Cats. And things that look like them.

[W'seckhi Asah]

Okay, so I've had a few straaaange thoughts come across my mind while playing Miqo'te. Firstly, how in the hells do they keep glasses up? They don't have ears where a Hyur would! 

 

Secondly, would catnip affect a Miqo'te? I have my doubts. However, it would be damned hilarious to see a Miqo'te rolling around on the ground in ecstasy. 

 

So, any other weird questions about Miqo'te? Or comments?

[Coatleque]

Yes, questions... many, many questions...

... none of them appropriate for a Knight to ask in public.

[LiadansWhisper]

Yes, questions... many, many questions...

... none of them appropriate for a Knight to ask in public.

 

You need a Super Sekrit Alter Ego to ask these questions, Coat.

[W'seckhi Asah]

Yes, questions... many, many questions...

... none of them appropriate for a Knight to ask in public.

Pssh. Don't let silly things like that stifle curiosity!

[Aduu Avagnar]

Funny as it may be, I do not believe that catnip would affect Miqo'te.

And have you not seen the Matrix? I firmly believe that Miqo's simply use a Pince Nez device on all their eyewear, as we know, everyone wanted to be Morpheus

[Dogberry]

Mi'qote seem like a lot of fun until you notice their sandpapery tongues. Makes kissing unpleasant. Among other things.

[Aduu Avagnar]

If they have sandpapery tongues, then they most likely have something that makes other things unpleasant also. If so, then I know for a fact that the females were not consulted about that.

 

Supernatural quotes aside, I have never rp'd Nako having a sandpapery tongue.

[Dat Oni]

Miqo'te are very similar to big cats like lions and tigers, in my opinion. Which is to say, Couerls and Tamayas in FF.

 

Catnip, I believe, would have an effect on them only if you wished it. In the wild, catnip is actually just mint, and big cats will chew on mint leaves and proceed to trip out for hours, so if you're rping them as I do, then yeah, sneaking a little mint into a piece of chocolate will mess them up.

 

As for glasses, yeah, totally impossible by conventional means, unless they clip onto the hair.

[Aduu Avagnar]

Miqo'te are very similar to big cats like lions and tigers, in my opinion. Which is to say, Couerls and Tamayas in FF.

 

Catnip, I believe, would have an effect on them only if you wished it. In the wild, catnip is actually just mint, and big cats will chew on mint leaves and proceed to trip out for hours, so if you're rping them as I do, then yeah, sneaking a little mint into a piece of chocolate will mess them up.

 

As for glasses, yeah, totally impossible by conventional means, unless they clip onto the hair.

personally I think that the Couerls and Tamayas are the big cat equivalent in Hydaelyn

 

I view Miqo'te closer to humans with feline features than anthropomorphic cats.

[W'seckhi Asah]

Miqo'te are very similar to big cats like lions and tigers, in my opinion. Which is to say, Couerls and Tamayas in FF.

 

Catnip, I believe, would have an effect on them only if you wished it. In the wild, catnip is actually just mint, and big cats will chew on mint leaves and proceed to trip out for hours, so if you're rping them as I do, then yeah, sneaking a little mint into a piece of chocolate will mess them up.

 

As for glasses, yeah, totally impossible by conventional means, unless they clip onto the hair.

 

Holy crap, the glasses thing is brilliant! I'm going to have this in my RP now. I was thinking something like tighter arms, but that might be headache inducing for the poor Miqo'te who has to wear them.

[LiadansWhisper]

Miqo'te are very similar to big cats like lions and tigers, in my opinion. Which is to say, Couerls and Tamayas in FF.

 

Catnip, I believe, would have an effect on them only if you wished it. In the wild, catnip is actually just mint, and big cats will chew on mint leaves and proceed to trip out for hours, so if you're rping them as I do, then yeah, sneaking a little mint into a piece of chocolate will mess them up.

 

As for glasses, yeah, totally impossible by conventional means, unless they clip onto the hair.

personally I think that the Couerls and Tamayas are the big cat equivalent in Hydaelyn

 

I view Miqo'te closer to humans with feline features than anthropomorphic cats.

