Gender locked race?

[Hunky]

The dramaturge does state that the two Viera clans are Rava and Veena, so it's all but confirmed that these will be the two clans. And from what we've seen, we can expect them to be palette swaps of each other with a few minor differences; this is the case for most of the current playable races. And it's important to remember that Rava and Veena are not new concepts. The idea of Rava and Veena has been around for years. Although admittedly, I am not familiar with the specific lore for Rava and Veena.



If there is going to be a "young-Elezen looking" variant, as Namae stated, how will they be implemented? Will the short variants be one of the aforementioned clans, or will they be treated as a separate race, the way Feol is treated separately from Viera? Maybe the short variants are supposed to be a stand-in for Feol.

The short variants we see in the concept art do share some visual similarities with Feol, such as shorter ears and smaller stature. In a way, we'd be able to play as Feol, but with another name. To quote Shakespeare again, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." This might lead us to something like this.




Unless both Rava and Veena are of the tall variant, and they create another race for shorter Viera. But this seems extremely unlikely. I doubt this will happen. If the tall and short variants are treated as separate races, and not just clans, that means there will be a total of four new clans, instead of just two. My guess is that the tall and short variants will be divided into Rava and Veena, respectively.

But this is assuming that we will even get playable short Viera.

The wandering dramaturge didn't mention any other differences between Rava and Veena other than skin tone. So this could all be ruled out. And we might be reading too much into Namae's comment of a "young-Elezen looking" variant. Perhaps she was just referring to hairstyles or facial shapes. But then again, Yoshida and the others seemed quick to tell her to not talk more about it. It seems there is more left to reveal about Viera.

The only thing we know for sure is that we are getting the tall variant of female Viera, which is the category Fran falls into. They have similar builds as female Elezen: relatively broad shoulders, long necks, and long limbs. To compare, I posted some pics of my female Elezen alt.





It seems that these female Viera will be around the same height as female Elezen. To get an idea of how tall they may be, here is my max-height Elezen main standing next to Fran. I also took pictures of him standing next to the company belle, the wandering dramaturge's wife (does Matsuno like tall girls?)




I'm not sure where Fran is on the height scale. She could be max, average, or minimum height. But either way, these female Viera are going to be tall. They're definitely going to be taller than the petit catgirls and dragongirls that dominate the current population. And that's something I do appreciate.

I just wish that whatever we get for males is an actual equivalent to the female Viera we see now. I'm going to be so disappointed if they go with a conventionally attractive female race, and a beast-like male race.

[redcurrant18]

Viera do not exist in Tactics, they, as every other non-hume race, are extinct by the time of the War of the Lions (in fact, they've been extinct for so long that moogles are only legends). Viera debuted in Tactics Advance where, even if they were female only, the bulk of TA explicitly takes place in a Dream Ivalice only vaguely connected to the main series (St. Ivalice, where the protagonists come from, is a Town, rather than an Area/Kingdom). TA2 may have a bigger leg to stand on as far as "female-only" race since it DOES take place in the real Ivalice (Jylland, technically, but that could just mean that male viera haven't GONE to Jylland).

As an aside, Feol Viera were never in any Tactics title, either, they're exclusive to Revenant Wings.

I only vaguely remember Tactics A2, but if it is as you say, then it is possible that all the males are in a completely different part of Ivalice closer to Rabanastre and Golmore Jungle than to wherever Luso's party was adventuring. In Tactics Advance, Viera live in another female village called Muscadet. Another thing to note is that in FFXIV, the Ivalice timeline is reversed and the story of Tactics actually precedes that of FF12.

[Shippuu]

My citation is that in no way, shape, or form, will it ever be believable for there not to be a single male Viera somewhere in the zone when typically this is how big they are making them.




And best believe they'll only get bigger. No male Viera in FF12? Half the jungle is blocked off by magic barriers so of course no one ever saw them. Fran obviously never had any reason to seek them out, so the only place it made sense to go was the female's village.

