what
i can think of like, one, the skaven
The [Dwarfs] are fundamentally a patriarchal race. This is due in no small part to the fact that in every generation of Dwarfs, only a small minority are female, a ratio of around one or two girls in every ten births. Dwarf women live longer than the men, on average up to fifty years longer. There are even records of female [Living Ancestors], known as Daughters of Valaya. The bulk of daily work and craft is undertaken by male Dwarfs, while Dwarf women tend to the raising of the children and the running of the household - much like in the [Empire of Man]. It is also possible for a Dwarf hold to be run by a queen, although heavily advised by her [Council of Elders] and seen as a stop-gap measure until a suitable husband can be found.
Dwarf women are as strong-willed as their husbands, and no doubt in the running of domestic affairs are a force to be reckoned with. Some Dwarf women may sit on the king’s Council of [Elders], but this is something of a rarity. On the whole, a Dwarf woman’s standing is based upon the rank of her husband, or former husband in the case of widows. It is the ambition of every proud father for his daughter to marry above his station and thus increase the fortunes of the clan, both literally and metaphorically.
So Beastmen and Skaven are the worst offenders, but there are others.
Dwarfs (chaos and otherwise) and all versions of human from Norsca to Bretonnia to the Empire have, between them, enough notable women to count on one hand - and those women are usually specifically called out in the lore as being exceptions to the rule, like Repanse.
Lizardmen and Orcs have the same problem of being agender but pretty much anyone who can speak is gendered male.
All three variations of elf are pretty egalitarian which is neat, and the various undead factions don’t seem to have hangups about gender either.
Am I missing anyone? I feel like I’m missing some.
landlord sent a guy to my house today to check the gas stuff, they gave fair notice so I can’t complain about that, but does feel weird have stranger in the place. Unpleasant.
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I have a bunch of friends - of which several are various shades of queer - who enjoy Warhammer 40K / Warhammer Fantasy and I don’t think any less of them for it. But even they’ll freely acknowledge that the two settings have always had an issue with how it approaches gender.
From what I understand, Games Workshop have long-since started trying to modernise that, but parts of the player-base can aggressively hold onto the particularly problematic segments of the lore.
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Yeah, it’s a whole thing.
The annoying bit for me is that for something like 40K in particular it would add to the satire in many cases to highlight it, but instead it’s just kind of there.
Oh boy can they ever.
40k at least has its utilitarian egalitarianism where you’ll send a human wave into cannonfire as long as they can stand and hold a gun but that’s also kind of a parody of the very brown propaganda around soviet infantry tactics.
Some promotion by merit may exist but 40k has a lot of other pressing issues to deal with.
All of the modern TTRPG stuff features plenty of women, both Empire and Dwarves (Bretonnia and Norsca don’t really feature as is, there), with plenty of more militant roles, from watch captains to witch hunters for all ur fanatical torturer girlboss needs
this has been retconned
Pretty much, even if they’re retconned - the only real disparity left is the Space Marine/Sister of Battle shtick
I’ve no doubt that the Skaven stuff will stick - Bretonnians too, for that matter - but I think it’s always been very, very clearly presented as one of the reasons as to why these societies are really, really, really awful things and places to live in. The Empire, at this point, is presented as egalitarian, as are Dwarves, varieties of Elves, Halflings, Tilea, Estalia, as are the varieties of undead (or even matriarchal), and so forth.
As it is I don’t really think it’s an issue with the setting of WHF but just the type of nerd that angrily burned his plastic toy soldiers in a hissy fit a few years ago that prefers to quote a 30 year old book as lore while rejecting anything that came after it as wrong and incorrect
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It is VITALLY IMPORTANT to the IMMERSION OF THE GAME that women in fantasy Arthurian Britain are kept in the marital chambers and NOT on the battlefield.
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Fair enough! I’m glad to hear it - I’m not very familiar with newer lore so I’m just going with what I’ve picked up from the videosgame and youtubers who know the old lore back to front.
It does to a large extent, but it would be, a little paradoxically, better if it didn’t.
Imagine if the lack of women being chosen to be space marines, at a time where literally everyone capable of holding a gun and aiming it roughly in the direction of the enemy is necessary, was highlighted and called out in the lore, and the response of the Imperium was pointless chauvinism.
“But we’re getting people killed because of this focus on these toxic aspects of masculinity!!” people cry.
And then the Emperor turns to look at the camera and holds a stare
I’ll have you know that the Ubersreik captain of the watch has a hat THREE TIMES as wide as she is and it looks fantastic…
As it happens to be;
is literally why because pointless chauvinism meeting every medieval europe trope we know of amplified x10 is what Bretonnia is so while it’s not vitally important to muhh immersion, it is something that actually works with the general idea of hellscape society Bretonnia where everyone but the oh-so-glorious knights has an absolutely awful life - in and of itself its a pretty critical reflection of the “damsel in distress” shtick that’s still a staple in too many stories
but King Arthur was a woman…yo…
it’s actually illegal to say this without showing me an image
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The issue with GW’s satirical approach to some (a lot?) of its lore in Fantasy and 40K is that there seems to be a not insubstantial number of fans who take these things as unironically very cool and based.
Like, I’m told that the Empire in 40K is meant to be a blatant mockery of fascism that they decide is actually very admirable.
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Anyone who thinks the Imperium in 40k is anything but an absolute hellscape is kidding themselves. 99.99% of the time you are either basically a slave who will be worked to death in some mine/factory/hivecity, A mindless automaton forced to work for some Imperial officer or a soldier who will inevitably be horrifically killed by anything and everything.
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https://imgur.com/a/BS5cLi4
On a happier note, FF14’s humour sometimes is lost on me but sometimes it’s an absolute gem like this
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I actually had another character in mind, instead her hat is like three times as big as her head and like twice as high
https://i.imgur.com/AkZVtpe.png
Well yeah, obviously, and I think with 40k especially they manage to really, really not make the point that these things are awful sometimes
But with the example of Bretonnia, for example, I think it makes perfect sense for it to be as it is - it’s a society based around the romanticized idea of a very, very, very, very small group of people who get to be in charge because they heroically protect the common man and save fair ladies in distress, of course these dudes are going to ensure that actually, the damsels do remain locked in their towers and oh, oops, they’re so awesome the common man has no rights versus them - the entire concept of it all is that these Heroic Knights only enjoy that image because they keep literally everyone else far, far away from any sort of position where they might change this status quo - although this will very much fly past the heads of “Wow!! Cool crusader!! Deus vult!!” posters, yes
[M Bison going YES, YES dot gif]
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https://whfb.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/b/b6/Salundra_von_Drakenburg_001.jpg
't is a game of hats…
Here’s a challenger. The Warhammer community atm is:
GW severely underpaying its workers, denying maternal leave, and otherwise treating employees poorly: I sleep
Fan video creator shuts down pre-emptively, expecting legal troubles: BURN GW TO THE GROUND
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