Gender locked race?

[redcurrant18]

Moreover, I find it hard to believe that having been given all that lore about how male Viera would kill you on sight for stepping foot into the greatwood, we're just supposed to waltz in there. There's even an aetheryte there..

Something I also noticed is that Nu Mou live in that forest as well. Maybe the forest fire (probably caused by Imperials) caused some of them to summon a primal, leading the Viera to seek out help from the outside world and therefore have both genders be playable?

[Serenno]

Something I also noticed is that Nu Mou live in that forest as well. Maybe the forest fire (probably caused by Imperials) caused some of them to summon a primal, leading the Viera to seek out help from the outside world and therefore have both genders be playable?

You're onto something there regarding a primal being summoned. Interestingly enough, it could be that since the theme of ShB is to more or less bring on the darkness to prevent an overage of light, the greatwood was lit ablaze by Y'shtola/Matoya in order to cause the summoning of said primal -- though I feel that if that's the case, Fran and the other Viera are going to be less than thrilled about it.

Although, I do feel that the fire + a primal's presence might definitely warrant a call for help from the Viera, seeing as how the primal's existence is going to be draining the forest of aether. Combining that with the Viera's ability to speak to the forest (though I'm not sure if that's canonically a thing in XIV?) they'll be able to tell if the forest is growing weaker.