Editing Dwarf (section)

=Physiology=
Let's start with the obvious; dwarves are most readily distinguished from humans by their stature, being notably shorter than the human average. Over the editions, this has fluctated somewhat, but in general dwarves have a height range between 4 and 5 feet - which still makes them taller than [[gnomes]] and [[halflings]], who average closer to the 3ft-4ft mark. Combined with their strong builds and stocky frames, dwarves are technically considered Medium creatures rather than Small ones, although usually they're slower than "full-sized" Medium races. If you want to over examine things, this works well with the dwarf association with heavy armor. Shorter size, less surface area, less metal needed to give equal protection to that of a human size species, and due to their greater strength for their size, they can wear thicker armor and yet have it weigh and even cost the same as armor for a human that gives overall less protection.

Dwarves are noted for their rugged natures; their [[Constitution]] is higher than the average human's and even beyond that, they're inherently resistant to poisons (which suggests that their food should, in fact, be more flavourful than humans; however, dwarven food is often portrayed as bland). This, incidentally, may play a part in their famous love of alcohol. In earlier editions, dwarves are also strongly resistant to magical energy, due to a combination of physical and mental fortitude; this aspect has died away over the editions as it was mostly used to justify dwarves not being able to play [[wizard]]s or [[bard]]s (in fact in the minds of many [[grognard|grognards]] a dwarven wizard is as big an oxymoron as something like a [[celestial]] [[fiend]] or an arachnophobic [[drow]]).

One of the most famous aspects of dwarven physiology is the beard. Dwarven men are prone to male pattern baldness, but compensate for it with the ability to readily grow thick, luscious, bushy beards and/or moustaches. Why? Well... because dwarves are just associated with beards (goes back to their folkloric roots). You can have cleanshaven dwarves - in fact, the dwarves of [[Dark Sun]] are naturally hairless - but the image is quite subversive.

Dwarves are often depicted as having difficulties reproducing - they may not be formally considered a "dying" race, but they often have either a slow population growth rate, or a dearth of females (it should be noted that in real life species with this sort of asymmetric population ratio, the rarer sex is usually significantly larger on average and keeps a harem of the more common sex, which in the case of bigger and rarer females would likely result in a matriarchal society if sapience develops), if not both. In [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons|traditional D&D lore]], dwarf women make up only one ''third'' of the dwarf population, which is not good when it takes a year for them to give birth after getting pregnant. In the [[Forgotten Realms]] in the same era, lore from the splatbook "Dwarves Deep" states that not only do dwarf men outnumber the women (only 3 in 10 dwarves are female), but also that 55% of the total population has fertility issues so bad that they might as well be sterile when interbreeding with each other.

Mind you, Forgotten Realms actually gives a reason for this in the "Spawn Wars"; an ancient dwarven civil war where the dwarves used aberrations called Deepspawn to produce huge armies of clone soldiers. When the war ended, they were left with not only a surplus of males, but interbreeding with these clones (and clones of clones of clones) damaged their genetic stock, leaving the dwarves with their current damaged fertility. Until 3rd edition basically retconned all the damage away, at least, courtesy of a divine intervention called "the Thunder Blessing".

Likewise, 3e dumped the "dwarf men outnumber the women" angle, and it's never been seen since.

As part of this, dwarves usually aren't depicted as being capable of crossbreeding with other races, as elaborated on the [[half-dwarf]] page.

==The Bearded Females Debate==
[[file:FemaleDwarf.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Frigga loves wrestling, drinking and flower-pressing.]]

If you bring up Dwarves anywhere, chances are, you'll hear somebody mocking them for the idea that their womenfolk have beards. This stems from Tolkien, whose works established that Dwarven women visually resemble Dwarven men to the extent that human eyes can't tell them apart at a casual glance. Its not explicitly stated however that "female Dwarves have beards", so among Tolkien fans there tends to be debate on if he meant they have full beards or just that they are just masculine; Peter Jackson's portrayal in the movies took the middle ground, giving them a small amount of wispy hair that looks like a human beard, although the massive and thick styled beards of the males along with the females wearing feminine clothing make it clear to the audience which is which. 

