Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Yencat]

They all share the same sprite, incidentally, but since their only appearance is in one cutscene where they

get killed off by a Feolthanos-corrupted Mydia, who shares the same sprite as the others when not wearing her "Judge of Wings" armor,

it was prooobably to save resources. No confirmation one way or another whether they were all female or not.

Yeah, mostly resources I imagine. Other things are a bit strange like that as well, Mydia's mom is supposed to be a full-blood Viera but she's super pale.

The concept of Veena and Rava have existed before XIV but it seems to have been related to hair colour rather than skin colour previously. There's still a lot of old forum posts around speculating whether Fran is a Veena or a Rava, which from XIV Viera's perspective would seem obvious.

Either way though, they really wouldn't need to invent a half-breed Viera for males to be playable.

[MikkoAkure]

It begs the question of "why can't a Viera female who left get preggos in La Big City and birth a son?". Like, I know there's convoluted lore junk about how people see mix race procreation as "taboo" (not mixed race relationships/ sex but child making ...) which makes it rare, but we do know that in the rare cases where it does happen the child normally comes out as w/e race the mother is (mix-race babies like the half elezen girl are rarer).

TLDR: Long ramble saying that if they had actually made it a mystical, full on fantasy, magical race that's just all women who don't have babies like normal people then yeah, I'd accept that and support them not adding males. But they used conventional %^%# with genders and such in a world with rules that ALLOW for a possible situation where male Viera could be a thing seen by others sooo IDGAF if they decide to show em. (Though I think the whole race is a waste personally)

Half-races coming out to be whatever the mother is, is made-up fanon that is spread by RP forums to support being able to RP a character who are things like half miqo'te/half au ra but look 100% miqo'te since we don't have the option for that in-game. There is nothing in-game that states they they come out as the same race as mom. If a viera and a hyur were to have a baby, the baby would be obviously not full viera. Considering that viera have been present in Rabanastre for long enough that they are considered normal citizens, and viera themselves live for 300+ years and have ample opportunity to have babies with others, the fact that male viera are still completely unknown to regular citizens and visitors of Rabanastre means that viera aren't sleeping around to make more.

The concept of Veena and Rava have existed before XIV but it seems to have been related to hair colour rather than skin colour previously. There's still a lot of old forum posts around speculating whether Fran is a Veena or a Rava, which from XIV Viera's perspective would seem obvious.

Are you sure about that? I can't find any information on veena and rava being an actual thing that exists before they were announced as clans for FFXIV. I remember someone editing the FF wiki to retcon veena and rava into FFXII, but I don't think that's canon.


As far as trying to reconcile male viera to the story, it is as easy as saying: "the Garlean invasion has disturbed the forest and they have made incursions into the viera homeland. Though in the past they would have fought to the death against incursions, their bows and arrows are useless against their foe's hardened steel. More and more viera men now break tradition and follow their sisters out of the darkness of their jungles and into the light of Dalmasca and the rest of the world.". There. No having to include unrealistic genetics made up by RPers to justify anything.

[Yencat]

Are you sure about that? I can't find any information on veena and rava being an actual thing that exists before they were announced as clans for FFXIV. I remember someone editing the FF wiki to retcon veena and rava into FFXII, but I don't think that's canon.

I found a forum thread from 2009 discussing whether Fran was a Rava or a Veena, but it wasn't very long and without much context where the information came from.

They seemed to be making the distinction that the Veena have white hair and Rava are darker haired, so they settled on Fran being a Veena.

Like I said though, not sure where they got it from but definitely from before XIV.

[WhiteArchmage]

Are you sure about that? I can't find any information on veena and rava being an actual thing that exists before they were announced as clans for FFXIV. I remember someone editing the FF wiki to retcon veena and rava into FFXII, but I don't think that's canon.

I remember Veena and Rava being a thing before XIV, unfortunately I don't remember WHERE I read that and don't have the strategy guide or Ultimania to confirm it. And the wiki is also suspicious because the image it uses for Veena is their in-game models while the image for Rava is the CG models (and the main difference between THOSE is that the Rava have white spots in their ears while Veena have black spots on theirs...).

