Gender locked race?

[Rokke]

Actually; can anyone confirm regarding the lore of the male Viera and if there's more lore on the male compared to other races that exist right now?

With regards to gendered lore or lore in general?

Off the top of my head the only race that has a decent amount of gender specific info are Miqo'te. After them theres male highlanders (and their reasons for the lack of eyebrows) and a couple of Xaela tribes traditions. If you mean general lore Duskies, Keepers, and Raen are pretty lacking lore-wise. I'd say we have a better idea of what a male Viera's life will be like in comparison to the average Raen or Duskwight but not to an "overall" race.

[wereotter]

The same dialogue from the Dramaturge nips that in the bud a bit though. It heavily implies that no male ventures outside of the woods. He says he's never seen, nor known anyone who has, seen a male Viera in the largest city hub nearest to their territory. We know females who venture out wind up there enough to make up a percentage of the population, but he states none of them are males.

Anything is possible but they're definitely laying groundwork to explain why we probably won't see any male Viera. No NPC's or anything. There's little reason for them to paint the absence of male viera in such adamant language that states they are never seen outside of the woods, and even if you go looking for them in the woods you won't find them either. They're that rare/elusive.

That same NPC, however, explained how things are changing within the Viera culture, laying the groundwork as to why we will start seeing them now when we never have before. Consider that if you take the lore 100% at face value, we should have already been seeing them in the world, yet Fran is the first one we're run into. If things are changing for the females, if they're starting to abandon their villages, then the males will follow. There will be less of a reason to protect the jungle if the people they were there to protect are gone.

Some will stay to protect the actual jungle viewing that as their cause, others will leave to be with the females who left and/or to protect them specifically. It's not entirely unlike the colonization of the Americas. Initially it was just the men venturing out into the unknown, but the women soon followed after. If the roles were reversed and the women started to settle in a new area, the men would follow suit as well. Societies need both to survive, and it's not strange to think that if the female viera are starting to branch off of their path that they won't also peel off some males with them.

Until the developers say that it's confirmed not happening, it's too soon for any of us to be so certain it's not as well. I can see why they wouldn't, but I also think it's better that they do introduce it, and obviously am in the camp of those who think it will happen.

Edit: also as a bit of a teaser, Yoshi was asked directly at one of the EU interviews "how are you going to introduce male Viera into FFXIV?" and he didn't state then that they weren't, but that the question would be answered in Japan. Granted that answer might be "we're not" but it seems more of a hint as to they are to me.

[cicatriz313]

Edit: also as a bit of a teaser, Yoshi was asked directly at one of the EU interviews "how are you going to introduce male Viera into FFXIV?" and he didn't state then that they weren't, but that the question would be answered in Japan. Granted that answer might be "we're not" but it seems more of a hint as to they are to me.

To accurately quote... here's directly from the thread. Q12: Fans are very excited that Viera is a new race but I think that fans are hoping that we’ll also get the male Viera as a playable character. Can you comment on that? Or even if they’re going to be NPCs if not, or if we have to wait until Tokyo Fan Fest? A12: That’s true we do still have the Tokyo Fan Fest ahead of us. zips mouth

Seems to me that the question was a leading question and Yoshi ran with it and gave a non-answer. aka he was given the "out" of JP fanfest and used it. Not that he specifically said "that will be answered in Japan"

[Alesone]

Edit: also as a bit of a teaser, Yoshi was asked directly at one of the EU interviews "how are you going to introduce male Viera into FFXIV?" and he didn't state then that they weren't, but that the question would be answered in Japan. Granted that answer might be "we're not" but it seems more of a hint as to they are to me.

You seem to be misremembering or willfully ignoring what he actually said in that interview.

Q: The question everyone got the most excited for at yesterday's press Q&A was the male vieras. Since it's you, Yoshida, we think there'll be male vieras. But in FFXII, male vieras are extremely rare and never appear. How are you going to introduce them into FFXIV?

