Gender locked race?

[Vrankyl]

The difference here is that while Miqo'te males are rarer than females, they're still abundant enough to be seen in many areas across Eorzea. They also live with female Miqo'te, and tend to have leadership roles in their community. Basically, their societies are similar in that to real world lions albeit a bit less violent. Male Viera however do not live with female Viera and are reclusive. While the female ones are known to be combative and adventurous, the male ones aren't at all. This lore has been set in stone years prior to FFXIV even being thought of.

This is only true of Seekers. For Keepers of the Moon the males are aloof and wandering, only appearing at clans of female miqo'te when it is time to mate much like the Viera. In addition just like the Viera Keepers of the Moon are a Matriarchal race.

[Kidria]

I don't think there will be too much lore-bending if because AFAIK we're getting 2 "new tribes" of Viera to fit in FF14, and not the ones of Tactics/Ivalice.

Honestly I wonder if they're holding out just to make a super nice video of a male Viera showing the new healer class (instead of teh typical female healer). That'd garner so many screams from a crowd Yoshi-P might get knocked over by the soundwave. In before male Viera dancer instructor NPC.

[Rokke]

The difference here is that while Miqo'te males are rarer than females, they're still abundant enough to be seen in many areas across Eorzea. They also live with female Miqo'te, and tend to have leadership roles in their community. Basically, their societies are similar in that to real world lions albeit a bit less violent. Male Viera however do not live with female Viera and are reclusive. While the female ones are known to be combative and adventurous, the male ones aren't at all. This lore has been set in stone years prior to FFXIV even being thought of.

Can Squeenix change the established lore? Sure, but that's like demanding an author change their story. As a writer myself, I can tell you it's not something we'd do willingly. But who knows, maybe with enough pushback they might find some way of adding male Viera into the roster while keeping their lore intact.

They really aren't abundant though. Racking my brain I can think of the 2 Nuhns & their sons (plus the red head orphan one), the reoccuring villain in the allied beast tribes, the villain in a postmoogle quest, the one we lock in crystal tower, the Tia that hangs out with Arnevald, RDM & ARC teahcers, and what appears to be a Ul'Dahn merchant in Kugane. Compare that to how many female Miqote we see out and about. Males are rare and shown as such. In addition they're not usually leaders- Both Nuhn express that it's not normal for them to be leaders on top of being breeding males, and the only male keeper holding a leader role is a criminal that more or less pressures his females to stay with him with the alternative of leaving him = going to jail.

[DevilsDontFly]

From a business point of view it does make sense they didn't announce male Vieras. The male counterpart has never ever appeared on any of the FF titles, ever. So if we think about it, with SE being a japanese company wanting to introduce a new concept into an already estabilished lore within the franchise, it only makes sense they would do that at their homeland. It's also worth mentioning that Au Ra were revealed during the very last fanfest, which means that the female Viera reveal was something ahead of schedule.

It is very frustrating to deal with the lack of a confirmation on the matter, but it's also possible that they want to introduce male Viera (or the supposed-to-be male only race) with the next patch as MSQ, that is going to be exactly after JP fanfest. So far the Viera don't really exist within XIV's lore unless you do an entirely optional raid sidestory quest. So I'm assuming they are going to slowly but surelly introduce the race with the MSQ narrative, and that might be the perfect opportunity to also showcase male viera, killing two birds with one stone as it would also explain why they are not so rare to be seen all of a sudden.

[Bonbori]

I have been called the goddess of nonsense.

You will now know why!

Upon my holy logic the very world lies in balance.

AND NOW THE SCALES WILL TIP!　リーゾン　ブレーカ！

So what if... Some or even all of the Viera we have already seen were male?
I mean the Dramaturge said that male and female Viera are indistinguishable until puberty but... he has no idea just how distinguishable they are after, does he? Maybe their dimorphism is something so subtle and hidden that a cursory inspection still wouldn't be able to tell them apart? DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN!

...

On the other hand, it could be as simple as them not having finalised the assets by the time the preview footage was getting recorded. I guess we might get closer to an answer tomorrow since almost inevitably the question of bunboys will pop up in the Q&A. And then there's about 50% chance of getting teased/trolled and probably made to wait till Tokyo for the real answer.

[SoulEchelon]

They really aren't abundant though. Racking my brain I can think of the 2 Nuhns & their sons (plus the red head orphan one), the reoccuring villain in the allied beast tribes, the villain in a postmoogle quest, the one we lock in crystal tower, the Tia that hangs out with Arnevald, RDM & ARC teahcers, and what appears to be a Ul'Dahn merchant in Kugane. Compare that to how many female Miqote we see out and about. Males are rare and shown as such. In addition they're not usually leaders- Both Nuhn express that it's not normal for them to be leaders on top of being breeding males, and the only male keeper holding a leader role is a criminal that more or less pressures his females to stay with him with the alternative of leaving him = going to jail.

Which all just strengthens my point. They're around. They're adventurous. They're known to live with female miqo'te. You even help one through a chain of beast tribe quests. Male Viera however, lore-wise, would not do any of this. They are not adventurous. They are not known to live with female Viera. And they for damn sure wouldn't try to hold any sort of leader role, forcefully or otherwise.

[Rokke]

Which all just strengthens my point. They're around. They're adventurous. They're known to live with female miqo'te. You even help one through a chain of beast tribe quests. Male Viera however, lore-wise, would not do any of this. They are not adventurous. They are not known to live with female miqo'te. And they for damn sure wouldn't try to hold any sort of leader role, forcefully or otherwise.

