Hello.
Welcome.
I don't often make posts here, especially ones not containing some art, but today I bring to you an idea- or a few of them, rather. You see, a few friends of mine convinced me to put these ideas to digital paper somewhere, in the chance that I am correct (and I will be correct), so that I may have proof or evidence to support my inevitable era of gloating.
You might be thinking, "Sesame Seed Theory? What in the Twelve could that mean?" and I humbly ask you to climb aboard the Train of Thought and observe my process to the prediction of a future Final Fantasy XIV expansion. Or, at the very least, a loredrop of currently unexplored territory.
Part 1: Leaving the Station
It all started with a personal desire to learn more about our beloved catfolks, the Miqo'te. Where did they come from? Where did they go? Where did they come from, Cotton-eyed Allagan Empire?
Each of these questions do indeed have an earnest canonical answer, but if we were to truly start from the beginning of my quest, we would ask, "What real life cultural influence inspired the culture of the Miqo'te?" Sure, this is a fantasy world with fantasy politics and fantasy locations, but it's more than clear that there have been a number of cultural influences upon the world building and design choices within FFXIV.
I first grew curious while trying to consider what languages might be considered the canonical mother tongue of the Miqo'te. For an easy and distinct example, we know the Elves are French. We can derive this from their names, and somewhat from the fashions of Ishgard, at the very least. It's possible there's even more you could pull up to provide evidence for this fact, but I think names like "Fourchenault," "House Fortemps," and "Charlemend de Durendaire" speak for themselves. Just a hunch, though.
So, that brings me back to my original thought, "What language(s) influenced the Miqo'te names and/or naming conventions? Their dress? Their ways of living?" There was very little for me to go off of in the ways of canon lore. We know they exist as tribes, and two overarching "ethnicities" as the canon puts it, and that they are "diasporized across Eorzea," thus leaving them in a place of assimilation, as most of them have successfully integrated themselves into Eorzean culture (most likely based on central Europe.) There are a few remaining tribes within Eorzea who have resisted this fate, like the Coeurlclaws, however there is still little to be taken from their in-game existence as their visual appearance as bandits do not deviate from the norms of the Shroud. Tural is an interesting case, because we have discovered that there is at least one tribe of Miqo'te native to the continent, specifically located in Shaaloani.
You see how I made that word bold?
Part 2: A Long Way From Home
Tribes... hunting... sometimes nomadic... native to their ancestral lands of Shaaloani...
Oh my god they're Indigenous
Okay, yeah, I know. It's maybe already a little obvious. But I still have so many questions. Native to where? We have answers for the Hhetsarro tribe, because we know they are native to Shaaloani. Under all assumptions, that is their land. But what about... pretty much any of the others? We have to go back.
During the Fifth Umbral Calamity, the Age of Endless Frost-
Right, sorry. In the Third Astral Era, the Allagan Empire, lead by Emperor Xande, sought to conquer Meracydia, but was pushed back by what we now recognize as Primals summoned by the natives of the land, thanks to Ascian Emet-Selch showing them how to do so. Then a bunch of stuff happened, the Allagans advanced their technology again, and used it to overpower and contain these Primals along with other creatures and structures from Meracydia in Azys Lla as trophies of their conquest.
You see how I made that word bold again?
You know who were native to Meracydia?
Tribes of Miqo'te. Among other peoples and races, of course, but we aren't talking about them. And also none of them (currently) exist anywhere else within the canon world, so there's not much to say, nor do they help my case....
or do they?
Anyways, the Empire destroyed Meracydia, the Ascians essentially manipulated this to happen, and the Miqo'te natives of Meracydia specifically are said to have been imprisoned and/or relocated to Ilsabard by the Allagan Empire after all of this, so that's how they got there, and then to everywhere else. The rest of the world simply will not let them be.
We know that most, or at the very least some Miqo'te come from Meracydia. It's hard to know what their lives were like in their mother nation, but considering the traditions of Miqo'te groups, it feels relatively safe to say they were always indigenous, this notion confirmed by the Native group(s) within Tural.*
*I am keeping this plural to allow for any canonical groups that simply aren't important enough to the game or its narrative to be identified.
"But... now what? The place is decimated and there's nothing about the current Miqo'te civilizations that tell us anything about their origins. That's... kind why we're here, right?"
Sorry, I got excited. Yes, that is why we are here, but there ARE things the Miqo'te have shared with us.
Finally. We are here. The Sesame Seed.
It's native to Meracydia?
Brought to Eorzea by migrating Miqo'te?
Well that's an awfully kind way of describing "imprisoned, uprooted, and enslaved."
But I guess that's besides the point right now. What's important, is the seed. The sesame seed. The seed of sesame variety.
With a quick Gooble search we can find that in real life, in our real world, on our Mother Planet Earth, sesame seeds are native to Sub-Saharan Africa, and largely produced in South Asia.
Hm. Interesting.
Y'know what else is native to Sub-Saharan Africa?
Yeah.
Remember that 'lil guy up there?
That is the 'hippo calf minion' from FFXIV, which if you refer to its in-game journal description, you would find text that reads:
"Hippopotami are native to Meracydia, and scholars point to their presence in Thavnair as proof that trade thrived between the lands long ago."
Trade? Between Thavnair and Meracydia?
Between what is essentially the game's equivalent to South Asia and... well... I guess Sub-Saharan Africa? Wow, that sounds a little bit familiar.
Oh, right. I also just found this uh- this slip of paper that says "Remnants of the old Miqo'te tongue can be seen in their distinctive "huntspeak"—a system of tongue-clicks and whistles used to communicate with companions while in pursuit of quarry." I tore it out of your copy of the 'Encyclopædia Eorzea,' I hope you don't mind.
Tongue-clicks... and whistles.... hm... what languages do I know of, as a very very novice linguist and nerd with a general interest in languages and conlanguages, could this sound like?
Well, frankly, not many by name, nor will I pretend that I do, because I'm not an expert and was raised in a small rural town in the United States, however GENERALLY speaking, there are many languages found within the continent of Africa that do indeed utilize the "click-consonant" otherwise known as "clicks."
So at this point, yeah, great, I'm like. 50% closer to figuring out any kind of language to superimpose upon the Miqo'te, even if it's still its own thing at its core. Cool. I care more about the fact that I just fell into the realization that Meracydia seems like it could have been, or even IS some kind of FFXIV Africa, and we might see it sooner than you'd think thanks to the increasingly more frequent mentions of, and references to, Meracydia.
So yeah. Meracydia is Africa.
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