Miqo'te Culture Discussion/Speculation!

[Nako Vesh]

Since it seems so many of us will be playing Miqo'te as our mains, I thought it might be nice to have a round table about them. There's already been some interesting discussion touched on in the official forums (like here, here, and here), but I thought we might want to speak on it here, too.

 

We were given a tasty chunk of lore to think about, but if you're like me, you're probably left with a lot of questions.

 

• How do Seekers, and Keepers for that matter, keep their gene pools diverse with such a small amount of breeding males? This seems... problematic from a genetic and longevity standpoint. (Not to mention we're probably going to have a few Seekers bragging about their 50 women harems and beating their chests about it... ._.)
  

• How much freedom do nuhn have, anyway? What about nuhn of the Keepers? ARE there nuhn within the Keepers, or is there a more '"nuclear family" situation?
  

• I find it interesting that nuhn are rarely in leadership roles, and I wonder what that means. Are men rarely considered for leadership altogether, or are the nuhns' duties considered to be too much with the added responsibility of leadership (*gigglesnort*)? 
  

• Is there tension or animosity between the Seekers and Keepers? How did their schism arise?
  

• From how nuhn gain their status through battle, we can assume that physical strength and skill is valued among Miqo'te. Does this permeate other facets of their cultures? I can almost imagine they might have holidays with events like the Highland games!
  

• What does Miqo'te art look like? I would be so ecstatic to know! The only thing I can glean from the lore they gave us, is that it would probably include their totems as well as their gods and the sun/moon.
  

Yep, it's all speculation and questions, but I think it's fun. What have you all been wondering and speculating about?

[CassandraJean]

I love that the lore of this game has so much depth!

 

I wondered the same thing about the Nuhn of the Seekers. Like.. is there a lot of inbreeding or do the women and children move around to different tribes to prevent marrying you know.. your cousin or something like that? It seems like the Seekers of the Sun are centered more around male leadership while the Keepers of the Moon follow the women's lead.

 

Now you have me curious about Miqo'te art. I would love to try drawing something that their tribes would create...

[Nako Vesh]

I would absolutely love to see your take on Miqo'te art! I'm even thinking about trying my hand at it as well, but I haven't drawn in quite a while. :blush:

 

This also makes me wonder about their cultural clothing, too. I'm imagining things that are easy to move in. Airy, but probably battle-ready. Maybe adorned with small trophies? Perhaps their garb would depict images of their totems as well.

 

I hope they have a racial lore Q&A at some point. lol

[CassandraJean]

I would absolutely love to see your take on Miqo'te art! I'm even thinking about trying my hand at it as well, but I haven't drawn in quite a while. :blush:

 

This also makes me wonder about their cultural clothing, too. I'm imagining things that are easy to move in. Airy, but probably battle-ready. Maybe adorned with small trophies? Perhaps their garb would depict images of their totems as well.

 

I hope they have a racial lore Q&A at some point. lol

 

I found these old drawings I did and thought they would work! This is something how I imagine their tribal artwork would look like? When depicting the totems?

 

 

[Aysun]

While SE's giving us all this 'tribal' lore for the Miqo'te, I guess what's annoying me is, not only is it basically just a straight rip from XI Mithra, I didn't actually see any tribal behavior from Miqo'te NPCs in game in 1.0! There's MENTION of it, mostly, but it seems like those who live in the cities or are the adventuring type have left behind that tribal lifestyle.

 

The post today, for instance, introducing the idea of mixing traits between the two clans being available, makes me cringe. It seems like they just were like 'oh, we should probably give some reason why F'lhammin(however it's spelled) is the only Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te in the game with a Seeker of the Sun name rather than just admit it was a naming mistake (much like the Miqo'te in the opening video had markings like a Keeper of the Moon but Seeker eyes--at least they admitted that was a screw up).

 

As far as I can tell, the lore they gave us seems to be describing a majority of Miqo'te that we don't actually see and interact with as NPCs and are to assume exist 'out there' living like that... OR just how they were in HISTORY rather than the present, and that they just cling onto naming traditions and such.

 

Maybe we'll see more of the actual tribal traditions in ARR. All the questions make me personally glad that I went with my character not having a recent tribal background, because it's opened up a lot more annoying questions than answers for me.

[Rhio]

While SE's giving us all this 'tribal' lore for the Miqo'te, I guess what's annoying me is, not only is it basically just a straight rip from XI Mithra, I didn't actually see any tribal behavior from Miqo'te NPCs in game in 1.0! There's MENTION of it, mostly, but it seems like those who live in the cities or are the adventuring type have left behind that tribal lifestyle.

