Quote Originally Posted by Eyvind View Post
It should be noted that the reason you will never see them playable - at least not the silver-haired "pureblood" Garleans like Cid, Livia, and the emperor - is that they are congenitally incapable of using magic. Cid and Livia never cast a spell, and it is the reason that the empire relies so much on technology. That would shut out every Disciple of Magic class, not to mention aether-using abilities of non-mage classes.

Every magic-using Garlean is some dark-haired conscript of a conquered nation, using a Midlander hyur who probably wanted nothing more than to serve their term of forced service in peace until the Warrior of Light breaks into their castrum to kill them for crafting mats...
Actually, they can. It's stated in the lore book that they simply have little ability to manipulate the aether (but not entirely incapable) but the extent of it is unknown. Lucia can be seen casting cure during the fight with the other grand companies in the tourney. It could have been an accidental typo they forgot to correct, or she was using an item to imitate cure, or simply they really are capable of magic. I assume the ones that do cast spells probably struggle to reach the same potency as other mages do. I recall there being a few other instances of Garleans using magic, but I can't bring the specifics to mind.