Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Gwenorai]

Yeah, but not everyone is here to RP. Using your imagination and creativity is fine. Forcing others to believe it or getting upset when they don't, isn't. Just do you, buddy, I frankly don't give a hoot unless you're infringing on me and thus it ruins my enjoyment. Right now you're not. I hope you get male Viera so you don't have to settle for using a female model and attempt to make it masculine - you shouldn't have to do that in the first place.
But anyway, back to the whole infringing; you shouldn't be doing that anyway because that would be rude as heck and make you a black mark on the RP community for trying to force headcanon on those who don't want it, believe it - or goes against their own creativity.

Meh...

I do wonder how the Viera dye their hair - aren't they all born with white hair? Magic? Hm, do you think it's a lot more likely the males would have shorter hair due to their way of living or grow it out?

[Theodric]

Apologies for double-posting, but I think another good example of the discrepancy between character model and roleplayed intent is my main character, who's supposed to be very large and burly and muscular. Unfortunately, that isn't really achievable with the male Au Ra base because there's no way to broaden the shoulders, bulk up the chest, or add muscle tone. Technically I could just play as a Hellsguard with succubus horns, but then my character couldn't have a tail or body scales or race-exclusive hair. I do wish all the races had muscle tone sliders, but until that's an option, I have to work with what I've been given.

Do I have a problem with male Au Ra being canonically twunks and not bears? No, but it's creatively limiting if I'm just going off of what the game is presenting to me at face value. But as somebody capable of using their imagination, I'm fine with using the in-game model I'm given and extrapolating the details in my head.

There's no way to win with people who only think in literals. If I used a male Elezen base and gave it the bunny crown, people would just respond with the argument that it's just an elf in bunny gear. "Yes, FFXIV forum user alacruxe, that's the point! I'm so proud of you for getting it!" Yeah, but your point sucks. Let people use their imagination.

I mean, I'm not seeing anyone arguing that the characters in cutscenes aren't actually handing each other items, therefore those items don't exist. We use our imagination to work around the limitations of the game.

edit Hey, other people posted! Looks like I didn't have to double-post after all. ;D

It's not difficult to imagine Xaela men as bigger than they are, though. They're already fairly beefy. Lauront and I have both been advocating for a muscle tone slider for the races that lack it.

As for using imagination, that has a limit. It's far easier to imagine an already muscular guy as being beefier than he is in-game compared to imagining a female viera as a male viera. One requires a much greater leap than the other.

I wouldn't say it's down to a lack of imagination, either. Aside from people who do not role-play at all, as Gwenorai pointed out, some of us who do role-play aren't interested in stretching things to a significant degree.

You're free to do as you please, though so too are others free to refuse to acknowledge such things as being plausible in their eyes.

[zeylos]

Yeah, but not everyone is here to RP. Using your imagination and creativity is fine. Forcing others to believe it or getting upset when they don't, isn't. Just do you, buddy, I frankly don't give a hoot unless you're infringing on me and thus it ruins my enjoyment. Right now you're not. I hope you get male Viera so you don't have to settle for using a female model and attempt to make it masculine - you shouldn't have to do that in the first place.
But anyway, back to the whole infringing; you shouldn't be doing that anyway because that would be rude as heck and make you a black mark on the RP community for trying to force headcanon on those who don't want it, believe it - or goes against their own creativity.

Meh...

I do wonder how the Viera dye their hair - aren't they all born with white hair? Magic? Hm, do you think it's a lot more likely the males would have shorter hair due to their way of living or grow it out?

From what I've gathered, it's based on their role, for instance, I think red mages were pink-ish?

Could be wrong tho

[alacruxe]

All Viera having white hair was actually a quirk of lore added in FFXII! In Tactics Advance where the race was first introduced, pure white hair was actually a rarity and most Viera had hair in shades of light pastel tones like green or blue. Incidentally, that's why my character has pastel pink hair.

In FFXII, it was common for urban Viera to dye their hair to fit in better with Humes. There's a couple NPCs in the intro cutscene who have dyed brown hair. Interestingly, their ears are also brown. What I wanna know is whether those were dyed as well, or if they just had naturally brown ears to begin with.

[zeylos]

Again, Viera and Viis are organised as societies based on a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. To hyper-focus on a few traits that this requires of the females and then throw around that they're" super-masculine" is, to me, a little bizarre. I don't consider their bodies particularly masculine in the least, either. They look like athletic females, to me.

