At the Fan Festival of Final Fantasy XIV, the male Viera were announced as a playable race for the Endwalker expansion. The female Hrothgar were also mentioned.
This is the male Viera: The rabbit race of the Viera first appeared in the Stormblood expansion in 2017 and became playable with Shadowbringers in 2019. However, until now, only the female representatives of the rabbits have been available as playable characters.
Now their male counterparts have also been announced as playable characters. The male Viera, according to lore, live very reclusive lives. They stay deep in the woods separately from the women and are regarded as the protectors of the jungle.
Only the very young male Viera remain in the villages until they grow up and leave the village. They return to the women only every 3 to 5 years when it’s time to procreate. You can watch a trailer for the male rabbits here:
When will the male Viera be playable? The new playable gender will be available with the Endwalker expansion on November 23, 2021.
Why this is important: Although the announcement of the Viera and Hrothgar was a big surprise, it was received unfavorably at the time. Many players were upset that the two races had only one playable gender, thus having a gender lock.
Frustration was expressed on social media and forums, and the feedback was so overwhelming that the director of FFXIV, Naoki Yoshida, addressed the issue. He explained that adding new races is a very complex project.
Accordingly, it was impossible to implement the male Viera and female Hrothgar into the game during the Shadowbringers expansion.
This is what the community says: The surprising announcement of the male Viera has been celebrated by players in FFXIV. The official English tweet about it received over 15,000 upvotes, the most attention of any tweet related to the Fan Festival. Not even the announcement of the new job Reaper received as many upvotes.
In the comments, the mood is generally positive. Players are glad that the developers listened to the criticism from Shadowbringers and implemented the community’s wishes. Many players were enthusiastic about the announcement on reddit as well. The thread there is smaller (via reddit), but it still has over 1,300 upvotes and more than 500 comments.
And what about the female Hrothgar? The announcement of the male Viera now leaves only one race with a gender lock: the Hrothgar. However, director Yoshida had a few words regarding them as well.
The female Hrothgar are in development, but they will not be available in time for the Endwalker release on November 23. It will take some time before they become playable. Yoshida did not reveal how long that will be.
Final Fantasy XIV brings new expansion Endwalker – release date and all information
