Garlean Inability to use magic.

[Brightamethyst]

At least some half-breeds can use aether, but we haven't met enough to know if all of them can or not.

[Ransu]

A
Fun Fact: Thancred Waters, even though he is a Hyru Midlander and a Scion, can't manipulate aether.

Fairly certain he could initially. His loss of aether manipulation occurred after the events of Y'shtola teleporting them away during the post ARR events with them traversing through the lifestream.

[Vyrerus]

People really in this thread saying that Zenos's ability to use magic stems from Elidibus alterations? Hello? He mantled Shinryu, an earthshatteringly big feat of aether manipulation. The Resonant procedure made him capable of magicks and so much more. Remember his words to Fordola? Something akin to, "What you have been gifted is greater than mere magic. Before such lesser light it is a second sun."

I mean, he also levitates in a meditative pose in the Ala Mhigo fight when he sets up the sword phase.

I guess people are confused since Hien puts a lot of emphasis on, "Magic in a Garlean body?" But that's more Hien not really knowing anything about Zenos, than Elidibus doing something ridiculously noteworthy.

[SannaR]

The people of Goug could not use magic. The modern Garleans descended from 7 tribes of the same race of people, one of which are those from Goug. They all happened to converge on Corvus after Goug was destroyed and many eras after G'raha's ancestors had settled the land. Whether one or a few tribes of proto-Garleans were also settled in Corvus going back to the time of the Allagans, we do not yet know, but the Allag royal blood was only being passed down within a family of Miqo'te so they won't have anything to do with it.

Yet Ramza if he is of Goug was a WoL that would imply that he'd have to be able to use magic. In the fight against Ultima they create a magical barrier. Anyway if the Allagans were anything like the Machi they would have most likely taken similar steps to continue on some how. That and we also get told that one of the prominent families that came from Corvos is the house of Darnus.

[MikkoAkure]

Yet Ramza if he is of Goug was a WoL that would imply that he'd have to be able to use magic. In the fight against Ultima they create a magical barrier. Anyway if the Allagans were anything like the Machi they would have most likely taken similar steps to continue on some how. That and we also get told that one of the prominent families that came from Corvos is the house of Darnus.

Ramza's not from Goug. Mustadio in the original FFT was but this one doesn't have a third eye. He's obviously included in this band of WoLs as fanservice for FFT players since he was a member of that group so you could probably pass this one off as a half-Garlean, but we never get the chance to ask.

Regardless, all the Garleans on the ship talk about the people of Goug being ancient ancestors of Garleans if you talk to them after the lighthouse and at least one mentions the Goug inability to control magic.

[EaraGrace]

People really in this thread saying that Zenos's ability to use magic stems from Elidibus alterations? Hello? He mantled Shinryu, an earthshatteringly big feat of aether manipulation. The Resonant procedure made him capable of magicks and so much more. Remember his words to Fordola? Something akin to, "What you have been gifted is greater than mere magic. Before such lesser light it is a second sun."

I mean, he also levitates in a meditative pose in the Ala Mhigo fight when he sets up the sword phase.

I guess people are confused since Hien puts a lot of emphasis on, "Magic in a Garlean body?" But that's more Hien not really knowing anything about Zenos, than Elidibus doing something ridiculously noteworthy.

I believe the short story for Zenos showed him resort to shoving a crystal into his hand to overcome that limitation. Exactly how he was able to use magic pre Resonant or Shinryu is… unclear.

[rainichan]

As far as Emet-Selch goes, he cheats and can cast magic on the Source due to the benefit of being an Ascian. He is basically a ghost of an Ancient possessing the body of a Garlean who was once his own person and had no capability to cast magic on his own. Whenever we interact with Emet-Selch on the First, he is not actually in the body of an Garlean, he possessed some random person and then molded his body to look like Solus because that's a form he's comfortable with.

He had clone bodies made for him, he mentions this when he's first introduced. He has many so he doesn't have to possess random people like Lahabrea did, which he takes umbrage with and mentions it "diminished" his ability and made him weaker: "According to Emet-Selch, Lahabrea had a habit of discarding host bodies when they were no longer useful, weakening himself and allowing King Thordan to absorb his essence." Having a body he already knows and likes is why he had the clones made and moving his soul into them and from a post from Anonymoose: "The clones were, according to Emet-Selch, just to save him the time and energy of molding a physical body to his preferred image." The clones were destroyed later by Estinien and Gaius iirc when they infiltrated the Capital, but by then Emet had his body and traveled to the First.

But since he is indeed an Ascian, he can cheat and use his own abilities even if he's in a cloned body of Solus.

[Gemina]

Google fails me in my search for why Garleans cannot use magic.

I had assumed it was genetic since it is passed on to their children, but it cannot be the physical body that is the limitation. Otherwise Elidibus would not have been able to use magic in Zenos' body.

So that makes it a matter of their soul. Which also opens up the concept that traits of a soul, such as the inability to use magic, can be passed on to children.

Is there anything in lore that goes over this more in depth?

There is also the possibility that Elidibus changed the body somehow via magic to undo the limitation before going into it. That could open up some interesting plotlines if someone is able to find the switch inside the Garleans to turn magic access back on.

Does anyone here think this will be explored more in coming game content/expansions or just a case of "They can't except when we want them to. Don't ask questions"?

I wouldn't use Elidibus, or any Ascian. They cheat, and have been doing it for a very long time. It is even explicitly stated that Ascians/Ancients being so aetherially dense, cannot weld dynamis. This revelation came in EW. It's a major WTF moment because Elidibus is clearly using limit breaks when we face him as the WoL in the Seat of Sacrifice.

As you pointed out, it is canon that the Garleans cannot use magic due to their genetics. What remains a mystery is why that is the case for them, and even this basically comes down to the Garleans being given the short end of the stick in nearly every aspect of life you can think of, which is also canon. What we learn about the Omnicrons is very parallel to what the Garleans have had to do to survive. Unfortunately for the Garleans though, we have plot armor. Otherwise, they would very likely conquer all of Etheirys. They were well on their way until we showed up.

[Erendis]

Speaking of garleans. Maxima looks perfectly like an ancient except for the eye, doesn't he?

[Cleretic]

Speaking of garleans. Maxima looks perfectly like an ancient except for the eye, doesn't he?

It's mostly a factor of the Garleans and Ancients having the same basic structure; elezen frame, hyur head. He's not even the most uncanny one; Themis has literally the exact same face as Ramza in the Ivalice raid story.

Is that something? Maybe, maybe not.