Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Theodric]

Right, and I personally think it would make more sense for their 1st reveal to be in a Mainline Final Fantasy Game taking place in Ivalice.
Not saying they cant be in XIV, bit it just feels weird to potentially make their debut i an MMO 1st

FFXIV is heavily inspired by Ivalice across the board, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch for male viera to make their debut in this game. There's also no guarantee that we'll even see another game set in the original version of Ivalice.

[Allegor]

I'm assuming back in 1.0 female Highlander and Roes always existed and you just pretended they were always there when ARR was released, right? There was no need for an explanation to anything, unlike the newer races.

Au Ra were war refugees from the Far East granted asylum in Eorzea, which explains why they also start like any adventurer (time paradox shenanigans aside), while female Viera are members of the revolution group lead by Fran (who mentions some naive female ruler, might as well be the current Hrothgar queen?). I'm sure lore of male Viera joining in will most definitely be mentioned during either the MSQ or relic questline, just like how they explained the aforementioned Au Ra and Viera. If anything, it's Hrothgars who have no explanation whatsoever, they kinda just...appeared.

On the Hrothgar sidenote, in retrospect, it would've made more sense for their lore to state something like only males traveled to Eorzea to "test the land" and see if it's safe, afterall it was stated they were treated as a beast tribe at first and understandably not welcomed until they learned the common tongue. That way it would explain why females aren't playable [yet] without the convoluted excuse that a female Hrothgar is very rare - they kinda cornered themselves there, expect a retcon in the future.

PS: art quality aside, I'm not a fan of that female Hroth pic either, she's too human, but, if I'm allowed to say it, it seems nobody wants to play female characters that aren't conventionally beautiful or even...kawaii, so it wouldn't surprise me Hrothgals to end up looking something like that /sigh

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I'm assuming back in 1.0 female Highlander and Roes always existed and you just pretended they were always there when ARR was released, right? There was no need for an explanation to anything, unlike the newer races.

Au Ra were war refugees from the Far East granted asylum in Eorzea, which explains why they also start like any adventurer (time paradox shenanigans aside), while female Viera are members of the revolution group lead by Fran (who mentions some naive female ruler, might as well be the current Hrothgar queen?). I'm sure lore of male Viera joining in will most definitely be mentioned during either the MSQ or relic questline, just like how they explained the aforementioned Au Ra and Viera. If anything, it's Hrothgars who have no explanation whatsoever, they kinda just...appeared.

On the Hrothgar sidenote, in retrospect, it would've made more sense for their lore to state something like only males traveled to Eorzea to "test the land" and see if it's safe, afterall it was stated they were treated as a beast tribe at first and understandably not welcomed until they learned the common tongue. That way it would explain why females aren't playable [yet] without the convoluted excuse that a female Hrothgar is very rare - they kinda cornered themselves there, expect a retcon in the future.

PS: art quality aside, I'm not a fan of that female Hroth pic either, she's too human, but, if I'm allowed to say it, it seems nobody wants to play female characters that aren't conventionally beautiful or even...kawaii, so it wouldn't surprise me Hrothgals to end up looking something like that /sigh

There is no Promise or guarantee that we will even see Female Hrothgar, but if we do, I feel I can expect a change/revamp in the lore. Cause like I said before, it was just kinda slapped together, so to me it could very well be updated or changed IF they make Females Playable in the future.
Lol I mean...its not wrong. As cool as beastmen races are, more people do in fact lean towards humanoid/Human characters. The look familiar to ourselves and so attraction is just easier. Here is to hoping that DOESNT happen...but it just might.

[dezzmont]

One of the 'goals' of Hrothgar was to make a race that didn't just look like an altered human. Hopefully that will apply to Hrothgar women as well, because there are already plenty of options for that.

Likewise, some of the concept art for male Viera showed both a very masculine athletic one that we sorta don't have (closest are Highlanders but they are a bit too swole, and Roe are like full out 'musclefat') and very 'boyish' ones who sorta resemble what Au'Ra might look like if they didn't have extreme sexual dimorphism and all took after the girls, which is good for variety even if they wouldn't be popular. Hopefully those, if they get added, get the highlander-midlander treatment. Heck, hopefully Hrothgar do too and we get 'lady with cat head' and 'full out Charr from Guild Wars where the girls literally just have a different tail tuft.'

