You are going by de jure. Legally, the Women of the priesthood may “rule” De facto hower…Malfurion is Shan’do of all night elves. As I said, in emergencies, he has been shown to have the real power, in the war of thorns, and in the Third War, he took control, and he lead the night elves to victory in the third war, and put up the strong resistance that caused the horde to suffer 10X more casualties than night elves in the war of thorns.
There is also the hiccup of various leaders, such as Maiev, who believed Malfurion alone should lead the night elves, not Tyrande. Or Fandral, who was able to constantly undermine Tyrande.
You want this image of “Matriarchy” to have existed from the beginning, but thats not what has been happening since the beginning. Tyrande did not lead the night elves to victory in WC3, she woke Malfurion up so he could do so.
Now if we back away from politics, and go about the world as a whole, Malfurions gravitas and authority in the world as a whole dwarfs Tyrandes. Malfurion has the respect of not just Night Elf druids but that of druids of all races, and is able to call upon them and command them. He can also call up the respect and attention of many demi-god level and above beings. Including the Dragon Aspects.
No he hasn’t… In War of Thorns, we never see him commanding armies, and he was only filling Tyrande’s role while she was away.
“Only the Goddess may forbid me anything.”
Because they have a personal rivalry.
Kaldorei are matriarchal, and to argue otherwise because there is one man who has power by the virtue of being married to the woman who actually holds power, is a male gaze sexism. We have been told the Kaldorei are matriarchal explicitly by Blizzard.
Night Elves have been a matriarchy for the better part of 10,000 years, because most of the men have been asleep in druid hibernation for most of the time, not because Night Elf culture says women are superior to men. I think you are looking for the Naga for that kind of Matriarchy.
The fact that Male night elves can join the priesthood now, and that Malfurion can be interchanged for Tyrande in the leadership role when nescessary, shows that they are equal, female night elves have just had the political leadership for millennia, because they were the majority among the awake populace.
"Yet there is a widespread belief to this day that the deepest mysteries of the changeable moon goddess can only be comprehended by other women. The Sisterhood has therefore remained exclusively female thus far. " - Warcraft Encyclopedia/Sisterhood of Elune
His authority is allowed to him by Tyrande. Without Tyrande, he has no authority beyond the Cenarian Circle.
If Tyrande has such absolute power, i’d like to see her command the wisps of dead night elves to blow Archimonde up at the world tree. Because thousands of dead night elf wisps did heed Malfurions call.
She can make stars fall from the sky, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she can talk to some wisps. Besides, that’s irrelevant. Just because Malfurion is powerful and successful does not negate a matriarchal system of government and society. That’s like saying the US is not a Patriarchy because AOC is in congress…
One has to wonder, if Night Elf society were a true matriarchy, why did they have to be let into the Druid Order. Which only happened recently. Couldn’t they just force their way in to be allowed as druids since the beginning?
You confuse defined Gender roles for some kind of Matriarchy. Night Elf Males and Females had an arrangement starting from just after the WoTA, where Night Elf women tend to the mortal affairs, and to Elune worship, while the Men tend to nature and the emerald dream. Its a relationship, one is not more important than the other, just like a CPU is not more important to a PC than the power supply is. The PC wont work without either.
Not true, there were women present for the creation of the Cenarian Circle during the War of the Satyr. And we have female Archdruids. The exclusion of women in Druidism has been retconned.
No, I defined my terms and brought up clear examples and supported my points.
It’s called insubordination. Look at the events in Wolfheart that shows a ckear chain of command, not to mention that lore is recent in comparison to w3.
All of this is wrong. They may have not liked Tyrande but that in no way diminished her power.
The lore disputes this completely. The fact that Tyrande made him her co ruler in Stormrage tells you that, a postion he tried to turn down becuase he had been gone for so long.
Becuase he was the leader that was present. Seriously…
Akiyass at this point it’s like talking to a brick wall. I think we’ve both proven our point.
Tyrande has so much respect, Maiev didnt even want to rescue her from drowning in a river, or getting devoured by undead in Silverpine. Maiev and her wardens respect and serve Malfurion alone.
And What Fandral was doing was damn near trying overthrow Tyrande.
In anything more important than mundane governance, Malfurion has the authority. The Aspects respect Malfurion. Wild Gods and Demi-gods respect Malfurion. Druids from other races respect Malfurion. Tyrande does not have this kind of far ranging Authority. She has a handful of groups, inside of core night elf society, these do not include the Wardens or the Druids.
By the way i’m not a sexist, not sure what that even has to do with the discussion at hand, but i’m also not shouting you down. I thought this has been respectful this whole time, and I hope you view it that way as well.
But to the point at hand, Tyrande is the supreme leader, of the Priesthood of Elune, and the Sentinels. Malfurion has the Druids, the Wardens, and the Dryads and Keepers of the Grove. Saying Tyrande rules all night elves cannot be correct, because many night elves are in organizations that do not serve Tyrande.
She’s a vindictive “you know what” that only cared about catching Illidan. That’s well known. Plus she’d never been happy about being passed over for High Priestess for a younger and less experienced Tyrande.
And he was probably failing too.
The lore disputes everything you’ve just said.
None of which is relevant to who the true leader is. You’re trying to use your opinion to trump lore and it’s not working.
Lore disputes this too.
She can command the individual members of the Cenarion Circle (as she did in Stormrage) and she has the power to command the Sentinels like in Wolfheart are appointed Maiev to investigate the wardens and then interrogated and appointed a new leader of the Wardens after Maiev’s insanity was uncovered.
W3 is old lore and it’s been rectoned and washed over. Come back after you’ve caught up.
Other examples of Malfurions authority inside night elf society, include banishing the highborne (Not something Tyrande was asked about), Imprisoning Illidan forever (Not something Tyrande was asked about.) Making an agreement with the Aspects with Nordrassil which gave the night elves immortality (An agreement Tyrande did not have input for, or bargaining power in).
I find the very argument of “Kaldorei can’t be a matriarchy because there are successful men.” to be Sexist. I also find the perspective that “Women are only in power because the men were sleeping.” to also be sexist.
I am not trying to be disrespectful, I am just making an observation based on the arguments you make.
No he doesn’t… He has the Cenarian Circle… Which the Kaldorei members still are subordinates of Tyrande and the Sisterhood.
Ah yes I am familiar with the extremist point of view, that claims some one who believes equality is an optimal system is “Sexist”. A Matriarchy would imply men cannot have power outside of what ever women give them. Malfurions power comes from him self. Tyrande didnt have to appoint him to lead the night elf defense at the world tree, that was his inherent role as Archdruid of the Moonglade.
The Warcraft Encyclopedia is probably not even canon anymore since Blizz deleted it and never reinstated it.
