Gender locked race?

[redcurrant18]

What if male Viera are introduced with the Beastmaster job? I remember it being teased as a future limited job, and it would make sense for lonely Viera men to befriend and tame animals to for companionship and survival.

[Serenno]

What if male Viera are introduced with the Beastmaster job? I remember it being teased as a future limited job, and it would make sense for lonely Viera men to befriend and tame animals to for companionship and survival.

This does make some sense, but I doubt it given that they likely won't release another limited job this expansion. Or at least not until 2020/2021 and the lead up to 6.0.

But to be honest, I feel like regardless male Viera do need to be introduced in some form given that the greatwood is burning in the teaser trailer so obviously that had to have displaced some of them. Moreover, I find it hard to believe that having been given all that lore about how male Viera would kill you on sight for stepping foot into the greatwood, we're just supposed to waltz in there. There's even an aetheryte there..

[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.

[redcurrant18]

Moreover, I find it hard to believe that having been given all that lore about how male Viera would kill you on sight for stepping foot into the greatwood, we're just supposed to waltz in there. There's even an aetheryte there..

Something I also noticed is that Nu Mou live in that forest as well. Maybe the forest fire (probably caused by Imperials) caused some of them to summon a primal, leading the Viera to seek out help from the outside world and therefore have both genders be playable?

[Serenno]

Something I also noticed is that Nu Mou live in that forest as well. Maybe the forest fire (probably caused by Imperials) caused some of them to summon a primal, leading the Viera to seek out help from the outside world and therefore have both genders be playable?

You're onto something there regarding a primal being summoned. Interestingly enough, it could be that since the theme of ShB is to more or less bring on the darkness to prevent an overage of light, the greatwood was lit ablaze by Y'shtola/Matoya in order to cause the summoning of said primal -- though I feel that if that's the case, Fran and the other Viera are going to be less than thrilled about it.

Although, I do feel that the fire + a primal's presence might definitely warrant a call for help from the Viera, seeing as how the primal's existence is going to be draining the forest of aether. Combining that with the Viera's ability to speak to the forest (though I'm not sure if that's canonically a thing in XIV?) they'll be able to tell if the forest is growing weaker.

[Gwenorai]

Could indeed be something there. The warrior of light with the echo would be able to hear the wood as well I think. What would the Nu Mou primal be? I can't imagine the Viera having a primal either, they tend to just worship the wood and there was never much beyond that only that the 'wood' was female.

[Nestama]

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...

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.

I imagine that if a male Viera were to try to leave the forest, they'd likely be attacked/killed by other male Viera. I also feel that if the forest were attacked at all, then they would have even more reason NOT to leave, as leaving means there are less on the front lines keeping the invaders away from the forest and the female Viera's home. If Garleans attacked once and were met with resistance, there's a high chance they'll attack again and with more force.

Also, regarding your final sentence... that doesn't apply to playable characters at all (we're a blank slate at the beginning. You could say your character is from the forest to fight the Garlean threat, but that's your personal lore. The story at the start of ARR clearly has your character as a brand new adventurer who knows nothing about anything). Why would a male Viera (with years of brutal training in the forest), travel to Eorzea and for some reason have no knowledge on how to do anything?

[Gwenorai]

Also, regarding your final sentence... that doesn't apply to playable characters at all (we're a blank slate at the beginning. You could say your character is from the forest to fight the Garlean threat, but that's your personal lore. The story at the start of ARR clearly has your character as a brand new adventurer who knows nothing about anything). Why would a male Viera (with years of brutal training in the forest), travel to Eorzea and for some reason have no knowledge on how to do anything?

Remember that WoL literally got smacked with the amnesia stick. They don't remember anything due to time travel shenanigans and no one remembers them. This includes all of their skills/memories/etc

All WoL remembers is their name and the basics - to fit with the game mechanic.
Basically;
'I don't know who I am, I don't know where I am. All I know is I must kill."

A male Viera isn't going to know poop about other Viera unless you, the creator of that character deems it so before they actually come to contact with them and the lore in the story. Well, barring their 'race' name and ofc 'Oh look I have bunny ears' I mean come on, this is the same for Au'ra Xaela or Raen -, especially Xaela.

[Serenno]

-snip-

Agreed, especially considering the fact that Xaela in general are supposed to be raised as these ruthless warriors, yet we're able to start the game -- as a fledgling adventurer -- as one. I think the general lore behind a race (either gender) is the least of it, tbh. It does cause some awkward interactions (i.e. Yugiri telling an Au Ra player about how her appearance is going to alarm people) but obviously that hasn't stopped them before.

[Iscah]

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.

The gender lock is exactly why they could do two races in the first place. It's not so much "one race" or "two races" as adding a new male character and a new female character, which may or may not be designed as the same race.

From a practical standpoint, creating a male-locked race and a female-locked race would be the same amount of work as a single race with both genders represented. The same number of characters need to be designed, modeled and animated.


I've said before, after Viera-and-male-counterpart (male Viera or otherwise) I think we will get one more race eventually, for a total of eight pairs of characters, but not for a long time yet - because there may be a hard limit on how many they can program in, and it really would be the last. So they don't want to get people's hopes up for more future races.