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Cats. And things that look like them.


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The way I roleplay M'sato is that he'll often move his ears about, especially when actively trying to listen for sounds, and that he has a sense of smell strong enough track. This means he also has an aversion to strong-smelling perfumes or medicines, and some alchemical practices within smelling distance will give him a headache unless he wears a mask to cover the smell.

 

Also, his ears and tail are a dead give away to Sato's overall mood. Him being a grouch, the ears are often flattened back with his tail swishing irritably behind him when he's interacting socially.

 

The strong lower body is also canon for him. I don't write him as being a kicking kung-fu master (the character is a magic-user, mostly), but he's practically got springs in his legs when it comes to jumping or crossing distances, and he can be agile and a tiny bit of an acrobat when it comes to him trying to avoid something.

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Yoshi has stated they are all the same species so aside from cosmetic differences and maybe a little better sight on on one race and smell on another they are all pretty much the same and will all reproduce in the same ways.

 

InB4 people don't know the difference between species and race.

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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.

 

 

 

Yup, that's what I follow. In order to avoid metagaming, I use Zhi's bad habits (notably the smoking and snorting things >>) to lessen impact during rp -- unless I'm rping with someone I know doesn't mind.

 

Being that they're cat people, I just quietly try not to think about the biology aspect. Except for the smell and strong legs (partially why I made her so adept at climbing) that the game mentions (and, since keepers are supposed to be nocturnal, I let her have great night vision), I rp Zhi as if she's just another person, with nothing else that screams 'cat'. It's one of those weird grey areas that will very probably never be resolved. My reaction to those tends to be to rp around them if I can at all help it. (unless we're talking setting, in which case I will forever mourn how incomplete Limsa feels and MAKE IT WORK, DAMMIT)

 

I have often thought about the tail and how someone born with a tail would use it. I will shamefully admit I forget to rp it as an extension of Zhi's body pretty often -- but I imagine if I had another extremity I would be using it when I talked and moved around; it wouldn't just hang about doing nothing. Now if only I wasn't so forgetful...

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Bearing in mind that ffxivinfo.com isn't an official lore site and has been known to contain incorrect and contradicted information, in this case, I think it's quoting either the 1.0 site or the original 2.0 site. The information does jibe with what's in character creation right now, so I'd call it accurate. I stand corrected on the vision and hearing, then. :) (Not that it matters for L'yhta, who can run right past people she needs to talk to and ignore them completely, wondering where they are, or plow into a wall when she's thinking through a problem...)

 

I have often thought about the tail and how someone born with a tail would use it. I will shamefully admit I forget to rp it as an extension of Zhi's body pretty often -- but I imagine if I had another extremity I would be using it when I talked and moved around; it wouldn't just hang about doing nothing. Now if only I wasn't so forgetful...

 

I try to work the tail into my RP as much as I can, because I think it's a great RP tool. It often accentuates something L'yhta's saying or betrays her feelings when she's trying (and largely failing) to be deceptive. This thread has some tail motions that could be used in RP.

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I try to work the tail into my RP as much as I can, because I think it's a great RP tool. It often accentuates something L'yhta's saying or betrays her feelings when she's trying (and largely failing) to be deceptive. This thread has some tail motions that could be used in RP.

 

Oh yeah, I def use it for emotions when she's strongly feeling something -- but more than that. You know, like using it to point, or tap someone, or using it like people use their hands when they're really engrossed in a topic of discussion. Using it to carry something light when the character's hands are full, that sort of thing. Typically for me, unless it's an emotional thing, it just hangs there dead, unmentioned, unless she's trying to hide the kink in it.

 

Though I still don't use it often enough for emotions, really.

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Oh yeah, I def use it for emotions when she's strongly feeling something -- but more than that. You know, like using it to point, or tap someone, or using it like people use their hands when they're really engrossed in a topic of discussion. Using it to carry something light when the character's hands are full, that sort of thing. Typically for me, unless it's an emotional thing, it just hangs there dead, unmentioned, unless she's trying to hide the kink in it.

