The Common Khajiiti Mindset

First in this post, I’ll be looking at the common Khajiiti mindset as is.

The best way we can understand the Khajiiti mindset is through the Ahzirr Traajijazeri. Of course not all of it, but the introduction is perfectly fine.

First, a direct quote

The Khajiit mind is not engineered for self-reflection. We simply do what we do, and let the world be damned.

That right there is a very simplistic way of putting it, but it’s a good place to base your understanding of it and work up.

To consider this, first take all you understand of people’s reflections and their self-awareness of their actions and forget it. The Khajiit do not have it. To put it in a way we could really understand, they “live in the moment” so to speak and the concept of self isn’t all that big either. It’s not a very good term though. The Khajiit think of what they wish to do, then they do it. To structure it, The Khajiit have the what, where, how and when concepts but not the why. The why is irrelevant to them.

Now when I say its irrleveant, I dont mean they have no concept of doing something could be bad. You couldn’t tell a Khajiit to jump into a river of slaughterfish who would go do it just because he didn’t think it could harm him. It’s hard to fully explain the concept.

Now here’s where it’s going to get harder, explaining the “simple” truth:

“q’zi no vano thzina ualizz" — “When I contradict myself, I am telling the truth.”

I think this could be referring to the Khajiit’s deceptive nature (which if you don’t know is a gift given to them by Azurah. They are able to hide their true nature and intentions). In this interpretation, when the Khajiit acts outside of his/her intentions they are telling/showing the truth of their thoughts/goals. A basic way of saying this is that, to the Khajiit, actions speak more truthfully than words.

There can be other interpretations for this, but I think one of them that’s similar to what I had just mentioned is that when a Khajiit is contradicting their thoughts or preconceived ideas about something, they are exposing the truth to it. I’m not sure how else to develop this interpretation, but think of it as when they lie, they are further understanding the truth that they hide.

A small addition here, the Khajiit have a lesser sense of understanding of morality. Tied in with the premise of not caring/thinking of why to do things or to rationalise their actions, there is no Ta’agra word for “rules” or anything similar. The closest thing is “thjizzrini” which means “foolish concepts”. I believe this shows that the idea of living by certain rules is either foolish to the Khajiit or just foreign in nature to them.

Now I’m going to cover the Khajiit mindset that we see more often in TES. First you’re probably thinking what’s up when the Khajiit so often speak in third person but there’s also a number of cases where they refer to themselves as I. I believe this to be the cause of Tamrielic culture (most notably Cyrodiilic) being constantly present around the Khajiit’s day to day life. After long enough I believe the Khajiit just use the term I to replace their name in sentences, whether or not they truly think differently about the self is unknown to me. It’s suggested that in public around other cultures/people they’ll use “I” but when in private and with other Khajiit they will revert back to third-person.

I believe that last part can be shown when comparing Oblivion and Skyrim. In Oblivion you have several Khajiit who work and live in cities just like regular people and it’s in oblivion where I found the most “I”s. In Skyrim, however, it’s much different. The Khajiit aren’t allowed in ANY hold capital and thus are less exposed to Nord culture on a day-to-day basis, making them less used to the concept of “I”.

Also I remember a particular Khajiit in Oblivion who was complaining about the Argonians in the city, she even stated that she refused to drink the town’s water because they swim in it. Now, not drinking water because lizard people swim in it seems pretty acceptable, but she goes on to say some downright nasty things, I think she later requests you kill an Argonian on a Thieves’ Guild quest of which you are meant to steal only. She states that they aren’t like Khajiit and not even Imperial (this could be interpreted as she sees Khajiit as EITHER higher or lower in hierarchy to Imperials) showing a clear bias. I’m not saying that racism isn’t unheard of in Elsweyr but the quote made her seem like she was so deserving, I think a trait picked up from living around Imperials for so long who appear to me to have at least some form of entitlement towards things, at least that a concept of deserving something exists to them and this has negatively affected the Khajiit, altering a part of her mindset.

At first, the Khajiit can obviously be troublesome for outside cultures, resulting in repeat criminal offences or just unacceptable behaviour that isn’t known to them but after time they can assimilate into foreign cultures whilst still likely keeping the ideas and base thought processes of the Khajiiti mind. I hope you’ve enjoyed my post and learned something about the way Khajiit think.