 

God, I hope so.  Otherwise I can't figure out how the race continues to exist, because I don't know of a single woman who would put up with a barbed dick.

[Kailia]

I RP K'ailia and my other Miqo'te as being feline with human features, rather than the other way around. So yes, in the case of my miqo'te, Nepeta Cataria aka, catnip, does make them trip out.

 

However, reproduction department, I approach that as miqo'te being like humans there, except the fact that Miqo'te produce  mostly girls, with boys being very rare for either species of Miqo'te.

 

As for tongues, I do suspect their sense of taste is far more superior to other races. Do they have sandpaper tongues? I don't think so. But I do think they'd have more nerves within their tongues. I believe miqo'te have superior sight, taste, smell and hearing compared to the other races.

[LiadansWhisper]

I RP K'ailia and my other Miqo'te as being feline with human features, rather than the other way around. So yes, in the case of my miqo'te, Nepeta Cataria aka, catnip, does make them trip out.

 

However, reproduction department, I approach that as miqo'te being like humans there, except the fact that Miqo'te produce  mostly girls, with boys being very rare for either species of Miqo'te.

 

As for tongues, I do suspect their sense of taste is far more superior to other races. Do they have sandpaper tongues? I don't think so. But I do think they'd have more nerves within their tongues. I believe miqo'te have superior sight, taste, smell and hearing compared to the other races.

 

I would not be surprised if they did have superior senses to humans, but I've always thought that Moon Keepers have superior night vision and inferior daylight vision, and that Sun Seekers are the opposite - very good daytime vision, inferior night vision.

[TheLastCandle]

I RP K'ailia and my other Miqo'te as being feline with human features, rather than the other way around. So yes, in the case of my miqo'te, Nepeta Cataria aka, catnip, does make them trip out.

 

However, reproduction department, I approach that as miqo'te being like humans there, except the fact that Miqo'te produce  mostly girls, with boys being very rare for either species of Miqo'te.

 

As for tongues, I do suspect their sense of taste is far more superior to other races. Do they have sandpaper tongues? I don't think so. But I do think they'd have more nerves within their tongues. I believe miqo'te have superior sight, taste, smell and hearing compared to the other races.

Even elezen? The Wildwood blurb on the website makes a point of saying they have an incredibly keen sense of sight, which factors greatly into their unparalleled expertise as archers. Likewise for Duskwights and their hearing: "They have developed an acute sense of hearing, capable of detecting the faintest of sounds." 

For Miqo'te eyesight, I'd think it would depend on subrace, with Keepers seeing far better at night (hence the rounded pupils) and Seekers during the day (slitted). Both seem to naturally be quite agile and dextrous, though, just going by their starting attributes.

[FreelanceWizard]

Any glasses use hair clips, clearly.

 

I don't think there's been any lore one way or another on miqo'te and catnip or the finer bits of their morphology, so I guess you can do whatever you like in that regard, depending on whether you see them as more feline or human. I personally don't see a lot of evidence in game for them being particularly feline, but not everyone agrees (and there is that punny NPC outside of Fallgourd Float...).

 

There was lore -- I believe on the 1.0 main site -- that indicated miqo'te had particularly keen eyesight and hearing. I think it's safe to say that's probably true, but I personally class it as "on the upper edge of human ability." L'yhta is so oblivious most of the time that any advantage it might provide doesn't apply to her, at any rate. I do RP her as having particularly poor night vision, given the fact that she's a Seeker of the Sun, which is one reason why she likes staves that glow.

[Zyrusticae]

Better sense of taste and smell, sure. Sight and hearing, not so much.

 

Most four-legged mammals have better senses of smell than us humans do. In some cases, several hundreds of times better than our own. Cats and dogs, in particular, basically live in a world defined by scents, with sight and sound being supplementary senses. (Fun fact: cats have scent glands along the tail, on each side of their head, on their lips, base of their tail, chin, near their sex organs, and between their front paws, so their affectionate cuddling is actually a way of marking you as their family. Your furniture, on the other hand, is less fortunate.) I wouldn't be against Miqo'te having a sense of smell a few times better than humans (but not much more than that, because there are only so many sensory nerves to go around).

