Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Manly fashion – beards!

Posted on June 29, 2023

Beards go in and out of fashion in Glorantha, just as they do in the real world. Let’s start with a few basics – few cults have rules for beards. With the exception of Lhankor Mhy (all sages must have beards!) and Hwarin Dalthippa (no beards or mustaches!), I can’t think of any religious restrictions or requirements for facial hair.

In traditionalist Dara Happa, the gods are usually depicted with beards. To a lesser extent, the same is true in Theyalan art. This makes gods easier to distinguish from goddesses, and is an aid to less skilled artists. But I’ve seen clean-shaven Orlanths and Yelms, especially when the artist is able to show off other aspects of the divine iconography. Other artistic conventions is clean-shaven often signifies youth, beard often signifies maturity and experience.

In the late Fifth and Sixth Wanes, it became a popular fashion among many Lunar aristocrats to go beardless, especially among the Eel-ariash and their many branches. For example, the Tarshite kings are always depicted beardless, at least from Phoronestes on. The Red Emperor is wildly inconsistent in his fashions, as is his prerogative.

Among the Sartarites fashions go back and forth. Esrolian men are often clean-shaven and that certainly has influenced Sartarite fashions – for example Saronil and Terasarin are often depicted as clean-shaven, as are Sarotar and Dorasar. Tarkalor is almost always depicted as bearded, as were Eonistaran and Temertain (but both were sages). Argrath is depicted clean-shaven, at least from 1624 on.

Manly fashion – beards!

Beards go in and out of fashion in Glorantha, just as they do in the real world. Let’s start with a few basics – few cults have rules for beards. With the exception of Lhankor Mhy (all sages must have beards!) and Hwarin Dalthippa (no beards or mustaches!), I can’t think of any religious restrictions or requirements for facial hair.

In traditionalist Dara Happa, the gods are usually depicted with beards. To a lesser extent, the same is true in Theyalan art. This makes gods easier to distinguish from goddesses, and is an aid to less skilled artists. But I’ve seen clean-shaven Orlanths and Yelms, especially when the artist is able to show off other aspects of the divine iconography. Other artistic conventions is clean-shaven often signifies youth, beard often signifies maturity and experience.

In the late Fifth and Sixth Wanes, it became a popular fashion among many Lunar aristocrats to go beardless, especially among the Eel-ariash and their many branches. For example, the Tarshite kings are always depicted beardless, at least from Phoronestes on. The Red Emperor is wildly inconsistent in his fashions, as is his prerogative.

Among the Sartarites fashions go back and forth. Esrolian men are often clean-shaven and that certainly has influenced Sartarite fashions – for example Saronil and Terasarin are often depicted as clean-shaven, as are Sarotar and Dorasar. Tarkalor is almost always depicted as bearded, as were Eonistaran and Temertain (but both were sages). Argrath is depicted clean-shaven, at least from 1624 on.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Beard, fashion

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • The Size of Sartar

    At the time Argrath is acclaimed Prince in 1627, Sartar …
  • Sun County, Prax

    There’s about 19,000 people in Sun County, with some 4350 …
  • Hey that’s cool Jeff, but what the heck am I supposed to do with that in my Runequest game?

    I posted two “deep” background articles on the nature of …
  • Introducing Gloranthan Gods and Cults

    Gaming a lot of RuneQuest in a lot of different …
  • Argat / Arkat / Argrath

    Here are a few more notes for Discord. Now from …
  • The Cycle of History

    Some notes from a discussion on the Chaosium Discord channel …
  • Magic Items and Runequest

    So. Lets think of some of the categories they might …
  • The Grasslands of Prax

    Something to keep in mind about Prax. The grasslands of …
  • Praxian Kinship Groups

    Praxian tribes are divided into smaller kinship groups or clans, …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Chaosium’s RuneQuest RPG Wiki
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on Discord
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • Find Enemy vs Invisibility spell
  • Holiday Dorastor: Scale & Chaos
  • Murder Mysteries in Glorantha (RQ:G Meta Question)
  • No shipping from UK
  • Sun County 2 - Back in the sandals again
  • What Actually Happened at the Dawn?
  • Holiday Dorastor: Scale & Chaos
  • Jonstown Kralori players guide on drivethru
  • Pyramid of Caran - any info?
  • How to define how Orlanthi religion is 'lived' and 'felt' for players who don't get it? Are there any articles or videos about it?

Popular Tags

Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Gods Wall Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Jar-eel Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose MRQ1 New Pavis (small city) Old Glorantha Q&A Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tapatalk post Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • The Size of Sartar

  • Sun County, Prax

  • Spirit Magic by Cult and Associate Cult

  • Humakt Temples, Shrines and Sites

  • Ernalda Temples and Shrines

  • Orlanth Thunderous Temples, Shrines and Site

  • Maran Gor Temple, Shrines and Site

  • Barntar Temples and Shrines

  • Seven Mothers Temples and Shrines

  • Hon-eel Temples and Shrine

  • Twilight

  • Nightlight

  • Lunar Deities

  • Petersen’s Campaign Log (1984)

  • Ducks – A Sartarite Tribe

  • Thoughts on The Lightbringers Quest

  • Aronius Jaranthir

  • Iphigios the Crafter

  • Hwarin Dalthippa

  • Part 16 – Chaos Monsters of Genertela

©2025 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme