Help Regarding A Viera's Life Longevity.

For those more familiar with Ivalician lore, I want ask if Viera's life expectancy is affected by whether or not they are connected to the Wood by the "Green Word", that their ages are cut instead should they choose to cut ties with that vow.

A friend of mine has been confusing me by continuously stating that they need the "Green Word" in order to extend their lifespan to that of the 240 years; when it was stated before that they only lost their ability to sense, hear and communicate with the Wood. They also state that the Wandering Dramaturge is an unreliable source of information because we don't know where the information came from and how he came across it, along with him contradicting himself with the statements of:

"Wandering Dramaturge: For the Viera, the hands of time move at a far more leisurely pace than they do for the rest of us. Whereas a Hyur might consider themselves fortunate to see, say, eighty winters before her return to the Lifestream, a Viera can endure up to twelve score or more."

and

"Wandering Dramaturge: Then, for the next two centuries will the Viera maintain its physical youth, rendering it nigh impossible to discern one’s age simply from outward appearances."

saying that how would he have known if it was impossible to discern their age.

However the biggest point of confusion was them stating that in the Japanese script of XII, it was stated that the Viera only lived up to 240 when attached to the Green Word, and states that there was a localization error in the English version.

My apologies for posing this question if the answer was obvious, but I appreciate any help on this topic.

I can't answer the question at hand, and would be interested to learn myself. But I can say that those two statements from W.D. are not necessarily contradictory. "Up to twelve score or more" leaves a lot of wiggle room for Viera living to ages beyond 240 years, while "for the next two centuries" just says that Viera within the age range of X and 200+X will look roughly the same age. Unless X is a value over 40, there's just no contradiction there.

I also think it goes without saying, but even if the Viera lore in Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIV were identical down to the very last word, they would still be separate canons—the lore from one game would not be applicable to the other because of this.

You should ask Fran how old she is

I don't think they need to follow the Green Word to live up to 200+ years like in XII, it hasn't been mentioned in XIV's lore yet. So I'd just go with the 2 centuries description we get in XIV and then a few more decades is when you can tell they're old physically.

I can't see a contradiction between the two descriptions either. One is their overall lifespan (twelve score = 12 x 20 = 240), the other indicates that they appear "young" over most of that time.

And "how would he have known" if you can't tell their age? How would you learn anything about a person that isn't directly visible? He's been given the information one way or another - there's nothing strange about him simply knowing it.

Man, the Viera have got it pretty sweet haven't they. A couple centuries of being in your twenties :eek:.

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Originally Posted by Yuella

You should ask Fran how old she is

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Surprisingly rude!

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Originally Posted by Yuella

You should ask Fran how old she is

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Try to grow up, please!

i though fran in this game is not the fran from ff12? i keep hearing that the fran here is the fran of our "source" world.

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Originally Posted by gumas

i though fran in this game is not the fran from ff12? i keep hearing that the fran here is the fran of our "source" world.

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You are correct.
How FFXIV's Fran looks is based on XII however.

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Originally Posted by Yuella

You should ask Fran how old she is

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Ugh... Nice, Vaan.

if we go by generic life span for japan fantasy (isekai) setting. elves would be the highest, second by dwarf, then beastman (which i think viera should be in this category) and finally human.

@gumas We already know that the Viera likely have the longest lifespan of the playable races. Lalafell/Hyur/Miqo'te and Roe's all have more or less the same human length lifespan. Elezen are mentioned to be slightly (by a few decades) longer lived. I don't remember Au Ra or Hrothgar lifespans being mentioned off the top of my head but the its probably safe to assume that they aren't exceptional since it hasn't been brought up. The Viera are mentioned to live 240 (wandering dramaturge) to possibly ~300 years (comments made during quests in Rak'tika).

It would be nice to get more info about the Viera's relationship with the Wood and if it effects them in anyway but it will probably be a while before we hear more about the Viera unless they end up playing a role in the Bodjza questline for some reason. I don't recall anything that says the Green Word has a physical affect on Viera though. The best bet would probably be to ask next time they take questions for a lore panel.