Regula van Hydrus (potential spoilers until the end of Heavensward)

[treuhavik]

Regula does indeed have a male voice actor in the EN version. Has anyone checked JP?

Either way, though, as devil's advocate I feel I need to remind that this wouldn't be the first time we've been surprised by the removal a Garlean helmet.

[Arixtotle]

Well you're definitely right that Regula is a feminine name.

Given Name REGULA
GENDER: Feminine
USAGE: German (Swiss), Late Roman

Meaning & History
Means "rule" in Latin. This was the name of a 3rd-century Swiss martyr, the patron saint of Zurich.

Here's a question though, are the names the same in Japanese as they are Localized to English? Could it just be a Locialization error?

Also their name means Rule of the Water Snake.

[SilverArrow20XX]

I'm pretty positive he's male. I expect parallels to Kefka with him as Nael had parallels with Sephiroth. The Legatus seem to have themes loosely based on their respective numbered Final Fantasy title. I fully expect the Legatus of the IIIrd and VIIIth legions to be female.

[Arixtotle]

I'm pretty positive he's male. I expect parallels to Kefka with him as Nael had parallels with Sephiroth. The Legatus seem to have themes loosely based on their respective numbered Final Fantasy title. I fully expect the Legatus of the IIIrd and VIIIth legions to be female.

Do you have any idea why they would give him a feminine name then? It's just odd....

[SilverArrow20XX]

Maybe they just thought it sounded better than Regulus. It's a bit odd, but the character looks and sounds clearly male. We haven't had any examples so far of Garlean helmets outright changing voices. Livia sounded female and Nero sounded pretty much the same minus the distortion without his helmet.

[Arixtotle]

Silver; That just doesn't make sense to me honestly. They could have easily used Regulus. Well except that Regulus means "Little Prince" and I would think they wouldn't want to name someone with that meaning or else we'd think they were the Emperor's kid. But it really doesn't make sense to use a feminine name on purpose unless the character is female. Them naming a male character Regula is like naming a female character Bruce. The only other option is that someone messed up while naming the character.

Also, I went and made sure it's not a localization error and it's not. レグラ・ヴァン・ヒュドルス (Regura van Hyudorusu) is the name in Japanese. So someone deliberately chose the name Regula.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Silver; That just doesn't make sense to me honestly. They could have easily used Regulus. Well except that Regulus means "Little Prince" and I would think they wouldn't want to name someone with that meaning or else we'd think they were the Emperor's kid. But it really doesn't make sense to use a feminine name on purpose unless the character is female. Them naming a male character Regula is like naming a female character Bruce. The only other option is that someone messed up while naming the character.

Also, I went and made sure it's not a localization error and it's not. レグラ・ヴァン・ヒュドルス (Regura van Hyudorusu) is the name in Japanese. So someone deliberately chose the name Regula.

I dont think IRL language is as relevemt as you think. Even in the languages derived form irl languages there are some descrepencys. Not just with Latin. (Which is vauge anyway)

[Arixtotle]

I dont think IRL language is as relevemt as you think. Even in the languages derived form irl languages there are some descrepencys. Not just with Latin. (Which is vauge anyway)

Thing is, it's not that these names they are using are derived from Latin, they are literally Latin names used during the Roman era. They're choosing the names deliberately from that time and language. It's like how Au Ra Raen names are not derived from Japanese they are Japanese. Just from the Edo period not modern times. These names really aren't vague.

Names that end in "a" are feminine in the majority of cases in Latin just like they are in Japanese and most other languages. i.e. I did a search on baby names ending in "a" and got 12 pages for boy names and 109 pages for girl names on one site that includes names from all origins.

[Lukha]

I actually couldn't find a voice credit for Regula in the Heavensward credit roll; either she was omitted, or I missed her twice through. It might be the first instance we've seen of a Garlean helmet drastically altering a voice, but the voice coming out of the helmet sounds more distorted to my ear than previous characters have, so I do feel it's a possibility. She also wouldn't be the first female character to have a fairly deep voice; I'm playing with the Japanese voices turned on, and Merlwyb and Moenbryda both have fairly low-pitched voices.

I dont think IRL language is as relevemt as you think. Even in the languages derived form irl languages there are some descrepencys. Not just with Latin. (Which is vauge anyway)

I think it's very relevant, considering every other Garlean name we've encountered has fit Latin gendered naming conventions, except for possibly Cid's. There's also the fact that most of the other races have naming conventions dependent on the gender of the person, which NPCs follow. While it's true it's not uncommon for mistakes to be made, especially when you're talking about a foreign name translated into Japanese and then translated into English, there is no precedent for that sort of mix-up happening in FFXIV, and lots of precedent for the process being completed correctly.

[Cilia]

I keep seeing everyone refering to Van Hydrus as a 'he'; I can't be the only one absolutely certain it's a she under that helmet, can I?

I had a feeling just based on her interaction with the Emperor when we first see them; she gave me a bit of a Livia feel, and something about her body/armor shape strikes me as feminine, despite the blessed lack of boob plate, but I was stumped as to how to prove my theory...

Well, Garlean names follow a Latinesque naming convention, and based on Latin grammatical rules, 'Regula' is clearly a female name; a male would be named Regulo or Regulus. Granted, we only have two other named Garlean females, but both of them have names ending in 'A', which on a Latin noun indicates that the subject is female.

Ehh, I would argue against this based on his voice alone. It's true that van Hydrus doesn't have a feminine figure or boob plate armor, but no armors really have boob plates in this game (thankfully).

Anyway, back to the point: van Hydrus has a modestly deep, authoritative, masculine voice, and everyone refers to him as a man. His voice is clearly masculine, as are his voice actors; if van Hydrus were female, they might have given "him" a modulated woman's voice. Plus, the Legatuses seem to be somewhat based on their legion number's respective Final Fantasy antagonist; while we've only seen the VIIth's van Darnus emulate Sephiroth, the VIth's van Hydrus comes to prominence on the Floating Continent with the Warring Triad, suspiciously similar to Kefka. (Then again, Varis could go Kefka and van Hydrus could end up playing General Leo. Wouldn't that be cool?!)

In regards to the naming conventions, while the Garleans do have Latin-esque names, they aren't always straight-up Latin, and there's always the quirk of having a feminine name despite being male. There's also the possibility that van Hydrus is a transsexual, but I don't think this is the kind of game to touch on that (homosexual relationships do exist in-game, but we have yet to see evidence of transsexuals).

Now,

... but ask yourself: how plausible is it? How probable?

Personally, I don't consider it a likely possibility. There's too much evidence against it. (Then again I said the same thing about Nanamo being alive after 2.5.5, and look how that turned out.)