Add a non binary race to FFXIV

[LilimoLimomo]

Add a race after female hrothgar are added, but not a race with a gender. Instead make them non binary and gender ambiguous.

FF11 had a single-sex playable species, which depending on your lens can be read as non-binary. Through the lens of our culture we'd generally view their physical aesthetic as masc, but that's just their bodies, whereas gender lives within each individual's brain.

I'm not sure if I'd want an entire race that was non-binary. It seems like the Pixies, Fauth, and Nu Mou are presented as enby, and while I appreciate that we got something rather than nothing, making gender a species-wide trait seems like taking one step forward and then one step back. Because if a Pixie identifies as male or female, that should be valid, in the same way that it should be valid if a Midlander identifies as non-binary; which is to say, restricting gender options based on species isn't the right way to go, since gender is an individual's experience. It would be better to instead allow the members of each species a greater variety of options to be acknowledged as and express as the gender that matches what's in their brain.

That said, it would nice to be to be able to play as a being that entirely lacked the physical trappings of human sex. Let my Warrior of Light be a Pudding! I don't expect any further playable species, but I wouldn't say no to that. ^^

[ChonkGoblinSuprem]

male vierra are androgenous not non binary

What is the difference? This seems like a semantic quibble at best.

[Anvaire]

What is the difference? This seems like a semantic quibble at best.

Not at all both are completely separate things. See below definitions.

Nonbinary
or non-bi·na·ry
[ non-bahy-nuh-ree, ‐nur-ee ]


adjective
not consisting of, indicating, or involving two.

Mathematics. noting or relating to a system of numerical notation that does not have a base of 2:
The decimal system is nonbinary.

androgynous
[ an-droj-uh-nuhs ]


adjective
neither clearly masculine nor clearly feminine in appearance:
Their new clothing collection is inspired by the androgynous look of many rock stars.

having an ambiguous gender or having both masculine and feminine gender characteristics.

[LilimoLimomo]

What is the difference? This seems like a semantic quibble at best.

The quick and dirty summary would be that non-binary is a mindset/identity while androgyny is generally an aesthetic. For example, in many fantasy fictions, elves are described as being physically androgynous relative to humans, which means that there's less of a difference between male and female bodies. But most of the elves in these universes still identify as being male and female, meaning they're not non-binary. Conversely, a big muscular bearded Roe with male primary and secondary sexual characteristics doesn't innately have what most people would consider an androgynous aesthetic, but that Roe can identify as non-binary.

In the lore of Viera, they all actually start out sexless, and when they come of age they choose which of the two sexes their bodies become. Due to this and other factors I personally wouldn't describe male Viera as literally being androgynous, but they do have a less masculine physical aesthetic compared to some of the other male bodies that are playable in the game, so I get why someone would see them that way.

[Stormpeaks]

How about we dont ?

Yeah that sounds good.

[DragonFlyy]

This is actually simple to rectify, the tags look for "male" or "female" so they would just need to add a choice so the player chooses and then over time update the game to add the option for "they"

Adding "they" could also be added to the other races as a choice.

The biggest issue isn't "can" they do it, but rather "should" they.

For me that's a resounding yes. Though I would never use it as an option myself. But I think this is a separate issue to the one OP is asking for.

For the question of a non binary race, I think that could be really interesting or awful depending on the design and implementation - but for me its a no simply because I think they should sort the Hrothgar and Viera Issues before adding another which would face similar issues.

In place of new races, i would advocate new clans, faces and customisation options instead.

So I guess my position is:

- No to nonbinary race (While current issues remain unresolved)
- Yes to non binary / trans identification
- yes to more current race customisation

- Yes to nonbinary race once current issues faced by Hrothgar and Viera are resolved and only if the new race would not have similar issues.

I didn't say they can't. I said they won't (Ie. Not gonna happen). And yes redoing the text wouldn't be too bad, but the voices? So what do we do about 2.0, insert the word they using the current voice actors and now we hear an out of place voice for that particular actor (since the 2.0 VOs are all gone) or do we re-record ALL of the 2.0 voices ... either way that's a lot of money for little to no return on investment for SE.

I am not opposed to this idea, I just know practically it won't happen. The best we could hope for is you get to choose which gender you want (male/female/non-binary) and choose the gender you get to see in game (male/female). With this they could MAYBE (big maybe) start doing non-binary text and voice AFTER you have played through the expansions that didn't have that option THEN you get to hear your non-binary pronouns.

I just don't see them doing any of this because it wouldn't add enough value (from their perspective) to add any of this.

[SilverObi]

Damian must've finally finished MSQ and has nothing else to do outside of Ul'dah. Explains the threads popping up

[ChonkGoblinSuprem]

The quick and dirty summary would be that non-binary is a mindset/identity while androgyny is generally an aesthetic. For example, in many fantasy fictions, elves are described as being physically androgynous relative to humans, which means that there's less of a difference between male and female bodies. But most of the elves in these universes still identify as being male and female, meaning they're not non-binary. Conversely, a big muscular bearded Roe with male primary and secondary sexual characteristics doesn't innately have what most people would consider an androgynous aesthetic, but that Roe can identify as non-binary.

In the lore of Viera, they all actually start out sexless, and when they come of age they choose which of the two sexes their bodies become. Due to this and other factors I personally wouldn't describe male Viera as literally being androgynous, but they do have a less masculine physical aesthetic compared to some of the other male bodies that are playable in the game, so I get why someone would see them that way.

Okay so why do we need a separate non-binary race if non-binary means anyone can identify as anything regardless of the aesthetic?

[Fourbestintoner]

We already have femroes.

[LilimoLimomo]

Okay so why do we need a separate non-binary race if non-binary means anyone can identify as anything regardless of the aesthetic?

If you scroll to the top of the page you'll see that I already left my thoughts on that in an earlier post