Gender locked race?

[Tabbs]

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Would female Viera attempting to abandon the woods and the Green Word not also be subject to the same punishment from the male Wood-Warders? A leaver is still a leaver... females are still breaking the code by leaving. Yet they still make it out somehow. I don't think the Viera have spidey senses to alert them to when other Viera are trying to leave, and even if they did (maybe the Green Word informs them somehow): There are clearly still Viera who make it out regardless.

As for male Viera being at the start of ARR, you could have a bunch of reasons as to why they'd leave. For example: They abandoned their home for adventure, much like the other races. Desire to find a better life, just like the Dramaturge says many female Viera do. It could be that the Green Word they hear has told them to leave for reasons unknown. Hell, maybe the Green Word is retconned into being connected to Hydaelyn, somehow, in this world. You also assume the male Viera has years of brutal training, maybe they don't? My own male Viera wouldn't want to be a Wood-Warder, so he'd leave at a fairly young age. He can't raise himself with training, and he can't return to the village, or he'd die/be shipped out with a Wood-Warder again, so I thought it'd be neat if he was raised by Nu Mou, who seem to be in the same forests as Viera. Some of the Viera jacks were stated to die during training; I think it's fair to assume that at some point or another, at least one of them would hold some disdain for their own kind of forcing this life on them.

It's really not impossible that some male Viera leave. It's just that combined with there being few of them already and probably even less wanting to leave/actually leaving, it makes sense that most people wouldn't have seen the very few that actually do leave.

[Iscah]

Collection of Wandering Dramaturge Viera lore

For the record, that is actually only half of what he has to say about the Viera.

[Hunky]

I can't help but see much of the controversy as willful ignorance on a grand scale... While i'll not repute established facts in game, (indeed, i see it as validation) i do not see how, with what SE has already given us, we can continue to pretend that the impossibility of male Viera leaving/ relocating from the wood en-mass is such a mental leap...

Collection of Wandering Dramaturge Viera lore


Rak'tika Greatwoods on fire.


Rak'tika Greatwoods aftermath


From what has been established thus far: The male Viera are the guardians of the Greatwoods, any attack on them on such a scale would and should prompt a response. Hence their mobilization from their home, to face the threat of the Garlean Empire.

It can both work both ways. It can either make sense of why male Viera would leave the forest and therefore make sense as a playable race. At the same time, it could also explain why male Viera have been wiped out, and therefore not available as a playable race. And if the grand majority of Male Viera are wiped out, it would make even more sense for the females to leave the forest and seek allies to combat whatever is threatening them.

I want to also point out that set of lore quotes is missing the two most important ones.



It's blatantly clear that Matsuno, who the wandering dramaturge is supposed to represent, is warning us to not get our hopes up for male Viera.

"They simply don't exist to us" is pretty much saying they don't exist at all.

Matsuno created the Viera, but he only ever showed females. He doesn't want to show males. For what reason, who knows. And there are many other signs besides the lore that rule out the possibility of playable male Viera: Yoshida's interviews, the way Viera were revealed, the accurate blue leaks, and more.

Again, I desperately hope I'm wrong. I would love to have handsome, tall bunnymen in the game. It would be great that they ended up creating this lore with the intention of breaking it.

But we're probably gonna get a male-only race that nobody really asked for. I just hope if that's the case, we get a male-only race that can be as attractive, elegant, and athletic as the female Viera. Something in between Highlander and Elezen.

I'm not sure who else might agree with me, but when I saw the concept art of those male Viera (the tall, muscular ones), I was ecstatic. That's exactly the kind of build I wanna see. Male Au Ra have amazing bodies (in my opinion), but their facial scales and horns make their faces so "busy-looking." Those male Viera on the other hand were perfect. I know I've posted several messages of hopelessness on here, but trust me, I wanna see those male Viera so bad.

But I'm warning you guys. Don't get your hopes up. Don't ignore the signs.

[Rokke]

But we're probably gonna get a male-only race that nobody really asked for.

tbh this is the main reason I think we're getting Viera men. As a gamer himself, I cannot believe that Yoshi would not forsee the potential shitstorm of pairing an incredibly popular request with something absolutely no one asked for without any hype buildup for said thing no one asked for.

[KaijinRhada]

tbh this is the main reason I think we're getting Viera men. As a gamer himself, I cannot believe that Yoshi would not forsee the potential shitstorm of pairing an incredibly popular request with something absolutely no one asked for without any hype buildup for said thing no one asked for.

Yeah, this is one of the big things about gender-locking choices. Evidence of storms being kicked up over gender-locks are aplenty. The following quote from a different thread about male Viera (for those that haven't seen it) sums it up nicely:

I'm also on team, "I can't help but suspect Yoshi-P is just trolling."

