Garlean Playable Race (?)

[Theodric]

throw in a retcon where the blessing of light/echo grants people that are aetherically challenged (like that lalafell from the blm questline) the ability to use aether normally

That could potentially work. It wouldn't feel cheap to me, either, since the Echo is already something with near limitless potential.

As for the idea that Pureblood Garleans would be shunned and never welcomed during the MSQ's, I don't think that's the case. Certainly, the example of Alphinaud not supporting a Garlean playable character seems strange to me when he was prepared to travel to the heart of Garlemald itself to try and set up peace talks.

It's the equivalent of suggesting that nobody should be able to play an Imperial or High Elf in Skyrim because they're distrusted at the time of the game due to the civil war going on. But as we know from that game, not every High Elf is aligned with the Thalmor and not every Imperial is aligned with the Empire. To bring it back to FFXIV, that's the case with Pureblood Garleans as well. Not every Pureblood Garlean is aligned with Imperial Garlemald.

Personally I don't have a problem with their inclusion and actively support it. Others are free to disagree, of course, though I think it's pretty clear that neither side is going to change their mind - especially when many of the 'issues' and 'obstacles' are based around subjective plot elements.

[Lanadra]

Part of the lore is they are not able to use magic, so they would have to be locked out of any job that can use magic or manipulate aether at all. Which is why I could never happen.

It is also forbidden for any non-Padjali to become a White Mage, the WoL, a non-Padjali, becomes an exception. Summoning as a more advanced art (as in, not the basic Carbuncles of Arcanists) is long dead.. yet somehow the WoL is able to revive it. The WoL also becomes chosen by a Fairy is able to revive the arts of the Scholar. In all three of these examples, and there's probably more, the WoL is an exceptionally unusual exception to what would normally be a rule (arts is forbidden or dead). It would be no different with a Garlean WoL, they would be the exception to the rule 'Garleans cannot normally use magic'. Things are only impossible if you convince yourself of such and thus never even try.

[KizuyaKatogami]

We do not need more races. Period. You think Viera and lionboy been successful?

I mean that’s an opinion. Just because the races haven’t been integrated very well, that doesn’t mean we don’t need more. I could see a Garlean race being introduced maybe in 7.0 or 8.0, hopefully after they do a graphics overhaul. A lot of people don’t even seem to know the lore of them in the first place and just say oh they can’t use aether. When as Theodric kindly stated, isn’t entirely true.

[Anhra]

I would prefer it if they would put the effort into creating a new race rather into fixing jobs/the combat system and pvp which need that attention way more.

[Waterscape]

No that will not happen , first they can't use magic , second yoshida already said that they will not had anymore race in the future.

[KizuyaKatogami]

And that's not taking into account all the technical limitations and the fact we're never getting another race again.

I love that you’re stating this as fact when you’re wrong. Yoshi P himself stated beforehand they said they couldn’t do anymore races, however recently they’ve been given more lee-way and there is the possibility of them in the future. So that’s a false claim right there.

[MikkoAkure]

Fail to see how a Pureblood, who could arguably hide away their third eye with magic glamours, is more of an issue than any of the above. And in case being nearby one with their third eye on display breaks muh immersion, how about a WoL in a chicken suit?

Read that carefully. It matters little if one thinks this is a "retcon" or whatever else; it is the current understanding on their ability to wield magic, and it allows for some exceptions, which the WoL could certainly fit without any handwaving over and above the usual - all without even requiring the contrivance of the Resonance. As for the Echo? Unless Garlean Purebloods don't share the same type of soul everyone else does, they too should, in principle, be able to have the Echo awakened within them.

Last I checked "eluded all but a few" in regards to an entire race means exceptionally rare and we still have yet to see a single Garlean even among the special NPCs who can natively wield magic. The Encyclopedia also isn't exactly an all knowing source since it's written in-universe and has been wrong before. Still though, that's a whole lotta reach to make a race that's not even that aesthetically different from what we already have just to play something that's even edgier than male au ra.

I love that you’re stating this as fact when you’re wrong. Yoshi P himself stated beforehand they said they couldn’t do anymore races, however recently they’ve been given more lee-way and there is the possibility of them in the future. So that’s a false claim right there.

False claim how? They've already been up and down on the technical limitations and that the time and labor costs increase with every additional race/gender added. While they said we're getting male viera in 6.0 and female hrothgar "later", they also said that the work to make male viera was done on the graphics team's free time. Us getting male viera isn't going to magically allow us to get everything under the moon. They didn't open the floodgates to new races as much as they somehow actually managed to squeeze a few drops of blood from a stone.

