To be fair, none of the Warcraft gods are really *GODS* in the sense that most of us here on Earth would mean. The Old Gods are necrophotic life-forms, the Titans are just big powerful aliens (nods at Arthur C Clarke), the Elemental Avatars are just really big elementals and things like Hakkar are just very powerful entities.

So its unlikely that Elune is a true goddess in that sense, but it is strongly hinted at that she is a) real, and b) very powerful, probably something akin to Hakkar but even more powerful.

Given that's the case, I agree it seems rather mean to the old Tauren (or indeed, the Wildhammer Dwarves) to say that the Earthmother isn't real, or that she's just a big earth elemental. The Earthmother seems to mean more than that, connected to all life on Azeroth. In Tauren religion at least, the Earthmother would be *more* powerful than (reasonably supported) Goddess Elune, as the moon is said to be just one part of the Earthmother.

Personally I think the Earthmother is perhaps something beyond being a simple Goddess. A Goddess has an identity, a realm and specific abilities. And in Warcraft, Gods are actual beings who can be killed, or at least fought. The Earthmother as described by the Tauren seems to transcend this. She is in all things, the essence of life itself. In this sense she is perhaps more akin to the Shamanistic spirit of the Wilds (as in the actual Shamanistic spirits, note NOT the elemental lords, who as stated are effectively just very powerful elementals). Like the Wilds, the Earthmother appears to be life-force itself, she can be found in everything, in the curious symbioses and seeming design that can be found throughout nature.

Anyway, to wrap up some rambling, I agree that it seems cheap to say Therazane=Earthmother. One is a powerful earth being, and one is the essence life itself. Perhaps the Earthmother is simply a philosophy, maybe she's a goddess, maybe she's more of a natural force, but I just don't think she's a giant rock creature.