Garlean Playable Race (?)

[KizuyaKatogami]

That is kind of the point. According to stated lore for the game, Garleans as a whole are not able to use magic outside very very few individuals. This no longer becomes true when you see Garlean white mages or black mages on every street corner as PCs.

Moreover to quote myself from the previous exchange:

This argument is immediately refuted by white mage players. Only supposed to be one non padjali whm in existence yet...here we are. Garleans would actually make more sense in that regard as they have a slightly bigger pool than just 1. Male Viera are said to be rare and unique, yet, we’re getting them. A lot of these arguments can be simply refuted by either looking at current jobs or Male Viera hand waving lmao.

[Bhearil]

Pure blooded Garleans have 0 magic, outside of using special trinkets to mimic magic (and its a cheap knockoff compared to the real thing) or being a resonant that was an special project with only 2 persons being a "sucess"

Thats why the garleans were kicked all around despite their superior physics due to their complete lack of magic and wasnt until they invented magitech when they started to conquer nearby tribes/countries. Heck the reason they use conscripts is mostly because they lesser garlean casualties AND that they CAN use magic.

Theres not a single job that doesnt use magic in some kind of form, look at Thancred that someone must prepare his bullets for him beforehand just as example

[Vyrerus]

How about handwaving.

That singular passage is leaving room for its author to be wrong, and that is pretty much it. Name one notable pureblooded Garlean that is capable of using magic. I won't wait, because you cannot. They have yet to show even a single one that wasn't possessed by an Ascian or treated to a special procedure.

That same book also says,

"The Empire has banned religion, seeing it as a barbarian practice that all too often results in the summoning of primals. Many of the inhabitants of Garlemald proper are atheists, a fact attributable to their biological and spiritual inability to harbor and wield aether-based magicks. As theologians believe that religion can only truly develop alongside magic, it is little wonder that the Garleans are disinclined to keep any faith."

Something that is integral to the WoL is that we all believe in a patron deity from The Twelve. As a Garlean pureblood it wouldn't make any sense for us to believe in one of The Twelve. That would have to be removed from character creation, specifically for Garleans. Then Garlean players would feel left out.

Also note that the WoL's age is rather young, mid 20s to late 30s. This means that a pureblooded Garlean WoL would have been born after the introduction of Magitek to their society, and would have even less of a reason to leave Garlemald, to learn arcane arts, and to come be a hero in Eorzea.

As for the Echo, we've been shown half-blooded Garleans can have it through Arenvald. Never a pureblood, though. I'd posit that since the Echo is tied to a being's aetheric waveform, yes, it would be entirely possible for Garleans to have the Echo, but in my opinion it would lay dormant until they learned how to manipulate aether. If their body even could. Of course, even that wouldn't be enough to know they had the Echo. They'd have to encounter an event that let them know they had it. Considering the Echo lies dormant even in individuals who can readily manipulate aether, who's to say that a pureblooded Garlean would ever meet the right condition short of artificial means to precipitate the activation of their Echo? Further still, if Garleans could have the Echo, then why would it be a surprise to them to learn about such a thing from their warring with Eorzea?

To let us play Garleans would be to make the lore bend over backwards to accommodate the possibility. It would break too much while giving so little while also injecting dissonance into nearly every sidequest and cutscene. No thanks.

[VictorTheed]

Hopefully in endwalkers they give us the third eye the garleans have as a glam head peace from a quest or something.

I also hope if they ever change their mind and do another race then we get another small race to go along with Lalafells.

I wish the bunny men on the moon was what we got for male viera.

[Jandor]

The game pushes parties away from duplicating jobs? Uh, maybe in party finder. But in duty finder, where 90% of game content takes place, there’s always duplicate jobs and that’s a fact lmao. Constantly have double whm, or see pictures of 4 samurai’s 4 black mages etc etc. The thing you mentioned about distinct disciplines....that’s way more hand waving than there would be for adding Garleans lmao. Idk how another player capable of using literally every spell you can as whm would classify as a distinct job...

A really good "sorcerer" being just about on par with a genuine black mage is roughly a hundred times more plausible than any amount of magic wielding garlean adventurers.

[Jettinson]

Lore wise or not, I'd rather they work on making more fun the current races. The character creator is serviceable but I really wish it had more customizations and while I enjoy the idea of new races (heck I am definitely of the few who wants a Bangaa as a playable race as an example), I prefer they don't bother much with Garleans.

As some posts said, a fake pearl glamour could do the trick (although it might not work with races that have stuff on their forehead as part of facial features).

I won't consider them adding it impossible, you never know but I highly doubt we'll see them any soon considering they still gotta add the female hrothgar

[Theodric]

That singular passage is leaving room for its author to be wrong, and that is pretty much it. Name one notable pureblooded Garlean that is capable of using magic. I won't wait, because you cannot. They have yet to show even a single one that wasn't possessed by an Ascian or treated to a special procedure.

Lucia. She casts healing spells during The Steps of Faith.

[myahele]

That singular passage is leaving room for its author to be wrong, and that is pretty much it. Name one notable pureblooded Garlean that is capable of using magic.

The only one that I can think of was Lucia casting cure back in Heavensward. Many assumed it was just an oversight since Cid used "Aqua Vitae" to heal, but then there was that passage in the lore book that came later on.

That said, I rather they focus on more character creation options.

[Jandor]

They've got you with Lucia, definitely counts as a Garlean doing magic. Although to be fair, I wouldn't say that being able to cast cure I, the most basic healing spell there is, is incompatible with the passage 'little inborn ability to manipulate aether.'

If that's all she can cast, and I don't think we ever see her cast anything else, then that would indeed be very minor ability. I suspect it started as oversight and she just got given the standard temple knight move set, but it does make sense for her since she used to be a spy, seems like a good reason to put in what might otherwise be an unjustifiable amount of effort to learn a basic spell.

[KizuyaKatogami]

They've got you with Lucia, not that it makes much difference in the scheme of things. Being able to cast cure I, the most basic healing spell in existence, is reasonably compatible with 'little inborn ability to manipulate aether.'

Now if she was busting out the holy spirit spam, that might change things.

So now the argument goes from “ha you can’t name a single garlean that uses magic,”to now it’s “oh, it’s not a potent magic spell so it hardly counts.” Are y’all serious? I just find it hilarious tbh that people are still arguing the “muh lore” or “muh immersion” when we got Male Viera and Reaper.People constantly said we wouldn’t get male viera because of lore or we wouldn’t get a dark job because wol is a goody two shoes. You’d think after these reveals people would start thinking wow, SE seems to just be giving out what the players ask for, regardless of lore. They’ve bent the lore multiple times before, there’s no reason they wouldn’t be able to do it again. It’s a trivial argument because if enough people asked for it, as seen with male bunnies, we’d get it. That’s how the game works.