Existential crisis here

[Enkidoh]

Technically 'pure-blood Garlean' seems to be more a genetic trait than an actual 'race', as although their usual physical appearence seems to be light skinned, fair haired and takes after midlander hyur in appearence (like Cid, Nero, Lucia etc), there are confirmed situations where there are pure-blooded Garleans with other appearences that resemble different races.

Specifically Nael was long suspected of being elezen (due to using elezen animations) and was confirmed in Second Coil to have an elezen apparence (specifically wildwood with fairer skin) but possessing the pure-blood Garlean third eye. Likewise Gaius was also in SB is revealed to be dark skinned and dark haired, and looks more like a highlander hyur than a midlander like 'regular' Garleans. Both possess the Garlean third-eye.

Nael probably gets a pass though given the Darnus family apparently having a lineage that dates back to the days of Ancient Allag, so their family tree probably got mixed up somewhere along the line, to say nothing of genetic manipulation. But I digress.

[MikkoAkure]

Technically 'pure-blood Garlean' seems to be more a genetic trait than an actual 'race', as although their usual physical appearence seems to be light skinned, fair haired and takes after midlander hyur in appearence (like Cid, Nero, Lucia etc), there are confirmed situations where there are pure-blooded Garleans with other appearences that resemble different races.

Specifically Nael was long suspected of being elezen (due to using elezen animations) and was confirmed in Second Coil to have an elezen apparence (specifically wildwood with fairer skin) but possessing the pure-blood Garlean third eye. Likewise Gaius was also in SB is revealed to be dark skinned and dark haired, and looks more like a highlander hyur than a midlander like 'regular' Garleans. Both possess the Garlean third-eye.

Nero, Nael, Lucia, Gaius, Maxima, and most other Garleans use elezen bodies with custom heads. Cid and Severa use midlander hyur bodies or at least the skeleton underneath. That's why Cid is so much shorter than Nero and Gaius when they're together. I'd still say Garleans are different enough to constitute their own race.

Maybe I'm completely off here but I thought the lore says that only the mother's race gets inherited. So a female Hyur and a male Hrothgar would still make a Hyur. It's only little things like pointy ears (Hilda) that can get inherited.

This is fanon that is not true and is not in the game at all. I'm pretty sure it was made up by an RP forum and it keeps getting spread around and around to the point people think it's true. The reason for Hilda being a midlander with pointy ears is more to do with the fact that the devs didn't want to make a whole new body for her so they created a custom head with pointy ears and put it on top of a midlander body. Severa's mother is a hyur yet she has a third-eye and Arenvald does not.

According to Koji Fox, the races don't mix much due to cultural taboos and on top of that it seems that they don't seem to be very genetically compatible either. The only mix-races we know for sure exist are hyur+elezen and hyur+garlean. All of the midlander residents of Ishgard have a little elezen in them, then there's Hilda and the baby in Crystarium. And I'm still not convinced that highlander hyur aren't hyur+roegadyn. With all of those at least, the races are very similar-ish to each other and I believe there was an official mention that hyur and elezen have some historical relation to each other. Then there's the legendary yet unconfirmed story of an au ra and a hyur having a child that is missing some scales. Despite miqo'te NPCs being very promiscuous, there is nothing at all for us to go on for proof of hyur+miqo'te babies which tells me those races are incompatible of conceiving, let alone anything else less "human" than a miqo'te.

[grinkdaboy]

one of the yellow questlines in post 4.x infers that hyurs and miqo'te can successfully reproduce; the ex-garlean overseer of one of the little villages who was gonna run off and kill himself out of fear of being imprisoned or worse for his part in the garlean occupation. basically the catgirl loves him and one of them say something to the affect of once he's out of jail they're gonna get together and start a family

[TheMightyMollusk]

one of the yellow questlines in post 4.x infers that hyurs and miqo'te can successfully reproduce; the ex-garlean overseer of one of the little villages who was gonna run off and kill himself out of fear of being imprisoned or worse for his part in the garlean occupation. basically the catgirl loves him and one of them say something to the affect of once he's out of jail they're gonna get together and start a family

All of the races can interbreed. The main reason they don't is cultural taboos. (And all of the extra work making half-breed character models.)

[Packetdancer]

Specifically Nael was long suspected of being elezen (due to using elezen animations) and was confirmed in Second Coil to have an elezen apparence (specifically wildwood with fairer skin) but possessing the pure-blood Garlean third eye. Likewise Gaius was also in SB is revealed to be dark skinned and dark haired, and looks more like a highlander hyur than a midlander like 'regular' Garleans. Both possess the Garlean third-eye.

Nael probably gets a pass though given the Darnus family apparently having a lineage that dates back to the days of Ancient Allag, so their family tree probably got mixed up somewhere along the line, to say nothing of genetic manipulation. But I digress.

In the cutscenes when we see Eula/Nael in her original form and without her helmet on, I could swear she's got Hyur ears rather than Elezen. Am I misremembering? (I'm not in game to go check.)

Either way, the original people of Garlemald are largely descended from the refugees from the Ivalician city of Goug, after that so-called Clockwork City was destroyed and they resettled in northern Ilsabard. From what evidence we have, the people of Goug shared the Garlean handicap inasmuch as they were largely unable to manipulate aether (thus use any magic), hence Goug being a clockwork city of purely mechanical wonders.

So far as I know, the origin of the 'third-eye' that gives them echolocation-ish(?) spatial awareness has never been revealed; whether it's something they had when still living in Goug, or something developed over time in Ilsabard, or something done to them by the Ascians who had been manipulating them, or whatever.