He has to know how poorly player character limitations go over in this fandom. He also knows how long ago he first teased Viera as a possibility and how many people wanted to be males. That door was never closed, despite his skepticism. He made a bigger deal about trying to get the feet right. And then why wouldn't they have closed the door gently and tightly today? I can't shake this itch that he's watching all these salty tears with schadenfreude knowing he's going to get a massive crowd pop when he shows up in Tokyo like, "Nah, I'm messing with you, roll the tape!" lol.

Bolded for emphasis. But it would be astonishing for anyone to be surprised that people don't like less choices, in this game especially where character appearances and customization holds such esteem

[Rokke]

The following quote from a different thread about male Viera (for those that haven't seen it) sums it up nicely:

moose speak

it is reassuring to have Moose in your corner ;w;

[stormygabe]

tbh this is the main reason I think we're getting Viera men. As a gamer himself, I cannot believe that Yoshi would not forsee the potential shitstorm of pairing an incredibly popular request with something absolutely no one asked for without any hype buildup for said thing no one asked for.

So I LOVE how pro-viera/optimistic you seem to be. If we DON'T get male buns, I hope there's enough of a backlash to make them add them anyway. If we do, I hope they look nice. (aka Not the big bara buff burly insert-B-word-here that some want) At the same time, I can't help but remain apprehensive. There are so many great points both for them being added and omitted. I'm hoping your optimism somehow manifests into really cool looking rabbit wood elves.

[Rokke]

So no bullshit, I LOVE how pro-viera/optimistic you seem to be. If we DON'T get male buns, I hope there's enough of a backlash to make them add them anyway. If we do, I hope they look nice. (aka Not the big bara buff burly insert-B-word-here that some want) At the same time, I can't help but remain apprehensive. There are so many great points both for them being added and omitted. I'm hoping your optimism somehow manifests into really cool looking rabbit wood elves.

To me its less about being optimistic and more the glaring lack of an alternative: Theres nothing pointing to a catlike race pre JP fanfest. Its not even just a lack of a t-shirt, theres absolutely zero hints in game and zero hints in the lorebook. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

I'm sure he has weighed the blowback it could cause and if he's prepared to take it he will. He's shown he's not afraid to do something that would for sure ruffle a lot of feathers when he released Blue Mage as a limited job which was a bigger risk than a potential unique to ffxiv male only race.

BLU being limited was cushioned by BLU being released pre-expac vs being a selling feature of the expac. It was also revealed to be limited then and there, instead of waiting till patchnotes to deal with the fallout.

As for no hype or build up? When he stated he doesn't always want to give out hints and wants to keep some things a surprise just last week during interviews? He specifically said he didn't want to go into each fanfest with people knowing everything that's coming. Announcing a separate unique race without having a breadcrumb trail of hints would be exactly such a thing.

He also specifically said his tshirt choices are complete happenstance and never had anything to do with announcements in that same exact press session lol

The manbunny outfit came to be becuase a niche group of people locked their legs and would. not. stop. bugging. A playable race reaches far more than ppl wanting a gold saucer set. To say PAX Q&A's would have a new staple demand would be an understatement.

[Serenno]

"They simply don't exist to us" is pretty much saying they don't exist

In my opinion, not quite. "They simply don't exist to us" means just that when paired with all the prior information regarding their lifestyle. They're elusive and hide out in the woods which is why they're never seen in settlements or cities. I just think he's saying that they might as well not exist since nobody's ever seen one (and lived) and they just happen to be very elusive as a result of the lifestyle that's forced upon them. But not that they don't exist, because there's still the possibility that they can still be seen if they want to be seen. This is more likely given the lore about how more and more Viera are leaving the wood in favor of adventure/the outside world.

However, that's the only point that I disagree with. I agree with you that if we're not going to get male Viera, then at least give us something equally as nice as how they made the female Viera.

I'm not sure who else might agree with me, but when I saw the concept art of those male Viera (the tall, muscular ones), I was ecstatic. That's exactly the kind of build I wanna see. Male Au Ra have amazing bodies (in my opinion), but their facial scales and horns make their faces so "busy-looking." Those male Viera on the other hand were perfect. I know I've posted several messages of hopelessness on here, but trust me, I wanna see those male Viera so bad.

I also agree with this! I think that the concept art is pretty spot on, maybe some changes here and there but that's more or less how I envisioned a male Viera that looked similar enough to the females. Maybe longer hair and facial hair to go with the lore, but that's what I'm more or less hoping for if they're to be implemented.

[linay]

Has anyone mentioned that they said it's difficult to make a new playable race and that's why Viera might be the last one? Why would they then go out of their way to make two races only to have each race be gender locked? I think there will be a male Viera just because of that reason alone. They're probably saving its reveal for Japan due to its historic nature.