 

I think more of it is indicative of miqo'te traditions than it's indicative of how the miqo'te live now. Although that brings some of the naming conventions into question.

[Aysun]

While SE's giving us all this 'tribal' lore for the Miqo'te, I guess what's annoying me is, not only is it basically just a straight rip from XI Mithra, I didn't actually see any tribal behavior from Miqo'te NPCs in game in 1.0! There's MENTION of it, mostly, but it seems like those who live in the cities or are the adventuring type have left behind that tribal lifestyle.

 

I think more of it is indicative of miqo'te traditions than it's indicative of how the miqo'te live now.  Although that brings some of the naming conventions into question.

 

Exactly. Which is why it's going to be disappointing if we get an influx of extremely traditional-tribal Miqo'te if the tribal behavior is more of a thing of the past for them and they simply held on to the naming traditions.

[Deirdre]

Since Yoshi's team have taken up the game, I think they plan to implement more of the actual traditions than the old team, since they just ended up kinda throwing everything in the world and washed their hands.

 

I think it's too early to be thoroughly annoyed about anything, really. It's not Yoshi's fault he was given a bland starting point. From what I've already seen, there is a vast improvement on the things mentioned. *wink*

 

Lucky Miqo's though, you guys have gotten all the good chunks of lore~ Jealous.

[Yssen]

Dun be jealous Deir, just remember...

 

"The Elezen came from the Nooorth."

 

^ ^

[Aysun]

Oh trust me, I'd love to see some of it actually implemented if they intend it to be current rather than just traditions and lore.

[Deirdre]

Dun be jealous Deir, just remember...

 

"The Elezen came from the Nooorth."

 

^ ^

 

Called it. Just sayin'

[Rhio]

Lucky Miqo's though, you guys have gotten all the good chunks of lore~ Jealous.

 

If you get a free car that you can't drive on any roads where you'd want to go, it sure doesn't feel like a prize.

[Aysun]

Lucky Miqo's though, you guys have gotten all the good chunks of lore~ Jealous.

 

If you get a free car that you can't drive on any roads where you'd want to go, it sure doesn't feel like a prize.

 

XDD That's how I feel at the moment.

[Gerik]

Lucky Miqo's though, you guys have gotten all the good chunks of lore~ Jealous.

 

If you get a free car that you can't drive on any roads where you'd want to go, it sure doesn't feel like a prize.

Sounds like my mother

[Rhio]

Sounds like my mother

 

Your mother's a car?

 

Because if so, she gets to decide what road you drive on when you take her somewhere, dear. As long as you're inside of her driver's seat you'll obey her rules. Now be a dear and slow down.

[Gerik]

Sounds like my mother

 

Your mother's a car?

 

Because if so, she gets to decide what road you drive on when you take her somewhere, dear.  As long as you're inside of her driver's seat you'll obey her rules.  Now be a dear and slow down.

Pretty sure the driver is the one controlling the car, but that's just a hunch I have.

 

ANYWAY, I'll stop derailing this thread.

[Aysun]

Sounds like my mother

 

Your mother's a car?

 

Because if so, she gets to decide what road you drive on when you take her somewhere, dear.  As long as you're inside of her driver's seat you'll obey her rules.  Now be a dear and slow down.

Pretty sure the driver is the one controlling the car, but that's just a hunch I have.

 

ANYWAY, I'll stop derailing this thread.

 

 

 

In all honesty, I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer. I think ARR will introduce us to a whole lot of new nommy lore in action that 1.0 was lacking--for all the races!

[Nako Vesh]

I would absolutely love to see your take on Miqo'te art! I'm even thinking about trying my hand at it as well, but I haven't drawn in quite a while. :blush:

 

This also makes me wonder about their cultural clothing, too. I'm imagining things that are easy to move in. Airy, but probably battle-ready. Maybe adorned with small trophies? Perhaps their garb would depict images of their totems as well.

 

I hope they have a racial lore Q&A at some point. lol

 

I found these old drawings I did and thought they would work! This is something how I imagine their tribal artwork would look like? When depicting the totems?

 

 

This is very similar to what I had in mind! I love these!

 

Also, this thread went... places. o_o

[Aysun]

This is very similar to what I had in mind! I love these!