Quite what the point of this preoccupation is with trying to label the females "masculine" at every turn eludes me.

As for them being "matriarchal", I mean that's because there is nothing but females and children in the villages, and the latter are excluded by virtue of their age. So sure, they have female-run households, but it's a bit different to how the Night elves structure their societies. The males are entirely outside their sphere of authority.

Regarding Gwen's point on possession of the Echo, or not, that one is trickier to gauge. It's not too widely dispersed amongst existing populations. I suspect what it probably is closer to is the ability of Conjurers to "hear" the elementals.

That said, I don't doubt some of them do possess the Echo. It's a bit like the Xaela and the Dotharl's beliefs concerning reincarnation. A belief I strongly suspect is influenced by some of their tribe members possessing the Echo, leading to the propagation of a wider belief that they all undergo reincarnations. So the Viera, in turn, would probably interpret it as a gift or particularly strong connection to the Wood.

I dont really understand whats your view of masculinity. For me, personally, masuclinity is seriousness effectiveness, athletism and things like that. Would u mind telling me yours so we can understand each other better?

[StrongBear]

It's not difficult to imagine Xaela men as bigger than they are, though. They're already fairly beefy. Lauront and I have both been advocating for a muscle tone slider for the races that lack it.

Just wondering, several people have mentioned implementing a 'muscle slider', but what exactly would it do? Would moving the slider up/down make a character more/less muscular, or do you mean simply making the muscles that are already there more visible(that is, with more definition, shadows, etc.)?

[Gwenorai]

All Viera having white hair was actually a quirk of lore added in FFXII! In Tactics Advance where the race was first introduced, pure white hair was actually a rarity and most Viera had hair in shades of light pastel tones like green or blue. Incidentally, that's why my character has pastel pink hair.

In FFXII, it was common for urban Viera to dye their hair to fit in better with Humes. There's a couple NPCs in the intro cutscene who have dyed brown hair. Interestingly, their ears are also brown. What I wanna know is whether those were dyed as well, or if they just had naturally brown ears to begin with.

This is pretty neat! I didn't actually know their hair colour was more pastel. I wonder why that happens, you'd think it'd be a huge problem regarding camouflage... though greens and the like would blend in pretty well, especially with a dark skin tone. I'm curious if the males have some sort of quirks with their hair, like they have to grow it out as a sign of them being 'masters' of the wood, or have sort of visual representation to their rank. What sets the 'alpha' males apart visually? As each male that does breed will probably have apprentices who are being overseen by him.

[alacruxe]

Just wondering, several people have mentioned implementing a 'muscle slider', but what exactly would it do? Would moving the slider up/down make a character more/less muscular, or do you mean simply making the muscles that are already there more visible(that is, with more definition, shadows, etc.)?

The latter. Some races already have one, like Roegadyn. It doesn't actually add to the character's bulk, but it adds definition to what's there.

[zeylos]

Just wondering, several people have mentioned implementing a 'muscle slider', but what exactly would it do? Would moving the slider up/down make a character more/less muscular, or do you mean simply making the muscles that are already there more visible(that is, with more definition, shadows, etc.)?

I would really like that tbh, I'd use it specially on male miqote since I'd like them to have more defined muscles

[Arngrim_Greyashe]

It's not difficult to imagine Xaela men as bigger than they are, though. They're already fairly beefy. Lauront and I have both been advocating for a muscle tone slider for the races that lack it.

As for using imagination, that has a limit. It's far easier to imagine an already muscular guy as being beefier than he is in-game compared to imagining a female viera as a male viera. One requires a much greater leap than the other.

I wouldn't say it's down to a lack of imagination, either. Aside from people who do not role-play at all, as Gwenorai pointed out, some of us who do role-play aren't interested in stretching things to a significant degree.

You're free to do as you please, though so too are others free to refuse to acknowledge such things as being plausible in their eyes.

And to continue with this and restate something I posted earlier in the thread, as it stands right now, in the lore, male viera do not exist outside their forest. So, if you're trying to RP as one, you're likely to get an eye roll and dismissive people that don't want to RP with that. I for one very much follow the lore for RP. If they become viable through lore, not headcanon, then it's fine. Until then, to me, all "male viera" RPers are just females.