How important are elf beards in your setting Veeky Forums...

how important are elf beards in your setting Veeky Forums? trying to find a good aesthetic level of beard for my viking forest elves.

I don't play DnD, so I don't have those shitty classes. But characters can have a skill that basically makes them a bard, so...

Having a bard in the party helps a lot with making the party known in the world. Bards are the one who travel around bring news of heroic actions to the people.

Your party wants to lay low? Make sure no bard knows of your exploits. Knowledge of your group will spread much slower.
Want to become known in many lands? At least befriend a couple of NPC bards. If one of the players is a bard, you can even control a bit in which social circles your tales are known.

Learn to read.

>I don't play DnD, so I don't have those shitty classes
Forest Elf is universally common and isn't a class.
Viking also isn't a class.
So you just wanted to brag that you're so special and don't play d&d, got it.

I typed beard not bard but, good to know

>how important are elf beards in your setting
I've always thought of Elves as hairless from the eyebrows down. They look even worse with beards/body hair.

>how important are elf beards in your setting Veeky Forums?

Very important that they DO NOT have them, maybe some really thin, short, patchy bristly little hairs if they don't shave for a month, but that's it.
Sideburns, they can grow sideburns.

Have you ever tried to be such a contrarian you fuck up your reading comprehension of the entire post?

True, I should. Or stop drinking. Even better: both.

sideburns sounds way better then beards but, what about very thin yet regal muttonchops?

>how important are elf beards in your setting Veeky Forums?
They don't have beards, like any proper elf.
>viking forest elves
Cringe.

Okay, since I'm in the mood (thank the rum) I will give a proper answer too, even though I fucked up the first one hard.

Beards don't have much of a practical function afaik, but is more of a sexual trait which signals maturaty and dominance.

Therefore, the prominence of beards mostly depends on the cultural stage their society is in. The higher evolved the society is, the more likely it is that males found other ways to express their dominance, so beards are less common. If a society is more rural, beards are more common.

Maybe I should add, that in my setting all "races" developed from a proto-humans, the race differences developed through different magical influences. If your setting have clearer distinctions betweens the races, elves could be more alien and actually *not* having a beard can be a desireable trait.

>in my setting all "races" developed from a proto-humans

Yeah, the irony isn't lost on me. Language can't be fucking restrictive, especially if you try to mesh rl with fantasy stuff.

*can be

What's wrong with that?

Generally elves shouldn't have any facial hair at all.

However, in an exploration game I'm in, I'm playing an elf ranger that left his home forest and went to a virgin one and homestead there with his wife, building their home and trading with a human town 20 miles away. it just felt right for him to have a beard and be rugged looking.

I'm actually using that exact image for him funnily enough.

This. Elves don’t have body hair to contrast with Dwarves who are all body hair

Literally nothing wrong with having the 4 core races having a common ancestor.

Dwarves, Halflings, Elves and Humans are all mammals and apes. Fuck me, the only differences are height and ear shape

But that's how Arcanum do it and that's a cool setting.

There is nothing wrong with giving elves a beard if they are old as shit.

I personally like to think that Elves have trouble growing consistently good facial hair, which really fucks with their self-image of being graceful and beautiful, so they just go clean-shaven.

I personally only go as far as scruff for pure elves

Imagine being such a faggot

I don't have Viking elves, but I do have Pirate elves.

Their level of beardiness is closer to pic related. Most "Civilized" elves go clean-shaven, as it's the fashion of the time. Only Dwarves have respectable nobles and gentlemen who don't shave, mostly because the Dwarves are currently trying to push out a fuckhueg army of goblin raiders who've been sitting on their major farmlands for a couple years so they're a bit busy doing other things than buying razor blades and training barbers.

With that said elvish beards are notoriously patchy, and rarely grow as long or as full as human or dwarven beards. So they never had much of a tradition of beard-growing in the first place - the only reason the pirates grow beards and weave beads into them is an affectation from Mermaid Warrior-priests and is thought to make them more fearsome in battle.

beards are dwarf exclusive. only human-dwarf/elves get beards

Please give me pictures of elves with beards.

idk. But if you think they shouldn't have pubic or underarm hair then get the fuck away from me and fondle some classical statues weirdo.