lore-friendly transitioning methods

[ZooExorcist]

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

[Cleretic]

So to start with, Fantasias are on some level canon. They're of nebulous availability, not really believed to exist by the wider world, and broadly wouldn't really work for a lot of 'trans stories' people might want to write, so they're not that viable an option, but they're the elephant in the room player-wise and if we don't mention them then someone's gonna careen in with an 'Um Actually'.

For other options, Garleans don't confirmably have HRT, but they do have really good plastic surgery, so that's an angle. Glamors and other magic also might do the job, but that's a harder answer, for me it's in 'if you've got a pitch I'm listening' territory.

And looking at the broad level of technology the game is at, while only the Garleans might understand hormones specifically, the rest of the world is plausibly in the territory of 'found the answer, not the working out'; prototypical forms of HRT existed before we knew the mechanics for why it worked, so we're easily in the range of knowing the result but not the why.

[Cilia]

Given as this is a setting where (transmogrification) magic and alchemy are both functioning systems in-universe that have been figured out to a science, I would be more concerned if gender reassignment options did not exist for those seeking them out (medically or for other purposes).

Since the game focuses on heroic adventures and not gender identity drama, however, it is not really elaborated on in-universe.

[Cleretic]

Since the game focuses on heroic adventures and not gender identity drama, however, it is not really elaborated on in-universe.

Yeah, this is fundamentally an element of storytelling focus; trans stories just don't intersect enough with the game's focuses on Big Action and character drama for stuff like 'medical science intricacies' to really turn up in the story except as an implication from some side-deal. The plastic surgery I mentioned was from a story beat largely about espionage, and glamors and transmogrification only get used to that degree in a few fight mechanics and, like, one 2.x quest about the sylphs that I think got cut. You'd think Alchemist would be the best suspect for related lore on this, but its storylines instead ended up focusing on, like, forensics (which is fair, forensics is a cool place to take alchemy). As a result there just isn't clear info on this.

The only times when the game's stories have linked up with transness are debatably Sadu and Mitron, and even more debatably the 'gender is complicated and/or unimportant' figures like the pixies, Omega, or the dragons. In all of those cases, transitioning, be it medically or socially, isn't part of the story being told, and their gender situation is just an extra piece to who they are. I personally find that disappointing in the game's totality--I think the game could do it and would do it well--but individually all makes complete sense; Sadu and Azdaja do not need that element to their stories even if I would like if they had it.