With your criterias in mind, we know that Garleans enlist all the natives they conquer indiscrimately and so you will probably find a decent amount of miqo'te in their military, but since you would rather prefer something 'quieter' in terms of background without having to involve defection and whatnot, maybe it's not the best option, though it is still an option.
Sharlayan is a good option as well. The AST questline also shows how foreign and culture shocked sharlayans tend to be when they come to Eorzea, due to the isolation and protectionism they live under, on their islands. Sharlayans tend to find eorzean rather barbaric and silly. Their first reaction is often contempt or arrogance. Overall, the Sharlayans are very, very arrogant librarians, although it doesn't mean they all are of course, but politically, they mostly lean towards strong isolationism and sitting on their own pile of knowledge for the sake of knowledge, especially in the faction of the Bibliothecs (far right conservatist wing). Don't worry though, they definitely didn't get nuked or anything like that in the story so far. They abandoned their colony on the main continent decades ago when their negociations with the Garleans failed and the Garleans started invading Eorzea (mild spoiler: you will visit it at the end of Heavensward), and the settlers returned to their main archipelago. It is also true that we get news from the island of the Students of Baldesion, the main patrons of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, that got razed off the map (possibly by Ascians, but we still don't know much about that).
Playing a miqo'te from their continent of origin, is of course another option, although you will have a slightly harder time to play that because we literally know nothing of the current state of Meracydia. There is actually tons of lore regarding that continent, but most of this actually concerns the 3rd Astral and 4th Umbral eras under the yoke of the Allagan Empire, that went to war with Meracydia in their lust for conquest. We even start to see a bit of what Meracydian cultures were, but as of today, it's hard to say if they even have lots of trade and whatnot with Eorzea. We however know that lots of miqo'te tribes still live here, and those are probably the closest you can find from the original miqo'te.
Fernehalves also hinted long ago that you can also find a few miqo'te on other continents like Othard (far east), but we probably get back to point 1 with Garlemald that invaded there as well.
Sharlayan is a good option as well. The AST questline also shows how foreign and culture shocked sharlayans tend to be when they come to Eorzea, due to the isolation and protectionism they live under, on their islands. Sharlayans tend to find eorzean rather barbaric and silly. Their first reaction is often contempt or arrogance. Overall, the Sharlayans are very, very arrogant librarians, although it doesn't mean they all are of course, but politically, they mostly lean towards strong isolationism and sitting on their own pile of knowledge for the sake of knowledge, especially in the faction of the Bibliothecs (far right conservatist wing). Don't worry though, they definitely didn't get nuked or anything like that in the story so far. They abandoned their colony on the main continent decades ago when their negociations with the Garleans failed and the Garleans started invading Eorzea (mild spoiler: you will visit it at the end of Heavensward), and the settlers returned to their main archipelago. It is also true that we get news from the island of the Students of Baldesion, the main patrons of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, that got razed off the map (possibly by Ascians, but we still don't know much about that).
Playing a miqo'te from their continent of origin, is of course another option, although you will have a slightly harder time to play that because we literally know nothing of the current state of Meracydia. There is actually tons of lore regarding that continent, but most of this actually concerns the 3rd Astral and 4th Umbral eras under the yoke of the Allagan Empire, that went to war with Meracydia in their lust for conquest. We even start to see a bit of what Meracydian cultures were, but as of today, it's hard to say if they even have lots of trade and whatnot with Eorzea. We however know that lots of miqo'te tribes still live here, and those are probably the closest you can find from the original miqo'te.
Fernehalves also hinted long ago that you can also find a few miqo'te on other continents like Othard (far east), but we probably get back to point 1 with Garlemald that invaded there as well.
Balmung:Â Suen Shyu