 

Huh, I never thought about using it that way. :) I guess it never occurred to me that the miqo'te tail might be prehensile and not just something that serves for social signaling and balance -- though I have had L'yhta poke people with it to get their attention or tap it on a chair or table to enumerate points.

 

I wonder if there's any other examples of miqo'te tail behavior in the game's storylines?

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Oh yeah, I def use it for emotions when she's strongly feeling something -- but more than that. You know, like using it to point, or tap someone, or using it like people use their hands when they're really engrossed in a topic of discussion. Using it to carry something light when the character's hands are full, that sort of thing. Typically for me, unless it's an emotional thing, it just hangs there dead, unmentioned, unless she's trying to hide the kink in it.

 

Huh, I never thought about using it that way. :) I guess it never occurred to me that the miqo'te tail might be prehensile and not just something that serves for social signaling and balance -- though I have had L'yhta poke people with it to get their attention or tap it on a chair or table to enumerate points.

 

I wonder if there's any other examples of miqo'te tail behavior in the game's storylines?

 

Not necessarily prehensile, but just under direct conscious control. As long as it can be curved upwards, it can carry something (as evidenced by the numerous times I used to hang light toys off my parents' dog's tail *coughcough* ) . If you can move it, you can use it to gesture, or point, or tap things; I don't personally think it would be prehensile, but as long as it's under conscious control why not utilize it?

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I don't RP my character physically much like a cat. Her physical abilities aren't much different from a hyur, and I never emote the ears and tail.

 

I do give her a personality like a cat though. We can all imagine how much fun it would be if a cat had the body of a person.

 

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I like to think of miqo'tes as just "cat-like people". They have cat ears and tails, but they're just normal people. They might have honed senses like smell and sight, but otherwise... they're not cats. Their reflexes would be like those of normal people (except, of course, if your character trained to have cat-like reflexes). 

 

That's how I imagine them, anyway.

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Look, I'm just saying. The appeal of Mi'qote is that they're sexy athletic looking cat people, right? But, you know, other races let you play sexy athletic looking people. So if you're super into Mi'qote, odds are it's not the sexy athletic thing that does it for you.

 

(Please note that the views and opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of Dogberry, Inc.)

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Look, I'm just saying. The appeal of Mi'qote is that they're sexy athletic looking cat people, right? But, you know, other races let you play sexy athletic looking people. So if you're super into Mi'qote, odds are it's not the sexy athletic thing that does it for you.

 

(Please note that the views and opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of Dogberry, Inc.)

 

It makes perfect sense.

 

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Look, I'm just saying. The appeal of Mi'qote is that they're sexy athletic looking cat people, right?

 

Well, I mean, it could be the lore around the race, and how that shapes characters through their backgrounds. :) I've always found elezen interesting for that reason, too (more so after finishing the MSQ, especially the latest stuff in 2.3).

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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.

 

Yes, it does make sense. But I wrote that in response to the notion of Miqo'te having "better sight and hearing than the other races." The wording used in official materials for both elezen subraces makes me think Miqo'te eyesight (as a general thing, at least) wouldn't be as good as most Wildwoods and likewise for their hearing compared to Duskwights.

 

And just for completeness' sake' date=' 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. :)[/quote']

 

I'm going to venture a guess that how cats' eyes work is common knowledge to everyone here. :P But, as has been pointed out ad nauseum, Miqo'te are not "real cats," and their eyes don't adjust themselves in that manner. It's not a programming limitation, it's simply the way the two subraces have evolved according to lore. I've even seen some Keeper roleplayers account for their light sensitivity in their RP - wearing tinted glasses during the day, for example.

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I try to work the tail into my RP as much as I can, because I think it's a great RP tool. It often accentuates something L'yhta's saying or betrays her feelings when she's trying (and largely failing) to be deceptive. This thread has some tail motions that could be used in RP.

