Gender locked race?

[Shougun]

Yoshida watching this thread be:

Wanting to reference the above with the below:

Regarding the whole lion however;-

• None of the leakers would reveal a name only a very scarce description which hardly could count as a description.
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of Lions; is basically the story for which the 24man was based on. With Ramza and Ultima.
• Squalls Gunblade; Lion Insignia
• The Elite Bluemage sect; is called 'Immortal Lions'. They are tied into the original source of Blue Magic.
• Trailer revealing the gunbreaker with Thancred is vs a Lion.

If they were guessing it could be that all of these 'hints' could have been what alerted them to it. Or maybe these are the hints we should have been looking at. Either way, guess we shall see won't we.

Keeping in mind our shadowbringer trailer:

Was looking up the Kuribu and I found out it could relate to Karibu or a Lamassu, A protective deity against evil magic.. often having a human head and a body of a bull/lion with bird like wings, sometimes portrayed as a female diety. Protective as they represent all life within them (holy motif). Represent the zodiac. Sometimes have horns. May have heard some mental bells, like ding, ding, ding, oh my, ding, but of course we're in conspiracy theory territory so could also just be the madness of waiting for FanFest lol. Shedu are male counterpart. Also consider the Lamassu/Shedu sometimes is shown as a lion with a crown (in real life), just like our FFXIV lion.

Source: 1, 2, 3, 4


Obviously we're probably really reaching here but we've got at least two lion references in the trailer of our expansion (literal winged lion, and Kuribu), possibly a third and fourth via "could be Lion reference" with the gunblade job designed after FF8's Lionheart who happened to carry a Griever (lion-like) pendant, and then the tactics universe with the White and Black lion groups and the lion war. Maybe 5th as Gwenorai points out immortal lions for Blue Mage.

Griever being basically Ronso 1.0. May argue that both Griever and Ronso are inspired by the Llamasu mythology (I said may, it doesn't have to be though of course), in that protective, holy, lion aspect. Probably also should consider that Griever was a sort of corruption of the idea since it was pulled from Squall's mind to fight him, may explain why he's weak to holy.

White and Black lion groups fought each other in the lion war but it was pushed forward by the church to weaken them so they could step forward (maybe WoL vs WoD + Ascian). Add to that the Kuribu, if we stretch some stuff here lol, may relate to the Zodiac another FF Tactic element (zodiac obviously has strong importance in FFXIV / Ascian).

Now that really gives us absolutely no confirmation on a lion-like race... but maybe adds a bit more chaos in terms of when someone may say "lions have nothing to do with the lore, adding lions is coming out of no where" but we may say "or do they? it seems like a lot of lion stuff has been teased already, like a lot". XD. We've also got Zodiark in FFXIV, FF Tactics, and Elidibus in Tactics and FFXIV. So putting the Kuribu in line with the zodiac may mean something extra.

As an aside.. with all this Sumerian lore in game I'm going to call Nibiru as some event in game, maybe as it means "crossing" or "point of transition" it could with what has happened recently to some of our heroes in the story lol. Also may refrence an eclipse which also may happen to have a reference in Zodiark's move (Final Eclipse).

Lamasu female and Shedu:

[Kupocoubo]

I honestly think that second Viera, the smaller type? Is Feol Viera and they are certainly adorable as all heck. This makes a lot of sense to me actually. The other distinct clans of Viera Rava and Veena don't have that many differences in appearances and share the same customs. In fact, if I recall the difference in appearance is hair colour and maybe a small change in ear speckles? There may be more, but certainly not enough to have two clans. Or the Feol looking Viera are actually just kits? What we do know about the Feol Viera is that they are not held under the same Lore - and males exist with the females.

Now that you mention it, the "young Elezen" Vieras could actually be the Feol Vieras : they are shorter, fairer and look younger than the "regular" Vieras (in FFXII)

[Crushnight]

Hmm i don't know about adding Foel Viera unless they do away with the whole descendant of an Aergl(cannot remember the spelling XD) thing

for those wondering what they are:


It is a different game so perfectly possible to do so but it was also the game that introduced the Foel into ffxii universe

[Tabbs]

...

I have a feeling we'll get shorter Viera aside the normal ones, but I can't say for sure if they'll be Feol. That being said, Feol don't have wings or anything; it could be retconned that they're half-something-else. I've always liked the idea of 14's Feol being part-Garlean. Would definitely give them a reason to be looked down upon by normal Viera.

[Taykawai]

I would like foel as sub race, but its too different from the normal viera, almost like a new race. Oh, that would explain the ausence of a male, cause they put the resources into making the sub race very distinguible for a change.

[Shippuu]

I would like foel as sub race, but its too different from the normal viera, almost like a new race. Oh, that would explain the ausence of a male, cause they put the resources into making the sub race very distinguible for a change.

They most certainly would not make what amounts to two female only only races without there being some male only equivalent.

Also find it ironically funny that people who would point to the in game lore as proof male viera will be playable also think feol or some other drastically different sub race is coming for Viera when the in game text clearly spells them out as the Rava and Veena, being differentiated by light and dark skin tones.

[Lauront]

I'm of two minds of this. There's certainly enough room in the lore to allow for playable male Viera, and if they resembled their concept art, I would be very pleased to see them added. Their silence should not be taken as an inference that male Viera won't be happening.

At the same time, if rumours about a feline style male only race are true and they're intent on going down this route, I would have to see what's on offer. Ultimately they may set themselves up for demands on both such races for the other gender to be added. I've also seen little signalling on SE's part that they are fond of such gender locks.

On the topic of Feol, I believe they're the same size as Viera, so FFXIV would need to adapt them to be shorter if such a thing were planned.

[Shippuu]

I've also seen little signalling on SE's part that they are fond of such gender locks.

I guess it depends on if you count the director saying he might genderlock viera specifically, and all the gender locked outfits, hairstyles, and gender specific versions of the same armor that's in the game and coming up as signalling or not.

[redcurrant18]

Watch another 100+ page thread pop up if for some awful reason they do go through with gender locked races. Decisions like these just don't sit well with people and it honestly does feel like we're getting half of what we want. One thing is if they'd announce things and were open about what we should expect, but leaving us hanging like this has brought out all sorts of problems. Tbh if males are going to be a thing, they should have waited to reveal both genders in Japan instead of just females in Europe. I would have much rather heard more about what's coming in later patches or updates to jobs, but instead they've thrown all of us on a wild goose chase that won't end until they finally confirm something.

[Lauront]

I guess it depends on if you count the director saying he might genderlock viera specifically, and all the gender locked outfits, hairstyles, and gender specific versions of the same armor that's in the game and coming up as signalling or not.

The former I would count if you could point me to it.