Garlean Playable Race (?)

[Theodric]

We may know there are good Garleans out there, but the NPCs we meet won't and it makes 0 sense in context.

We already see many NPC's readily working alongside defectors from Garlemald and the major organisations that our character works with do not discriminate based on race or background. Breaking the cycle of distrust and conflict is...the major plot element of a great many storylines throughout the entirety of the game thus far.

I don't think they would add any context either. I highly doubt they'd take the time and care to add any special dialogue in the MSQ based on your race choice that's different than what presently exists.

They didn't add any special dialogue for other race and gender combinations added to the game at a point later than ARR. Thus they wouldn't need to do as much in the case of a hypothetical Pureblood Garlean option.

It would be jarring to be playing a Garlean while every NPC ignores your existence and goes on at length about how they brutalized their nations and you meet people who only exist because of violent interactions between pureblood Garleans and the locals. Also jarring would be walking around in the daylight without getting arrested or any character treating you with suspicion at all or Garlean soldiers attacking you on sight despite your 3rd eye. Yes the other new races have had some lore bending or handwaving but nothing to this magnitude.

I respectfully disagree. I don't think it'd be jarring at all and I believe it to be a subjective element at play - nor at any point are Pureblood Garleans or Garlean defectors shown to be arrested or hunted down in the streets if they are not aligned with Imperial Garlemald. We also know that the Warrior of Light is effectively a thrill seeker and mercenary for hire on many fronts, often with little ties to whatever nation he or she hails from. It also doesn't take very long for the player character to hold significant sway over multiple world leaders/prominent figures...so I doubt the fact that the player character is a Xaela or a Pureblood Garlean or a Hyur or a Viera is going to matter much to them.

Also, none of the examples you listed have a permanent physical trait that differentiates them from baseline humans. Garleans are instantly recognizable.

Given that the majority of Eorzeans are canonically incapable of reading or writing there's a pretty good chance that they wouldn't know what a Pureblood Garlean even looked like - to say nothing of the fact that a third eye is easily hidden through the use of strategic hair placement, headgear or via a glamour.

In the end, the biggest difference between male viera and Garleans is that there was a lot of vocal want for viera and a thread that has nearly 2k likes. People aren't clamoring to play Garleans except for you and the 2-3 others posting over and over. I've yet to see a compelling argument for why playable Garleans deserve to exist. At least male viera are making up for the missing gender of an existing race.

Putting aside the fact that every request thread needs to start somewhere, I think it is rather disingenuous - perhaps unintentionally so - to imply that there's no demand for Pureblood Garleans as a playable race at the same time as actively shutting down attempts to push for them to be added to the game.

Indeed, one might wonder if the real opposition comes from a fear that the request might actually gather some traction and come to be implemented in-game. We also know that popularity alone doesn't always equal whether something will be added to the game or not.

There's also a lot of fans of Garlemald and role-players who already choose to portray their characters as being Pureblood Garleans. Perhaps a search for 'Garlean' on Twitter alongside the FFXIV tag would be a good start to get a quick and easy glimpse at that. I know a lot of them don't bother posting on the official forums, though - because they tend to tire of the usual song and dance that usually arises where they're told they're wrong to like or support the 'bad guys' even though the game's writers have confirmed multiple times in interviews that the game world isn't intended to be taken in the context of 'good' and 'evil' but merely a nuanced, complex matter of perspective. I imagine that reflects in the views of the general populace, too - and if you'd like, I'm happy to find and link those interviews here.

Come to think of it, a playable Pureblood Garlean would be very much in line with that premise. A lot of people also enjoy playing a character with a lot to prove or with the odds stacked against them, too. I could see it drawing a lot of new players to the game - I always felt like there were a lot of story similarities between Pureblood Garleans and the Blood Elves of WoW for example and I believe there's been quite the influx of WoW players checking out FFXIV lately.

For what it's worth, I could understand the story not making sense if people were asking for playable Pureblood Garleans who are still fighting under the banner of Imperial Garlemald and proclaiming their superiority over the rest of Eorzea but that isn't what is being asked for here.

Ultimately, though, the prudent course would be to agree to disagree I believe.

[Iscah]

I could see Garleans being added after next expansion where they may become a more neutral presence for us. Older stories might be weird playing as a Garlean but you'd have to figure maybe your adventurer has something going on that prevents them from being loyal to the empire. IDK.

This can easily be addressed. Have either Hydaelin/Zodiark explode at the end of 6.0 showering the world in aether and omg you guys Garleans can use magic now wow

Whatever happens, the race can't just become playable based on an event halfway through the story. It has to be in place from the beginning because one a race is added it can be picked from the beginning.