 

Oh yeah, I def use it for emotions when she's strongly feeling something -- but more than that.  You know, like using it to point, or tap someone, or using it like people use their hands when they're really engrossed in a topic of discussion.  Using it to carry something light when the character's hands are full, that sort of thing.  Typically for me, unless it's an emotional thing, it just hangs there dead, unmentioned, unless she's trying to hide the kink in it.

 

Though I still don't use it often enough for emotions, really.

 

Sato is fairly expressive with his tail. He doesn't use it to point with, but he will occasionally do things like brush it against someone when he's being affectionate, largely because I think that would be something a Miqo'te would still do. Not every motion a cat would do sits well with me, but the playful aspect of that, plus it being away of showing ownership, would seem about right.

 

The ears are a lot of fun, too, and people seem to respond well to that sort of expression. Ears swiveling, perking up, flattening back irritatedly, drooping when sad, and twitching a bit when thoughtful all sort of make for fun, vibrant body language.

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Way I see it, if I wanted to play a human-like char, I'd just play a Hyur. Instead, I wanted a species that better fit the remake of my old World of Warcraft character who was a druid that spent a lot of her time as a cat.

 

So Miqo'te I approach as being feline with human qualities, rather than the other way around. To me, it makes the race a lot more interesting and plays off of their feline characteristics than just being an every day human wandering around a city.

 

And what I've observed in videos from 1.x, and what I've seen in game, miqo'te do fit their own stereotypes, such as amazing jumpers, graceful like a cat in their movements, and can seem to always land on their feet.

 

Now Miqo'te eyes, we see the keepers with large rounded retinas. Suggesting they see quite well in the dark. But I imagine as keepers, they really have to squint in the daylight, or wear shades to protect their eyes when out in the open sun.

 

Seekers though have traditional cat eyes, narrow slits, which give them an advantage during the day, and helps their vision during the daylight time, but night time they'd probably have a hard time seeing. In fact I'd go so far as to say they probably see worse at night that a Hyur. Opposite end of the spectrum for keepers. Outstanding night vision, horrible during the day.

 

And lore does say they have good sense of smell and their hearing is more than likely up there with Elezen, only with the ability to point their ears in the direction of the sound, can be a lot more focused than Elezen or Lalafell.

 

Taste though is probably no different than a human, and reproduction is the same as humans as well. But the Miqo'te biology for some reason, produces far more females than males.

 

The fact we also see their tails move with their emotes, especially when expressing feelings, suggests they are very cat-like in that regard as well

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Sato is fairly expressive with his tail. He doesn't use it to point with, but he will occasionally do things like brush it against someone when he's being affectionate, largely because I think that would be something a Miqo'te would still do. Not every motion a cat would do sits well with me, but the playful aspect of that, plus it being away of showing ownership, would seem about right.

 

The ears are a lot of fun, too, and people seem to respond well to that sort of expression. Ears swiveling, perking up, flattening back irritatedly, drooping when sad, and twitching a bit when thoughtful all sort of make for fun, vibrant body language.

 

Yup! Though cats provide helpful examples of things to do when determining miqo'te behavior, I agree with you and Oscare -- they still aren't cats. Miqo'te aren't going to mirror all the things cats do. It's why I tend to try to think of the ears and tail not as exclusively catlike in how they would be used. Zhavi isn't a cat. She's not going to use her tail and ears exactly as a cat does.

 

Iunno, at the end of the day my choice to play miqo'te was purely ooc and not in relation to what I wanted to rp. I could have used any of the species for that, really, as the core would have stayed the same. I think the ears and tail are cute, particularly because I can't own a cat (second choice was a roe, because they are fabulous). I love cats. SO is allergic -- so I cannot become a crazy cat lady (at least not until we're old; if he dies first, all bets are off). So, during rp, I tend to rp the character more as a human than anything else. Then it becomes a game of how a person would use ears and tail, and how closely it would follow animal behavior. It's really loosey goosey, because I don't know much past the google and pet owner understanding of animal behavior. But it is fun to try to work into rp, and it is fun to think about. And it is interesting to see how often I forget Zhi has cat ears and tail, even when I'm rping in game and they're right in front of me.

