Guild Wars 2

There are a handful of races that, to my knowledge, have no female members present in the game. For a couple of them- the dredge and the grawl- there are neither explicit nor apparent explanations. As this forum is used for speculation as much as, if not more than, sharing facts, I would like to open this up and see what you all think about it.

I haven’t seen any female Tengu in game…

Before GW2 charr had no visible females and the only race I remember that even had females were harpies (other than humans).

I still have yet to see a female centaur but there were undead ones in GW1 so I don’t think it’s that there isn’t females just whether or not they are seen is the problem.

@schizandra Nor have I. I doubt there are more than a dozen tengu in-game right now. Their race is a minority even in their trade camps, so perhaps it doesn’t mean much, just that the few that go to trade with outsiders are male.
@WonderfulCT The Harathi centaurs are mostly female, located in all of the Kessex, Gendarran, and Hinterlands centaur camps. One could argue that the Modniir have females ingame as well.
Off the top of my head, there were female norn, asura, and tengu in GW1, but yes, in that game males were the norm. That is not true of GW2, however- most of the races in this game represent both genders, albeit often not equally. The grawl, dredge, and ettins are the only races without a reasonable explanation existing for the absence.

How does one sex a Dredge anyhow?

I use their exclamations when they enter/exit combat.

Heh, this topic reminds me of Mass Effect… that aside, for many races, it could just be that they look and sound so similar, that to someone not one of them wouldn’t be able to make the distinction.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

One could argue that the Modniir have females ingame as well.

I believe they do – but they’re a lot more covered and rarer models so its hard to point it out. I think they’re only in Harathi Hinterlands, in the Modniir camp behind where Ulgoth spawns.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

The grawl, dredge, and ettins are the only races without a reasonable explanation existing for the absence.

I think there’s a mention of a female ettin NPC – but it has a masculine voice, iirc. So female ettins may be indistinguishable from male ettins.

AFAIK, it’s only grawl, dredge, and tengu which lack a female counterpart at the moment. Other than jotun, which is explained via lore the same way the lack of kodan young are explained (they’re hidden away for protection).

But regarding dredge… they all have high pitched whiny voices… how can one tell if one’s a male or female that way?

schizandra.4587:

I haven’t seen any female Tengu in game…

They’re all in the kitchen holding to their own responsibility.

We saw a female tengu in GW1, although she used the same model as the males. She was in a leadership role when we met her, so it doesn’t seem they’re looked down on.

With others… it really could be a case that we can’t tell.

-In Guild Wars 1, the female Tengu were larger and stronger than the males, and they held leadership roles. They definatley aren’t oppressed, it’s probably just that arenanet only put male NPC’s in the world because, until they give us more detail about the race, they can afford to be lazy.
-Of the three Centaur tribes (Harathi, Modnir, Tamini), the only ones who don’t have female models are the Tamini. Harathi females are very distinctive from the males and a lot more common than males, so those are the ones we notice. Modnir females have masculine voices and appearances so it’s harder to tell—but the Modnir rangers are in fact women. When you hit them, they make female charr sounds of pain. Also, they have VERY subtle, small breasts.
-Ogres have both males and females. Female voices are slightly less deep, and horns are slightly smaller. The easiest way to tell an ogre’s gender is to look at the clothes—the ones with covered chests are female, the ones with exposed chests are male.
-The Dredge are an oppressive society, and in Flame and Frost we know they’ve made an alliance with Flame Legion. Considering that we’ve seen no dredge females, I think they are oppressed, and have probably been relegated to slave and breeding roles deep underground.
-The Grawl, I’m not sure. They’re the only race we can have racial sympathy for which doesn’t have noticable females. It could be that Grawl gender differences are so subtle we can’t tell. It could also be that Grawl culture is similar to Jotun culture, where the females are kept hidden from outsiders.
-Harpies are all female. They reproduce by forcing their way with males of other species.

Weindrasi.3805:

the Modnir rangers are in fact women. When you hit them, they make female charr sounds of pain. Also, they have VERY subtle, small breasts.

Ventari in the Dream of Dream uses the modniir ranger model….

Ventari’s a transvestite?

Weindrasi.3805:

-Ogres have both males and females. Female voices are slightly less deep, and horns are slightly smaller. The easiest way to tell an ogre’s gender is to look at the clothes—the ones with covered chests are female, the ones with exposed chests are male.

Same goes for kodan, with the clothes bit.

Weindrasi.3805:

-Harpies are all female. They reproduce by forcing their way with males of other species.

Just wanting to clarify that this is speculation still. They are seen seducing a male grawl chieftain, but it’s completely possible that harpies have asexual reproduction (that is, don’t need a mate).

I’ve spent some time considering the Modniir hunters. Here are my thoughts.
The case for male hunters:
- A known male centaur (Ventari) is represented by the model, with male voice acting
-The model’s lines upon entering combat and dying are male
The case for female hunters:
-Whether or not they’re covering breasts, all male centaur models leave at least the majority of the chest uncovered, whereas only the known female model shares the covering of that region
-The grunts when you hit them are distinctly female
-There is at least one case of the model having a conversation in a female voice
On the whole, I do believe they are female, but there is no getting around that Ventari is male

As for the dredge, I simply cannot picture a woman with that voice, but I concede that they may not be differentiated by voice, especially if there is a precedent among the ettins. I don’t think that female dredge would be forced to stay at home- the moletariat treats dredge as labor, not individuals, and there is no reason to turn down half a population’s worth of productivity.