 

Sight, on the other hand... believe it or not, we humans have some of the best eyesight in the animal world. We can observe the full range of colors and our visual acuity is obviously very high. There are animals that can observe a more specialized range of the electromagnetic spectrum (like animals that have infrared vision) as well as animals with higher visual acuity (like most birds of prey), but never both at the same time. We have the "best of both worlds", you could say. If anything, it is likely that most Miqo'te would be partly colorblind (having blue and yellow cones, for example, but not red ones), at least if their feline heritage is anything to go by.

 

Hearing is complicated. Our hearing is omnidirectional, which means we may have a little bit more trouble picking out sounds from the rest of the background noise, but unlike creatures like cats, we can pick them out no matter what direction we're facing. Miqo'te, on the other hand, have focused hearing by default, and so while they have better hearing in the directions their ears are facing, they will naturally have worse hearing for anything that isn't in those particular directions. This is simply due to the physical design of their ears.

 

It should also be noted that you do NOT want an exceptionally sensitive sense of hearing, because that would just result in hyperacousis, and as anyone who's had that condition can tell you, it is NOT a boon to your everyday life.

 

And that is my exceptionally long-winded post about inconsequential fictional sapient fauna. I hope someone enjoyed it!

 

Edit:

For Miqo'te eyesight, I'd think it would depend on subrace, with Keepers seeing far better at night (hence the rounded pupils) and Seekers during the day (slitted). Both seem to naturally be quite agile and dextrous, though, just going by their starting attributes.

And just for completeness' sake, I should note here that real cats have both. Like any animal with complex eyes, their pupils will dilate based on the amount of light hitting their cornea at any one point in time, hence they will tend towards slitted (closed) pupils during the day and round (open) pupils during the night. If Squeenix wanted to be accurate, both Keepers and Seekers would have this feature, but programming functional eye muscles is probably more work than they're willing to put in for a single race.

[LiadansWhisper]

Even elezen? The Wildwood blurb on the website makes a point of saying they have an incredibly keen sense of sight, which factors greatly into their unparalleled expertise as archers. Likewise for Duskwights and their hearing: "They have developed an acute sense of hearing, capable of detecting the faintest of sounds."

 

Well, for whatever reason, the thing ate my first response. But, I think Wildwood having sharper eyesight while Duskwight have sharper hearing makes sense, given their divergent lifestyles.

 

For Miqo'te eyesight, I'd think it would depend on subrace, with Keepers seeing far better at night (hence the rounded pupils) and Seekers during the day (slitted). Both seem to naturally be quite agile and dextrous, though, just going by their starting attributes.

 

[Bumo]

As for tongues, I do suspect their sense of taste is far more superior to other races. Do they have sandpaper tongues? I don't think so. But I do think they'd have more nerves within their tongues.

 

If Miqo'te have catlike tongues, their sense of taste would actually be worse than the other races. Cats in the real world have 470 taste buds. In contrast, humans have 9,000. Cats also can't taste sweet foods because they lack the taste receptor for it. So, no cake for Miqo'te.

 

If Miqo'te have something similar to a Jacobson's organ, though, they could 'taste' scents.

[Aduu Avagnar]

As for tongues, I do suspect their sense of taste is far more superior to other races. Do they have sandpaper tongues? I don't think so. But I do think they'd have more nerves within their tongues.

 

If Miqo'te have catlike tongues, their sense of taste would actually be worse than the other races. Cats in the real world have 470 taste buds. In contrast, humans have 9,000. Cats also can't taste sweet foods because they lack the taste receptor for it. So, no cake for Miqo'te.

 

If Miqo'te have something similar to a Jacobson's organ, though, they could 'taste' scents.

Nako can taste Aether, but that's not really the same thing...

[Naunet]

Even elezen? The Wildwood blurb on the website makes a point of saying they have an incredibly keen sense of sight' date=' which factors greatly into their unparalleled expertise as archers. Likewise for Duskwights and their hearing: "They have developed an acute sense of hearing, capable of detecting the faintest of sounds." 

For Miqo'te eyesight, I'd think it would depend on subrace, with Keepers seeing far better at night (hence the rounded pupils) and Seekers during the day (slitted). Both seem to naturally be quite agile and dextrous, though, just going by their starting attributes.

