Monogamous Miqo'te

[Nako Vesh]

Just putting this out there, but I question the responders to this thread who've said "I like the race" is their reason for playing a Miqo'te specifically, yet then they want to RP a strong deviation away from the norm of what that race represents. If what the individual means to express is "I like the way the race looks", then okay, fine, fair enough. But "a race" is more than appearance, it represents a normative cultural identity, a role that is comprised within the setting that is unique and special to that race. The Miqo'te racial relationship norm is just that - a unique and special facet to their society which all other races do not have. I'd argue it's as much a part of their identity as cat ears and fluffy tails. 

 

The above paragraph has nothing to do with whether or not lore-bending is acceptable, appropriate, etc. It has everything to do with the reasoning stated by some for their choice of race. Be honest with yourselves. If you chose the race because of the race then you wouldn't feel so inclined to throw away a substantial portion of what identifies that race. If you chose them because you think ears and tails are kawaii, then that's totally valid and fine. Just say it as such.

 

I don't quite understand why you're vying to wring honesty out of people for their choices, or why that really matters at all, but I see what you're saying. Still, the sexual mores of Miqo'te clans, are one facet of their cultures. I think we're all getting a little hung up on the sexual aspects of their cultures. There are other aspects.

[Garalona]

Nested quotes are kind of a pain so I'll just agree with the above. There's quite a lot to the Miqo'te beyond just their breeding habits. The tribes of the Seekers are pretty neat, and the Keepers focus on hunting that has NPCs seen roaming across Gridania is also interesting. There's no need to accuse people of being anime addled cat people fans, there's a lot to like.

 

The polyamory angle can be difficult to play for a variety of reasons, up to an including an OOC distaste for it. There's nothing wrong with not wanting to pursue multiple partners in RP if it makes you uncomfortable purely because the lore demands it.

[Teadrinker]

Just putting this out there, but I question the responders to this thread who've said "I like the race" is their reason for playing a Miqo'te specifically, yet then they want to RP a strong deviation away from the norm of what that race represents. If what the individual means to express is "I like the way the race looks", then okay, fine, fair enough. But "a race" is more than appearance, it represents a normative cultural identity, a role that is comprised within the setting that is unique and special to that race. The Miqo'te racial relationship norm is just that - a unique and special facet to their society which all other races do not have. I'd argue it's as much a part of their identity as cat ears and fluffy tails. 

 

The above paragraph has nothing to do with whether or not lore-bending is acceptable, appropriate, etc. It has everything to do with the reasoning stated by some for their choice of race. Be honest with yourselves. If you chose the race because of the race then you wouldn't feel so inclined to throw away a substantial portion of what identifies that race. If you chose them because you think ears and tails are kawaii, then that's totally valid and fine. Just say it as such.

 

Some people just aren't going to RP that heavy and you can't expect them to.

 

Also people enjoy their characters being aesthetically pleasing. This is why the cash shop makes money and this is why people will roll something because fuzzy cat ears.

 

The person who rolls a race BECAUSE of lore is always going to be a heavier RPer than a lighter RPer who rolls a race because "I like the way it looks."

 

Nothing wrong either way but there's a difference I think should be respected. These two groups usually don't have a problem staying on their respective ends of the pool anyway.

[Alothia]

Just putting this out there, but I question the responders to this thread who've said "I like the race" is their reason for playing a Miqo'te specifically, yet then they want to RP a strong deviation away from the norm of what that race represents. If what the individual means to express is "I like the way the race looks", then okay, fine, fair enough. But "a race" is more than appearance, it represents a normative cultural identity, a role that is comprised within the setting that is unique and special to that race. The Miqo'te racial relationship norm is just that - a unique and special facet to their society which all other races do not have. I'd argue it's as much a part of their identity as cat ears and fluffy tails. 

 

The above paragraph has nothing to do with whether or not lore-bending is acceptable, appropriate, etc. It has everything to do with the reasoning stated by some for their choice of race. Be honest with yourselves. If you chose the race because of the race then you wouldn't feel so inclined to throw away a substantial portion of what identifies that race. If you chose them because you think ears and tails are kawaii, then that's totally valid and fine. Just say it as such.

 

As one of those people who likes the way Miqo'te look, let me explain how my decision factored into RP.

