Male Viera stuff from Matsuno

[JeanneOrnitier]

https://reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/...a_provided_by/

Strictly speaking a lot of this was already said by the Wandering Dramaturge back in Stormblood, but there's a bit more detail here and some things are new.

[Rosenstrauch]

Well, that bit about Viera genitalia is not at all what I expected would be the case. I guess they are rabbits, after all, so it makes... some sense. It's a bit of a mindscrew to imagine, though, and I'm not sure I even want to.

EDIT: Gods, though, trying to read that thread is giving me a headache. I think the point I mentally checked out was when someone claimed that the Viis were genetically engineered by the Ronka, which is not only ridiculous but also provably wrong via the Qitari storyline.

[Wyssahtyn]

Just raises more questions than it answers feels like.

[Iscah]

Well, that bit about Viera genitalia is not at all what I expected would be the case. I guess they are rabbits, after all, so it makes... some sense. It's a bit of a mindscrew to imagine, though, and I'm not sure I even want to.

I'd seen in a documentary some time ago that there's an actual intersex condition where someone can be genetically male but appears female at birth and won't develop until puberty - so it's not as implausible as it immediately sounds. Whether the writers are aware of this or it's a happy coincidence, it's a good enough explanation for me.

I do have to wonder what the whole business would do to their mindset though - growing up knowing they're going to have to take up very strict gender roles but not having any idea which one they'll get. And are children thought of as genderless or is everyone considered female by default, until someone develops as a male?

Would they even have a concept of gender stereotypes or is it just "I am a man so I live alone in the woods", "I am a woman so I live in the village", and what the genders do is whatever they need to survive in their designated places?

And what sort of mental adjustment would it be to leave the forest and encounter other cultures?

On the one hand, despite (or because of) their androgynous appearance they might be very aware of presenting as the right gender, because their culture places such importance on it - "I am a man and I am not alone in the woods, so how am I supposed to indicate this? Dress a particular way?"

Or it could go entirely the other way - "I am not living alone in the woods, so I should act like the village-dwelling gender."

[BunnyChain]

Huh, so Viera are literally intersex... and now wikipedia made me read about Sambia people. Maybe that's where part of the inspiration came from... a bit of a content warning though. D:

I do have to wonder what the whole business would do to their mindset though - growing up knowing they're going to have to take up very strict gender roles but not having any idea which one they'll get. And are children thought of as genderless or is everyone considered female by default, until someone develops as a male?

Would they even have a concept of gender stereotypes or is it just "I am a man so I live alone in the woods", "I am a woman so I live in the village", and what the genders do is whatever they need to survive in their designated places?

The entire "8/10 children are born female, yet we subject the few males to a brutal rite of passage from which many perish, so they can try to survive alone in the woods and possibly come back to mate every few years, ensuring Viera don't die out" is so... flawed?

[Iscah]

The entire "8/10 children are born female, yet we subject the few males to a brutal rite of passage from which many perish, so they can try to survive alone in the woods and possibly come back to mate every few years, ensuring Viera don't die out" is so... flawed?

Yeah, that bugs me too and I don't think they should have included both those ideas together. Either have the race predominantly female OR culturally require the men to be banished into the jungle, but not both together. That just seems like a way to ensure your civilisation dies out.

But, given that it is in place, it's probably going to be a common character origin story for male Viera that they decided the whole thing is madness and either they're going to serve the tribe better by not dying alone in the middle of nowhere, or they just want nothing to do with the entire system.

[_Koneko_]

really seems like survival of the fittest to me clearly if the male died he was not worthy to pass on his gene's anyway of course this concept don't actually work any civilization ruled by this concept will eventually implode as history has taught us

heck we saw it in the gaming world with wildstar

[JeanneOrnitier]

Yeah, that bugs me too and I don't think they should have included both those ideas together. Either have the race predominantly female OR culturally require the men to be banished into the jungle, but not both together. That just seems like a way to ensure your civilisation dies out.

But, given that it is in place, it's probably going to be a common character origin story for male Viera that they decided the whole thing is madness and either they're going to serve the tribe better by not dying alone in the middle of nowhere, or they just want nothing to do with the entire system.

Well a Viera player character is by definition going against their culture just by being playable, since their culture is to stay in Golmore forever and leaving the forest is equivalent to exiling yourself from the tribe. In that regard a male Viera deciding the gender roles aren't for them makes total sense, since they're already breaking other taboos just by coming to Eorzea.

[PangTong]

Yeah, that bugs me too and I don't think they should have included both those ideas together. Either have the race predominantly female OR culturally require the men to be banished into the jungle, but not both together. That just seems like a way to ensure your civilisation dies out.

But, given that it is in place, it's probably going to be a common character origin story for male Viera that they decided the whole thing is madness and either they're going to serve the tribe better by not dying alone in the middle of nowhere, or they just want nothing to do with the entire system.

The impression I get from Viera lore is that it's mostly just an excuse to have a race of sexy bunny girls, I don't think a lot of serious thought was put into having their society make sense.

[Jandor]

really seems like survival of the fittest to me clearly if the male died he was not worthy to pass on his gene's anyway of course this concept don't actually work any civilization ruled by this concept will eventually implode as history has taught us

heck we saw it in the gaming world with wildstar

It might be imploding, the sudden appearance of loads of Viera males (and females I suppose) into the wider world would seem to indicate such, but given the races extended lifespans the implosion is in slow motion from our perspective.