 

As far as senses go, smell is probably a primary one for miqo'te. Elezen are more noted for their hearing, according to lore as you say. Keepers have good night vision for sure.

 

I don't really see any reason they would have a superior sense of taste. Cats IRL actually have pretty crappy taste and can't taste sweet things at all, so if one roleplays their miqo'te like a cat, say goodbye to enjoying cupcakes or cookies. I don't think I'd go that far with miqo'te, though, as I'm not a fan of treating them just like anthropomorphized cats. It's the same reason I don't roleplay any sort of "catnip" effect unique to them.

 

If Squeenix wanted to be accurate' date=' both Keepers and Seekers would have this feature, but programming functional eye muscles is probably more work than they're willing to put in for a single race.  [/quote']

 

I just go with Keeper pupils are larger overall, even when fully constricted.

[Knight Kat]

Just wanted to add something.

 

This a quote from this site: http://www.ffxivinfo.com/races/miqote.php

 

"During the Age of Endless Frost, as the seas turned to ice and passage over them became possible, Eorzea saw an influx of foreign fauna to her shores. This in turn brought the hunting tribes which subsisted upon them, the modern descendants of whom are today known as the Miqo'te.

 

Since then, the Miqo'te have diverged into two physically distinguishable groups — the diurnal Seekers of the Sun and the nocturnal Keepers of the Moon. Both groups share a superb olfactory sense and powerful leg musculature, results of a long evolution geared towards hunting and predation.

 

Adaptation to a hunting lifestyle has fashioned them with a keen sense of smell, powerful legs, and a tail which provides them with exceptional balance. Miqo'te are known to be very territorial, and many individuals tend to lead solitary lifestyles, particularly males. The few Miqo'te who have made the transition to life in Eorzean society are predominantly female."

 

This information can also be clearly read in character creation, in-game.

 

I don't know about the other senses (except Keeper night-vision and Seeker day-vision), but their sense of smell being superior is mentioned -twice-. "Superb olfactory sense" is the exact wording. I do not think it would be worth mentioning if it was just a little bit better than that of the other races.

 

On that note, I do not meta/power-game my Miqo's sense of smell. I often leave it up to the other players what my character can smell from them, or from the scene. If players do not stipulate what Kiht can smell, I just have her sense of smell strong enough to pick up and recognize an individual's unique scent.

 

In other words, if someone Kiht is familiar with is in the area, she can smell them, but may not know their exact location unless she sees them too.

[Kailia]

 

I RP K'ailia and my other Miqo'te as being feline with human features, rather than the other way around. So yes, in the case of my miqo'te, Nepeta Cataria aka, catnip, does make them trip out.

 

However, reproduction department, I approach that as miqo'te being like humans there, except the fact that Miqo'te produce  mostly girls, with boys being very rare for either species of Miqo'te.

 

As for tongues, I do suspect their sense of taste is far more superior to other races. Do they have sandpaper tongues? I don't think so. But I do think they'd have more nerves within their tongues. I believe miqo'te have superior sight, taste, smell and hearing compared to the other races.

 

I would not be surprised if they did have superior senses to humans, but I've always thought that Moon Keepers have superior night vision and inferior daylight vision, and that Sun Seekers are the opposite - very good daytime vision, inferior night vision.

 

Yeah that I definitely think is the main differences between Seekers and Keepers. Seekers see amazingly well during the day, not too well at night. And Keepers, would definitely be the opposite end of the spectrum, having exceptional night vision, but pretty poor vision during the day.

 

As for tongues, I do suspect their sense of taste is far more superior to other races. Do they have sandpaper tongues? I don't think so. But I do think they'd have more nerves within their tongues.

 

If Miqo'te have catlike tongues, their sense of taste would actually be worse than the other races. Cats in the real world have 470 taste buds. In contrast, humans have 9,000. Cats also can't taste sweet foods because they lack the taste receptor for it. So, no cake for Miqo'te.

 

If Miqo'te have something similar to a Jacobson's organ, though, they could 'taste' scents.

 

I did not know that about cats, so yeah I guess they wouldn't have superior taste to humans. That probably is one of the organs I do RP as being really not all that different from humans.

