No Garleans on the first?

[Bright-Flower]

My headcanon is they just didn't survive the Flood. And if some few did they may have bred into the local population and lost their unique traits anyway over the 100 year gap between the flood and WOL arrival.

[Stepjam]

One possible thought:
Considering that Emet-Selch claimed to also be behind the Ronkan Empire, it's not out of the question that the ancient Ronkans were the First's Garlean-equivalents, who died out (naturally?) a few thousand years back. Their constructs even kinda look like stone-age magitek.

The first king of Ronka was a hrothgar though

[TheMightyMollusk]

Ascians can possess any body they want, so that's not necessarily a big deterrent.