 

 

(am I rationalizing my choice? Yes, yes I am. I got irl ribbing for it, too. ;_; )

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Since we're on the subject, quite literally the ONLY reason I went with Miqo'te for T'rahnu was because it was the only race with something close to what I had in mind for her height and facial features. If another race had a face like the one she has now I would have gone with that. (And if Lalafell were less rotund...)

 

Anyway, I will admit I have a bad habit of ignoring the cat ears and tail when it comes to expressing emotions. Doubly unfortunate considering the emotes in-game make it far too clear that the tail is highly involved with any gesticulation of any kind, so not using it is really a disservice to the race as a whole. :(

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As far as I see it, we have two things to truly pull from to be able to stick to lore. The information in writing given to us by Square, and the avatars in the game themselves.

 

Regarding the information from Square, it is said straight out that: "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." This is a direct quote from the character creation screen and has already been mentioned in this thread. It mentions the eyes of Seekers having vertically aligned pupils, while Keepers have longer ears, rounder eyes, more pronounced canines, and longer, skinnier tails.

 

That is all that is stated, to my knowledge, by Square regarding the biology/physiology of miqo'te.

 

So, looking at the in game avatars, the words are more-or-less well represented. Granted, with the help of sliders, ear length, tail length and bushiness, etc. can be changed, but overall everything else is as stated by Square. Seekers have the vertically aligned eyes, Keepers have rounded eyes. I haven't personally looked close enough to check the canine issue, but that's not really a talking point in this thread at the moment. Beyond that, the miqo'te look very human/hyur-like. The have all the same features a hyur has, save for their ears and tails.

 

Going a bit deeper and using the emotes, it seems that the tail and ears merely lend themselves to further solidify the emotion of the miqo'te. as has already been stated in this thread. That being said, nothing that I see would serve as evidence for the tail being able to be used for much more than wagging. Carrying a small amount of weight while still being "upright", maybe. Pointing at people and things, or even being prehensile enough to actually grab and hold onto things... or carry their own weight while hanging from a branch (like cartoon monkeys...) not so much....

 

So, using the evidence given to us, to be able to stick to the known lore... one would play their miqo'te as being fairly human/hyur-like, with ears and a tail capable of mirroring their emotions, having good sense of balance with powerful legs, and with a powerful sense of smell. Anything else would simply be conjecture on the player's part.

 

That being said, the night vision/day vision points in this thread would be a fairly logical conjecture. Being a little more sensitive to certain smells (good or bad) would be a fairly logical conjecture. Reacting to "cat nip" in a way that would differ from a hyur... eh... probably not. Any other physical differences (like what was oddly enough brought up in this thread)... also probably not.

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Alright, time for the more important questions.

 

1.) Do they claw the furniture?

2.) Do they like getting their chins scratched?

3.) Do they raise their ass in the air if you touch the base of their tail?

4.) Do they bury their poo in sand?

5.) Do they run when you spray water at them?

6.) When they leave the Quicksand do they often turn around and come right back in?

7.) Do they sleep on things you're trying to read?

8.) When given an expensive toy you bought, do they instead prefer to play with a dead leaf that just blew inside?

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3.) Do they raise their ass in the air if you touch the base of their tail?

 

I was told by a friend of mine in my free company, Kondo, that only the females are allowed to touch fluffy tails.  *sage nod*  So don't do that, or they might take your hand off.  >.>

 

:cactuar:

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Alright, time for the more important questions.

 

1.) Do they claw the furniture?

2.) Do they like getting their chins scratched?

3.) Do they raise their ass in the air if you touch the base of their tail?

4.) Do they bury their poo in sand?

5.) Do they run when you spray water at them?

6.) When they leave the Quicksand do they often turn around and come right back in?

7.) Do they sleep on things you're trying to read?

