Qumai

Qumai refers to all Djinni cultural traditions that concern the wearing of unique, customised masks during everyday life. These traditions originate from ancient Djinnis' way to combat their ideally symmetrical faces and the identity crisises that came with such perfect, but identical faces - wearing customised masks that would help in differentiating people from each other and stressing their individuality. Despite the fact that the modern Djinnis' mixing with native Thirians resulted in more unique faces (though still rather limited in terms of possible combinations), this simple solution would later go on to become part of countless Djinni cultures, with each having their own unique take on the mask system.

Elements of qumai have snuck their way into other Thirian cultures over the years, resulting in customs such as guards and soldiers wearing plain masks that hide their identity and usage of special coronation masks.

Gannaid cultures
The first Gannaid Empires, especially the Masdad Empire, used the masks to differentiate between free people and slaves. The slave masks were plain, sometimes made in a crude and inelegant way, and used the Muhfaj alphabet to clearly spell out the words "slave" or "not free". Because Djinni personal identity is strongly based on qumai, many slave owners would use special methods to make sure the slaves couldn't take off their masks, like magical spells or natural glues. Some would go so far as to screw the masks to the slaves' faces, sentencing them to a lifetime of servitude. Such brutal ways would continue to get practiced until the fall of the Quadahad Empire in 1112 2E.

The Gannaids also introduced the use of special, completely plain masks for city guards and soldiers, a method that was meant so symbolise the facelessness of justice.