For the next two centuries, the Viera maintain their physical youth, making it nigh impossible to discern their age simply from outward appearances. It is not until the thirteenth nameday-when the individual moves from adolescence into adulthood-that the individual's gender becomes apparent. Viera live upward of two-hundred and forty years, and more than eight in ten Viera are born female. Even the mere presence of outsiders can be taken as a grave offense. This is especially true of those who would dare hunt their lands. To the Viera, their forest is sacred ground, and they will not suffer the desecration of their sovereign domains by outsiders.
They clear undergrowth, plant seeds, and eradicate vermin. īefitting the name of "people of the wood," Viera women live largely as hunters and gatherers, laboring not only to protect the wood, but to nurture them. At last count, the Viera made up approximately five percent of the nation of Dalmasca. However, the past several generations have seen more and more Viera choose to break the Green Word and leave the forest for the cities.
This code is known as the " Green Word," and those who break it face the threat of exile. While the tribes are wholly independent, they have all agreed to uphold a single standard: shun all contact with the outside world unless it is to protect the jungle. As such, many a Viera will spend her life bound to the territory of her ancestors, both unwilling and unable to venture beyond its borders. Viera society is purely matriarchal, and each tribe follows its own strict code and will meet swift punishment to any who would defy these laws.
Members of both clans have become more common in cities such as Rabanastre in the past few generations. The Rava live primarily in the lush, colorful Golmore Jungle, distinguished by their melonated skin, while the Veena have paler skin, who reside in the mountains of the Skatay Range that rise above their forest home in its foothills. The Viera are roughly divided into two clans. The Veena dwell in the southwestern foothills of the Skatay Range. However, while the Viera had long been treated as equals by the Dalmascans, like any not of the pureblood Garlean race, they have been relegated to life as second-, or even third-class citizens, a change that has proved especially difficult for the Viera who left their forests in pursuit of freedom. Though only a few of the soldiers returned, the few Viera with them appeared to have followed on their own volition.
Thirty years ago, when the Garlean Empire occupied Dalmasca, several imperial army units were sent into Golmore Jungle to round up Viera and bring them to Rabanastre. Those Viera who have done so tend to be held in high regard, their small numbers lending them an air of mystery with some members of the upper class paying large sums to be seen with one of their kind. It was not until the past several generations that a Viera living outside of her homeland was unheard of, yet recently more and more of the leporine women have abandoned their ancestral homes for the comforts of the cities. Efforts by past kings to bring Viera lands under Dalmascan rule were all met either by indifference or violence, and the nation ultimately suffered the Viera their self-governance, with the promise their villages would not take up their bows against the throne. For centuries, even since the age of Ivalice, many Viera tribes have remained hidden in the jungles, content with their self-imposed solitude.