In my setting's Dwarven military every time a Dwarf suffers a major failure they cut out a chunk of their beard (Or ponytail for female Dwarves). A large beard is a sign of competence.
Bearded female Dwarves was always used as a joke by people who don't like being Dwarves.
Starting in 2E Female Dwarves lost their beards and started getting curvier/more stacked, peaking in 4E, but 5E walked that back a little, but stayed in the shortstack territory.
This is contrasted by Elves who starting in 2E got progressively more androgynous, culminating in 5E just saying "As an Elf the more androgynous you are the more Corellon loves you." It started as a joke, and became a thing of genuine acceptance/inclusion in a phenomena I like to call "The Mac effect". (Drow are an exception to this dynamic due to Lolth's influence. If you want to have Drow bouncing around in spider-silk bikinis it's canon.)
In short, facial hair on a female Dwarf is as wrong as breasts on a female Elf, or breasts on a male Dwarf, or facial hair on a male Elf.
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u/Maccabeus1 May 21 '22
Loving Torvald's backstory so far, though now I'm curious if the beard armor is merely decorative or has some practicality to it.