No Garleans on the first?

[Kisshu]

The only races that we know should only be on the Source are the Ixal, Ananta, and dragons.

Don't forget tonberries. Were created during the War of the Magi.

[Vidu]

Don't forget tonberries. Were created during the War of the Magi.

...do we count tonberries as a race though? Seeing how they're essintially lalafell transformed into tonberries by the curse/disease - specially considering that we have people working on finding a remedy for it to reverse the process. Most tonberries are also asleep, so at least I'm having a hard time to consider them a real race, which to me would imply that they're more or less content with being tonberries and are building a society etc. - but thats not what they're doing, they're working on curing the tonberry-disease to become lalafells again.
And on that note: the same curse or disease could exist on other Shards. The tonberries arent in the same category as the chimeras the Allags created - thinking about it, they seem closer to Sin-Eaters in the sense that the body of a healthy lalafell-being is transformed into something else.

[Espritduo]

The thing about Tonberries is that they were created by a magic plague that came from a voidsent and named after a creature of myth they resembled, also presumably a voidsent. What the tonberry disease is doing is turning its victims into something that looks (and perhaps acts) like the voidsent original tonberries from the same realm as the disease creator. We could, and I hope someday will, still see original tonberries somewhere or other, even on the First, since voidsent can pop up anywhere, anyshard.

[Jennah]

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.

[Iscah]

Considering that Emet-Selch claimed to also be behind the Ronkan Empire...

Did he? I thought it was only Allag that he mentioned having past involvement in.

[Enkidoh]

Did he? I thought it was only Allag that he mentioned having past involvement in.

I don't remember he specifically stating he had a hand in Ronka's founding, only that he boasted to the Warrior of Light and the Archons about being behind the formation of "Garlemald, Allag and a half dozen other nations with imperial ambitions besides" when he first made himself known to them in the scene in the Crystarium.

It's unclear if Ronka was his handiwork, as by all intents and purposes from what we know of it they were not malevolent like Allag and Garlemald are, although there is that mural recording the destruction of Amaurot and the Sundering within a Ronka structure (Qitana Ravel), which seems a little too convenient for my liking (despite Emet actually seeming surprised to find such a mural there).

But it does fit his MO either way.

[MikkoAkure]

I think when he said that he was talking about in the Source. Each of the shards had their own ascian assigned to it when it was time to rejoin so I don’t think they’d really waste their time on a shard when it’s not going to be rejoined for another 5000 years.

[Nalien]

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.

I actually figured the Ronkan were a pre-Omega Allagan equivalent. Those cube enemies are basically rocky ADS units, for example. We know the Allagan used to work a whole lot more with stone based on their ruins, it was only after they discovered Omega and aetherochemical research exploded that they adopted the more dull metal aesthetic more associated with them these days, since the First had no Omega, it stands to reason they'd never go down that technological route. They'd stick with the magical stoneworks.

[LineageRazor]

It's also worth noting that the Ronkan Empire seemed to have been fairly benevolent. At least, the game hasn't gone to any lengths to describe them as warlike or expansionistic. Voeburt, too, seemed to keep to itself. If the Ascians had their fingers in creating these places to sow chaos, the efforts seem halfhearted at best.

The Ascians' MO on the Shards seems to be different from theirs on the Source. On the Source, it's CHAOS, FOREVERMORE!!! And once there's enough Chaos, they work on flooding one of the Shards with an element. What, exactly, they do to cause this flooding, is unclear. We're getting hints of how they did it on the First (manipulation of the Warriors of Light, use of Eden, etc), but Light isn't exactly an element. Whatever they do to get the ball rolling on a Shard, it may not require the cooperation of a powerful empire as is often the case on the Source. And without that need, they likely just let kingdoms rise and fall on their own. (Voeburt, of course, was an exception, given that it factored into the manipulation of the Warriors of Light.)

[Vyrerus]

I lean towards Garleans being aliens unique to The Source or a post Sundering race unique to the planet that cannot manipulate aether because they are not tied to the planet as it originally had been. They could also be genetically engineered by the Ascians to eventually be suitable host bodies for the Ancients upon the revival of their souls, though that's quite a stretch on my part.

There's a lot to answer and speculate on regarding Garleans, because they're shown to have wildly fantastic technology, swords capable of summoning tigers/performing aetherial geometry, dreadnaughts capable of killing primals, and basically anything the plot needs them to do. Most recently with the Ruby Weapon they did something really crazy, and the hint at how they did it means they've gotten a big tech boost from the spaceship that is The Ragnarok.

Of course, it's easy to say they were wiped away in The Flood of Light, but we can't tie that to a geographical location on The Source, because where races are/were differs shard to shard. Like how so many Au Ra are in Norvrandt. How the Lalafell are in what I'd consider Vylbrand(Kholusia). I think I could speculate about Garleans all day.