User:Jimeee/Fiction/Facial Hair in Tamriel:Redguards
| Book Information Facial Hair in Tamriel:Redguards |
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Historically, the styles of Redguard facial hair have been heavily influenced by ancient social, cultural, and class divisions that are still prevalent across Hammerfell today.
The Crowns have long been famed for their lavish styles, as one would expect from the nobility. They have upheld a keen sense of style with beard growth by keeping their full beards regularly oiled - sometimes even dyeing them various colors and plaiting them with gold threading or elaborate ringlets. Their predecessors, the ancient Na Totambu of Yokuda, placed great importance on keeping large beards and would fashion them using curling irons to make ringlets, frizzles, and complex tiered effects. Some within the nobility were known to even wear a false ceremonial metal beard, held onto the face by a silk ribbon that was tied over their heads.
In contrast, Forebears are generally clean-shaven or wear a shorter, trimmed beard with much less decoration or styling. Scholars believe this to be in reverence of their great hero, Frandar Hunding who himself shaved his beard after his departure from Yokuda. That's not to say the ancient Ra Gada warriors were strangers to wearing large beards. Indeed many other heroes of the Warrior Wave wore large, untamed beards as shown in countless Yokudan paintings and bas-reliefs across the Alik'r. Grandee Yaghoub's royal portrait that hangs in Samaruik depicts him with a grand braided beard, replete with gold and silver rings.
However, around the early Third Era large beards among the Forebears fell out of favor and continued into the modern-day. Some cite the reason for this as the Forebears way to distinguish themselves from the haughty Crowns, who they maintain a strong rivalry with. Many other theories have been proposed, including that shorter beards were deemed more practical for swordsmen in Tiber Septim's military (although I'm sure the Nords would have something to say about that!). Others claim shaving was more hygienic for soldiers stationed in the sweltering deserts of the Alik'r, who were only bathing once every few weeks. Some even believe it relates back to the distrust of magic that formed around this time. As a way to distance themselves from the "Clever Craft", the Forebears began to shun one of the most striking physical traits of the mage - his long sagely beard.
While the popularity of large beards may have declined among Redguards, Forebears maintained the age-old practice of shaving their heads during a time of great trials in their lives. The Redguard's reverence for their beards can be summed up by the old proverb: "A man is only as great as the beard that wears him. A full and healthy beard carries with it a sense of great honor and wisdom."
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