Male miqo’te are rare in-lore. They are not rare sights in-game because they’re popular, but being popular amongst players doesn’t go against in-game lore because the game doesn’t really acknowledge other players other than vague “adventurer friends” we have when we need to hand wave the idea of storming a castle alone.

Viera are rare in-lore. Player character Viera running around cities in hordes will not go against that lore because canonly you’re the only person that really matters.

So what if... Some or even all of the Viera we have already seen were male?
I mean the Dramaturge said that male and female Viera are indistinguishable until puberty but... he has no idea just how distinguishable they are after, does he? Maybe their dimorphism is something so subtle and hidden that a cursory inspection still wouldn't be able to tell them apart? DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN!

oh man this is going to end up the backstories for the lot that'll hang around in the quicksand xD

[SoulEchelon]

Male miqo’te are rare in-lore. They are not rare sights in-game because they’re popular, but being popular amongst players doesn’t go against in-game lore because the game doesn’t really acknowledge other players other than vague “adventurer friends” we have when we need to hand wave the idea of storming a castle alone.

Viera are rare in-lore. Player character Viera running around cities in hordes will not go against that lore because canonly you’re the only person that really matters.

Then tell Squeenix that, not me. I already stated there is still a chance they'll show up. Either they're planning on showing them at a later time, or players can maybe persuade Squeenix to add them just like they did with the male miqo'te. However lore established before FFXIV was even in existence gives Squeenix the leverage to not add them into FFXIV. Miqo'te are a race created specifically for this game. They are not found anywhere else, and so their lore is far more malleable and far less established than Viera. That's why I am personally perfectly fine with Viera being female only. Established lore spanning multiple final fantasies gives credence to this choice.

[Iscah]

There was a sahagin priest that used the echo and ended up being devoured by leviathan. Go back and re-watch the leviathan arc cutscenes in the armoire.

It seems like he was directly gifted the Echo by Elidibus. I also think it's possible he was actually made into an Ascian (with the purple aura and that weird 'growling' noise that seems to accompany Ascians using their abilities).

(Also, nitpicky but you want the Unending Journey for cutscene reviewing. The Armoire is for storing gear.)

Ants? An Ant race? I'm not sure if Worker Ants can be female or not, but there's a clear difference between a Worker and a Queen ant. Similar to this Viera and Mi'qote setup, the queen is kept in safety for breeding, pretty much.

Worker ants (and bees) are all female. The males only exist to breed with the queen. (That's the simple generic version anyway - but definitely workers are female.)

idk but there was word of another version of viera that would be shorter, and those weren't shown either. I don't think we've had two different sub-groups of a race since hyur - midlander and highlanders. If there really are going to be two sub-groups of viera, along with male viera, then I could understand why they are saving that reveal for a different fanfest.

As far as I'm aware, that theorising is built off concept art and Viera in other games. However, the Wandering Dramaturge's lore-dump for Viera only mentioned light-skinned and dark-skinned clans - and not even separate cultures for the two. I actually find that more worrying than the lack of visible males right now.

They really aren't abundant though. Racking my brain I can think of....

I was making a list of Sunseeker characters (both for name reference and for trying to identify all the members of the different tribes) a while back, so I have a reference for those! Still might have missed one or two, as I just had to trawl through Garland Tools' lists of NPCs by area - and also will have missed anyone identified by a label rather than a name. Can't find the Ul'dahn merchant in Kugane that you mentioned.

A'aba Tia - one of Arenvald's friends in early ARR; killed in the raid on the Waking Sands.
B'benha Tia - squadron lancer
C'zibho Tia - Moonfire Faire 20__
D'fhul Tia - squadron conjurer
G'raha Tia - Crystal Tower raids
H'raha Tia - MNK 50-60
J'zula Tia - Resistance member at Porta Praetoria
K'rhid Tia - ACN guildmaster
M'rahz Nunh and M'zhet Tia - M tribe at the Peering Stones
O'bhen Tia - a hunter at Tailfeather
R'fhul Tia - Moonfire Faire 2018
R'mhasi Tia - CUL 50-60
U'odh Nunh, U'khuba Tia and U'tykha Tia - U tribe at Forgotten Springs
V'mah Tia - Scion since post-ARR
X'rhun Tia - RDM tutor

(that's 18 characters vs about 120 on the list of females)

For Moonkeepers, I don't have a list, but as well as those you mentioned (the Beast Tribe villain and the Couerlclaw King) I can think of one from the BLM 50-70 quests.

[Senn]

...

You're right. I'm wondering why they didn't show both sub-groups of viera then. Or did they? It didn't seem like it.


---
hit post limit so editing this

I dont know why they're being so tight-lipped about this. Why not tease something more... idk, important? It just feels.. weirdly unfair to keep this a secret. If they are able to say "we can't show the new raid because it isn't ready" why can't they just say "we can't show male Viera because they aren't ready"? It will at least let us know that they are coming, which will then build the hype they actually want, rather than animosity.

This is just.. all super weird imo.

Yeah, I find this whole thing weird too. I like the female viera, and even if it's going to be gender locked, I'm still really happy we're getting it. Even so, I would prefer having both male and female.
What I find strange is they only showed one sub-group of viera. This is what initially lead me to believe that the sub-groups of viera looked different from one another - tall and short. That's why I thought they were saving the other sub-group of viera for the next fanfest. However, I'm starting to believe this is incorrect.
What would cause them to not show the other sub-group if it's just a skin tone change and minor changes? Why not show the males if there are any? I really wonder.