I know I promised a bit that Brax sent me on this, but it seems to have disappeared with the old boards. The gist of it was this: Dwarves are mostly bald, but help matters along by removing offending hair wherever it crops up (I seem to remember a dwarf digging in their ear to get rid of some excess furry parts). Why? They called it the curse of Rajaat and, if I remember right, the reason was a bit shady, but the overall idea was that it had something to do with their singlemindedness: they lost to Borys and remove their hair as some kind of ritual. I'll email Brax and see if he won't make a special appearance to clean this revelation up: it really was a good piece.
Had a guy play one once that found a girdle of dwarven strength (or whatever they were called in 2e), and when he put it on he was no longer sterile and started growing hair like normal, the idea was that it was from the Green Age when dwarves had hair.
He ended up having this cool goatee look going on, was pretty cool, ought to get someone to draw the image he saw his head one of these days.
Originally posted by Zmaj
I believe it was something with the king of dwarves (can't remember the name) saying that if he lost to Borys he'd cut off his beard. (As in no way am I going to lost THIS fight). But he did.. and the entire dwarven race decided to take on thier king's pledge.
That's pretty cool, I like that as the reason why.
/me goes with it
Originally posted by Nightdruid
Honestly...how many beards have you seen in Darksun artwork, this month's mags nonwithstanding?
Very, very little.
Most people of Athas are clean shaven from what I have seen.
--edit While most folks probably do shave, at the very least thier faces, there are some city-states (not sure about the villages) that the fasion is to wear beards. Nibenay for instance.
Originally posted by NytCrawlr
Very, very little.
Most people of Athas are clean shaven from what I have seen.
There you go...I'd surmise that either a) shaving is quite common on Athas, probably to prevent lice & other problems or b) maybe people on Athas just don't grow facial hair, like (most) women are unable to grow facial hair.
Muls are even less likely to have any body hair, and never have facial hair.
Originally posted by Nightdruid
Honestly...how many beards have you seen in Darksun artwork, this month's mags nonwithstanding?
As far as I know, every free citizen of Urik has to have a beard (look at the picture of VA p.78).
back to the dwavrs....
I think that the reason why dwarves don't have hairs is evolution and not a ritual. Dwarves have adapted faster than other races to their new natural surroundings. That's why they are so proud of beeing hairless.
I don't know why dwarves should be proud of it, if it was a curse of Raajat or if it would be a betting debt.
I wouldn't say, that evry dwarv must be hairless, there could also be a few ones which skipped the evolution step (maybe every 1/10000 birth?).
--edit Did a quick search of the Prisim Pentad and didn't see the qoute from anywhere with Kled... Still looking. I should remember this since I just reread them all not a month ago /sigh Anyone else remember the line about the bet?
Originally posted by Dawnstealer
Here's one that comes up do, in large part, to the artwork of Baxa. Honestly, I think the text is pretty clear that dwarves do not have hair of any kind and that muls, being half-dwarves, inherited this trait. Others like to play with this idea, though, so I'll include it in this ongoing thread.
I know I promised a bit that Brax sent me on this, but it seems to have disappeared with the old boards. The gist of it was this: Dwarves are mostly bald, but help matters along by removing offending hair wherever it crops up (I seem to remember a dwarf digging in their ear to get rid of some excess furry parts). Why? They called it the curse of Rajaat and, if I remember right, the reason was a bit shady, but the overall idea was that it had something to do with their singlemindedness: they lost to Borys and remove their hair as some kind of ritual. I'll email Brax and see if he won't make a special appearance to clean this revelation up: it really was a good piece.
I've personally thought of it as a curse that the last Kemalok king kinda put on his own people... something like "On the beards of my people - Borys, Butcher of Dwarves, you will never take Kemalok."
Originally posted by Zmaj
Now tell me just how benificial having a beard is mineing down in tunnels?
It keeps away the dust when they're digging. ;)
Originally posted by Zmaj
That's sounding familiar! Now... all we did is you to focus and remember and come up with a page number. Won't even make you remember the book, I'll look that part up myself LOL
I want to say Crimson Legion. I can't guarentee it tho.
Another interesting tale about vows is the reported story of how dwarves became hairless: a great dwarven king Vowed to kill some Dwarf-Butcher long ago, and apparently failed. Somehow the failure of this Vow demanded the penalty that all dwarves everywhere remove their hair.
And this, a few lines later:
The image of a hairy dwarf is amusing, since dwarves have come to hate hair and compulsively pick at the few hairs that do grow from their noses, ears, and eyelashes. According to our oroscrit, some dwarves are not naturally bald at all, but are ritually buried as children in a mixture of lye and special ashes that prevent hair growth. To help the children survive this ordeal, they are made to breathe though a tube, and their eyes, ears, and nose are sealed with wax — hence these are the only areas on a dwarf that produce hair.