 

Also, this thread went... places. o_o

 

Quite typical to happen around here! :angel:

[Myal]

The post today, for instance, introducing the idea of mixing traits between the two clans being available, makes me cringe. It seems like they just were like 'oh, we should probably give some reason why F'lhammin(however it's spelled) is the only Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te in the game with a Seeker of the Sun name rather than just admit it was a naming mistake (much like the Miqo'te in the opening video had markings like a Keeper of the Moon but Seeker eyes--at least they admitted that was a screw up).

Noooo. No no, it can't be.

 

I wanted to be a Seeker from the start and was dismayed when I found (after making a throwaway account to investigate naming patterns) that they didn't allow for apostrophes in names. F'lhaminn's round irises were what gave me the rationale to give my Seeker a Keeper-like name instead.

 

If F'lhaminn's appearance was a mistake, my entire world would crumble. So it can't be a mistake. It can't!

 

But seriously, considering that she is the only outlier out of all NPCs and given her relative importance in the story, I'm inclined to believe that it's intentional. The FMV Miqo'te, at least, has the excuse of being created by a different team during a different development phase.

[Rhashi Nefhys]

Finally I get to post some of my thoughts and may get the thread on the rails again. The official information we got so far is very sparse so please don't get mad at me if I am completely wrong :angel:

 

• How do Seekers, and Keepers for that matter, keep their gene pools diverse with such a small amount of breeding males? This seems... problematic from a genetic and longevity standpoint. (Not to mention we're probably going to have a few Seekers bragging about their 50 women harems and beating their chests about it... ._.)
  

That may be overthinking it a little. We are in a Fantasy World and that genetiv problem might not even exist or apply to it. It might also be possible that the children of those harems be it males or females have to leave the clan when they become of age and find themselves a new one.

 

 

• How much freedom do nuhn have, anyway? What about nuhn of the Keepers? ARE there nuhn within the Keepers, or is there a more '"nuclear family" situation?
  

The seekers nuhn probably have a lot of responsibilitys and uhm duties. So I would think that those won't travel too much and stay with their clan most of their time. The males who still have to prove themselves are more likely to choose the adventuring path.

 

As I understand it from the naming lore the keepers don't really have nuhn and their culture is a lot more based on the normal family.

 

• I find it interesting that nuhn are rarely in leadership roles, and I wonder what that means. Are men rarely considered for leadership altogether, or are the nuhns' duties considered to be too much with the added responsibility of leadership (*gigglesnort*)? 
  

I think a clanleader couldn't afford the "distraction" of a huge harem and still be able to lead. Maybe he chooses his females more carefully and keep their numbers quite low.

 

• Is there tension or animosity between the Seekers and Keepers? How did their schism arise?
  

I didn't find any infos about that but I think not. The cultures are split and we can only guess about how it happened but there doesn't need to be any tension. They may just respect each other for what they became.

 

• From how nuhn gain their status through battle, we can assume that physical strength and skill is valued among Miqo'te. Does this permeate other facets of their cultures? I can almost imagine they might have holidays with events like the Highland games!
  

 I strongly think so. Fighting and Hunting skills are highly valued and should be deeply entwined into their culture. They need to have some kind of festival where the males can prove themselves apart from occasional challenges.

 

• What does Miqo'te art look like? I would be so ecstatic to know! The only thing I can glean from the lore they gave us, is that it would probably include their totems as well as their gods and the sun/moon.
  

 

The artstyle from what CassandraJean showed us already goes into the right direction. I really like what I have seen so far. May be a little less curves and more nooks and edges.

[Rhostel]

Don't forget, no one is nuhn forever. I'm sure the position changes hands enough to avoid truly excessive inbreeding.

 

Not to mention tribes might trade members for any number of reasons.

[Aysun]

Don't forget, no one is nuhn forever. I'm sure the position changes hands enough to avoid truly excessive inbreeding.

 

Not to mention tribes might trade members for any number of reasons.

 

And the Tias might get lucky sometimes too.

[Myal]

What's the total population of Eorzean miqo'te, anyway? Even divided by the 25 tribes, I imagine the smallest tribe would still have dozens of nunh.

[Nako Vesh]

Don't forget, no one is nuhn forever. I'm sure the position changes hands enough to avoid truly excessive inbreeding.

 

Not to mention tribes might trade members for any number of reasons.

I would still think it would pose a problem. You'd end up with successive large same-age groups of Miqo'te who would all be closely related. Then, after a couple of nuhns had been in place, keeping track of who came from what father would be tricky.

 

But, yeah, as Rhashi said it IS fantasy so none of this may be a problem at all. It's still icky to me though! lol

 

And the Tias might get lucky sometimes too.

For me, that raises the question of whether or not their are rules and consequences for Tias who have bred!