A: Who knows? I'm a contrarian, so when you say "Yoshida would definitely do this", it makes me not want to answer *laughs* Actually, in the Return to Ivalice story that concluded the other day, there's a ton of lore about vieras in FFXIV. We coordinated with Matsuno-san to include most of the hints there, so please check that. Matsuno-san wrote wonderful texts for us.

From this interview

The fact he stated he is a contrarian (when most often, he absolutely is not a contrarian when it comes to how he's come off and what he does) when the interviewer said they felt yoshida was certainly going to give players male Viera should raise plenty of red flags. For those who may not know, contrarian is defined as "opposing or rejecting popular opinion; going against current practice." So if Yoshida says he's a contrarian when it comes to male viera, and the popular opinion is that male viera are coming, this leads one to believe he's going to go against the grain regarding male viera. Backed up with his history of being averse to concept of male viera, it's actually further evidence they probably aren't coming. He also said nothing about answering that in Japan fanfest in that interview and diverted to the lore, which we've established paints male viera in a light that they won't even be encountered in NPC form.

[MrKimper]

I just thought they looked cute

[CoolDad]

I think Alesone's point is a good one to make. If they genderlock this race they are probably going to point towards the lore and say that it's the reason why and their hands are tied, but it's a decision on the part of the developers. Lore isn't written in a vacuum.

A lot of people are already saying iterations of "male viera can't happen because it wouldn't make lore sense". Even if we're ignoring all the other ways the game plays fast and loose with its lore, this lore is brand new, never seen before this raid, and released for the very first time while the viera were already well into development. This is why they considered male viera long enough to create concept art of them for heavensward. I just want people to keep this in mind if they say males are out of the question and try to use the lore as the reason. They have the choice and ability to implement them. The lore was built around decisions the development team already made, whether they're added or not.

[Allegor]

Worst part is, if they're indeed genderlocked, why not say it upfront? why not change the lore to simply state male viera don't exist in this iteration and be done with it? they KNOW people want male viera, but confirming they exist only for us to never be able to create one "because lore" just feels...wrong.

PS: I'm in the minority that would love a bara cat race, but even if it's the most gloriously fluffy race yet, I'd still feel bad it was made at the expense of something people have been requesting for years.

[Crushnight]

Worst part is, if they're indeed genderlocked, why not say it upfront? why not change the lore to simply state male viera don't exist in this iteration and be done with it? they KNOW people want male viera, but confirming they exist only for us to never be able to create one "because lore" just feels...wrong.

PS: I'm in the minority that would love a bara cat race, but even if it's the most gloriously fluffy race yet, I'd still feel bad it was made at the expense of something people have been requesting for years.

SE hasn't had qualms with saying such things in the past with Galka/Ananta (ik Ananta are a beast race but they had no issues saying they were female only with their reveal) so if they wanted to discredit any hopes of males they could've just omitted them completely and have a galka situation of where they are born from the wood and all perceived as female.

FFXIV is the first game to have male Viera mentioned within itself, FFXII only had them mentioned in supplementary material not within the game itself male Viera weren't a thing in the Ivalice setting until this and is something that could have been easily left out of FFXIV. They could've easily omitted anything regarding male Viera from 4.5 as by then they would have known full well if it was gender locked and i like to believe they would know adding anything regarding them would be giving false hope to people and they wouldn't want to do that.

The dramaturge is deliberately vague enough that his words can go either way with regarding male Viera now i do not know what the other languages are like regarding male Viera so i can only speak for the English client there. I'm going to air on the side of caution i want bunbois never going to deny that but how they have acted has me confused as a customer so i'm not getting my hopes up too high

[cicatriz313]

Yeah I would get your hype up for everything else and then if male Viera come it's a pleasant surprise hype. Of course I know this thread will start burning if they announce no male Viera lol..

[Duskane]

Yeah I would get your hype up for everything else and then if male Viera come it's a pleasant surprise hype. Of course I know this thread will start burning if they announce no male Viera lol..

burn with the rage of a 1000 suns