When it comes to the dredge, it seems most of our encounters are with the fringes of their society. We may only see males because they are the workers involved in expanding territory to the surface while female dredge are deeper underground.

My 2 cents

Slightly off topic, but we know Mursaats have females by names in GW1. Although their model is exactly the same as males.

The only Seers we saw are females, by voice.

Glint is female by voice. She was able to lay eggs, but we don’t know if she has a mate. Given that she was a servant to Kralkatorrik, meaning her potential mates are all “evil”, it is unlikely. So maybe she is capable of asexual reproduction.

Fleshreavers does have males and females by lore, but their models are all the same.

Giants probably do have females. They appear to be mammal.

Steam Creatures are intelligent animals being converted into weapons. Their original being can be male or female.

I get the idea that the Dredge live in larger cities further below and away where workers and civilians supporting their war efforts would be safe aside of destroyers, which guards could fight. Females are probably there. Given how the Soviet Union treated women generally, they’re probably little more than workers and child-bearers.

CHIPS.6018:

Slightly off topic, but we know Mursaats have females by names in GW1. Although their model is exactly the same as males.

Not really. Although Mercia is feminine in latin, that doesn’t mean it is feminine in mursaat/Tyria.

CHIPS.6018:

The only Seers we saw are females, by voice.

ahem

“Though Evennia refers to the Seer as a female, the Ancient Seers are actually genderless.” http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User_talk:Bobby_Stein/Temp#Ancient_Seer

CHIPS.6018:

Fleshreavers does have males and females by lore, but their models are all the same.

Source? I figured them to be genderless too, given they’re born as a skeleton.

To quote a line I think said by Ogden in GW1 (Although I could be wrong with where the line came from…)

“How do ya KNOW you’ve never met a female dwarf, eh?”

In regards to the Grawl, there were a few kicking around the southern Shiverpeaks in the old days that were assumed to be female. They had feminine names and were referred to as “Crone”, a title generally associated with females. It’s not really clear if they were actually women however, as they all used the same model.

Chessrook.8643:

To quote a line I think said by Ogden in GW1 (Although I could be wrong with where the line came from…)

“How do ya KNOW you’ve never met a female dwarf, eh?”

I’m pretty sure you’re right about the source.

An update on the dredge part of this – a Priory scholar introduced during Flame and Frost: The Razing states that the dredge are, like the Flame Legion, xenohpbic and sexist. So we probably don’t see female dredge for similar reasons of no female Flame Legion.

(Though physically, based on GW1, females don’t look much different than males).

Naked Mole Rats, the animals that Dredge share the most obvious physical setup with, are also eusocial, like bees or ants. Normally, mole rats have a single queen and one to three breeding males in a colony, with the remainder of the colony hormonally immature workers. It’s not clear how much this inspiration controls the Dredge society, but it’s possible that we’re seeing equal numbers of XY- and XX-chromosome workers.

Most birds are exceptionally hard to gender in the real-world — it can require a surgical procedure or DNA test, where there are no obvious traits like eye color or feather arrangement — so Tengu may likewise be very hard to gender.

Grawl are the odd ones out, since we see entire encampments and their inspirations have normally obvious genders.

Based on the dialogue of the GW1 Dredge Slaves in Sorrow’s Furnace, they don’t seem to hold that kind of colony – at least while enslaved.

Tengu we know how they genderdize from the Factions manual – though the GW1 models showed no difference, the feathers differ. At least for Canthan tengu.

For a long time in Guildwars we thought the Charr were birthed like the Urukai from lord of the rings lacking any females.

Apparently the females were bound to house duties.
I would assume it be the same for the other races whose females are absent.

Problem is, the grawl don’t have houses. The very best that could be said is that they’d be like the jotun, hiding their females away in locations that happen not to exist in our in-game world, but I fervently hope that is not the case.

Maybe grawl are like Dwarves. I always thought Ogden was female after he got bugged out during a gw1 vanquish and kept repeating “How do you know you haven’t already met a female dwarf? Eh? Eh?” and I was like…

Okay.

I get the hint.

As for Tengu, maybe the males are just considered expendable and fit to stand outside the gates. Female Tengu that we’ve met so far in lore have been well respected, so that could have something to do with it.

According to what I remember from Factions lore, male Tengu have more colourful plumage, while the females are slightly bigger than the males, but have drab plumage.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

Given how the Soviet Union treated women generally, they’re probably little more than workers and child-bearers.

Women in the Soviet had abortion legalised long before other “free” countries though (then banned, then legalised again), so they weren’t really incubators, and as early as 1917, measures were taken to emancipate women so they could work and live without a man. But I am going off-topic…

I think in some cases, like the ettins, the difference between male and female are indistinguishable to the player, but obvious to the in-game characters: a male ettin can probably tell a female one by scent, colour, walk etc. Or it’s a case of autogamy, in which case it doesn’t really matter