Gaelicatnip and Mi'qote

[Khalithar]

So I was talking about some of the plants and references to smoking with a friend of mine when she mentioned the catnip item. Then I remembered this item exists and I noticed a plot hole! Or maybe it was intentionally left there by SE!

Item description for Gaelcatnip:

"A relative to pepper- and spearmint, gaelicatnip is an aromatic herb often brewed into teas. While it has no effect on the five races, the oil contained in the leaves is known to cause gaelicats and other normally aggressive feline beastkin to exhibit excessively playful behavior."

So it has no effect on the five races... Hyur, Au Ra, Elezen, Roe, and Lalafell. Ergo it must have an effect on Miqote also! Considering this item was released in Heavensward when a sixth race came out, clearly they were referring to the non-feline races in the game.

Miqote = Beastkin confirmed!

Or maybe it's just a plothole and someone forgot about the Au Ra when making the item description.

[Seraphor]

"The five races" implies there are only five races. Obviously written before Au Ra were added.

[Khalithar]

"The five races" implies there are only five races. Obviously written before Au Ra were added.

I figured as much, but when I saw the item I suddenly remembered there were six races. Someone get Koji Fox and Moose on the line! We need this critical piece of lore clarified immediately! For science!

[Fenral]

I believe "the Five Races" is a general umbrella term for the races inhabiting Eorzea (Hyur, Elezen, Lalafell, Roegadyn, Miqo'te, Au Ra, and Garlean). All seven of them. And that's without counting the don't-call-them-beast-tribes that live in Eorzea and abroad.


Funny how you don't see that term used much any more. I wonder why?

[Anonymoose]

Someone get Koji Fox and Moose on the line! We need this critical piece of lore clarified immediately! For science!

We could undermine the whole concern by pointing out that Miqo'te are, all other things being equal, spoken, not beastkin, anyway. Or we could point out that whether comparisons to cats are embraced or scorned varies from Miqo'te to Miqo'te.

But you all sound rather philosophical about a deeper concern; to summarize the last few posts: What if the term "five races" is anachronistic jargon from before the dev. team expanded the base game just an arbitrary distinction drawn by some centuries-old Eorzean pomp ignorant of all beyond Sixth Astral Era Aldenard and the most populous races which incidentally called it home at that time? Did the dev. team not use the term "race" to imply a shared "mankind-ness"? And did they not use "five races" even despite the fact that most Eorzeans of the last generation would surely know of the Garleans? Who was this long-forgotten fop to cap the line at five in the first place?

And is it really a text bug that people still say it? Or should we assume that such cases are always referring to the Hyur, Elezen, Lalafell, Miqo'te, and Roegadyn and that it has always been and will always be a junk cultural phrase perpetuated by ignorant NPCs?

Welcome (back) to the wild world of reframing (aka addition retcons). Who knows what's REALLY true when NEW REVELATIONS could strike at any moment?

[MistakeNot]

I believe "the Five Races" is a general umbrella term for the races inhabiting Eorzea (Hyur, Elezen, Lalafell, Roegadyn, Miqo'te, Au Ra, and Garlean). All seven of them. And that's without counting the don't-call-them-beast-tribes that live in Eorzea and abroad.

Until quite recently neither Au Ra nor Garleans lived in Eorzea. The term "the Five Races" is undoubtedly older than that.

[YianKutku]

Until quite recently neither Au Ra nor Garleans lived in Eorzea. The term "the Five Races" is undoubtedly older than that.

Younger than the Allagans, though, since we know the Allagans obviously spanned the globe, and so had knowledge of the non-Eorzean races.

Also dragons exist in Eorzea and are definitely Spoken, but are not considered one of the Races, so who even knows. Are they Beast Tribe?

Also also surely it's not the Six Races, but the Twelve Races, due to the two variations in each playable character option? (Could we assign each to one of the Twelve?)

To be more serious, I think this is just Koji Fox being a bit too used to FFXI; I recall an interview where he was talking about the playable races, and went "Five Races... no, wait, six races now".

[Lucke]

I'm more nitpicky about the term "races". It SHOULD be the five* SPECIES. *6 now, and I wouldn't necessarily call Garleans as a different race, more like sub-race to regular Hyurs. Races can create offspring with each other, species can't. IE in real life, a Human cannot create offspring with a....cat, but a Caucasian human can create offspring with an African American for example. AFAIK, we haven't seen any legit mixed races except Elezen + Hyur. There's the Roegadad in the Saucer with a Hyur kid, but we don't know for sure if he's a biological child of Roegadad or simply been orphaned in the Calamity then adopted out to Roegadad. The Elezen and Hyur seem to be MUCH more similar and may even share an ancestor race since they can create offspring but still, I haven't seen any Laladyns or Miqo'hyurs. Thal's Balls this just gets confusing. "The Five Races" may just roll off the tongue better than "The Five Species".

[ObsidianFire]

We have one mention of Hyur and Au Ra having children, so there's that too...

[Frizze]

There is no scientist mad enough to try cross breeding a lala with one of the acceptable races. They are loathsome soulless monsters, more closely related to the common potato then to any sentient creature. Miqozen? Augadyn? Hyurleans? Whatever else(that excludes lala)? All some degree of acceptable.