Gender locked race?

[Maedia]

It has to do with the lore. Viera males are very rare. It would be silly to see them everywhere.

[Tsumdere]

It has to do with the lore. Viera males are very rare. It would be silly to see them everywhere.

To quote wonderful GoldenTot :

*drives my car past Rathalos to get into the new NieR raid*

mAlE vIeRa JuSt AiN't LoRe FrIeNdLy

Besides. Male Miqo'te, Raen, and Duskwight are rare too. Pitiful excuse.

[Metsonm]

There are only, what, 4 White Mages in existence?

Sure do see a lot of White Mages around, huh?

[Risvertasashi]

There are only, what, 4 White Mages in existence?

Sure do see a lot of White Mages around, huh?

More to the point, there's only 1 white mage that isn't padjal - an unplayable NPC race.

[Hunky]

Somebody posted on Reddit that they found another interesting line in the files. During one of the gladiator quests, an NPC refers to the player by his/her race and an accompanying descriptor that varies depending on the player's race.

For Hrothgar, it's their "majestic mane".

Considering that only male lions grow manes, I'm pretty certain Hrothgar is going to be male-only, leaving Viera to be female-only.

Unless females get manes too. It's not unheard of in video games. The female Pyroar in Pokemon have manes, and the female Pantera in Bless have long hairstyles that could be interpreted as manes.





Even so, my hopes for male Viera have pretty much diminished. I really don't think we're getting two full-blown races. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

[Metsonm]

It's just baffling, though. Why give us two half-races and deal with years of asking when we're getting the counterparts instead of doing the same amount of work, giving us a full race, and leaving the playerbase satisfied?

[Shougun]

Unless females get manes too. It's not unheard of in video games. The female Pyroar in Pokemon have manes, and the female Pantera in Bless have long hairstyles that could be interpreted as manes.

If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

I'm thinking perhaps the race has a lot of glorious thick hair.. just my personal interpretation of very little information lol (have your mountain of salt ).

It does seem hard to fathom two full races at once but... would be pretty awesome if true.. :3

Also the fact that the race in the data sounds like a lion, like what we've been thinking, (mane) really backs it up as not just some random thing. What a wild ride. Can't wait for Fanfest XD.

[wereotter]

More to the point, there's only 1 white mage that isn't padjal - an unplayable NPC race.

Padjal aren't exactly a race, though. As you do the level 60-70 white mage quests, you learn more about this, but basically people are chosen to be padjal by the elementals. We follow one person going through that kind of call during those quests.

To quote wonderful GoldenTot :

*drives my car past Rathalos to get into the new NieR raid*

mAlE vIeRa JuSt AiN't LoRe FrIeNdLy

Besides. Male Miqo'te, Raen, and Duskwight are rare too. Pitiful excuse.

Don't forget to put on your Garo glamor while your drive there. And maybe your Yo-Kai watch?

[Tsumdere]

-snip-

The first thing that popped into my head was the Asmodians from Aion. Both genders had "manes". They don't exactly follow the text book definition, but were called them. Second thing I thought was that horses have manes as well. Regardless, manes + blufever saying lion race all along does seem pretty nail in the coffin for lion-esque over horse lol.

---

I had a couple of thoughts regarding these Hrothgar, and I thought I would throw them out there.

1. Could it be possible that these Hrothgar are male Vieras? Perhaps it is possible that because they live separately, the males have coined their own names for themselves. After all, we can assume that historians and the wandering dramaturge have only talked to the females with males being elusive and aggressive.

2. I hope this makes sense because I'm not sure which words to use - Why would Hrothgar and Viera be listed with both male and female pronouns and descriptors? Some are saying it's for consistency in the code, but Au Ra are written in as just l'Ao Ra while everyone else is la Viera/le Viera. They've established a precedent for reducing the race code to just one instance of it, so why couldn't they just write one la/le for Hrothgar and Viera? Not to mention, there was flat out shown to be an instance of an NPC describing a Viera as "beau" when they could have used "belle". Strange to call a woman "handsome". Then again, I don't speak French.

tl;dr I'm cautiously optimistic. If they do two full races, I will be absolutely blown out of the water and ecstatic. If they do Viera female/male Hrothgar, I will only be slightly disappointed as long as the males aren't beastly. However, they'll set themselves up for an absolute endless storm of "Give Male Viera!!!!/Give Female Hrothgar!!!!" If they do the sexy female and ugly male trope, I will be very, very disappointed. Give us both hot males and females AND beastly males and females.

[Roda]

Considering that only male lions grow manes, I'm pretty certain Hrothgar is going to be male-only, leaving Viera to be female-only.

time to be a fun-fact police and say "Well actually lionesses can grow manes." It's just kind of a thing that happens.