So, no actual citation that they live in different woods/jungles. Got it.

[Gwenorai]

Viera do not exist in Tactics, they, as every other non-hume race, are extinct by the time of the War of the Lions (in fact, they've been extinct for so long that moogles are only legends). Viera debuted in Tactics Advance where, even if they were female only, the bulk of TA explicitly takes place in a Dream Ivalice only vaguely connected to the main series (St. Ivalice, where the protagonists come from, is a Town, rather than an Area/Kingdom). TA2 may have a bigger leg to stand on as far as "female-only" race since it DOES take place in the real Ivalice (Jylland, technically, but that could just mean that male viera haven't GONE to Jylland).

As an aside, Feol Viera were never in any Tactics title, either, they're exclusive to Revenant Wings.



Exactly! These are not Ivalice Alliance's Viera randomly sucked in through an interdimensional portal. Yoshi-P and the dev team can place male Viera if they want, they are literally writing the lore. Keepers of the Moon are even rarer than Viera, and you can count Male Keepeers on one hand and have fingers left over IN THE LORE, the race's popularity with the playerbase is another thing entirely (BOTH my manqo'tes are Keepers!)

Thank you for this! Explains a lot, and just another reason on just why the dudes didn't exist. Now I have an urge to play tactics, bah. But yes, they're certainly expanding on Viera lore as more games come out. FF12 gave a big chunk of it, and of course, Revenant Wings added a lot more. While I wouldn't say they were 'skeleton races' - well, yeah. FF12 had a lot of lore and a lot of races. And of course, Viera wasn't the only race that showed one specific gender in game. We saw the Garif and we know they have females from flavour text. Why didn't we see the females? Shrug, we didn't need to. Seeing them wouldn't have added anything to the story,

[redcurrant18]

Found a picture of where Ronso are supposed to live. Mt. Gagazet is a frozen mountain. Wouldn't it have made more sense to introduce a fur-covered race in Heavensward where we had zones like these? I can't imagine anything resembling Ronso surviving in the desert castle area with the crystal wave we've seen in art, nor in the faerie land.

Something also tells me that Viera would take one look at them and think either that they are prey or enemies to be hunted down. The Nu Mou in their forest look more like they'll be a magic wielding nuisance than a physical threat, but who knows how much potential chaos would happen if a group of male only Ronso happened upon the female Viera village. With Viera being as reclusive as they are, I don't see how these races could stand to be near each other.

[Ramesses]

100 PAGES !!!!

...Right???

Magnificent milestone indeed.

Now at page 102 and counting...

[Tabbs]

So, no actual citation that they live in different woods/jungles. Got it.

I can't confirm his claim that they live in different woods, but I can say that the wiki states that the men just live separately from the women, in 12. It's vague enough to assume you have no reason to run into them in 12 when you're in a village for the females rather than males. But in 14, the lore explicitly states they're from the same tribes but are starkly defenders. If this is the case, why wouldn't a male Viera show up to stop us from entering? Why set this specific lore up unless it was for one of them to show up? Otherwise, they could have just repeated the lore with different wording and said the males heck off into other parts of the jungle to do their own stuff. Sure, it's no confirmation, but I would argue this is one of the hints Yoshida was mentioning.

[Shippuu]

Found a picture of where Ronso are supposed to live. Mt. Gagazet is a frozen mountain. Wouldn't it have made more sense to introduce a fur-covered race in Heavensward where we had zones like these? I can't imagine anything resembling Ronso surviving in the desert castle area with the crystal wave we've seen in art, nor in the faerie land.

You probably shouldn't have bothered because that whole post is a mess. For one, nobody genuinely thinks legit Ronso are coming. It was never named by any leak and the closest we have is some relation to a Lion for a potential new race. Two, Au Ra made so much sense coming in Heavensward right? What with all their Far Eastern history and flair just being so important to Ishgard and their thousand year war with the dragons. Oh wait....

