Beards of the Toothless

Within the countless hive-cities of the Imperium, tooth-loss is a common affliction. Cheap corpse-starch diets, poor hygiene, and grinding labour rot the dentition of billions before their third decade. Where replacement augmetics or vat-grown dentures are denied, the hollowing of the cheeks becomes a mark of age, poverty, or failure.

Across millennia, the teeming masses have evolved their own answer: the beard as mask.

• The Full Cog-Curtain: A dense growth around jaw and cheek, hiding the sunken lines of the toothless. Favoured among manufactoria overseers and underhive gang-lords.
• The Emperor’s Chop: Thick sideburns flanking the mouth, giving the gaunt visage an illusion of strength. Worn by soldiery and drill-abbots.
• The Van Dyke of Veneration: A pointed chin tuft and heavy moustache; redirects the eye away from collapsed cheeks. A style notorious among minor officials and itinerant preachers.

To the Ecclesiarchy, these growths are tolerated so long as they conceal shame rather than heresy. To the Adeptus Mechanicus, they are irrelevant flesh-decoration. But among the common folk of the Imperium, the beard remains a humble defence — not against the enemy, but against the ridicule of one’s fellows when the mouth collapses inward.