 

Just wanted to add something.

 

This a quote from this site: http://www.ffxivinfo.com/races/miqote.php

 

"During the Age of Endless Frost, as the seas turned to ice and passage over them became possible, Eorzea saw an influx of foreign fauna to her shores. This in turn brought the hunting tribes which subsisted upon them, the modern descendants of whom are today known as the Miqo'te.

 

Since then, the Miqo'te have diverged into two physically distinguishable groups — the diurnal Seekers of the Sun and the nocturnal Keepers of the Moon. Both groups share a superb olfactory sense and powerful leg musculature, results of a long evolution geared towards hunting and predation.

 

Adaptation to a hunting lifestyle has fashioned them with a keen sense of smell, powerful legs, and a tail which provides them with exceptional balance. Miqo'te are known to be very territorial, and many individuals tend to lead solitary lifestyles, particularly males. The few Miqo'te who have made the transition to life in Eorzean society are predominantly female."

 

This information can also be clearly read in character creation, in-game.

 

I don't know about the other senses (except Keeper night-vision and Seeker day-vision), but their sense of smell being superior is mentioned -twice-. "Superb olfactory sense" is the exact wording. I do not think it would be worth mentioning if it was just a little bit better than that of the other races.

 

On that note, I do not meta/power-game my Miqo's sense of smell. I often leave it up to the other players what my character can smell from them, or from the scene. If players do not stipulate what Kiht can smell, I just have her sense of smell strong enough to pick up and recognize an individual's unique scent.

 

In other words, if someone Kiht is familiar with is in the area, she can smell them, but may not know their exact location unless she sees them too.

 

So definitely good sense of smell and even hearing, based on the direction the ears are pointing. Eyesight as mentioned above, would depend a lot on the sub-species of Miqo'te.

[synaesthetic]

Since miqo'te intellectually appear to be equal to, well, every other race, it's unlikely that they actually have senses being considerably more sensitive than the human baseline.

 

Additional sensory input requires more brain space dedicated to processing it. Miqo'te brain size is pretty much identical to hyur, so if they actually had a sense of smell that was considerably greater than that of hyur, they would have to lose something somewhere else. Either in their other senses or in their cognitive abilities.

 

Unless we get into my own personal headcanon about the existence of "chimeric" forms in Hydaelyn, where accidental or intentional aetheric-induced evolution resulted in all the other races originating from the hyur ancestral stock. I can definitely see miqo'te as being a created race, a magically-engineered offshoot of Midlander hyur (or their ancestors) stock designed by A Wizard (probably more likely to be a whole mess o' wizards) to serve a specific role such as hunters, assassins, scouts. It wouldn't even surprise me that much if the Allagan Empire, or another precursor civilization, was responsible for the creation of all non-hyur races.

 

In that case, it would be entirely possible for miqo'te to have magically-amplified senses that don't have to follow the rules of mundane biology. Considering how high-magic the XIV setting is, this really doesn't seem to be much of a stretch to me.

[Dravus]

I see Miqo'te as being pretty similar to Hyur and closer to a human as we know them than a feline. Obviously they have some feline features but I think it's fair to suggest that they're rather subtle.

 

I also doubt that they'd be rolling around on the floor in response to the presence of catnip, assuming catnip even exists in Eorzea to begin with. A few 'touched' individuals might respond to it in such a manner but I'd wager that the more civilised and tribal Miqo'te would frown upon such erratic behaviour.

 

I'm not going to touch the whole 'barb' thing with a pole, though. It's rather creepy to act out in a role-playing environment and reeks of personal fetishes being shoehorned where it isn't really welcome. Though after the infamous 'Miqote mating' thread I'll bite my tongue and avoid commenting further on that particular subject.

 

Either way it'd be great to see more Miqo'te that aren't just played as raging sex fiends or with the 'lol dey liek a kitty xDDDDD'. My grim and serious Sunseeker is pretty lonely and only really interested in interacting with members of his own kind who aren't just a walking parody/stereotype.

[synaesthetic]

I've spent the past year trying to find people interested in roleplaying a plot more serious than tavern talk. :dodgy: