Dwarven women

[Vladamir]

Alright alright, I have only found one thing wrong with PS so far.  The Stonebreaker and Hammerwielder females do not have beards!?  How can this be so?

[boonet]

They shave it?

Should they forcedly have a beard? I tend to prefer a different kind of women, so I am not really an expert in this field...

[FMiddy]

Im gonna say for health reasons of all the male players, the dwarven women should not be forced to have beards, I mean...they\'re already..short...and all..dwarf like....

[Abemore]

having not seen a female dwarf mesh, i cannot be certain what they will look like

[Vladamir]

In all my Rping experiences female dwarves have had beards.  But I suppose we could make an exception.     But is there at least any chance that they could have the choice?

[Kendaro]

In the few games I have seen character creation, you can choose between skins of what you want your avatar to look like. A freing of mine would always play a bearded female dwarf. He really scared me at times, if you know what I mean. You know there is something I really would like to know. When and when did it come up that dwarven females had beards? I know there is mention of it in the Tolkien books but is he actually the one that started the dwarven race or just adabt it? Do we have any fantasy guroos here? Sure would like to know when and where dwarves first came into being as well as the bearded female thing and who started it.

[Fantasyfiend]

Actually, I think he just adapted it (hunker down. When I get started on this stuff it takes a while.)

Tolkiens books were based on Norse & Celtic Mythology from my personal view on it. I believe Dwarves are more Nord than Celt due to their strong physique. If you want to know when TOLKIEN says the dwarves were created, then opnce upon a time......

In the First ages, when the Valar roamed the Ea, There was one who created people of the mountains who could mine and create splendid things, but he did not tell his creation to Manwe, the God of Valar. So when Manwe found out, Their creator handed Manwe a hammer and said something to the effect of \"I give these as an offering unto you.\" But Manwe could not slay them when they qualed in fear, for he saw that they had life, and he permitted them to live. And it was good. But the wife of the Dwarven creator loved trees and all things of the forest, and she feared that the Dwarves would harm that which she loved. So she went unto Manwe asking him for somthing to guard the forest. So, Manwe created the Ents. Sheperds of Trees. That should the Dwarves, wander foolishly and bite the trees with steel, they would be punished ten-fold. The oldest Ent currently alive goes by the name Treebeard, Fangorn, and a really, really long name in Entish? Anything else you want to know?

[Vladamir]

I\'m quite sure Tolkien did not create the dwarves himself, but as to who did I haven\'t the slightest idea.

Would that account be from the Lost Tales Fantasyfiend?

[Kendaro]

Ents, another mistery to me... I know them by treants. Was Treant actually the name of an Ent and eventually and accidently became known as the name for living trees?

[Vladamir]

Eh, who knows.  I always had known treants to be ancient druids that had slowly overtime became more tree than man or elf, or whatever their race was.

[Kendaro]

So thats what that was.. No wonder druids have such an afinity with treants... I thought it had more to do with the druid relationship with the earth but if a treant is an elder druid evolved by magic.. that explains much much more. Funny how you can live (er play) in worlds but not know of the little things.

[Fantasyfiend]

Actually, I read this from \"The Silmarillion\". It\'s like the Elven bible. It\'s actually pretty interesting, but the way th book is worded is pretty arcane. No, I doubt Tolkien created the Dwarves, but he did implement them from mythology into his books. The books (LOTR) never really mention she-dwarves. But the sad truth is, that they are generally going to be ugly, regardless. Short, Squat, Pug nosed. The elves are about the only race known for beauty. My favorite race fantasy wise, has to be the Ents. I love em. I love th way their so slow, calm, and somber, then they get angry, and their anger could match the raid on Laketown by Smaug.

[Bigfoot]

From what I can find in my large encyclopedia of mythology, Dwarves are primarily from Nordic myth, short and ugly men, and if my memory serves (and the book source is correct) they also tended to have deformed feet like those of animals or there feets faced backward, and they wore there leather aprones  to teh ground to hide this much disliked deformaty.

One by the name of Sindri forged Odins magical ring in his underground forge with his brother Brokk at teh bellows.

Celtic myth tends towards, goblins, trolls and gnomes and such for there small people (have a book with art done by Froude, detaling all the differant types of small people in mythology).

Couldnt find anything about treants in my books, although it is more related to heros and gods rather than the lower denziens of the mythologys, but comprehensive none the less. Often modern ideas are exagerations of less exciting concepts of myth, the original treants might be nothing more than a station or old title for a particular druid or some such, interesting none the less..

Yeah... you lot need to read books more ^^.

[Fantasyfiend]

What book is this? It sounds fascinating. I really have to brush up on my Nord mythos. For a while there, I was an expert on Greek Mythology. I don\'t reemember as much of it now. I used to be able to name all the muses, and their gifts. Anyway. So dwarves are even uglier in ages since? They really do catch hell for being ugly. Actually come to think of it, Gnomes used to bee known to kidnap infants, now, they just to mischevous things like put salt in your sugar bowls. Sad how they\'ve lowered their evil standards.

[Bigfoot]

The Ultimate Encyclopidia of Mythology

written by Arthur Cotterell and Rachel Storm... not sure of publisher.

Covers Chinese, Celtic, Greece and Rome, Nordic, West Asia/Egypt, Southern and Central Asia (Hindu, India) and East Asia and i think a few other pantheons.

the guide book with alot of brian froude art work im not to sure of its name, something like \"Guide to fairies, Faes and something a rather\" ^^, the art work alone makes it a good read. Has every thing from Kelpies to Boogarts(sp?) in it... il have to get that book out of teh attic and give t a look see again.

Hope that helps out...