New Y'shtola Short Story

[RedLolly]

I'd argue that it doesn't, necessarily. Male miqo'te rarely appear throughout the Source, and the game has always been consistent about that, thus far.

Hhetsarro (never mind the mystel of the First, or their equivalents on other shards) are another matter. Like the Ishgardian elezen, I think it's best to think of them as their own (sub)race with their own rules. Self-evidently, they diverged from their miqo'te cousins long enough ago (if we assume they were ever one race, post-Sundering) that either could easily have developed their own peculiarities, genetic or otherwise.

I just feel like the devs WANT Miqo'te men as a rarity in canon lore, but remain cagey on it because of how popular they are as playable characters.

And then Hhetsarro could easily be interpreted as the same as femme, Frau, and woman all actually describing the same thing in different languages. It's just what Miqo'te are called over there. Most players just seemingly accept that being the deal.

I do prefer the idea that it's just a genetic anomaly in the Miqo'te populations primarily found in Eorzea (and possibly a few others like the Corvosi) but then they don't find it tragic? Weird? Not something to really bring up or question even when so many other tribes of the seemingly same people don't so rarely see a son?

I'm flying into a wholly different subject here, but it just fascinates me and frustrates me when it could be as simple as "1 out of 7 Miqo'te children are on average male." Shoot, maybe it was Allag stunting the birth rate so their favorite slave race couldn't reproduce fast or free without intervention and that's why Mystel and Hhetsarro have an average 1 to 1 ration of each sex and Miqo'te don't.

[Iscah]

I'm flying into a wholly different subject here, but it just fascinates me and frustrates me when it could be as simple as "1 out of 7 Miqo'te children are on average male." Shoot, maybe it was Allag stunting the birth rate so their favorite slave race couldn't reproduce fast or free without intervention and that's why Mystel and Hhetsarro have an average 1 to 1 ration of each sex and Miqo'te don't.

I feel like people overestimate the difference in birth rate for Miqo'te. We're not going to see the men as much simply because they culturally tend to be loners or travellers, and (at least by the official lore) have reasons why there may be a lower adult population without a lower birth rate: Keepers have the danger of working as lone hunters in the forest, and the explanation for Seekers' tia/nunh system in the official naming conventions page indicates that a deposed nunh becomes a tia again if he survives the duel – there's no indication of whether it's a common or rare thing for fights to be to the death, but evidently not zero.

Also, from memory Viera males are born 1-in-5, and their gender imbalance is treated as a bigger deal than Miqo'te.

[Turnintino]

And I mentioned this in Iscah's own topic on suncat naming conventions, but...

I just feel like the devs WANT Miqo'te men as a rarity in canon lore, but remain cagey on it because of how popular they are as playable characters.

If we're bringing player numbers into this, it bears repeating that those numbers actually still support the concept of a not unremarkable gender disparity -- one that's fairly consistent, whether you're looking at global stats or regional in the survey I linked.

The same can't be said about the Viera numbers Iscah mentioned, meanwhile, but here we are. And I think that's why taking player characters into account in discussions like this tow a fine line, even if I understand the concern/interest. But again, Miqo'te numbers specifically don't actually contradict the lore in that way to begin with lol.

[RedLolly]

Yeah.

I was finally able to get my hands on the first encyclopedia (fully intending to buy the other two asap), and it's just a weird quirk that I've been hung up on that's just maybe a fanon thing that was SO strongly regarded years ago that just isn't true?