And while we are making wishes I wish every single beast tribe becomes playable at least as a glam option, and we get concept art demonic female Au'Ra! :P

Lore wise it is... so trivial to rationalize male Viera it actually would be weird if they did, because the conditions that the male Viera are experiencing are IDENTICAL to the one the females are: Homeland destroyed, fleeing their woods, forced to forsake the Green Word, not isolated to the WoL. I mean they needed to put in more effort for the Miqo'te (They pointed out that in 2.0 male Miqo'te are less rare because the destruction of the callamity caused many tribes to collapse resulting in the menfolk being free from their tribe/losing their tribe depending on which variant they were) and most people don't even remember that lore bit and don't bat an eye at male Miqo'te anymore. Like... obviously there are a bunch of male Miqo'te running around in the city states where the refugees went to you dum dums! And even beyond that its very clear before the calamity not every Miqo'te was living in a tribe, there are multiple Miqo'te who were married 1:1 (including one very critical NPC!) with another Miqo'te or practicing trades. You think Zhai'a Nelhah was just living as a nomadic pickup artist as a keeper of the moon before he shows up? And what about the fact that Miqo'te are nominally mega rare even ignoring the gender disparity in the first place? No one is REALLY bothered by the fact they are the most popular race, are they?

Put another way: If you don't have issue with swarms of Viera running around breaking the green word, you shouldn't have an issue if they are male or female. It is literally an identical level of violating their social norms. Like I said earlier, this hand wringing about 'explaining the other PCs' doesn't actually make much sense because the rationale for a male Viera isn't 'the Warrior of Light is special,' it is 'so many Viera had to violate the Green Word that there are now entire non-Green Word following communities.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Lore wise it is... so trivial to rationalize male Viera it actually would be weird if they did, because the conditions that the male Viera are experiencing are IDENTICAL to the one the females are: Homeland destroyed, fleeing their woods, forced to forsake the Green Word, not isolated to the WoL.

Put another way: If you don't have issue with swarms of Viera running around breaking the green word, you shouldn't have an issue if they are male or female. It is literally an identical level of violating their social norms. Like I said earlier, this hand wringing about 'explaining the other PCs' doesn't actually make much sense because the rationale for a male Viera isn't 'the Warrior of Light is special,' it is 'so many Viera had to violate the Green Word that there are now entire non-Green Word following communities.

If that were true, we'd already have Male Viera out in the world, and XIV wouldn't be Potentially the 1st time we'd see them.
The females weren't Forced to leave the Woods, the ones that have left the woods did so on their own, by choice. I have an issue with the Males without a decent lore reason because up to this point, they have stayed in the woods, barely if never seen by anybody. So to just slap them in willy nilly is abit of an issue. And I pick on Viera specifically because as I explained a handful of times, they are a race that existed before and outside of XIV, way back in Tactics. They already have established lore, as suppose to the Miqote which are new to XIV, possibly remnants to the Mithra of XI.
Explaining other Male Viera Adventurers isn't trivial if you just put in their lore that they finally decided to come out of the Woods and join the fight. Instantly explains why we see them so suddenly, and in bigger numbers. Simple.
Females dont need this explanation because they are already in the outside world and some have already forsaken The Will of the Woods, becoming adventurers, dying their hair and integrating with society. The Males haven't 'Yet"

[BunnyBois]

Everything that Dezzmont said.

I don't think it has to be anything to grand or special to validate Male Viera. I would, personally, think that their situation requires at least a basic explanation. They're the unseen protectors of their lands that live an isolationist survival lifestyle and I feel like they'd be the last to break the Green Word. But I don't think it requires some grand tale of their struggles. Just a little something specific to Male Viera. As to your bit about Miqo'te I'll be honest and admit I didn't know that Miqo'te in general are supposed to be rare. But I've never let the choices of the community affect how I perceive or enjoy the lore of the game I'm immersing myself in.

[dezzmont]

I don't think it has to be anything to grand or special to validate Male Viera. I would, personally, think that their situation requires at least a basic explanation. They're the unseen protectors of their lands that live an isolationist survival lifestyle and I feel like they'd be the last to break the Green Word. But I don't think it requires some grand tale of their struggles. Just a little something specific to Male Viera. As to your bit about Miqo'te I'll be honest and admit I didn't know that Miqo'te in general are supposed to be rare. But I've never let the choices of the community affect how I perceive or enjoy the lore of the game I'm immersing myself in.

I essentially agree, I am just emphaizing how utterly small it should be. It would actively be weird if the recognition was anything more intense than 'Much like the female tribes we too were sometimes compelled to leave.' Especially because any 'new' reason would need to work with Male Viera made in the future for people who played through the entire game as one.

