Existential crisis here

[Payadopa]

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.




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.

Interesting. I has no idea!
One would think such information gets covered in one of the lore books. Just saying it's taboo is kind of a cop-out. It certainly doesn't seem like one whenever I happen to be in Limsa. xD

[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.)

[Zer0]

Question as it's on topic, but doesn't Fufucha of the Botanist guild have that 3rd eye thing? Or is that a customization option on lala's that I don't recall being a thing.

[Lumivyory]

Question as it's on topic, but doesn't Fufucha of the Botanist guild have that 3rd eye thing? Or is that a customization option on lala's that I don't recall being a thing.

If you're talking about these then yes, it's an option available for Dunesfolk lalas.

[wereotter]

I could be misremembering here... but I could have sworn at one point in the Heavensward story she even shows us that she has the third eye. But that also might just be me assuming it was there because of the way she wears her hair and circlet to potentially cover it up.

[Packetdancer]

Question as it's on topic, but doesn't Fufucha of the Botanist guild have that 3rd eye thing? Or is that a customization option on lala's that I don't recall being a thing.

Lalafell and Miqo'te both have options which vaguely resemble the third eye, but I believe they are all visibly gemstones or similar decoration affixed to the skin, a'la bindi in the real world.

In contrast, the Garlean third-eye is visibly a natural organ, as it emerges through the skin rather than being affixed to it. (I want to say that it's not bone but is still hard a'la keratin, but I don't have the encyclopedia with me to check if that's explicitly stated or not.)

I could be misremembering here... but I could have sworn at one point in the Heavensward story she even shows us that she has the third eye. But that also might just be me assuming it was there because of the way she wears her hair and circlet to potentially cover it up.

I think you're right, though won't swear to it; I am fairly sure I remember Lucia taking off the circlet to reveal her Garlean identity (by showing the third eye) in the cutscene when we were all ready to head off to Azys Lla, but it's been a While since I saw that cutscene so it might be memory fitting the storyline, rather than fitting the actual visuals. Either way, all the adult pureblood Garleans we know of that I can think of either visibly have the third eye or wear something (like Cid's goggles that are perpetually on his forehead, or Lucia's circlet) which would conceal it.

[Jojoya]

I could be misremembering here... but I could have sworn at one point in the Heavensward story she even shows us that she has the third eye. But that also might just be me assuming it was there because of the way she wears her hair and circlet to potentially cover it up.

She does. It's on the airship iin Sea of Clouds when she talked about how she came to server Aymeric. Her circlet is definitely there to hide the eye just as Cid hides his with his goggles.