How to female druid, for night elves.

[Holynexus]

....mighty good point, why didnt' I think of this. Thanks

[Yandere]

I'm wondering, where would a female druid - before the ban on female druidism was lifted - have learnt her craft, and most importantly when (further than the dozen of years that just passed of course).

Funny male druids and bad fathers.

[c0rzilla]

It also depends on if they're right smack dab in the middle of Zin-Azjshari, or out in the wilds. Out in the wilds, they're less likely to strictly adhere to societal standards.

[Xigo]

*Shrug*

Ultimately if someone comes up with good reasoning for a character, and we're not against the concept all together, it's fine.

[Frogspawned]

This argument is not something that this thread was meant to spark.

Having taken GM advice and removed my druid from the roleplaying 'scene';

I will say that I thought druids were a lot more elusive, rare and secretive than, say, plumbers. I will add that the only example of someone breaking the Kal'dorei's societal laws ended with them being imprisoned underground and put under heavy guard for ten thousand years. Bear in mind that this person was a War Hero not just some commoner. And if they do this to someone who practically saved their civilisation... what will they do to somebody who had not?

It does not conjure up the image of a happy-go-lucky liberal culture like we - like it or not - have had the privelege of growing up in.

Offering up an alternative Real Life Example, I would suggest that druids are more like spies. Intelligence operatives. If a spy teaches his daughter to be a spy, divulging state secrets and the like to her in the process, they are both more likely to be branded traitors, and have been hunted down and killed by the government - rather than accepted with open arms or merely 'frowned upon' - which has no noticable IC drawbacks except when dealing with unreasonably antagonistic people such as myself.

And my 'big deal' about this whole business?

Well; simply put, I enjoy reading lore. I enjoy acting in accordance with it. I like knowing that the world i'm playing in has a history, and that some things have happened, and that some things will not have happened. If there are exceptions to lore, it removes some of the foundations of the world that I like to play in, and removes a large amount of the enjoyment from the whole process by destroying my immersion.

Frankly, I would have enjoyed this process of thread derailment a lot more if the people taking the opposite stance to my original post could have produced one scrap of evidence on their behalf rather than just taking the populist stance of; 'Well, if someone enjoys it... do it! Who the hell cares?'

Because... I care. I hate to think that not everyone does. Not caring for the history of a world you're trying to portray realistically is bad.

[LostStranger]

I apologize for dwelling on this tangent, but...

I'm wondering, where would a female druid - before the ban on female druidism was lifted - have learnt her craft, and most importantly when (further than the dozen of years that just passed of course).

Her father.

Not quite the only solution, of course, but the first one to be discussed.

Besides a heretical parent, this may also be relevant reading.

One could also have honestly convinced another druid to instruct them.

...Though being self-taught is a method typically frowned upon, one of the older kal'dorei could probably pull it off in the thousands and thousands of years that they've lived.

Close friends, lovers that could not bear to be separated by the Emerald Dream, freethinkers...

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Because... I care. I hate to think that not everyone does. Not caring for the history of a world you're trying to portray realistically is bad.

Keep in mind that you're making out the buck of gender traditions to be a crime tantamount to arcane magic.

That is the great sin of kal'dorei culture, in my understanding of things.

While frowned upon, I would be quicker to compare these pathbreakers to...

Women are still, on the whole, paid less than men in the workplace.

Male nurses are still laughed at on the occasion. (Sorry Clovis.)

Et cetera, et cetera.

A lady druid's desire to join the Cenarion Circle is unironically dismissed with a casual scoff?

A female architect's application to join an association is laughed out of the building.

Frankly said, our society is not the most open-minded; not even by a long, long shot.

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Ultimately if someone comes up with good reasoning for a character, and we're not against the concept all together, it's fine.

...and a third thing, I've jumped to the conclusion that this thread is about providing a lore resource on the possibility and probability of playing a druid of the childbearing sex, and 'rhaps a how-to.

[Holynexus]

Hm yes, well that's mainly US, peeps could go to jail and pay huuge fines if they even do that in Europe. to some point.

Well what would be the actual punishment for a lady druid caught ... being a druid, and for the druid teaching her...and does a druid really need to be part of the Cenarion circle, then?

[flammos200]

Well what would be the actual punishment for a lady druid caught ... being a druid, and for the druid teaching her...

Only the same punishment men get for being Warriors, Hunters, Priests or individuals teaching Kaldorei men the art of war of trying to get them to follow Elune in the way the Sisterhood of Elune does. Basically, they'd be disallowed from participating in the organization of their chosen profession.

For instance, no male Sentinels existed up to the Third War, because men weren't allowed to join the Sentinels. But men could easily have figured out how to fight and shoot a bow, thus we have people like Jarod Shadowsong.

No male is recorded to have ever been a Priest of Elune up to the Third War either, because the Sisterhood of Elune is just that. Female-only. Later on, things changed. But no one is to say that a male's devotion to the Goddess can't be great enough for him not to follow in Her ways, and a Priestess that feels particularly evangelical and wants to spread the faith, could easily see it righteous to teach him.

It is around the same reasoning that female Druids, pre-Third War are treated, in my eyes. Yes, they existed albeit rarely. But they were not a part of the Cenarion Circle, for such was forbidden.

In the simplest of terms, the person will not have a job, no niche being available for them in Kaldorei society. They'd be effectively stuck in the eyes of the public as a 'quirky citizen' of sorts, and expected to pull their own weight when push comes to shove, without the aid of any of the major organizations in Kaldorei society.

For the teacher, it varies on a case by case basis, if you ask me. Depends on who their superiors are and if they get caught.

does a druid really need to be part of the Cenarion circle, then?

Nope. You can be taught by a Cenarion, or by some other freelance Druid. Or you could find your way into the Emerald Dream by yourself, but that's borderline Mary Sue.

[Dae]

The means of playing a typical Night Elf druid is two: A male who learned his art over a decade ago, or a Night elf of either sex who has started training within the past nine years.

My biggest problem with female druids trained prior to the whole "Druids of the Wilds player character stuff" is that, unless you're specifically going to address Night Elf gender issues with your character, why is it so hard to play a man?

[Holynexus]

Well, it is hard for me to play a man because, well, I've never been one.

Plus the nelf male models are ugly