(02-21-2014, 07:32 AM)Ildur Wrote: What I'm not fine with is that it ignores that Miqo'te are humans.
Pretty sure this is the problem you have with my argument. I mentioned it before in the thread, but I'll say it explicitly: I don't believe Miqo'te are humans. I don't think they should be human, and I don't want them to be human, because there's already humans in the setting, so more humans aren't needed.
To me this bias is like looking in a field and seeing a horse and a cow. Both are roughly the same size and shape with four legs, hooves on their feet, consume and digest grass, have short to medium length fur coats, and a variety of other traits that make them outwardly appear very similar. However, it's obvious that a cow is not a horse. Both are valuable farm animals, and much of their value is drawn from the ways in which they are different, rather than the ways in which they are the same.
My goal in this thread was to offer insight into ways in which Miqo'te are different from humans, because I don't think you can take a predatory feline species and evolve it into a sentient form and get the same result as you would taking a vegetarian/omnivorous primate species and evolving it to sentience. The notion that despite their obvious biological differences that Miqo'te would somehow develop the same moral and ethical ideals as humans seems exceptionally unlikely to me. It's an underlying desire or bias for familiarity on the part of the player (and in my opinion a mistake made by the SE FFXIV writers). Even within the human species, different tribal and civilized cultures can have wildly varying cultural norms, even within the same culture as it evolves over time, which is why I didn't want to get into them in the first place. I am happy though that other people wished to discuss it, despite my personal lack of interest in cultural topics, because I think it's the logical progression of the argument.
Now if you instead mean that I'm not offering the respect due a sentient species by comparing them to animals, that's just a point on which we're going to have to disagree. I have no problem comparing humans to our primate ancestors and cousins, so I have no problem comparing Miqo'te to their feline ancestors and cousins. By certain measures of success (biomass or number of individuals for example), humans are insignificant compared to insects. "Not human" in my mind does not equate to "less than human," even when considering plant or animal species.
Again, my goal was to offer a foundation of biology about Miqo'te upon which the other players could build thoughtful, thought-provoking, interesting, infuriating, heart-wrenching stories. I think a Miqo'te species that is 'not human' adds interesting possibilities for roleplaying while also making good sense biologically.
I'm a tinker! Tinkerer? Hrm.... I'm an artificer! - Myxie Tryxle | Impressions and Memories