Because [[Dungeons & Dragons]] was inspired by Tolkien, to an arguable extent, you probably think D&D popularized the idea, right? Well... yes and no. In fact, D&D books are actually all over the place on the subject. The [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 1e PHB doesn't even mention the concept (though the DMG does), and it's likewise absent from the 1e Monster Manual. In [[Complete Book Series|The Complete Book of Dwarves]], it's stated that only the Deep Dwarves strain possess bearded women - or, admittedly, a cultural trait of women ''keeping'' their beards; the exact line goes "the females wear their beards long, unlike other dwarf women (who are typically clean-shaven)". In [[Dragonlance]], it was established that female dwarves don't grow beards proper, but instead merely have very bushy sideburns. But then there were the [[Forgotten Realms]]... here, [[splatbook]]s like "Dwarves Deep" establish Faerunian female dwarves as having beards, although this is not culturally required and many do shave. This is further cemented by books like "Demihuman Deities", which portrays all of the female members of the [[Morndinsamman]] as being bearded.

When WoTC took over, they did their best to sweep this under the rug. All references to dwarven female beards were retconned away, pointedly left absent even from the 3e update of the Realms. When [[Eberron]] was released, it was explicitly stated that the native dwarves do '''not''' have bearded women. When 4th edition was rolled out, female dwarf beards were officially stricken from the canon of D&D - they even devoted a section of "Wizards Presents: Races & Classes" to it - and this seems to be one 4e change that has since been preserved by 5e.

As an aside, 4th edition actually made its female dwarves surprisingly attractive, which, given that [[mul]]s also lost their [[Grimdark#Grimderp|grimderp]] "sterile and usually kill the mother in birth" lore, should have made human/dwarf relationships a lot more common...

The evolution of most current fantasy race tropes usually goes to [[Warhammer Fantasy]], but WFB opted to take a different route and instead made Dwarf women super rare rather than bearded as an excuse to make no([[The Grudge Of Drong|t many]]) female Dwarf miniatures. Of course Citadel's Dwarf miniatures originated as the old lines made when [[Games Workshop]] was the sole distributor of D&D minis in Europe, and their original Dwarf females also lacked beards. Canonically female Dwarfs instead grow their hair into plaits, and judge them by said plaits the same way male Dwarfs do beards (which is a bit unfair since female Slayers must shave their hair into a mohawk despite male Dwarfs getting to keep their beards, unless said beard being shaved is why they're taking the Oath anyway). 

[[file:Girlbreard_PF2nd.png|thumb|right|350px|Apologies for any weird feelings this gives you.]]
[[Warcraft]] only began showing female Dwarves with the release of [[World of Warcraft]], where they were a player race. Although unbearded, there are jokes in the game that some ancient heroic Dwarf females had beards (which makes sense, they are descended from a visually all-male race of magic metal/stone robots that were corrupted by Lovecraftian horrors into flesh animals (makes only a bit more sense in-context)), jokes that they just shave, and jokes that their beard [[/d/|isn't on their face]]. 

Why does the [[meme]] persist? Grandfather clause, basically; while many fans argue it's a defining aspect of what makes dwarves unique, citing that if it was good enough for [[Tolkien]], [[Gygax]] and [[Terry Pratchett]], it should be good enough for the modern DM, just as many fans rebut that D&D isn't Tolkien anymore and that "bearded women" are never really anything deeper than a silly joke. As with any meme that persists on /tg/ to this day, nobody will give an inch.

To date, [[Hackmaster]] remains the primary setting to find bearded female Dwarves as far as active tabletop gaming, although given the setting was created mostly as a parody originating in [[Knights Of The Dinner Table]] comics it obviously isn't being played straight. 

In its 2nd edition, [[Pathfinder]] is giving it a go in the character art. Now it varies from culture to culture. Grondaksen(Undeground) Dwarf women often go bearded, Ergaksen(Surface) and Holtaksen(Mountain) women usually don't. 

As a side-note, if you want to put an interesting spin on the "dwarves all look alike" cliche, you could always try reversing it. Thus, instead of bearded dwarf women being mistaken for menfolk, you have dwarf men who, due to facial features and cultural values of appropriate dress/accessories/behavior/etc, are easily mistaken for their womenfolk... at least until their pants come off. This will likely get you called out on [[Magical Realm]], especially if you're also slapping dwarves with the [[shortstack]] build at the same time (for example, male dwarf tits are actually fat-based mating displays; the bigger his tits, the more successful that dwarf is, and so the better a catch he is for a lady dwarf), but, hey, it's your table, and if your party doesn't mind, who cares? Consider also having a traditional hairstyle being to braid the hair of their head beneath the chin like its a beard, or having the soldiers have helmets that depict a beard regardless of the gender of the wearer.