[Lauront]

Another piece of good news (particularly if read in conjunction with this for context - the amount of work involved may ring some bells.)

Matsuzawa: “We are thinking of eventually upgrading in-game textures in phases and are starting initial preparations for that update.

However, we do need to keep in mind that other platforms, including the PlayStation 4 version, are still in service. Since FFXIV is an MMO, we need to place some emphasis on being able to simultaneously render player characters and their equipment, while still ensuring everything works smoothly. We do need to take care when planning major updates like this and start with testing and verifying it all works well.

Plus, assets that we created nearly ten years ago didn’t factor in the possibility of being displayed at the high resolutions available to us today, so we have to think about how to revise quite a massive amount of assets efficiently.

We also are looking at adding additional Trophies to FFXIV on a regular basis, given that the Trophy system is now more flexible in that regard.

Things are in progress, but we’d appreciate your patience for future updates regarding this.”

[WhiteArchmage]

Another piece of good news (particularly if read in conjunction with this for context - the amount of work involved may ring some bells.)

Not gonna lie, when I saw that post that was exactly what I thought of, especially the

Plus, assets that we created nearly ten years ago didn’t factor in the possibility of being displayed at the high resolutions available to us today, so we have to think about how to revise quite a massive amount of assets efficiently.

part. Since finding a way to streamline THAT could lead to finding a way to streamline gear-fitting, which seems to be the big problem with adding new races.

P.S. The Trophy thing is pretty cool, too, but out of topic.

[strawberrycake11]

Remembered this thread existed and was super long, as it should be. Decided to make it one post longer

[Glitchima]

Honestly, in my personal opinion, I don't particularly care too much about the reasonings for any of the races and why they are here. I'm a lore junkie, but I absolutely hate the idea of restricting players from making a character that they love for the sake of "lore" or what have you. Such restrictions would be fine in written form for example, but not in a MMORPG, in which by the way, many people care a lot about their character's appearance.

I strongly disagree with any points saying that male viera (and Hrothgar's female counterpart too while we're at it) shouldn't be added for whatever reason it might be, it's kind of ridiculous to not include them in present time, knowing that not even in the lore says that they don't exist. Male viera are in smaller numbers, sure, but hey, people have brought up male miqo'te for example time and time again mentioning that the lore specifically says that they're not very common, yet you see them running around everywhere in game, because like others said, player population does not equal actual population in the lore.

That being said any interesting lore tidbits about them I will super appreciate, (and preferably allowing them to wear hats would be nice too lol, also i would love to see some fluffy long hairstyles for men too!) but I don't really mind them just casually being brought in either. I'll be satisfied with whatever, so long as they're eventually around. The more options for players to choose from the better I say!

[Anvaire]

Honestly, in my personal opinion, I don't particularly care too much about the reasonings for any of the races and why they are here. I'm a lore junkie, but I absolutely hate the idea of restricting players from making a character that they love for the sake of "lore" or what have you. Such restrictions would be fine in written form for example, but not in a MMORPG, in which by the way, many people care a lot about their character's appearance.

I strongly disagree with any points saying that male viera (and Hrothgar's female counterpart too while we're at it) shouldn't be added for whatever reason it might be, it's kind of ridiculous to not include them in present time, knowing that not even in the lore says that they don't exist. Male viera are in smaller numbers, sure, but hey, people have brought up male miqo'te for example time and time again mentioning that the lore specifically says that they're not very common, yet you see them running around everywhere in game, because like others said, player population does not equal actual population in the lore.

That being said any interesting lore tidbits about them I will super appreciate, (and preferably allowing them to wear hats would be nice too lol, also i would love to see some fluffy long hairstyles for men too!) but I don't really mind them just casually being brought in either. I'll be satisfied with whatever, so long as they're eventually around. The more options for players to choose from the better I say!

I think given where the MSQ and Endwalker is headed, if lore is a consideration they have a really good reason to have some male viera leave the forest.

[Burmecia]

Appealing to lore with bun boys was always curious thing.
EDIT Like with anti-bun boys attitude, I mean.