RevenantBob's page

Arguably their matriarchy got WORSE now that the matriarchs are...CORPORATE CEOS!!!

I was thinking more from the point of view of the setting and less "How would Drow be in space?"

Granted, my view is based on the few limited pages of information so maybe something more detailed will be released. But the Pact World agreement turns the idea of "Races" into a more holistic society of peoples. Things from Pathfinder like Alignment and Race as overarching themes seem to take a backseat in Starfinder. They go out of their way to tell you "The average pact world citizen doesn't care about this stuff!"

If it was simply "Let's throw Drow on a spooky scary dark planet and be done with it" then yeah, that would make sense they just kept going as usual with the matriarchy. But this seems like an attempt to shovel them into a role following D&D and less the Pathfinder/Starfinder narrative. In D&D you have a spider god forcing the state. In pathfinder is was an opportunistic situation created by their trek underground. Since the matriarchy evolved from that opportunistic situation, it seems like it would reverse given another opportunity for the males... an opportunity presented very clearly in the Pact!

The Pact World status talks about interplanetary law enforcement, and basic universal rights that are granted to everyone under the pact. I believe I even red Eox people are protected from Pharasma church wiping them all out because of the Pact status.

What this means is all these disgruntled males who don't like the "I'm a woman so I'm better than you" status can do something they couldn't do in Pathfinder setting, which is form alliances with outsiders or just leave. Money is more important in a capitalistic universe, which Pathfinder presents itself as, than all these old traditions. And with people who were never part of Golarion, Drow are nothing more than Elves with dark skin and chips on their shoulders.

So while a male going "I'm gonna make my own corporation" might have their female overlords laughing on Apostae, they can easily get a bunch of themselves together and just deal with anyone but the females, garnering power and support from outside and becoming equal if not greater in power.

When you read the section on Page 430 of the Core Rulebook, it seems clear that being part of the Pact has already influenced Drow. Things like their inability to have "Slaves" (although they have people in statuses close to that) and their trading with all the other worlds (which is even presented in the drow entry for the Alien Archive) means that people are far more open to interacting with Drow in Starfinder than they were in Pathfinder.

To summarize, their isolation is gone, so it's easier for a male to go "I'm oppressed here, let me go move to a different planet" or "Let me go make allies and come back stronger to deal with this matriarchy". Even if the Males look down on their allies, I don't see why it would be beneath them to use these allies to bring their status higher.

Now, I can be utterly wrong in my viewpoint, but the Matriarchy just feels artificial at this point.

Edit:

Then again, maybe their society is still in transition to this lack of Matriarchy. Could make for interesting plots.

I agree with OP, I assumed Drow would have moved past the Matriarchy as well and even had this be the case in the game I'm running. Considering their Golarion backstory it only made sense to me.

Oh well, in my Starfinder universe the matriarchy is finished!