This balding ceremony is the ritual that marks the passage of a young dwarf from infancy into childhood. The dwarven infant, hairy and naked, is ignored by all but his parents, until he learns to speak and demands that others pay attention to him. Then the community elders submerge the infant in the lye mixture as described above, and he is considered a child after this ritual. We must remember that dwarves age differently than we do: a dwarven infant
.
I've personally thought of it as a curse that the last Kemalok king kinda put on his own people... something like "On the beards of my people - Borys, Butcher of Dwarves, you will never take Kemalok."
Canon or not, I'm going with this for the dwarves of the tablelands. Outside of there though, I'll have hairy dwarves.
but are ritually buried as children in a mixture of lye and special ashes that prevent hair growth
Now, I can't seem to find anything to back this up online (so it may not be true), but I knew a girl who's family came from Egypt. According to her, they have a kind of paste concoction that they use on the young women that makes the area unable to grow hair (upper lip, legs, armpits, uni-brow), but for some reason it doesn't work after puberty. She had said she wasn't sure what was in the mixture, but she knew that bat's blood was used in it (although its unlikely to be an actual active ingredient). Of course, having been born over in the U.S. she was pretty peeved about having to resort to electrolosis for years instead of just smearing some paste on her lip for a few days. If someone else knows anything more about this, it could provide a little recipe for realism for hairless dwarves.
I conclude the following:
1: Dwarves have hair but most of them remove it in that lye ritual.
2:Most Muls don't have any hair but there is the odd one with hair.
) might not make any mention of the oath of Rkard some discussed above, the dwarven leader of Kled, Caelum and Rikus seemed appalled at the notion that dwarves of old had hair. I think this suggests that dwarves and muls generally don't have hair. Also it states that does dwarves who have some body hair pick it all off. Now it's just a matter of how canon you consider the prism pentad, but since its written by one of the authors, it should have some credibility.
People are also right, however, when pointing out that some 1e art had dwarves with hair. I'm thinking of a dwarven earth cleric with white hair in the PC book of the first adventures.
Anyways, I think we should go with:
1- Dwarves almost never have facial hair, and those that do almost always shave it.
2- Dwarves seldom grow any (head) hair, and those that do usually shave it.
3- Dwarves usually have little body hair, but they usually do have some on the arms and legs, and most dwarves shave or pick it out.
4- Muls have even less hair than dwarves. Muls almost never have any head, facial or body hair.
5- I'm thinking dwarves or muls having facial or body hair in the Tyr Region would be much like women having the same in 21st century north american culture (though women do have more body hair than dwarves would).
Hmm... this brings up a question we forgot:
Do dwarven and mul women have hair?
Personnally, I think mul women should be just as hairless as their male counterparts, but I could see dwarven women with hair (just head hair). Braided hair could be their style. Anyways. Any thoughts on this?
Oh, and on a related matter, is there any way in english to distiguish head hair with other hair without adding the ''head'' tag? This is really annoying... ;)
Originally posted by Shei-Nad
Oh, and on a related matter, is there any way in english to distiguish head hair with other hair without adding the ''head'' tag? This is really annoying... ;)
Hair=head hair
body hair=body hair
Source: Veiled Alliance.
Here's one that comes up do, in large part, to the artwork of Baxa. Honestly, I think the text is pretty clear that dwarves do not have hair of any kind and that muls, being half-dwarves, inherited this trait. Others like to play with this idea, though, so I'll include it in this ongoing thread.
I know I promised a bit that Brax sent me on this, but it seems to have disappeared with the old boards. The gist of it was this: Dwarves are mostly bald, but help matters along by removing offending hair wherever it crops up (I seem to remember a dwarf digging in their ear to get rid of some excess furry parts).
IIRC that was from Lynn Abbey's The Brazen Gambit
Why? They called it the curse of Rajaat and, if I remember right, the reason was a bit shady, but the overall idea was that it had something to do with their singlemindedness: they lost to Borys and remove their hair as some kind of ritual. I'll email Brax and see if he won't make a special appearance to clean this revelation up: it really was a good piece.
I must have missed your email, Dawnstealer. The piece that you refer to was the article "Dwarven Wisdom," from the Kurnan Spy Manual, "Wisdom of the Drylanders," which is available for free download at www.Athas.org
As far as I know, it's also the only one of my pieces that Troy Denning read and responded to -- that's way back in the archives of the Dark Sun mailing list.