Gender locked race?

[Lauront]

It all depends on whether the Hrothgar are real and also what they end up being. If they're not an additional race, I'd say there's greater scope to experiment with dimorphic Viera subraces. I wish they'd done it with au ra. I understand it's not the easiest thing to do, but unfortunately if it isn't done at the outset it's unlikely it'll ever happen.

Two distinct Viera subraces and Hrothgar, all with no gender lock, would be considerable work. At the moment, I'd be happy with just avoiding a gender lock and getting Viera approximating the art I posted. Anything else would be a bonus.

[Shougun]

Weren't the Rava and Veena established in Revenant Wings?

Rava and Veena come from XII (maybe mentioned in TA? It's been a while), Feol come from RW

My bad, yes - from XII!

The Viera (ヴィエラ Viera) are a rabbit-like race that can live three times as long as a Hume, and divided into two subraces: The light-skinned Veena and dark-skinned Rava. The Viera have rabbit or deer-like features, most notably their long ears. Their feet are shaped in such a way that in order to stand they must wear high heels. Their slender forms heighten their senses and speed, and although their defense is low, Viera agility and finesse are unmatched by the other races. In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Vieras have blue-white, pale green, or purple-white hair, with only a few having hair that is pure white, which is considered to be a blessing. Viera can listen to the surrounding nature and sense Mist, and can sometimes go berserk from feeling an overwhelmingly vast quantity of active Mist. In Final Fantasy XII, they live in hidden villages deep within the vast forests of Ivalice. The Viera believe themselves to be intimately tied to the "Wood", a part of the forests themselves, and are rarely involved in matters outside the wood. A Viera that moves out of the forest, like Fran, is considered an outcast and dead to her people. Mixed breeds of Veena and Rava Viera have accustomed themselves to coexist within Hume society, dyeing their white hair.

Source: Final Fantasy XII Scenario Ultimania (pre revenant wings)

Doesn't change my point that this is lore pre-FFXIV by the same guy (creator of Viera), and what that could mean for us visually (since we know Rava Veena then), but it was wrong to say it was from tactics >.< .

Also WhiteArchmage is right Feol is from RW.

[Lauront]

Apparently the gender dimorphism isn't too fixed amongst rabbits or hares and varies amongst their subspecies. I don't think it'll have much of an influence on how they handle Viera, if at all, because they have their own unique set of selective pressures acting on them that differ starkly to those of either of those species, which in turn will influence the traits desirable in the males and females and thus which they exhibit. SE will pick and choose which traits they want to emulate.

[Roda]

True, female rabbits are larger than males. Though if we're drawing a direct comparison to rabbits, then the females should be the ones the rest of us have to be afraid of, not the males. Males rabbits tend to live apart from other males, but are also much friendlier than their female counterparts and make better pets while females tend to be more aggressive (I speak as someone who actually had rabbits growing up. The males were always very sweet, the females would always bite and claw at me)

Considering the male viera are the more aggressive of the two based on what lore we know, we can't say that they also won't be larger just because female rabbits are larger than males.

Hoo boy.

1. The females should be the ones the rest of us are afraid of. One guy with a stick with no back up is not nearly as threatening as an entire squad of highly coordinated warriors with forged weaponry.
2. These are people, not recently domesticated prey animals being tamed for handling by a separate, much larger species of caregiver.
3. Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, but from what I recall of rabbit keeping, they both can be fairly aggressive (in different displays) until neutering/spaying, especially if you don't handle them enough and they go feral.
4. The poster I quoted said they were going to be larger because they were based on a specific animal.
5. The animals we were discussing were hares, not rabbits.

I've already made my case as to why I think the males should not be larger many many pages back. I'm too lazy to find it, and waaaaay to lazy to type it out again.
But I don't agree that they should CTRL+C CTRL+V one animal, but go with a multitude of different inspirations from nature to realize the male counterparts
1. Smaller, sleek, and stealthy. Bulk is bad in a jungle.
2. Colorful. They're sapient so they can cover up vibrant colors with clothing, but using color displays like in birds of paradise would be an amazing contrast to the females more muted colors.
3. High heels because, don't be cowards SE. (but also because changing the foot anatomy based on sexual dimorphism would be just too much change to make sense for me)

[Gwenorai]

I'd rather take on a female Viera than a male. Why? You can at least talk to the female and she may back down and take you to see her matriarch. The guys will just kill you. In fact, I imagine that if you happen to run into a male Viera then your only hope is to run and pray to whatever god you believe in that a female may intervene or you know, try and fight them off.

Though, they tend to use gorilla tactics by the sound of it. So, you're probably not even going to see a male before... yeah. You won't know what hit you.

I don't think the females actually need to use the heels, they just do as part of their culture. The males - in their concept art - don't seem to? I'd rather this be an option honestly.

[Roda]

I'd rather take on a female Viera than a male. Why? You can at least talk to the female and she may back down and take you to see her matriarch. The guys will just kill you. In fact, I imagine that if you happen to run into a male Viera then your only hope is to run and pray to whatever god you believe in that a female may intervene or you know, try and fight them off.

Though, they tend to use gorilla tactics by the sound of it. So, you're probably not even going to see a male before... yeah. You won't know what hit you.

Idk, once we get to the Fight Point I assume any chance for diplomacy is out. To me this is saying "I'd rather get cornered by a gang than a mugger because maybe I'll crit my CHA roll and they'll recruit me into the gang instead!" Like, naw.. Danger time is now. Fight or flight responce is a go.

Also, a squad can use guerrilla tactics too. And I assume they do. And that's terrifying.

[Allegor]

I don't think the females actually need to use the heels, they just do as part of their culture. The males - in their concept art - don't seem to? I'd rather this be an option honestly.

As someone who likes using the werewolf feet, I'm all in for paws! (kinda doubtful though, would be hell to render, but hey, a guy can dream)

[Melichoir]

Two distinct Viera subraces and Hrothgar, all with no gender lock, would be considerable work.

Keep in mind that they wouldve had to have been working on Frans model months (Atleast 6) before the cutscenes we see for OM were given to us. Considering this, and considering that there was fan requests for Viera in Heavensward, it is possible that Viera have been in production a loooooooooooooong time and were slowly being built up. It's not impossible for there to be 2 races if Viera were already in the works since HW, especially if htey needed to modify armor and other things in the game for them to work. That menas production on them couldve been in the works for a long long time. Not saying that is the case, but its a possibility.

[cicatriz313]

Definitely a possibility, but I'm definitely trying to keep my hype in check. Definitely more likely to get less than more. I was looking at the JP fanfest schedule, their keynote has 1.5 hours. Considering EU and NA keynotes had that much between Yoshi AND Koji translating + opening ceremonies... that leaves a looot of time for new reveals. But again... trying to temper expectations.

[Nestama]

Hares, an animal where the females are larger than males?

I'll be a little more specific. Female Viera's are the rabbits, as they live in a community (as rabbits do). Male Viera's are the hares, as they live in solitude (as hares do).