How do Hrothgar reproduce?

[Cilia]

They reproduce by budding.

For serious...

Hrothgar reproduce like every other race; the males just heavily outnumber the females, who are kept off the battlefield for the preservation of the species. How such a species survives very long like that I'm... not very sure of, but that's what it is.

In regards to Bozja, like all city-states it was actually diverse. Thing is it had a strict caste system, one of which was a shaman caste which determined who would be queen. Most of them actually were Hrothgar women, but it just so happens the Queen Gunnhildr of legend (who saved Bozja by incarnate summoning herself as a primal with Save the Queen, only to unexpectedly have the Echo which left her lucid and with deific power, so the Gunnhildr's Blades of the time betrayed and killed her so she wouldn't learn she was meant to be nothing more than a sacrifice and go on a rampage with that power) was a Roegadyn.

Doylist answer: we haven't seen Hrothgar women because there are no models for them, and there are no models for them because Viera (p. much).

[Kesey]

I say we call SE on the bluff.

Lore needs to change for Hrothgars to say they reproduce asexually or are a Miqo'te and Roegadyn half species.

Or they can add female Hrothgar.

The call to action has to show them their level of ridiculousness.

[Cilia]

I say we call SE on the bluff.

Lore needs to change for Hrothgars to say they reproduce asexually or are a Miqo'te and Roegadyn half species.

Or they can add female Hrothgar.

The call to action has to show them their level of ridiculousness.

... bluff? Do you have any idea how much work goes into modeling a new race?

Aside from actually, you know, modeling the character (to include the myriad face options), they have to put every piece of gear on said model to make sure it looks OK. With hundreds if not thousands of new gear pieces being added every expansion, that makes it exponentially more difficult to implement new races as time goes on; one of the main complaints with Hrothgar (and Viera) was the lack of headgear due to this very issue.

The development team's resources are limited. Given rabid fan demand for playable Viera...

Personally I don't agree with the decision to split resources between two races (one would be preferable, and I'd rather see a full Hrothgar in the interest of artistic liberty for the devs) but it is what it is. Retcons aren't the way to go.

[Kesey]

... bluff? Do you have any idea how much work goes into modeling a new race?

Aside from actually, you know, modeling the character (to include the myriad face options), they have to put every piece of gear on said model to make sure it looks OK. With hundreds if not thousands of new gear pieces being added every expansion, that makes it exponentially more difficult to implement new races as time goes on; one of the main complaints with Hrothgar (and Viera) was the lack of headgear due to this very issue.

The development team's resources are limited. Given rabid fan demand for playable Viera...

Personally I don't agree with the decision to split resources between two races (one would be preferable, and I'd rather see a full Hrothgar in the interest of artistic liberty for the devs) but it is what it is. Retcons aren't the way to go.

On the surface I wanted to understand. Then I went to Bozja and now I see how badly the story has been hurt by not adding female Hrothgar in the first place. These kind of decisions have begun to affect story which is my draw to the game and done at my expense because others wanted to play as different races and strap to resources to make the opposite genders is too high.

At the very least they could have had female Hrothgar only npcs for the Bozja front.

[Iscah]

At the very least they could have had female Hrothgar only npcs for the Bozja front.

And then what? People will say "look, they're right there! Why can't we play as them? How dare you keep them from us?"

They've said female Hrothgar exist. They've talked about them, made it clear, showed us a mural that doesn't require the building of 3D models to provide an illustration. They've given a cultural reason why we shouldn't expect to see their rare "queens" out on the battlefield.

Why would it be better to throw that all away and change it so they reproduce asexually? What would it achieve? It's just a different excuse, and a weaker one, that removes the potential to imagine that the females are out there somewhere and we just haven't seen them for ourselves.

[Floortank]

On the surface I wanted to understand. Then I went to Bozja and now I see how badly the story has been hurt by not adding female Hrothgar in the first place.

It hasn't been hurt at all. It'd be rather "straight line" and less interesting to show an exact version of the queen. That's now how primals work.

[Iscah]

It hasn't been hurt at all. It'd be rather "straight line" and less interesting to show an exact version of the queen. That's now how primals work.

I do think it's been hurt. They had to bend the background legend sideways so that the "Hrothgar Queen" could could have a Roegadyn fill in for the critical on-screen portions of the story.

It's not impossible that they'd write it that way regardless, but it seems unlikely.

[Rosenstrauch]

I do think it's been hurt. They had to bend the background legend sideways so that the "Hrothgar Queen" could could have a Roegadyn fill in for the critical on-screen portions of the story.

It's not impossible that they'd write it that way regardless, but it seems unlikely.

I get the feeling the intent was always to have the legend be subverted the way it was—the actual queen was always going to be someone who refused to take up Save the Queen, leading to one of her handmaidens being made a sacrificial lamb. Only the part where the handmaiden—and her descendent—were Roes instead of Hrothgar would have to be introduced. In retrospect, it's really not that damaging.

It's still weird, though, that we've got this ragtag army of ex-soldiers and laymen turned resistance fighters of all races and creeds, and opposite them we have an entire Imperial Legion of similar make to the resistance—with some particular standouts like Daguza and his band of beastmen—but not a single one of them is a female Hrothgar.

[WhiteArchmage]

It hasn't been hurt at all. It'd be rather "straight line" and less interesting to show an exact version of the queen. That's now how primals work.

Except that... the "primal" version of the Queen we see IS an exact version of her... just of the Roegadyn Queen, taken out of the memories inside Save the Queen. She's not a "primal", per se... even Mikoto says as much.

[Alleo]

Hrothgar reproduce like every other race; the males just heavily outnumber the females, who are kept off the battlefield for the preservation of the species. How such a species survives very long like that I'm... not very sure of, but that's what it is.

Yeah the females being rare makes no sense to me. Especially when we know from other NPCs that they have wifes. If females are so rare that they have to stay at home, how would it even be allowed to only have one male as a female? Also does that mean that the females have to constantly be pregnant to hold up the numbers? At least with our other kitten race it makes sense because one male can get huge amount of females pregnant...but one female can only do so much even if they get a few newborns with each pregnancy.

I wonder if SE really thought that through or if they just used that because it was used for male Vieras?