Gender locked race?

[Theodric]

It baffles me when people say they look nothing alike.

I'd put a lot of it down to stubbornness. G'raha Tia is the weakest character in the game by my reckoning, so there's no bias at play on my end - though the similarities between the two images are striking. With any luck, he'll be due a brutal death.

My only real concern in regards to the expansion so far is that they appear to be bringing back a number of the more dull/controversial characters and pushing the more interesting ones into smaller roles.

[Gwenorai]

Aye, my issue with the Tia is just that really. You had your chance in the light bud, let's have someone else in there! If there are two new races then having one of them be an NPC would interest me. And if he is back, then 'oh hey buddy nice to see you again, I guess?' I honestly hardly paid attention to him.

[Lauront]

He's one of my least favourite characters. So much so that I almost forgot he existed until someone reminded me of it.

[redcurrant18]

I'm not sure if its been mentioned before but he looks like he's wearing one of the lvl 80 AF gears that was shown off at the fanfest alongside an image that had Paladin's in the middle. I *think* its the Samurai AF but in the image the model was wearing a mask not a hood. It does look like G'raha Tia facewise, but if Miqote can have their ears disappear entirely under some hats/cloaks then who can say the same isn't true for Viera, since we know they can also have floppy ears that wouldn't stick out?

[Theodric]

It's more likely than not to be G'raha. If it isn't and it is a male Viera, then that would be an immense disappointment if they're little different to Miqo'te. Swapping out cat ears for bunny ears wouldn't be a particularly interesting aesthetic to me.

[Shougun]

Hmmm... Going off of time travel and the crystal tower (or alternate dimensions, w.e same soup of madness lol)..

What if you can't play a male Viera right now because they're a mix of dead and preoccupied, and through 5.X series we work to unravel whatever calamity befell the Viera? 5.5 / 6.0 Male Viera?

I mean they could always have just made it a lore point to introduce Viera so they could then make them extinct and remove all males... O_O, or all but "need to be busy recreating the population" males, I suppose but.. oof to people who wanted a male viera then lol (cause they dead or not available unless you want to end the race).

The cover art and the Tia cat does look similar, I feel that - didn't think about it until it was pointed out though (cause I forgot about him, lol).

One unrelated thing that has me though.. If you total all the leaks together (and assume the two discord ones are not fake) they all seem to be talking about Blue in a way that we just don't understand it. I wonder if that means there is, besides new spells, a lot more to expect to hear about Blue Mage in the coming future. Like if they actually have it work as a job you'd expect and as a side content option, what a turn of events that'd be XD.

I couldn't handle that, if there was a Ronso-lion-like race and Blue Mage is actually a job that starts around level 60. Can't handle, will implode lol.

[Daralii]

I'm not sure if its been mentioned before but he looks like he's wearing one of the lvl 80 AF gears that was shown off at the fanfest alongside an image that had Paladin's in the middle. I *think* its the Samurai AF but in the image the model was wearing a mask not a hood. It does look like G'raha Tia facewise, but if Miqote can have their ears disappear entirely under some hats/cloaks then who can say the same isn't true for Viera, since we know they can also have floppy ears that wouldn't stick out?

MCH, PLD, and SAM sets:



Maybe-G'raha's robe is just cloth, with one arm being mostly bare and the other having a white sleeve. The palette is the only similarity.

[ArcaneCarbuncle]

Personally I choose to be cautiously optimistic about getting male Viera (and female Lionladies); there are so many variables at play that I'm not willing to get all negative about it (yet).

That said, if there are genderlocks, not getting male Viera is the least of my worries.

I heavily dislike genderlocked races in MMOs, and usually I'd rather not play a Game then (indirectly) support a concept I don't like. Now, I wouldn't quit FFXIV over this, I'm way to in the narrative at this point, but It'd still put a damper on my excitement for the expansion and the game as a whole. And thats the last thing I need right now since I'm already not the biggest fan of some of SEs recent decisions.
(In case someone cares about why I dislike racial genderlocks - I prefer to choose for myself which aesthetic I like to play as rather then the devs shoehorning me into whatever they want me to play. It's just principle, I guess; doubly so in games that are heavy on aesthetics like FFXIV)

And then there's the way how they went about telling us the news. Dangling the potential for male Viera in front of the people who asked for them only to tell them six months later that there aren't actually male Viera and they're getting something they might not care for seems a bit harsh. Especially seeing as they also told us that they're adding Viera specifically because people asked.
I appreciate the Devs trying to surprise us more, but with things that are bound to disappoint a good number of people I'd prefer they give it to us straight, so people can start to pick up the pieces and move on intead of fighting on the Forums about it. Just sours the mood.
They could easily have told us Viera are female only and they have another option for males while still keeping the nature of the male option a secret.
(I mean sure, it might be that they're just messing with us, but still...)