8.) When given an expensive toy you bought, do they instead prefer to play with a dead leaf that just blew inside?

 

1.) Yes (Franz was furious)

2) Who doesn't?

3) Try it and find out

4) Tribal ones probably do, but Nat is housebroken

5) Yes

6) Yes

7) More accurately, 'do they interrupt your work' I think Crofte would say yes.

8) No. Nat is pretty excited to play with the Cannon that Kage bought.

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Going a bit deeper and using the emotes, it seems that the tail and ears merely lend themselves to further solidify the emotion of the miqo'te. as has already been stated in this thread. That being said, nothing that I see would serve as evidence for the tail being able to be used for much more than wagging. Carrying a small amount of weight while still being "upright", maybe. Pointing at people and things, or even being prehensile enough to actually grab and hold onto things... or carry their own weight while hanging from a branch (like cartoon monkeys...) not so much....

 

So, using the evidence given to us, to be able to stick to the known lore... one would play their miqo'te as being fairly human/hyur-like, with ears and a tail capable of mirroring their emotions, having good sense of balance with powerful legs, and with a powerful sense of smell. Anything else would simply be conjecture on the player's part.

 

 

If you have control over a body part, why couldn't you use it to point, or hit someone with it? Are you saying that miqo'te don't have full control over their tails? It just seems a bit silly to me, but I guess to each their own.

 

(just to reiterate, no one has really claimed miqo'te tails are prehensile if we're going by the definition of 'able to grasp something' ;) )

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Going a bit deeper and using the emotes, it seems that the tail and ears merely lend themselves to further solidify the emotion of the miqo'te. as has already been stated in this thread. That being said, nothing that I see would serve as evidence for the tail being able to be used for much more than wagging. Carrying a small amount of weight while still being "upright", maybe. Pointing at people and things, or even being prehensile enough to actually grab and hold onto things... or carry their own weight while hanging from a branch (like cartoon monkeys...) not so much....

 

So, using the evidence given to us, to be able to stick to the known lore... one would play their miqo'te as being fairly human/hyur-like, with ears and a tail capable of mirroring their emotions, having good sense of balance with powerful legs, and with a powerful sense of smell. Anything else would simply be conjecture on the player's part.

 

 

If you have control over a body part, why couldn't you use it to point, or hit someone with it?  Are you saying that miqo'te don't have full control over their tails?  It just seems a bit silly to me, but I guess to each their own.

 

(just to reiterate, no one has really claimed miqo'te tails are prehensile  if we're going by the definition of 'able to grasp something' ;) )

 

The image of a Miqo'te having a prehensile tail that can grab things is hilarious to me, like a Miqo'te monk wielding a third pugilist glove. Three Talon fighting style, go!

 

On the topic at hand, though, I was always under the impression that Miqo'te were more or less Hyur with some minor cat-like physical traits like the already aforementioned keener senses, night vision, agility and balance with the tail, etc. I'm not sure how much I believe them having cat-like behaviour too. Would Miqo'te knock over vases and stuff to get attention, too?

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I'm one of those miqo'te RPers that treads on the 'more animalistic than Hyur' for my miqo'te.  A lot of C'rhisi's biology and mannerisms are based on lionesses.  Mahvashi is based primarily on smaller 'big cats' like caracals, ocelots, things like that.  I think there's a wealth of RP opportunities on basing certain things on big cat social behavior versus domesticated cat social behavior.  Big cats (especially the really social ones like lions) have really complicated social structures in the wild that can change and adapt even to what kind of environment they live in.  Then you have big cats like tigers or leopards that are very minimally social, or even large predators that aren't feline like wild dogs that are matriarchal and you can find a lot of neat inspirations for 'wild animal' behavior if you're looking for stuff beyond the domesticated cat for inspiration.

 

I love that miqo'te have some acknowledged wild aspects to them and I absolutely play this up.  Part of why I play miqo'te is because they're not Hyur with big ears and a tail, they've got their own unique biologies, societies, cultures, all sorts of fun RP hooks.

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