lore-friendly transitioning methods

[Ilisidi]

Given the questline in Ul'dah, if your gender and looks don't fit you, Fantasia is the answer.

[Cleretic]

It really wouldn't make much sense for them to pursue HRT and surgery as an avenue for gender transitioning except from a "pursuit of knowledge" angle. In a setting with magic that's been worked out to a science, considering magic is easier, quicker, more comprehensive, and easily reversible if the patient isn't taking it as well as they thought...

Hormone therapy is not only for transitioning; all the drugs used for transitioning in real life are more popularly used for other things, they just happen to also do the thing that trans people need.

If pregnancy and menopause aids exist in this world, then feminizing HRT methods would do, because they are the same thing. Like I said before, I don't think that the general scientific level of the game world is far enough to understand hormones specifically, but they would absolutely be at a level to understand 'X substance causes Y biological effects that is good for Z type of person', even if the why of it isn't fully understood; at this point it would be folk medicine, but that's still medicine. Ironically, hormone therapy in real life does sort of predate understanding of hormones itself like that. Maybe the answers are magic, but maybe they're not; again, Garlemald figured out pretty good surgery, and maybe magic covers this in ways that we've never seen. (And yes, Fantasias exist as so many drive-by posters seem so proud of bringing up, I have mentioned before that they aren't a strong answer.)

Personally, though, my inclination is that the medicinal approach is the most likely non-surgical option to exist; while we haven't seen that either, the ALC/CUL storylines from Shadowbringers onward does show enough of an understanding of medicine and nutrition for me to believe that bodies work that way, and that understanding of medicine is at enough of a level to connect points A and B like that.

Unless you're trying to shove a real-world transgender drama plotline into a setting where it's really both unnecessary (this is a heroic fantasy story) and moot (surely magic to facilitate this exists), it would be pretty pointless for Sharlayan to have information on HRT and gender reassignment surgery. (I mean, they probably do but just for hoarding purposes, not because it's practical or necessary for the most part when magic exists.)

But here's the more critical thing: If someone is asking the same question as the OP, yes they want an analogue to the real-world trans experience. This is neither 'shoving', 'unnecessary', nor 'drama'; this is people wanting to reflect the reality of themselves and people they know, either in roleplaying, fanwork, or just their own personal conception of what this world is like. Yes, it is not the focus of the game, but this story's got an awful big world in it that both gives space for a whole lot of stories outside of its main focus, but that the game world itself is big enough to accommodate such a thing existing. After all, while they've never directly addressed the concept of trans people in this game, Sadu sure got really close!

If your response to people wanting to see themselves and the healthcare they need depicted in the game they like is to describe them as 'shoving unnecessary drama' in, this discussion is not for you. You cannot have the answer to a question that you are rejecting.

[MikkoAkure]

Considering Eitherys is inherently magical, I don’t think every real world experience would translate 100% unscathed into this world. After fantasia changed from a dubiously canon gameplay item to something there’s an actual quest around, I do think it’s something that can’t be ignored in this context and would affect any sort of transitioning experience.

That said, I don’t think it would change things like self-discovery or social aspects and I think it’s something that would be worth being explored.

As far as hormones themselves go, Sharlayan is a nation of magic and seems to approach medicine and biology from an angle of “how does aether affect this” so I’m not wholly convinced Sharlayan would have knowledge of them or the interest in replicating them through mundane means when it could be addressed magically but I guess it’s not impossible either.

[RaionKansen]

i've dabbled in making trans characters in the xiv universe before, mostly getting roadblocked by gender role dynamics of some of the races...

but as far as transitioning goes, what do ya'll use for your characters' lore?

guess my easiest fix is "the allagans/garleans have hrt" lol

"transitioning" would be a completely alien concept to the world of FFXIV. Fantasia exists, but its a bit of a 4th wall break between the developers and the players. Unsundered ascians or people like Zenos who used the echo, can transfer bodies, but you're literally taking over someone else's body after their own aether has either returned to the sea, or its been forcefully hi-jacked.

Ascians live forever. I'm sure they get bored and have had eras where they preferred to be in a male or female host, but it wouldn't be the same existential crisis that trans people have. They can simply do nearly whatever they want. They wouldn't be trans. They'd literally be in a male or female body. At best you could roleplay as a WoL that has mastered the echo and regained enough of their powers to change hosts, but you are taking over someone else's body so...

[Cleretic]

Fantasia exists, but its a bit of a 4th wall break between the developers and the players.

Okay so I really need to directly address this again.

Fantasias exist, but that doesn't necessarily make them accessible or viable. The barest evidence we have is that one quest Dawntrail introduced, but that very quest implies them to be extremely fringe, dubiously available, questionably legal, and on some level extremely obscure; there's not enough info to make it clear exactly what kind of obscure, if it's not well believed in or just a complete unknown. That's not a recipe for something that any given trans person can get on a Tuesday, that is black market goods material, that's something only available to someone with the right connections and/or the right money. It's actually a worse answer than any real-world transition methods, because those are all very known, relatively accessible and at least legal to receive, even if you probably have to travel for some of them.