 

When I started playing XIV, it was the first MMO I had ever played. And I had never RPed before. So I played with the character creator, and settled on Alothia's 1.0 design. I made her name, her look, everything, with the simple intention of me just playing the game as a game.

 

November of 1.0 release came around, and I met some people who RPed. It intrigued me. I started RPing lightly to get the feel of things. Now, mind you, I couldn't change her looks at that  point. There wasn't anything to do that with. And we didn't have the lore knowledge we have now. So more or less, my Miqo'te was a hyur with cat ears and a tail.

 

They began releasing more lore and more about the tribes and clans, but by the time that happened, I had already solidified Alothia as a character. I wasn't going to retcon a character that I had been playing for over a year at that point because it fit the lore better. I took what I knew of the lore and made it work in the context of my character.

 

Why do I say all of this? Because it is people's personal choices to play a character that they find visually appealing. Sure, I doubt my story is uncommon among 1.0 players, but it doesn't really matter. I shouldn't get special dispensation because I played from the beginning of 1.0. It's not up to me or anyone else to judge people based on those choices.

 

People who don't like the city miqo'te stories aren't obligated to play with them. The OP seemed to just want to get a gauge in the community to see if their characters would be hit with an undue amount of backlash.

 

As someone who has RPed Alothia the way she is: monogamous, married to a hyur, more or less hyur-like with cat ears and a tail, I can honestly say that even ICly, I don't get backlash. People don't really bat an eye at her or what she does with her personal life. I don't ignore the fact that she's a miqo'te. I work in her expressions with her feline features, I use her sense of smell in RP...but she is NOT tribal AT ALL.

 

Don't worry about playing your character the way you want. You'll probably be more accepted than these forums tend to let on.

[SessionZero]

My main character is a Miqo'te Keeper who is living in sin with an Ishgardian Hyur whose family stole away to Gridania when things in Ishgard started getting bad. Why am I a Miqo'te and his parter a Hyur? Because I like the way Miqo'te males look in most of the armor sets in this game (I'm a tank) and my RL girlfriend who plays his in-game girlfriend likes the look of the Hyur. That's pretty much the only reason.

 

At the end of the day, it boils down to play what you want to play. You pay your same $15 as everyone else in this game, so you're entitled to your own flavor of pretendy fun time. If you want to break lore, find other people who like to break lore and go nuts. If you just want to bend it a tad, find others who agree and plop down in their sandbox. If you're a stickler for it and IC Black Mages send you running to the Padjali in a flutter of panic and tattle-tale fervor, then you do you, boo. But just make sure you're having fun with it. What's the point otherwise?

[Kage]

If you chose the race because of the race then you wouldn't feel so inclined to throw away a substantial portion of what identifies that race. If you chose them because you think ears and tails are kawaii, then that's totally valid and fine. Just say it as such.

Bolded for emphasis. I'm not sure if this is your intention but your word usage implies a certain amount of bias to me. Call me sensitive, but it feels like your opinion is that people who want to play a specific race because of aesthetics or visual appearances is only because of the "weeb". Am I hanging on too much to your word usage or am I onto something?

[Lydia Lightfoot]

If you chose the race because of the race then you wouldn't feel so inclined to throw away a substantial portion of what identifies that race. If you chose them because you think ears and tails are kawaii, then that's totally valid and fine. Just say it as such.

Bolded for emphasis. I'm not sure if this is your intention but your word usage implies a certain amount of bias to me. Call me sensitive, but it feels like your opinion is that people who want to play a specific race because of aesthetics or visual appearances is only because of the "weeb". Am I hanging on too much to your word usage or am I onto something?

 

Hanging too much. As I mentioned in the post there's nothing wrong with it if someone chose a race based purely on visual aesthetics, but if that's the case, and they're choosing to largely ignore what the race is about beyond the superficial level, they can't really say they like "the race" in as much as it would be more accurate for them to say "they like visuals of the race". Players should play what they want to play, absolutely - they just should be clear about the reason why they wanted to play it. 

 

In response to some others:

 

Quit clinging to "sex" and "breeding" as the emphasis, please. There's a lot more to a culture's choice of how their relationships and family structures occur than that, and by focusing specifically on throwing out those terms you're focusing on the wrong thing. Yes, to a lot of people RP and roleplayed relationships are all about ERP. I don't think anybody here is actually discussing that. What's being discussed, as far as I can tell, is the culture of the species as it relates to relationships and family structures, of which the actual act of giggity is a very small component.