And because someone asked, I'm a big fan of the Ivalice setting and Viera is one of my favourite races in FF history ever since I've seen them first in FFTA when I was little (which was one of the fist FFs I've ever played and the first one I bought myself). I just love their Lore and aesthetic, and their inclusion in FFXII catapulted it immediatly into my top 3 FF-Games. And I've definitely always been curious about how a male Viera would look like.
The reason I'd love them in FFXIV however isn't simply because I like them, but because they seemed to be an easy way to get a look that is otherwise hard to replicate in FFXIV. I usually play the typical Elf-type Races, both for lore and the aesthetic. Tall-ish, slender, young-looking, long lived, A-Grade mages; all that. Some might scream now: "But ELEZEN!", well, Elezen might have elf ears, but are also a bit too tall, have odd proportions and lorewise strike me more as the typical "high human" rather then elves. The Viera on the other hand fit perfectly. (Somehow people tend to forget that Viera, outside of being great hunters, are also the second best mages in FFTA/2)
So, aesthetically for male Viera I'd actually love somewhat of a cross between the tall, and cute options, especially if we're already getting another bulky option in the Hrothgar. Lithe Assassin-types essentially. This would also align well with how I read their lore - I know some people read the whole Training part as some sort of brutal Army-survival-drill, but I took it more as Greek-Hero-Training (or a Jedi and their Padawan, lol); the training entailing not only suviving and fighting, but also mysticism, magic, listening to the Green Word, How-to-kill-efficiently-without-being-seen etc.

[cicatriz313]

Yeah, anyone who wants Viera because they liked them from ff12 I can understand why you'd be disappointed from the "Viera are coming" announcement only being what we already know from that game.

[Lauront]

And because someone asked, I'm a big fan of the Ivalice setting and Viera is one of my favourite races in FF history ever since I've seen them first in FFTA when I was little (which was one of the fist FFs I've ever played and the first one I bought myself). I just love their Lore and aesthetic, and their inclusion in FFXII catapulted it immediatly into my top 3 FF-Games. And I've definitely always been curious about how a male Viera would look like.
The reason I'd love them in FFXIV however isn't simply because I like them, but because they seemed to be an easy way to get a look that is otherwise hard to replicate in FFXIV. I usually play the typical Elf-type Races, both for lore and the aesthetic. Tall-ish, slender, young-looking, long lived, A-Grade mages; all that. Some might scream now: "But ELEZEN!", well, Elezen might have elf ears, but are also a bit too tall, have odd proportions and lorewise strike me more as the typical "high human" rather then elves. The Viera on the other hand fit perfectly. (Somehow people tend to forget that Viera, outside of being great hunters, are also the second best mages in FFTA/2)
So, aesthetically for male Viera I'd actually love somewhat of a cross between the tall, and cute options, especially if we're already getting another bulky option in the Hrothgar. Lithe Assassin-types essentially. This would also align well with how I read their lore - I know some people read the whole Training part as some sort of brutal Army-survival-drill, but I took it more as Greek-Hero-Training (or a Jedi and their Padawan, lol); the training entailing not only suviving and fighting, but also mysticism, magic, listening to the Green Word, How-to-kill-efficiently-without-being-seen etc.

That sums up why I'd like to see them, as well. I agree with what you say regarding elezen. I'm usually very partial to high elves (Altmer, the Witcher's Aen Elle and such) and dark elves (I'm going to stuff blood elves into this category; part of why I like male au ra is you can replicate the felblood look on them), but I'd love for a proper wood elf type race. Elezen don't really even fit the typical high or dark elf tropes, and some of the art work has convinced me Viera would be a very good fit here. At the same time, I don't want to play a female.