D&D General Should Bearded Female Dwarves be the Default?

[Urriak Uruk]

...It just now occurs to me that this could be interpreted to mean “it’s the beards that make them hard to tell apart” rather than “it’s the beards that give away the difference” as I interpreted it.

Never mind, ignore me.

Yeah this was the exact scene I was referring to, though I wasn't sure if it was limited to the films.

I did a little more research, and apparently in Appendix A (not sure which book) it is written;

They [Dwarven-women] are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears of other peoples cannot tell them apart.

And in the War of the Jewels;

...no Man nor Elf has ever seen a beardless Dwarf - unless he were shaven in mockery, and would then be more like to die of shame... For the Naugrim have beards from the beginning of their lives, male and female alike...

I'm not sure exactly where the idea of "beardless dwarf women" actually came from, as Tolkien is of course the base for most fantasy with dwarves. I believe Warhammer Fantasy Battle also has bearded dwarf women (but they're honestly never shown in anything so it matters little either way). Warcraft is I think the biggest property to divert to beardless dwarf women, and a lot of properties have followed that pattern.

Not sure about D&D as there are of course many settings, but the Forgotten Realms wiki confirms that both sexes can grow facial hair, though the majority of females do shave their beards (another departure, as Tolkien dwarven women clearly do not).

Clearly for Exandria, Mercer wanted to call out dwarves to be more like the Tolkien inspiration. It matters little though, as you can always have an individual dwarf shave.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Did some more research, and apparently even in Warcraft there are references to bearded dwarven women, though of course when you play World of Warcraft this is not an option (or is it? No idea honestly).

And in Warhammer Fantasy, it looks like dwarf women are not bearded... there is very little info on dwarf women, but the images and references of them point to dwarf women being beardless.

 

[Parmandur]

Personally, I find Terry Pratchett's Discworld has the best take on Dwarves...I wouldn't go so comical with it, but those books are pretty central to how I approach them.

 

[BRayne]

Exandria-wise only one of the 3 Female Dwarf PCs have had facial hair and I can only remember one NPC where it was mentioned and a quick look through the Wildemount guide from what I could tell had more examples of beardless dwarven women than otherwise. Of the bigger Actual play DMs Brennan Lee Mulligan seems the most gung-ho about dwarven women having beards.

 

[Orius]

I say yes. But then, I have probably a more unusual motivation for it.

During the early 3e days, Dragon was still running the PC Portraits feature which offered about a dozen themed pictures players could us for their PCs. One month had a bunch of dwarf pictures because the issue's most monthly theme was dwarves. The art editor mentioned that he airbrushed out the beards on the female portraits because 3e wasn't doing that any more. That irked me, because I felt it disrespected the artist's work, and decided that henceforth ALL dwarf women would be HEAVILY bearded. So for me it wasn't an adolescent case of the giggles, but my way of sticking it to the man (though come to think of it, "sticking it to the man" is an adolescent way of thinking too...).

Before that, I didn't really pay much attention to it. But I like the idea that dwarves should have different standards of beauty since it makes them feel different than humans. It also works with the whole "dwarves male, elves female" idea, unless of course your elf looks like David Bowie in tight leather pants.

And don't even get me started on dragonboobs.

 

[Demetrios1453]

If we're going to go into previous edition stuff, the 2e Demihuman Deities quite definitely shows bearded and non-beared dwarf females in its specialty priest illustrations...

 

[Tonguez]

after playing Dragon Age Inquisition and encountering that adorable Scout Harding I will not stand for a world that doesn't include an option for dwarf women to go beardless

she looks human, what makes her a dwarf?

 

[Weiley31]

she looks human, what makes her a dwarf?

Her height?

 

[Charlaquin]

Her height?

Also her... uhh... species?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

So, in an interview that just happened, Cate Blanchett wanted a second role in LotR, in a cameo as a bearded Dwarf woman:

That Time Cate Blanchett Pitched Another Lord Of The Rings Role To Peter Jackson

It's not a role you'd expect her to want.

www.cinemablend.com