit well, throw it out with the bathwater and come up with your own [pandemic?] reasons!)
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In fact, I bet Shobhads don't cover their faces because they're the rebellious teen!
"Youngling! I can see all of your tusks; it is disgusting and plus you wear your heart on your nose. Attend to your mask!"
"SHUT UP YOU'RE NOT MY REAL MOM!" *four-armed, Large-size, tantrum*
For it to have become a permanent cultural norm, kasathan society would have needed to be inundated with airborne diseases CONSTANTLY for a prolonged period. That is something that the writers would likely have mentioned. {. . .}
Maybe such mention comes later.
And yes, that would cause PTSD for their whole culture. As would being stuck on a giant tin can drifting between the stars for many generations (which would up the threat of a pathogen spreading).
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For it to have become a permanent cultural norm, kasathan society would have needed to be inundated with airborne diseases CONSTANTLY for a prolonged period. That is something that the writers would likely have mentioned. {. . .}Maybe such mention comes later.
And yes, that would cause PTSD for their whole culture. As would being stuck on a giant tin can drifting between the stars for many generations (which would up the threat of a pathogen spreading).
Sure, but again, they've been covering their faces since early tool use, long before they ever boarded the Idari. It's far more likely that they are originally dust masks, and they might have had less historical problems with respiratory illnesses because they've always worn the masks.
^They could have tried to abandon face masks several times, with disastrous results.
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That or social movements to get rid of masks were blamed for having a higher rate of disease by the more conservative parts of their society. That resulted in such movements quickly dying out, whether or not there was any truth behind the conservative's propaganda.
^You seem to be saying that like you thought it was a bad thing . . . .
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It's possible its just them finding mouths to be sexual or gross, it's possible they are dust masks originally and its also possible its because of witchwyrds(even though shobads don't wear masks), but either way I don't think its because of disease because they have worn them since they were hunter gatherers in small tribes :p
Like, in group of small tribe you wouldn't really need mask to avoid pandemic because... uh it wouldn't be pandemic by definition since there aren't enough people capable of spreading it globally nor would small tribes have that much contact with each other
And on regarding it sounding forced, well, yeah, it does sound like you are trying to force a pathogen angle for it("if they didn't start as pathogen masks, maybe they didn't get rid of them because of pathogen?") which probably puts off lot of people in real life due to the current events :p
I prefer to have Escapism in my Games.
For the Topic
Occam's razor.. they wear it out of tradition, it's a dust mask beacuse
The are desert dwellers seems cut and dry to me.
Small tribes can have regular big meetings, q.v. Stonehenge. It also looks as though there were cities lost to history (if not archaeology) in Europe during the early Bronze Age which were outright destroyed by disease. Even Medieval sanitation is better than none at all.
But yes, dust masks is a better answer by Occam's Razor. Just remember that's not proof.