No New Races... But New Clans?

[Lauront]

I don't think you can make a race start at a higher level than the others or lock them out of the earlier story.

I can't see them ever making Garleans playable for the amount of story complication that would cause.

(Admittedly I would have said that about beastlike races too, and yet now we have Hrothgar. But letting people play as the "big bad" enemy race that is also barely different to an existing non-lore-breaking race is less likely to win the battle of "worth implementing for variety".)

Less complicated than male Viera being playable from the beginning... at least Purebloods have more of a presence than they do.

No more ridiculous than how they integrate any other new race, really...

[KizuyaKatogami]

Ironic people keep arguing muh lore as to why certain races or clans can be in place when we’ve seen countless times how much they bend the lore for any reason they want.

[Lium]

Exactly

10 characters

[Iscah]

Less complicated than male Viera being playable from the beginning... at least Purebloods have more of a presence than they do.

No more ridiculous than how they integrate any other new race, really...

Being the one male Viera who ran away from the forest and made it to Eorzea isn't that impossible, and once you're there, there isn't much to remark on besides that Viera might generally be regarded as exotic (but that goes for both genders).

Garleans, on the other hand, are the common enemy and every time you meet new people they would rightly be wary of you. The few "friendly" Garleans in the earlier stages of the game (Cid, Lucia) cover up their third eye to pass as Hyuran.

I think it would seem far more strange for a character to be Garlean without drawing comment.

[Lauront]

Being the one male Viera who ran away from the forest and made it to Eorzea isn't that impossible, and once you're there, there isn't much to remark on besides that Viera might generally be regarded as exotic (but that goes for both genders).

Garleans, on the other hand, are the common enemy and every time you meet new people they would rightly be wary of you. The few "friendly" Garleans in the earlier stages of the game (Cid, Lucia) cover up their third eye to pass as Hyuran.

I think it would seem far more strange for a character to be Garlean without drawing comment.

And I disagree. I think it is stranger to be a Hrothgar in Ul'dah, a Duskwight in Gridania, a Xaela or even a Raen in Coerthas, or a male Viera just about anywhere, compared to a third eye which can be hidden via glamours or hair. In all honesty, I think it's little more than the fact that some people don't like Garleans because muh "villains" that leads to such tortured logic.

SE doesn't really go to any great lengths to provide a lore explanation for new races, which are meant to apply backwards because your character is supposed to be the WoL from the outset (unlike other games where this assumption isn't the case), and leaves much of the mental handiwork there to the players. I don't see Garlean Purebloods as posing a unique challenge in this respect.