No Garleans on the first?

[MikkoAkure]

snip.

Yeah, but what I was trying to get at was that the people that populate a country aren't tied to the country and didn't pop into existence when the country came to be and may or may not have existed prior to the Sundering.

[Nightsword]

Spoiler /10char

The pure-blooded Garlean people existed before the Empire and go all the way back to at least Goug, which was where they lived before moving to Ilsabard. Just because the Empire was created by the Ascians doesn’t necessarily mean the people were too.

We have one example of ancient Goug "human" that appears in the game.

Mustadio in his "human" form, doesn't have the 3rd eye. So that had to have come about after Ultima was sealed away.

[MikkoAkure]

We have one example of ancient Goug "human" that appears in the game.

Mustadio in his "human" form, doesn't have the 3rd eye. So that had to have come about after Ultima was sealed away.

Practically speaking, I don't believe a character that's on screen for 5 seconds would have warranted the development team to create a unique head for that character just to justify the lore. Also, it's already stated in-game that the people of Goug didn't have magic either. Why would the eye suddenly appear in the bloodline between Goug and now yet the limitations associated with it pre-existed Goug? It's more likely with said character that the developers were lazy/didn't care

[Nightsword]

Practically speaking, I don't believe a character that's on screen for 5 seconds would have warranted the development team to create a unique head for that character just to justify the lore. Also, it's already stated in-game that the people of Goug didn't have magic either. Why would the eye suddenly appear in the bloodline between Goug and now yet the limitations associated with it pre-existed Goug? It's more likely with said character that the developers were lazy/didn't care

The Lexentales are full blooded Garleans, yet their ancestors were not a part of the Goug race from that time frame meaning the surviving one must have went into hiding with them and if they could pass as a Goug that means the 3rd eye would have been an augmentation either given to the Ancestor or their child. Which would mean not every member of the Goug had the 3rd eye and only part of them did and eventually the non-3rd eye members of the race were bred out. Also where in the game did it state the Goug didn't have magic since many of the creations employ it, specifically Time Magic and Math Magic.

[Theodric]

I'm not convinced that their absence necessarily means anything other than the fact that their counterparts on the First were simply lost to the Flood. The inability to manipulate aether is a huge disadvantage and without a nudge from the Ascians they likely never committed to technological advancements to any significant degree. It strikes me as likely that they simply died off. Most to the initial Flood and any who happened to be in Norvrandt at the time were likely picked off by Sin Eaters.

It's a slim possibility that Garleans are a unique race in regards to the Source, though I'd rather not have every aspect of their society and being somehow tied to being the result of an Ascian or Allagan scheme. We already know they have ancestors in the form of the inhabitants of Goug. Having their ancestors be aliens in the same vein as Midgardsormr and his brood would intrigue me more than the Garleans being a manufactured slave race.

[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.