We’re all human. That’s all I have to say about that.
For me it is not the gender that is important, but the action and the behaviour.
A woman can be a bi*** just like a man can be a a******
Bye People, and have a nice day^^.
I’m gonna ignore everything else in this thread and just try to answer OP’s original question: is night elf society matriarchal?
Short answer: Maybe?
Long answer: Before I dive in, let’s chunk the history of the night elves into three neat categories for simplicity: Pre-Sundering (during Aszhara’s reign), The Long Vigil (10,000 years of lesbianism), and now.
Pre-Sundering, Aszhara was the queen of the night elves, leading them to an era of prosperity. It seems there was an exclusively female priesthood back then, however, looking at the Ravencrests, Prince Farondis, Suramar and other pockets of Highborne giving us a glimpse into the society of that time, I’d say it was not matriarchal. Men and women were both accepted as powerful mages, nobles, owned land equally, and there didn’t seem to be any gender-restricted classes other than the priesthood. Druidism was barely acknowledged in this era, so it’s hard to say whether it started males-only or if that was a decision on Malfurion/Cenarius’s parts.
During The Long Vigil, things get tricky. Night elf society was inherently changed, especially following the exile/destruction of the majority of Highborne. They essentially had a complete cultural overhaul as the former “lower/middle class” of the society took over, with druidism and devout Elune worship being core institutions. With the druids all asleep, and the Sisterhood of Elune being the highest authority in night elf society, it makes sense that they’d be matriarchal, right? Perhaps. Except, in Warcraft III, once Tyrande awakens Malfurion and the other druids, she seems to refer to him as on equal footing, as he’s in charge of a different faction within their society: the druids. Tyrande doesn’t express some superior authority over them as High Priestess of Elune, hinting that the power levels between the druids (all-male) and the Sisterhood (all-female) are equal.
To those who may disagree and say it’s a matriarchy, hear me out: it’s difficult for me to agree because, if you really think about it, we as players really don’t fully understand how night elf society works. In Stormwind, there’s nobles, governmental officials, people who represent the King and collect taxes and arrest criminals; it’s easy to see how the kingdom functions and who’s on top. But night elves don’t have prisons or governmental offices, Tyrande refuses to be called a queen, mayors and barons and noble titles don’t exist at all. Maybe one could make a case that night elf society is some kind of weird military/religious oligarchy with anarcho-socialism among the common people, which somehow operates without taxation (unless taxes are collected via tithe to the Temple, maybe?). For example, a night elf hunter living in Astranaar does not answer to a mayor, pay taxes, or ask permission to hunt in the forest, as no night elf in particular owns that land, and he’s kept in check because any abuse of the land/animals would be met with swift and dryad-delivered vengeance. So no tragedy of the commons to worry about, I guess?
This kind of society would only MAYBE work if scarcity of food, shelter, and medical care did not exist, which is not a stretch for a race of immortals living in a magic forest who can heal each other, grow crops, and craft houses with a twiddle of their fingers or by callings in some Wisps–these are abilities and circumstances the humans in Stormwind do not commonly possess, therefore their societal structure is vastly different.
Anyway, what I’m trying to get at is it’s difficult to call night elf society matriarchal because its two major authorities (the Sisterhood of Elune and the druids) seem to be on equal footing, maybe swapping off who leads the Sentinels/broader military efforts (Tyrande leading during the Long Vigil, then Fandral leading, then Tyrande and Malfurion, etc). Their society certainly has gender roles and expectations, but druids and priestesses/Sentinels seem to be on the same footing. Not only that, but the authority that they DO have doesn’t seem to extend to the citizens outside those organizations except as servants to the community, i.e. a Priestess healing people for free and taking in orphans/refugees, a Druid rescuing people from a natural disaster and building shelter/growing crops. We don’t see civilians asking the Sisterhood or druids if they’re allowed to build a new town somewhere, they just do it and the Sentinels or druids or whoever help out.
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First, you have no idea what my ethnicity or nationality is.
Second, you’re just salty.
I mean, Gender has a lot to do with how people tend to describe some part of who they are. So, in a narrative sense, gender is quite important. Kathrine, to me, has this powerful aesthetic that I quite like but Blizzard didn’t really do anything with it. She was just a stepping stone for Jaina, and now will likely just be pushed off to the side to be forgotten.
I guess I am not really sure what you are asking here.
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Woosh
/10 chars
I understand what you were trying to convey… I am just pointing out that is was stupid lol.
But I like characters not because they are man or woman, but because I like their presence, their charisma, their nature or just generally their CHARACTERS.
If gender is so important to you, i.e. if it has the same importance as the behaviour of the character, I find this subtly wrong.
I celebrate Alleria since WC2 times for her merciless cold nature, I like that, I liked the old Turalyon, and later on I celebrated Maiev, Tyrande and Malfurion. I regretted the death of Cairne, but I liked all these characters not because they were Male or Female, but because I just liked the way they were…
I think gender is given far too much importance here.
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Well I guess I shouldn’t expect you to understand the point of it. You’ve being a salt factory over this topic how many times now? And still haven’t even remotely considered shifting your view the smallest amount. Because your guild agrees with you. 
I mean, that is not necessarily true. I have a tendency to be drawn to strong, willful female characters… But I wouldn’t say it takes precedent over the character itself.
There are plenty of female characters I dislike. Since BFA, I dislike Sylvanas. Not a big fan of Mayla Highmountain, despite her being a female in a position of power and authority. Talanji is meh. Valeera is boring. I do not like the direction Blizzard is going with Shandris.
I think you are putting more emphasis on gender than I am.
I am just drawn more to powerful and willful female characters and always have been since I was a child. I believe in the general idea of “If she can’t see it, she can’t be it” mentality (To a point), because it is those kind of characters that inspired me to emulate that.
Why would I shift my view away from the truth?
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My point exactly. This is why echo chambers should be avoided.
Hahaha, I just argue against YOUR argument about how important the gender is and say even I don’t care about the gender.
And now I should care about gender? That’s…really funny, and it’s your decision what you are attracted to, I’m not judging you for it. I’m just saying it’s not that important to me.
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… So truth doesn’t matter, just your own personal view?
… I don’t see how that’s funny?
Because you accuse me of what I just criticized you for putting too much FOkus on it. And then you accuse me of caring too much about what gender a character have.
Yeah, that’s funny.
Imagine taking till bfa to dislike Sylvanas
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… Still not following.
You accuse me of putting to much focus on Gender… I counter and say you are over estimating how much you think gender is important to me… Still not sure how that is funny.
Imagine liking Anduin.
Again woosh. Your assumption that it’s the truth doesn’t make it so. You’re not a Ork from 40k.
Except it is… Here.
Well I always liked anduin cause well he’s always been the same character and I always hated Sylvanas for the same reasons you never thought someone who was so against life would ever attack the literal guardians of nature and life did you
Kat… please learn to punctuate.
Also, I always acknowledge Sylvanas was a villain. I just thought she was a cool and interesting villain. You can like a character without being on their side.
The problem with Sylvanas is she went from being a Villain to the Alliance to a Villain to everyone.