Khajiit / Khajiit Has Wares

About

The Khajiit are a cat-like people from the video game series The Elder Scrolls. While known for their mercantile skills as well as their abilities in sneaking and thievery they are also fondly and memetically remembered for their quirky speech patterns and their tendency to refer to themselves in the third person, or merely as "Khajiit." This has caused their repeated catchphrase, Khajiit has wares, if you have coin to be parodied in memes.

Origin

Khajiit are one out of ten playable races in the series, first appearing in the first series entry, Arena in 1994, although the Khajiit sub-species seen in that game are not very cat-like compared to later entries.

The Elder Scrolls Wiki and series lore confirm that there are many different subspecies of Khajiit, and the ones we see are merely the most widespread bipedal variety.^[1]

Spread

As Khajiit have been more and more clearly defined as the series progresses, their traits and quirks have become more clear. Accordingly, several of their actions and statements from Skyrim became memes in the fandom. There is a subreddit for Khajiit fans and roleplayers of Khajiit at r/Khajiits.^[5]

Related Memes

Khajiit Has Wares, If You Have Coin

"Khajiit has wares, if you have coin" is a line from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In the years following the games' release, the line inspired multiple image macros and parodies on social media (examples shown below).

The line is often spoken by the non-player Khajiit named Ma'jhad, who is part of a merchant caravan and fence for the Thieves' Guild. Due to the travel pattern of the caravan, this encounter will often take place early in the game as the player approaches the city of Whiterun, and was many first-time players' encounter with Khajiit.

Internet users have been seen photographing their own cats in situations where they resemble Khajiit merchants and captioning image macros with the line. Additionally 'shitpost' threads are often spotted on places like GameFAQs where the original post or thread title is merely the line in question recanted.^[2] Google search for 'Khajiit has wares' produces over 67,000 results at time of writing.^[6]

Khajiit Stole Nothing

"Khajiit stole nothing" and "Khajiit is innocent of this crime" have also been repeated as memed by the Skyrim franchise in a similar vein as Dindu Nuffin, in which various captivated felines such as lions are shown imprisoned or restrained, with the image captioned to suggest a Khajiit resisting arrest.

This meme references the racial stereotype and prejudice by other races within the Elder Scrolls world that all Khajiits are thieves on some level. 'Khajiit stole nothing' turns up approximately 31,000 Google search results at time of writing.^[7]

Skooma

Skooma is a fictional drug within the world of The Elder Scrolls which is often traded or used by Khajiit. It produces psychedelic effects as a hallucinogen. Although invented by the Dark Elves, its use in-game is often by the Khajiit, and they are more commonly the ones who tend to appear under its influence in fan-created content.^[3]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References