 

Consider the real world for a moment. In many places in 2015, monogamous relationships are considered normal, and there's a fairly preset structure to how people advance from "we're dating" to "we're engaged" to "we're married". But, that isn't the only relationship and family structure that exists in the real world in 2015. Consensual polygamous relationships are very common and ordinary in many cultures in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, and it's almost never about sex any more than monogamy in other cultures is chosen due to some fetish for having only a single partner. 

 

While it's absolutely valid that to many players the aspect of "whee, my miqo'te male can have so much sex" is a selling point, we must remember to let that sort of thing rest as a judgment against that player being in it for the ERP, and not a judgment against the culture of the race being about sex (because it isn't).

[T'shina]

And there is a lot more to the Miqo'te other than the relationship. I chose Miqo'te not for the relationship aspect but because of the tribal aspect. I love every bit of it. I love that my character comes from a background as a huntress and having tried to find her place in her tribe. To go through her adversities because her plot point isn't that she's preferably monogamous but because she was sick as a kid and that was looked down upon in a society of only the strong survive and she did. Even now, despite my character living in a more city like setting there are many things that she does that is tribal from the way she is comfortably dressed to her literally just disappearing for days to go for a hunt so she can provide for her own growing clan that she created.

 

So! OP, the thing with playing a monogamous Miqo'te is actually normal and alright. There will be those who very very traditional Miqo'te RPers who will scold your character, as this has happened to a friend ICly, but that is just about it. And fortunately anything you may get in criticism in game is going to be IC! Play how you wish and how you are comfortable!

[Mia Moui]

I chose Miqo'te because I'm a neko character fan and I've always been a cat person. The Miqo'te, as presented in the game, are the perfect blend of sweet cuteness and cruel viciousness, just like the common house cat.  It's irresistible.

 

But I don't choose to spend as much free time as possible trying to be cutie cute cute. My character needs and deserves a more complex background.  If I didn't like the lore for the Miqo'te (and I don't like the Seeker lore) I would choose not to play them.  But a matriarchal culture that only enjoys the company of their menfolk in short doses - sign me up!

 

Aside from that personal politic, I find myself fascinated with how their traditional society might be structured and what influence that has on her.  This is why I play her as traditional, so that I can obsess about minutia like this.  I like the complexities and the pressures (and the rumors) or expectations of what Miqo'te are like.  I like that they are fetishized in the context of the game, instead of just from the outside.  That adds something to every interaction and reminds me that yes, I am playing a character that is very different from myself and the other races.

 

But all that aside, I play Mia Moui because Miqo'te are cutie cute cute and cruel and vicious, just like my cats.*

 

*Vicious with their cats toys, which they routinely murder

[Nako Vesh]

Quit clinging to "sex" and "breeding" as the emphasis, please. There's a lot more to a culture's choice of how their relationships and family structures occur than that, and by focusing specifically on throwing out those terms you're focusing on the wrong thing. Yes, to a lot of people RP and roleplayed relationships are all about ERP. I don't think anybody here is actually discussing that. What's being discussed, as far as I can tell, is the culture of the species as it relates to relationships and family structures, of which the actual act of giggity is a very small component

 

I wholeheartedly agree with you there. Of course familial relationship structure is important to a culture, and I think people who avoid that aspect of Miqo'te culture in their RP are certainly missing out on something interesting and possibly new to their viewpoint. I still don't see what that has to do with getting people to "admit" why they've chosen a race. If they chose Miqo'te because they're "kawaii," then that's pretty obvious from the start who does that and who doesn't. I mean, this cherry-picking has been going on since choosing races in games has been a thing. It's not to my personal taste, as I like exploring fictional cultures, but what are you going to do?

 

While it's absolutely valid that to many players the aspect of "whee, my miqo'te male can have so much sex" is a selling point, we must remember to let that sort of thing rest as a judgment against that player being in it for the ERP, and not a judgment against the culture of the race being about sex (because it isn't).

 

Was someone in this thread judging Miqo'te culture directly? If so, I missed it. It's kind of crap if they did though. I know people do turn up their noses at Miqo'te as a race because of the polyamory aspect, dismissing it outright as ERP-bait. Which is really sad because, in a way, it's dismissive of real life cultures that exist today.