Right now as the game exists, it's going to be extremely difficult to add anything new for races. To think otherwise for the game's current state is being delusional. Yeah, they have talked about an overhaul, but the amount of work required for that would delay an expansion at best and we have no real leads at all on guessing when or if that may actually happen. EW will be the end of the current story and the beginning of a new one, separate from the rest. Does that mean that 7.0 will be the overhaul for new players incoming? Maybe, but we haven't even heard whispers about that and EW isn't even out yet so there's nothing we can do except fruitlessly argue on the OF and I've been in this game for over a decade now and learned a long time ago that there's no point in wasting mental energy on maybes and hoping to get everything you want.

Even if all of the above happened and we got our overhaul and they were going to add a new race, do you think Garlean would even be on their list? I personally don't think so, looking at au ra and how they preferred hrothgar over viera, which was tacked on for the fanservice. Garleans don't give us anything new at and are just hyur-eared elezen with a white ball stuck in their head.

[Iscah]

They've already been up and down on the technical limitations and that the time and labor costs increase with every additional race/gender added. While they said we're getting male viera in 6.0 and female hrothgar "later", they also said that the work to make male viera was done on the graphics team's free time. Us getting male viera isn't going to magically allow us to get everything under the moon. They didn't open the floodgates to new races as much as they somehow actually managed to squeeze a few drops of blood from a stone.

This. This is important to grasp.

They said that they couldn't afford to add more races. And then they have looked at their resources and decided "okay, maybe we can squeeze just one more in to complete what we already started".

That is not a sign that they can add more again. That's a sign that – unless the resources available to them change – they can't add anything more because they just used up their last bit of wiggle room.

The existence of one extra thing does not automatically mean they can add every other thing people want to suggest, because it has taken up the resources that might have been needed to fund the other thing and you can't have both.

[Theodric]

This. This is important to grasp.

They said that they couldn't afford to add more races. And then they have looked at their resources and decided "okay, maybe we can squeeze just one more in to complete what we already started".

That is not a sign that they can add more again. That's a sign that – unless the resources available to them change – they can't add anything more because they just used up their last bit of wiggle room.

They've said many such things over the years and then changed their stance later on.

Out of curiosity, is FFXIV your first MMO? I ask because it wasn't at all uncommon for the development team in WoW to claim that they weren't going to do something or couldn't do specific things only to mysteriously find a way to implement those elements - quite swiftly - when subscription numbers began to decline.

Indeed, that was very much the case for character customisation WoW. A much older game which has managed to add multiple new playable races over the years and expanded character customisation not once, but twice throughout the game's lifespan.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Right now as the game exists, it\\'s going to be extremely difficult to add anything new for races. To think otherwise for the game\\'s current state is being delusional. Yeah, they have talked about an overhaul, but the amount of work required for that would delay an expansion at best and we have no real leads at all on guessing when or if that may actually happen. EW will be the end of the current story and the beginning of a new one, separate from the rest. Does that mean that 7.0 will be the overhaul for new players incoming? Maybe, but we haven\\'t even heard whispers about that and EW isn\\'t even out yet so there\\'s nothing we can do except fruitlessly argue on the OF and I\\'ve been in this game for over a decade now and learned a long time ago that there\\'s no point in wasting mental energy on maybes and hoping to get everything you want.

Even if all of the above happened and we got our overhaul and they were going to add a new race, do you think Garlean would even be on their list? I personally don\\'t think so, looking at au ra and how they preferred hrothgar over viera, which was tacked on for the fanservice. Garleans don\\'t give us anything new at and are just hyur-eared elezen with a white ball stuck in their head.

You can say the same for literally every race. Hrothgar are just hairy roes. Viera are just elezen with bunny ears. It’s just funny to me people are so quick to shut these things down, but then cannot even back up their claims with accurate lore or things the devs have said. Yoshi P himself said while before they didn’t think they could add more races after hrothgar and viera, now that they’ve been backed more, it is a possibility in the future whereas before it was a hard no. All they’ve done is reached for lore things. They literally bend the lore all the time. They did it for female roe, they did it for male miqote, they did it for male viera. This isn’t anything new. People still using the idiotic lore excuse despite Male Viera literally being here. I thought y’all would have learned lmao.Also, hilarious to me you say there’s no point “wasting energy on maybe’s and hope you get what you want.” Yet...guess what? Omg that’s exactly why we got Male Viera! Idk what this clownery line of thinking is...but it’s literally been refuted in multiple instances.