You know what else would be jarring? Playing a duskwight elezen in gridania and being able to meet with the seedseer and being able to become a conjurer despite the blatant racism and lack of freedom/equality they have. Yet...it’s still possible. It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the way it is.Same with Hrothgar in Uldah. A beast-like race not even questioned by the city despite being prejudice against all beast tribes. It's just there with no explanation or questions asked.

There's nothing stopping a Duskwight from doing those things; it's just that people don't tend to like them much while they're doing it. (Though Kan-E seems like the "judge on individual merit" sort anyway.) The lancer questline revolves around a Duskwight who used to be a member of the Wood Wailers and we've seen at least one current Duskwight member of the Twin Adders.

And Hrothgar... well, I think they're lore-breaking but in any case the official excuse is that they're (somehow) universally considered beastlike men rather than beastmen. One way or the other, they have existed from the start of the game as a neutral/friendly race.

[Enkidoh]

There's nothing stopping a Duskwight from doing those things; it's just that people don't tend to like them much while they're doing it. (Though Kan-E seems like the "judge on individual merit" sort anyway.) The lancer questline revolves around a Duskwight who used to be a member of the Wood Wailers and we've seen at least one current Duskwight member of the Twin Adders.

^This. Also, the main reason why Duskwight are ostracized so much is due to the backstory of Gridania's founding - when the elementals granted the elezen of Gelmorra permission to settle on the surface in the forest, a renegade political faction refused to comply, perferring to stay in the underground caves and abandoned subterranian Gelmorran structures rather than cowtow to the fickle whims of the elementals, and it was this troglodytic group that eventually became the duskwight clan, becoming physically distinct from the main 'wildwood' elezen of Gridania. Duskwights are welcome in Gridania, they just have to be prepared to follow Gridania's laws (namely, the will of the elementals), which, naturally, many refuse to (especially to do with illegal poaching), which then drives them to the fringes of society, becoming bandits and outlaws.

There hence is nothing lore wise stopping a duskwight from becoming an adventurer, unlike a Garlean which would require a far greater stretching of the lore for credibility's sake. It even makes perfect sense that duskwight become adventurers specifically given the clan's rebellious tendencies fitting right in with the free-spirited, mercenary nature of the life of an adventurer. Garleans are just too buttoned-down and staid for such a life, which is pretty telling that Garleans who are rebellious eventually end up defecting to Eorzea anyway.

[Iscah]

Duskwights are welcome in Gridania, they just have to be prepared to follow Gridania's laws (namely, the will of the elementals), which, naturally, many refuse to (especially to do with illegal poaching), which then drives them to the fringes of society, becoming bandits and outlaws.

I don't think it's quite that simple. A lot of people are prejudiced against the entire race because of the actions of a few; they're allowed into the city and maybe accepted into positions of authority by people who respect them, but there are plenty who don't and they're quickly painted as "obviously the villain" whether they've earned it or not.

[Enkidoh]

I don't think it's quite that simple. A lot of people are prejudiced against the entire race because of the actions of a few; they're allowed into the city and maybe accepted into positions of authority by people who respect them, but there are plenty who don't and they're quickly painted as "obviously the villain" whether they've earned it or not.

That's not really racism though but again more a biased attitude that outsiders are predisposed to failing to comply with Gridania's social customs and laws - "obey the elementals even if it means not cutting that annoying grass in front of your home or not picking that tasty fruit from that particular tree", other races and clans also get just as much flak too (moonkeeper miqo'te especially, who are just as disenfranchised in Gridania and yet are allowed in as long as they respect the law, which, alas, many are wont not to). Duskwight just get it worse because of their stubborn instance on sticking with the past and living underground rather than moving into the forest at the expense of living under the elementals' often bewildering authority.

Citizens of Gridania (regardless of race or clan) have a not entirelly undeserved reputation for being overly xenophobic, but not specifically racist - doesn't matter what race you are, if you're a foreigner you're an outsider and thus immediately suspected of being a poacher or illegal gatherer of the forest's resources (hell, the player's character outright experiences this treatment first hand upon starting in Gridania, and it's only after signing up to be an adventurer and helping random Gridanians with their problems does their cold, hard attitude towards you soften considerably. Duskwight sadly just have it worse in this regard, due to their aforementioned history.

[Iscah]

That's not really racism though but again more a biased attitude that outsiders are predisposed to failing to comply with Gridania's social customs and laws

Isn't that racism, though? Getting judged entirely on your race's reputation and not your own actions?

"Oh look, a Duskwight. Duskwights are untrustworthy troublemakers who break the forest law so I'm going to treat you with the scorn those actions deserve. No point denying it; I'm sure I just haven't seen you do it yet – and I've got my eye on you."