Hmm... I wonder if the genetics will ever be civ influenced (one mostly dark skinned, one mostly fair skinned, on much taller on average...).
If so, I think bearded female dwarves existing but being more or less common in some civs would be a reasonable compromise.
But the genetics probably isnt that complicated yet.
With some overhaul you could make that sort of happen, though without as strong a tendency in the civs.
i can't decide on whether i would rather have dwarfettes bearded or no...
DnD they are not, LotR they are...
if female beards are toggleable, well, i have no idea what to do.
In WoW they aren't..... so thats 2 against one.
D&D and WoW hardly count, as they're largely LotR ripoffs anyway, so any instances in which D&D or WoW differ from LotR can simply be considered errors on the parts of TSR or Blizzard respectively.
As for LotR itself, I don't think there's anything in the main text discussing female beards, or even mentioning female dwarves at all--the only dwarves that even make an appearance are Gimli and (briefly) Gloin. Female dwarves are mentioned in The Hobbit (Fili and Kili are sons of Thorin's sister, I think), but that's it. However: the extensive appendices to LotR do state, if I remember correctly, that female dwarves are visually indistinguishable from male dwarves to the extent that most of the aboveworld races don't even realize that there are female dwarves, so that could certainly be read as implying beards.
In any event if we want any sort of realism the question we should be asking ourselves first is: why DON'T female humans have beards? And why do male humans have beards? My guess for males is that a thick full beard is a show of healthiness and excess resources (protein), much like a lion's mane or a peacock's fan, although in all three of these cases I'm not entirely certain why females don't have corresponding structures.
I vaguely recall some line about Gimli not wanting to talk about female dwarves, as if they were some kind of secret.
Body hair in humans tends to be present among the populations that went out and about in swampy areas. Less skin surface exposed means less mosquito bites and less malaria. In hotter areas the heat problem is bigger as EVERYONE has to deal with that rather than just the people that catch a disease.
Unfortunately a lot of parasites tend to make use of patches of hair like beards so there is the opposing effect of parasite load. As women need to do that whole pregnancy thing low parasite loads are a little bit stronger selective force.
Aside from natural selection there's also sexual selection, which can basically do things that don't make sense. If beards are sexy they can get to be a very big burden in the pure physical sense but still end up helping fitness. In some cases things that are blatant handicaps can spread, such as the peacocks tail, because surviving while carrying something like that around proves the individual is very healthy and good at the whole surviving thing. Sexual selection has had a fairly strong impact on humans (example: natural selection tries to keep the brain as small as possible because it's very energy hungry,) so there have likely been numerous factors at work in our appearance.
In any event if we want any sort of realism the question we should be asking ourselves first is: why DON'T female humans have beards? And why do male humans have beards?
The hormones linked to beard development in males are not as present in females in general. At least, that's what I remember it being.
Well ya but those hormones don't do anything to the hair growing off the tops of our heads. Why should it impact the hair coming off the lower fronts of our heads?
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Topic: Future of the Fortress: List of Remaining Items (Read 3634461 times)