Three, you must know nothing about Eorzea geography to act like Isghard is the only place with any kind of cold mountains. Ilsabard and Othard are connected by a huge mountainous region, with the Garlean Empire unable to adequately siege the nation of Dalmasca until it's airships were advanced enough to bypass the mountain ranges. Or how about north of the Steppes in Othard? Past the Tail Mountains is an area we've never traveled to, the Dalvalan Grath, described as a wasteland with the cold sea north of it labeled The Blindfrost that also borders eastern Ilsabard. Or, since we're taking the fight to the Empire to a degree, the lands of Ilsabard are known to be very inhospitable, separated by a great mountain range cutting off the more welcoming weather of the south with a frigid and harsh north.

There's certainly no way a harsh group of beings couldn't be found somewhere in all those regions that are acclimated to such locales. It's certainly not where we're likely to encounter the dwarves or anything, surely... /s

I can't confirm his claim that they live in different woods, but I can say that the wiki states that the men just live separately from the women, in 12. It's vague enough to assume you have no reason to run into them in 12 when you're in a village for the females rather than males. But in 14, the lore explicitly states they're from the same tribes but are starkly defenders. If this is the case, why wouldn't a male Viera show up to stop us from entering? Why set this specific lore up unless it was for one of them to show up? Otherwise, they could have just repeated the lore with different wording and said the males heck off into other parts of the jungle to do their own stuff. Sure, it's no confirmation, but I would argue this is one of the hints Yoshida was mentioning.

Yet everything claims they just live in the Golmore jungle, so still nothing to support Viera in ff12 live in some completely separate jungles, just different parts of the same massive woods.

You assume we're going to see the entirety of where the Viera live which may certainly not be the case, we rarely get to explore every inch of the lands we go to. You also assume there won't be anything that could possibly cause the male viera to make themselves even more scarce. If we are having to go into the woods to do our Hero thing, then the people in those woods are likely in dire straights. We rarely go to places just for sightseeing. So it could very well be the majority or all of the males are either off at a different front doing their job as defenders, while we come in and help elsewhere because they don't have enough manpower. Or they could have been gathered to defend their woods, and then wiped out, it's not like there hasn't been a major plot point of a powerful chemical weapon the Empire makes and uses that would be perfect for wiping out guerilla fighters in a densely packed forest/jungle.

[redcurrant18]

It doesn't make sense for them to repeat another snowy mountain zone when we already have Western and Central Coerthas, as well as Eureka Pagos. Au Ra coming to Eorzea made sense back then because anyone who looks at them automatically thinks lizard/demon/dragon people. It worked for the theme of the expansion. We've had the winter wonderland and now we've switched to something that resembles a dream world of some kind. Why would the Warrior of Light head through dark and depressing areas and build zones of them when they could alternate route through zones that actually have life in them? We have a giant forest, a pink beach, faerie land, a desert, and another canyon like area with a fort that isn't posted to the official site but was displayed at one of the fanfests, which is also where Gunbreaker was shown.

Also you must know nothing about the dwarves of Final Fantasy because so far:

FF1-lived underground in a mountain in a summery area of the world map



FF4-lived underground in a castle next to a lava ocean beneath a tiny island in the middle of the overworld sea (Thavanair?)



FF9-lived on a desert mountain that resembles Gyr Abania called Conde Petie, and looked more like goofy goblins than traditional dwarves.



FF Dimensions-lived in a forested area of the world map (near a volcano)



In Final Fantasy they do not have any association with ice, snow, or winter. This is not World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings. Deal with it along with the fact that no male Viera means I'll probably never shut up until they get added. This is not 2002 or FFXI when they could get away with a trick like that. This is a game with gay marriage, men wearing high heels and fishnet tights, Paissa and Carbuncle houses, but men with bunny ears are too much so they kill them all off? A trash idea like the one you mentioned of just making them all disappear in one go will have people raving mad.

[MrKimper]

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if they made it female only, or made the males drastically different from the females and made them their own race. I wouldn't like it, but I wouldn't be surprised.