Why the Malwish wear masks

[NovaOmen Any/All(Get creative!!!)]

I don't know if this has been figured out yet, but do we know why the Malwish wear their masks?

I know the Lord ruler had the Malwish as a backup population in case the genetic modifications didn't as work for northern scadrians. So I always assumed that the Malwish masks were a cultural holdover from the technology they were given to survive the much harsher southern lands in era 1.

[Treamayne]

24 minutes ago, NovaOmen said:

I don't know if this has been figured out yet, but do we know why the Malwish wear their masks?

I know the Lord ruler had the Malwish as a backup population in case the genetic modifications didn't as work for northern scadrians. So I always assumed that the Malwish masks were a cultural holdover from the technology they were given to survive the much harsher southern lands in era 1.

I do not think it it has been revealed if it is simply a cultural thing or if ther is a precipitating reason. 

Stormlight Archive Spoilers:

Spoiler

Much like Vorinism's rules on masculine and feminie arts and that evolving int othe Vorin Safehand.  - WoB:

Quote

Questioner

How do you get the Asian themes in without it being so corny?

Brandon Sanderson

You try to break down... Use multiple inspirations and tie them together. Try to extrapolate. Try to look at what are caricatures and stray away from that. Being influenced by the philosophy and the thinking and the culture to create things that are similar but going their own direction will help you do that sort of thing. Justifying things in-world rather than just dropping them in. Take a look at the safehand, which is based off of not -- but as an Asian culture thing, when I lived in Korea, you didn't show the bottom of your feet to people. It was considered rude. That was really interesting to me, and creating a similar taboo but with different groups and different reasons, it was... You can see my experience in how it came out. Do things like that.

Orem signing (Dec. 21, 2017)

 

Sometimes Brandon just wants to explore how different cultures develop those unique traits - like so many real world cultures (Left hand taboo, showing bottom of feet taboo, etc.)