Dalmer Beard Symbiote

## Origin:

The beard is probably the most critical part of Dalmer culture as it defines who they are. Indeed, a Dalmer is defined as a sentient being that can bond with the symbiotic organism known as a beard. The traditional beard and hair style (a strange, segmented style of hair that look like dreadlocks that they often adorn with jewelry) that most Dalmer sport is in fact a space faring biological form that landed on earth many years ago, bonding with local neanderthalensis located in a cold antarctic-esque land, leaving to their original name being the Antarcticans, or proto dalmer, which with the passage of time came to their name becoming the Dalmer.

The arrival of the symbiote is known as the **day of beard**. The day the beard arrived is recounted in the story the “whisker from the stars” where proto dalmer recount a strange snow (**beard seed**) falling around them.

The beard is a symbiotic organism that grows on the skin of the dalmer, replacing all their natural pilosity, granting them abilities and help in exchange for the nutrients it extracts from the hosting Dalmer.

The beard effectively replaces pilosity as it implants itself to the dalmer’s head, face, chest, stomach, back, arms, legs and feet. Shaving off all the beard does not seem to have any ill effect on the dalmer, as the beard is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis, or skin.

The Dalmer beard is for all intents and purposes another conscience that helps the Dalmer think in different ways, in exchange for feeding off the Dalmers nutrients, it grants it it's powers. And in an effort to preserve the relation, Dalmer willingly infect their children with the symbiosis, although some, such as the Amaranstone Dalmer do not continue this tradition and are subsequently beardless.

Beard care is essential to the beards health, as too much of it will take too many nutrients away from the Dalmer and augments the risk of beard related disease

### Day of beard

Traditionally during this month the dalmer let their body hair grow, show off fancy hair, beard and body hair styles, and try to raise awareness for beard related illnesses.

## Culture:

Full beards are extremely popular in dalmer culture, but variations such as moustaches, sideburns or **battlebeards** are considered regional and cultural variations who are susceptible to the current fashion trends. As such those who would grow them longer (typically the older Dalmer) would sometimes fork and braid them or decorate them with flowers and colors.

Female Dalmer grow beards as well, with the same variations in beard care and styles. Although a clean shave is a classic sign of female beauty, culturally a long beard is a sign of knowledge, wealth and status regardless of sex.

### Beard shaving styles

The Dalmer sometimes style their beard to signify their intentions, such as, negotiating, defiance (war), wealth, and countless other forms, although a full beard is considered a neutral stance. Since simply gently pulling on the beard will make it grow, beard styling is very easy.

## Characteristics:

### Growth:

Dalmer hair is extremely hearty; gently pulling on the beard will make it grow. The average Dalmer hair is several times thicker than the average human hair.

### Pigmentation:

The range of colors is quite large; common colors include dark blues, black, any number of shades of gray, silver, white, brown, copper, rust, and even flaming orange-red, though dying and decorating one’s beard is a cultural staple.

### Physical protection:

their beards growing to incredible lengths and thicknesses, a Dalmer fighters beard acts as an extra layer of defense against external dangers, the resiliency of the beard helps protect the Dalmer's face from physical blows, giving them the reputation for being **Stonefaces** to other races

### Radiation protection:

The expansiveness of the beard helps protect the Dalmer's face and upper body against sources of radiation

### Gas protection:

in its normal state, the beard almost completely covers the nasal passages and the mouth, acting as a sort of natural gas mask, which keeps noxious gases and other airborne contaminants from being inhaled.

### Bacteriological protection:

Each hair of a Dalmer beard is coated with unique oils that give it the ability to attract and trap some germs and bacteria.

### Sensory organ:

The remarkably thick hairs of a Dalmer's beard are a marvel of biology.

Each hair contains millions of sensory receptors of incredible diversity, including but not limited to hairs that gauge humidity and airflow, hairs highly sensitive to the presence of alcohol, air pressure sensing hairs that are hooked directly to the brain's pleasure center and chemically reward Dalmer for digging deeper, and even hairs that produce more and more vitamin D the longer a Dalmer spends underground, to the point where any solar contact at all results in an overload of vitamins and immediate nausea.

## Symbiotic organism:

Dalmer are not singular creatures, but are colonial organisms consisting of a single humanoid body (referred to as a 'Dalmer' for simplicity's sake here), and a colony of beard strands. Dalmer and beards have formed a symbiotic relationship over the years, to the point where neither is capable of survival without the other.

While each individual beard strand is very small, much like cloud computing, together they are able to form complex thoughts. Because they are each rather simple, they tend to all get aligned on the same thought at once, leading to a Dalmer having final decision power. These strands are psionically sensitive and could explain the Dalmer’s ease with all things mechanical and technologically oriented. As such, the closer the symbiosis with the organism, the greater the ability. However the theory that these abilities depend on the length of the beard has been debunked, and even a glabrous Dalmer can display psionic abilities.

## Reproduction:

Despite being an integral part of a Dalmer throughout all his life, the passing of the symbiote to future generations depends entirely on the Dalmer newborns parents, when the youth is born, the beard will secrete a fine white powder (called snow in dalmer lore) the parents will then smear the seed onto the child's cheeks, lips, jaw, neck, and head. This will become the beard that will stay with the newborn babe all its life.

Some Dalmer cultures reject spreading the seed altogether, and some smear the entire body in the seed, though the latter often die very young due to the beard consuming too much nutrients from the body.