Like I seriously don't understand the lore based objections to male Viera, it basically plays out like this:

"Female Viera are a very rare group, and almost exclusively live lives in the woods they never leave, but some due to curiosity or due to pressure from Garlemald, despite the fact this violates the green word, a strict social order that virtually all Viera live under, and which means they can never return home."

"Tracks to me."

"Also sometimes the guys do this too for identical reasons, except the social order they are part of is even more oppressive."

"UNBELIEVABLE."

Like maybe there is something I am missing (I DO understand the logic that Viera are a pre-existing race and there is a desire to respect old canon despite this being a new world with new lore) but it is... pretty darn clear the lore was NEVER intended to stop the male Viera they made concept art for and were clearly actively planning to make what with the datafiles in the game leaving a spot for them.

[BunnyBois]

ally plays out like this:

"Female Viera are a very rare group, and almost exclusively live lives in the woods they never leave, but some due to curiosity or due to pressure from Garlemald, despite the fact this violates the green word, a strict social order that virtually all Viera live under, and which means they can never return home."

"Tracks to me."

"Also sometimes the guys do this too for identical reasons, except the social order they are part of is even more oppressive."

Maybe I was presenting my stance poorly but this would literally be enough for me personally. Just a little extra spice since they're coming in later. "It took longer for males to follow suit due a greater magnitude of responsibility and pressure on their shoulders."

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I essentially agree, I am just emphaizing how utterly small it should be. It would actively be weird if the recognition was anything more intense than 'Much like the female tribes we too were sometimes compelled to leave.' Especially because any 'new' reason would need to work with Male Viera made in the future for people who played through the entire game as one.

Like I seriously don't understand the lore based objections to male Viera, it basically plays out like this:

"Female Viera are a very rare group, and almost exclusively live lives in the woods they never leave, but some due to curiosity or due to pressure from Garlemald, despite the fact this violates the green word, a strict social order that virtually all Viera live under, and which means they can never return home."

"Tracks to me."

"Also sometimes the guys do this too for identical reasons, except the social order they are part of is even more oppressive."

"UNBELIEVABLE."

Like maybe there is something I am missing (I DO understand the logic that Viera are a pre-existing race and there is a desire to respect old canon despite this being a new world with new lore) but it is... pretty darn clear the lore was NEVER intended to stop the male Viera they made concept art for and were clearly actively planning to make what with the datafiles in the game leaving a spot for them.

I don't know where the idea that the males are under a more "Oppressive" law or whatever comes from. The males just simply haven't left the forest unlike their Sisters who have decided that occasionally they leave the woods. It just hasn't happened yet, that or they do it in so fewer numbers then the females that it goes unnoticed. Nothing is stopping the Males from leaving, but the lore just dictates that they probly never have.
Concept art as Ive mentioned earlier doesnt exactly mean it was gonna happen. Like the Aur-Ra were probly gonna legit be a Dragon Beast race according to old concept art, and now look at them, they are another humanoid race. Or it looked like the Lupin were gonna come in as either another beast race tribe or possibly playable...nope they never happened until Stormblood where they were just NPCs and a few Enemy type characters.

The simple fact is, its just never been written or shown that the males have Forsaken the Will of the Woods.
Nothing says they can't, or never will, but since it hasn't happened yet, just a simple lore tidbit explaining they decided to finally leave the Woods will update and expand the lore to show that they finally have. So we now have a few Viera Male NPCs, and when we do see other Male Viera Running around, nobody can be all "this doesn't make sense/is inconsistent with the lore" because the lore has been updated.

Im puzzled why there is so much Resistance to this idea.

[Amnmaat]

Still voting for my support for Male Viera. Finish these races if you have confidence on FFXIV sticking around for 10-15 more years.
But if you see XIV being replaced in the next 5 years just wait it out, that's all I gotta say on this subject.

That's really all we should be discussing here, how long will XIV be on the upward swing and how long is SE projecting XIV to last before being replaced? World of warcraft seems to be the gold standard as far as development cost and mmorpg maintenance goes. They realize making a brand new MMO is a massive development cost project so they just keep the game running as long as the player support is still strong.

Square Enix would be smart to follow a similar decision making template for XIV; a new FF mmo would cost a lot of money and time to create. I really don't see XIV dying anytime soon either. So that's, in my opinion, the real factor in all of this. If we get male Viera in 6.0 then the game is bound to run for at least 8-10 more years. If we don't get them then that signals the slowdown of XIV. As a dev you'd really like to finish something as critical as genders on races if you feel confident in your game running for many more years. They'll keep getting asked for male Viera for 10 more years, as opposed to 5-6.

It's a calculation, logics based equation.