This is where the lore of ARR starts to lose cohesion. If Garleans are a race unto themselves, why look like 90% of one race and 10% of another, with a few random elements thrown in? Female Nael has every characteristic of being Elezen apart from her ears and third eye. Her hairstyle is Elezen (Coco has the same one, but auburn) and her face, eyes, posture, movements and mannerisms are all Elezen. Just as everything about v1 Nael was surmised to be Elezen. They are most certainly not Highlanders.

You can say it's artistic license (or developer laziness) but it's actually quite confusing. Elezen but not? One physical characteristic is Hyuran? They have a mystical third eye? Okay, sure...

It's also bandied about that Garleans are "severed" from aether, when by the same token we're told everything on Hydaelyn contains the stuff. Plants, animals, earth, water, rocks, the very air we breathe. They shouldn't be able to do anything associated with aether then, and yet we see Garlean thaumaturges casting Thunder. Bahamut taking Nael's "aetheric essence" and re-forming it. A whole load of Garlean machinery using "magitek" aka. ceruleum (concentrated aetheric energy extracted from crystals). Then there's the Echo. To a race that has zero connection with aether, why the drive to understand something fundamentally connected to it?

I just have a real problem understanding the practicality of the lore regarding these two issues. Quite often, it's directly conflicting or certain parts are poorly explained, we're tossed scraps as to the reality of what Garleans are, how they work, how aether exists outside of Eorzea, why Hydaelyn focused all of her attention onto a single sub-continent etc. Makes for good discussion though.