Miqo'te and Meracydia

[JeanneOrnitier]

I've had it in my head for years that Miqo'te originally came from Meracydia before their migration to Eorzea, but when I was thinking about that today I realized I don't actually know where this idea came from. Does anyone know if it's true, or if not where I may have gotten this misconception?

[Yuella]

The Encyclopedia says the Miqo'te crossed the frozen sea during the age of endless frost, which is the fifth umbral era. Meracydia became a wasteland after the fourth umbral era so they probably didn't crossover from Meracydia.

[Iscah]

The in-game description for sesame seeds says that the plant is "native to Meracydia, and thought to have first been brought to Eorzea by migrating Miqo'te".

That doesn't rule it out from coming via Ilsabard, where the Miqo'te apparently cane from during the Age of Endless Frost, but it certainly connects them.

The other specifically Meracydian plant, aloe, also mentions being used by the Miqo'te, though it grows in southern Thanalan where that might just mean the current U tribe.

I feel like the descriptions might have been previously more specific about linking the Miqo'te to originating from Meracydia, but maybe I'm just misremembering – though it's also possible that they've been stealth-edited after people pointed out the inconsistency.

[MikkoAkure]

Miqo'te are from both Meracydia AND crossed the frozen sea from Ilsabard. Both were from different times. They were originally kicked out of Eorzea by the Allagans who didn't like their style, but who knows where they were before that or if they were there from the ultimate beginning.

But I believe Miqo'te being linked to Meracydia was originally 1.0 lore since I don't remember anything about calamities pre-ARR. Some of it has remained in a few item descriptions that reference both Meracydia and Miqo'te together though.

Loading Screen DAT File: “It is believed the Miqo'te first came to Eorzea during the Fifth Umbral Era, fleeing their ravaged homeland on the southern continent of Meracydia.”
Aloe: “A thick spiny-leaved cactus indigenous to the southern continent of Meracydia. The Miqo'te are known to treat severe burns with the cool gel-like substance found inside the leaves.”
Sesame Seeds: “A tiny seed rich in aromatic oil, sesame is native to Meracydia, and thought to have first been brought to Eorzea by migrating Miqo'te.”

Per Koji Fox:

“First off, you have so many eras. You talk about them coming over the land bridge, but then that’s very recent. In general, people are migrating everywhere. Think about it in terms of Earth. Where were people, and how did they move, over a thousand years? Now multiply that by six eras! Shit happens here, in Eorzea, a Calamity, it gets too hot, it gets too cold; people move away to a place that’s better. They break off there, and come back.

So the Fifth Umbral comes and ice starts appearing and disappearing all over, and you can get to and from different places that you couldn’t before, sometimes; even the southern islands where the Lalafell are from. The Miqo’te are coming back from Ilsabard and they’re coming back from Meracydia, but they got there in different time periods. They converge on places that are rich in the aether, because that’s what it’s all about. Places that have more aether are going to be more lush, be better for growing crops and surviving, and there’s going to be animals.

And we explain that; everybody ends up converging in Eorzea because that’s where the best aether is and that’s where you’re going to have the best hunting. The Miqo’te especially being hunters are going to follow where the best animals are and that’s where it’s all rich. You go beyond that and things start losing that. There’s still aether everywhere in the world, but it’s the rich places where people converge. It’s like the Mesopotamian thing where you have the two rivers there, the rest is desert, people are going to come back here, even if they get shut out by a flood, they’ll come back at some time.”

Props to Sounsyy for gathering this.

[Anonymoose]

It appears as though in 1.0, the Meracydia connection was more emphasized, while in ARR the Ilsabard connection is more emphasized. The trouble is you can't fully unring the Meracydia bell unless you do it with an iron fist, so now it's a little bit of both, and more, as ice forms and melts throughout the year prior to and following the true Age of Endless Frost.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Thanks, everyone. So it seems like it's one of those forgotten-but-not-retconned bits of lore.

[Veloran]

If I was to posit a bit of theory, it seems to me like one clan of Miqo'te came from Meracydia and the other from Ilsabard. If memory serves me right G'raha's ancestor was a conscript of the Allagan empire, and Meracydia was conquered before the empire's fall he was involved in, so it could be he simply returned to his people on the continent after the calamity. Furthermore Meracydia seems to have a history of sun worship, and the Miqo'te crossing a great ice bridge to migrate to a land of plenty during an endless winter certainly sounds like "seeking the sun".

As for the Keepers of the Moon and Ilsabard, that's just more vague and the lore of both the people and the continent is a bit too thin to draw any real conclusions.

[MikkoAkure]

If I was to posit a bit of theory, it seems to me like one clan of Miqo'te came from Meracydia and the other from Ilsabard. If memory serves me right G'raha's ancestor was a conscript of the Allagan empire, and Meracydia was conquered before the empire's fall he was involved in, so it could be he simply returned to his people on the continent after the calamity. Furthermore Meracydia seems to have a history of sun worship, and the Miqo'te crossing a great ice bridge to migrate to a land of plenty during an endless winter certainly sounds like "seeking the sun".

As for the Keepers of the Moon and Ilsabard, that's just more vague and the lore of both the people and the continent is a bit too thin to draw any real conclusions.

The lore book states that G'raha Tia's ancestors and the Seekers of the Sun were living on the "outskirts of Ilsabard" during the Third Astral Era.

Some could have made it to Meracydia in a different era though.