And I have no idea what to say to 'the Ascians probably steal bodies of different genders, therefore transitioning is not a relevant concept'. That's just complete, patent nonsense. How does 'genocidal ghost wizards that you have most likely never seen or heard of can pick whatever bodies they want' matter to a theoretical trans girl in Limsa? Do you think 'Become Deudalaphon' is a valid approach to transitioning?


EDIT: I can tell that most of you are not trans and have no interest in actually thinking about this or hearing out others, rather than just barrelling in and telling trans people that their questions and interests aren't valid. I really hope I don't have to keep explaining this one, but this is just gonna keep happening, isn't it?

[JerryBerrry]

Seriously? Wtf? Pride month is over now.

[Dikatis]

Seriously? Wtf? Pride month is over now.

Trans and non-heterosexual people exist. Even in FF14, there are tons of non-heteronormative people. There's a male Lalafell who dreams of being held in Raubahn's arms. A gay pair of treasure hunters are the first to unseal the Wanderer's Palace. In Kugane there's a man who falls in love with a stage actor, only to remain attracted when he learns that said stage actor is a man dressed as a woman. Haurchefant is attracted to the Warrior of Light regardless of gender. Mitron and Loghrif are explicitly a lesbian pairing and that attraction continues even after Mitron is reincarnated into a man. Sadu believes she was a man in her past life but owns her life as a woman in the present.

As for the question, aside from Fantasia I don't think any such physical transitioning methods really exist within the context of the main or side stories. The upsetting Doylist standpoint is that this is a conscious choice to avoid pushing away markets that actively frown upon LGBTQ+ characters being in the spotlight. There is the potential to use lifelike glamours to present as your preferred gender or even use transmogrification magicks (i.e. the Toad spell) to transform yourself biologically (though this obviously carries pretty serious risks).

[Cleretic]

The upsetting Doylist standpoint is that this is a conscious choice to avoid pushing away markets that actively frown upon LGBTQ+ characters being in the spotlight.

While I'm frequently pessimistic as all hell, I actually think the more realistic reason for this is less marginalizing than this: I think most media just isn't interested enough to get into that level of detail. Even the stories I know that do have trans characters don't go into this level of detail (except for a scant few written by trans people), because it's just not an interesting level of detail for most stories.

We do not learn about everyday medicine in most fictional worlds, especially not fantasy ones; sci-fi is a bit of a different story there, but not necessarily a better one in this case. To properly articulate transition methods in a fictional setting, you need to get into detail about herbalism, medication methods, potentially the entire early understanding of medicine that the world's knowledge is couched in (because again, they probably haven't figured out hormones yet), plausibly surgery, and how any of this does or doesn't actually intersect with any present forms of magic. When was the last time you saw a fantasy story get that deep into the weeds, for any reason!? Usually we're lucky to get implication that certain plants have medicinal purposes, and maybe a use of the word 'poultice'.

As important as trans people are to ourselves and our loved ones, and as interesting and important as the medical process of transitioning is to us, it's extremely niche information to the world at large and to almost all stories we as a society tell. I would kill for a story that goes 'medical drama'-level deep into fantasy medicine to the point where this information makes sense to come up, but those stories mostly don't exist.

[Iscah]

After all, while they've never directly addressed the concept of trans people in this game, Sadu sure got really close!

I feel like it's inaccurate to associate Dotharl with "being trans" just because it's been stated that their past life was a different gender. From the two examples we have of it (Sadu and Koko) they treat it as matter-of-fact but neither chose it nor seem bothered by the inconsistency; it's just the body their soul got given this time, and they use the pronouns associated with their current form rather than seeking to change it.

[Cleretic]

I feel like it's inaccurate to associate Dotharl with "being trans" just because it's been stated that their past life was a different gender. From the two examples we have of it (Sadu and Koko) they treat it as matter-of-fact but neither chose it nor seem bothered by the inconsistency; it's just the body their soul got given this time, and they use the pronouns associated with their current form rather than seeking to change it.

For context I think Sadu is very good at depicting an adjacent topic, that approaches the subject while not directly being it. I think you could make a case that the Dotharl are adjacent to some indigenous cultures' concepts of gender diversity (I'm none of those cultures so I'm not going to try), but broadly speaking Sadu does bring forward the concept of 'hey, gender is more complicated than the binary you are accustomed to, and we're all gonna be cool about it'. I would not call Sadu trans rep, we are beyond the point of having to accept 'close enough good enough', but she does show the developers' hearts are in the right place, I also completely understand trans people relating to her and she does a good job of expressing the element they're trying for with her.

And Koko is also there. Honestly all Koko really does in this context is show that Sadu's not a one-off and it also goes the other way; that's nice, but let's not pretend that he is on an equal level to her.