Sexist Factions?

[Zhukov]

I believe dwarvish women in The Lord of the Rings had beards. (or was that just in the movie?)

A lot of fantasy 'standards' have their roots in Tolkien.

HUH? I don't believe that tolkien anywhere wrote that dwarven women had beards.

I seem to remember a description of female dwarves somewhere. I may well be wrong though, it's been ages since I read any Tolkien. Thats why I added that little bit about the movie version, because I know that mentioned bearded females. I'm probably getting the book and the movie moxed up.

[kiet]

I believe dwarvish women in The Lord of the Rings had beards. (or was that just in the movie?)

A lot of fantasy 'standards' have their roots in Tolkien.

HUH? I don't believe that tolkien anywhere wrote that dwarven women had beards.

It´s maybe not the book he´s talking about.Since in the movie,Gimli meantioned once that people don´t see any diffrences between male and female dwarves,since they both had beard(to be exact,this was when they fled to helms deep)

[Naeddyr]

I believe the Dwarf-Women-Have-Beards thing comes from Pratchett. His dwarves are almost asexual beings. Women have beards, they wear the same chainmail-and-leather setup as the men and they're just as proficient with the occasional axe as the men. In fact, even dwarven mating rituals reflect this: what they basically sum up to is a delicate attempt to find out what gender the dwarf you are flirting with is.

Tolkien in contrast is simple. Dwarf-women obviously don't exist at all.

[cataphractos]

I recall that thing about bearded-dwarvish-women by Tolkien, too. But that wasn't the original thread, I think...
Before adding the female gender to all factions, I think we should consider their kinds of society: in humans, there are some units with female gender, but only in units that require agility instead of bodily strenght. I'd never want to see a female Iron Mauler! In other animals (hyenas, for example) there is a matriarchal society, so females are bigger and stronger than male exemplars (or better: matriarchal society<-->stronger female).
In the Wesnothian setting, we should examinate or invent races' own society pattern. i.e.: drakes are patriarhcal? so the fighter line shouldn't be composed by female drakes, if they're smaller. Could be with Sky Drakes. at most, in the case of Orcs, there could be a sort of amazon orkess

[Dragon Master]

A female Iron mualer hmmm? Don't know why, but that sounds interesting

[cataphractos]

A female Iron mualer hmmm? Don't know why, but that sounds interesting

*Oh-no*

[Elvish_Pillager]

Tolkien in contrast is simple. Dwarf-women obviously don't exist at all.

Actually, this isn't true. There is definitely a mention of female dwarfs; IIRC in one of the notes in the appendices to the Lord of the Rings. It mentions a female dwarf by the name of Dis, and then says that although humans usually think dwarfs just come out of the stone of the mountains they live in (as trolls do, according to The Hobbit), there actually are dwarfish women, although they are very rare; so rare that the only one we ever hear of, Dis, isn't that important anyway.

[Dragon Master]

heheheh.

[cataphractos]

You've forgotten some pink tufts on the armor and some flowers on the shield

[Dragon Master]

and while were at it, let's strip off half her armor and make the remaining plates skin-tight and pink

[turin]

Tolkien in contrast is simple. Dwarf-women obviously don't exist at all.

Actually, this isn't true. There is definitely a mention of female dwarfs; IIRC in one of the notes in the appendices to the Lord of the Rings. It mentions a female dwarf by the name of Dis, and then says that although humans usually think dwarfs just come out of the stone of the mountains they live in (as trolls do, according to The Hobbit), there actually are dwarfish women, although they are very rare; so rare that the only one we ever hear of, Dis, isn't that important anyway.

Indeed. The reason people then conclude that dwarven women have beards is, that passage mentions that dwarven women are very similar-looking to dwarven men. This doesn't actually mean they have beards, though.

[SmokemJags]

Is there still an idea behind this thread? I'm starting to think it's taken quite a turn for the OT.

[JW]

Her arms are ape-like. They should only go to her mid-thigh. Her knees are positioned too high as well.

But yeah, I know it's just for a joke. It still disturbs me though.

[Dragon Master]

FYI her body doesn't actually look like that. The armor covers a lot of it and makes her look weird. That and I'm bad at drawing "pumped up" females.

[cevans]

Indeed. The reason people then conclude that dwarven women have beards is, that passage mentions that dwarven women are very similar-looking to dwarven men. This doesn't actually mean they have beards, though.

The talk page on wikipedia-en for Dwarf (middle earth) gives a citation in The War of the Jewels (History of Middle Earth) where the beards are explicitly mentioned. Pratchett was not the first to have this (but may have been the first to publish it).

From my cursory glance through the Silmarillion, however, I must note that if they were to exist, they would have had to have been made after Aule's inital creation of the Seven Fathers, probably even after their awakening.

But this is all very off-topic. More on-topic, quite a few factions shouldn't have sexed units, and dwarves are among these.