Viera culture and sexuality

[Shiro--Tsubasa]

I was looking at Viera lore and it got me thinking. Wouldn't homosexuality be considered the norm with Heterosexuality being the very rare exception with their culture the way it is in regards to male and female interactions.

According to the lore, the males are never present except in the case of mating and picking up the young males and taking them away. The way it is described gives the sense that this practice is very dissociative with each other and the practice of mating unlike most other races is done as more of a duty to their tribe than an act of love. However we also know female Viera are not loveless beings. So isn't it possible that Viera women are more likely to develop romantic relationships with each other than they would males, with males develop relationships with other males to a lesser degree since males are solitary creatures by nature.

[WhiteArchmage]

The closest to actual in-game lore about it is:

"The value of coexistence will not be found neath a loincloth. Long has our kind endured understanding that the distance 'twixt two bodies does not dictate the distance 'twixt two souls."

Which was basically a way of telling the dramatuge "Mind your own business".

The subject of Viera reproduction, sexuality, and gender identity is very complicated because it's very alien to us. For all we know the Viera are, using our words, pansexual and polyamorous, given that we don't know if one male mates with one specific female every time or with several to ensure at least one kit is born; and given that males don't develop sexual characteristics (including external genitalia) until after puberty, if any Viera pre-teen were to form an emotional/romantic connection to another they really wouldn't know the other's (or heck, their OWN) sex before puberty kicks in. We also don't know if they separate mating as a duty from romance, or tie sexual relationships to emotional connections. Basically, we know very little of Viera CULTURE and most of what we know is BIOLOGICAL, which needs not be the same thing.

One COULD take the previously mentioned quote to mean that Viera CAN indeed "bond" with a specific male and the Green Word allows them to share a "psychic" (for lack of a better word) connection even if they are physically apart. But any detail is strictly in headcanon territory for now.

ETA: Also, that specific lore would of course only apply to those living in the Woods; not to adventurers or those we find outside Vieran Villages, who are, by necessity, outcasts.

[Fenral]

Because I know entirely too much on the subject: it is a proven fact of the natural world that sexually-reproducing species, especially those wired for recreational sex, engage in homosexual behavior (sometimes exclusive, sometimes not, so just like humans really). Said behavior, while not procreative, does strengthen the bonds between members of the same sex, contributing to the overall fitness of the herd as whole and, consequently, the continued evolution and survival of the species.

So I'd say yes definitely for females, but probably no for Word-following males if only because their Jedi training apparently leads to them interacting with nobody at all most of the time. (This will be amusing at 6.0 when ~80% of the gay male playerbase goes bunny.) Heterosexual monogamy is probably not really a thing (much like nunh), but depending on fertility rates and longevity, could be sustainable in some cases. All of this made more sense when males were supposed to be treated like they don't exist at all. Should've just gone with the Galka explanation...

tl;dr: it wouldn't be unnatural by any objective scientific metric, but we will also probably never get lore that says otherwise, regardless.

(A tale of forbidden romance between two wood warders would be totally up my alley though.)

[Vyrerus]

Should've just gone with the Galka explanation...

That never stopped Galka Mayo, and it ain't gonna start any time soon!

Kids, don't google Galka Mayo.

[WhiteArchmage]

Kids, don't google Galka Mayo.

You have piqued my curiosity but my self-preservation instinct is yelling "DON'T DO IT!"

[Fenral]

Kids, don't google Galka Mayo.

[Keramory]

I think it's just safe to assume there is a bunny version of Ganondorf out there considering this sounds suspiciously like the Gerudo situation.

[MikkoAkure]

Considering how aloof and elf-like the viera are, and how they seemed to treat mating like a business transaction, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole race were just asexual.

Ultimately, I don't think that SE is going to delve into viera sexuality unless Matsuno goes into it in a future Twitter lore dump. So however viera are in your head is how they are.

[Bright-Flower]

Considering how aloof and elf-like the viera are, and how they seemed to treat mating like a business transaction, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole race were just asexual.

Ultimately, I don't think that SE is going to delve into viera sexuality unless Matsuno goes into it in a future Twitter lore dump. So however viera are in your head is how they are.

Honestly to me it would make some sense for a race that's long lived and doesn't have children as often as humanity to have lower sex drives in general. I wouldn't be surprised if viera just aren't as prone to such relationships in the same way humans are. Or, given the nature of the men stopping by briefly every few years, they might go through short cycles of such that don't linger.

Though none of this is concrete. Looking to nature could help some but these are fictional people of a fictional species and the rules of our evolutionary history doesn't necessarily apply.

[Vyrerus]

Well, they have very faintly touched on Viera sexuality. The youngest of the three Viera that help you out in Rak'tika, the WHM one, she is WoLsexual as given away by the DRG one teasing her about pretending her staff was *ahem* and *ahem* and they were imagining that the WoL was *ahem* with them.