? About Garleans & Ascians

[VictorTheed]

I played through EW and the Ivalice story, maybe these got answered somewhere and I missed it but, who created the Ascians and why can't the Garleans use magic?

Like in our world God made humanity and the planets, but in this world man made God, aka Hydelyn and Zodiark, so who made man aka the Ascians, I was hoping EW would have answered this and if it did then were at so I can go back and view those cutscenes/dialogue.

Why can't the Garleans use magic, I remember bits and pieces of the Goug people in the Ivalice story, it's been since SB so my memory is a little foggy, but did the Ivalice story or EW expansion say why Garleans can't use magic.

[sidurgu-12]

first part unless myths shines more light on things it was the aetheric sea.

as for garleans i want to say ascians did it but i only remember them creating the empire.

[Cleretic]

It's mentioned that Garleans can't use magic because of a genetic thing during Stormblood's MSQ, I believe; I want to say it was Aulus mal Asina that said it. Essentially, the innate ability to manipulate aether is turned inside for Garleans rather than outside, so instead of using aether to augment actions or do outright magic, their bodies use it to increase their physical strength and dexterity.

That sounds great at first, since it means Garleans are all essentially Captains America, but then remember what everyone else does withe aether basically makes them the X-Men. Presumably the reason that Zenos can use magic (although he usually doesn't) is because Elidibus knows how to change this about a Garlean body, and so did.

As for where the Ancients came from (the Ascians are a subset of them), it wasn't mentioned, and probably will never be mentioned or matter, because the only time in Ancient society that was important for our story was the end of Ancient society; where they came from doesn't really matter. Plus, then you get into the chain of 'but who created god', 'but who created that', and that's not fun or useful for anyone.

[Enkidoh]

Spoilers ahead

Well, the Ascians are the 'evolved' (or rather, 'devolved' depending on your point of view) form of the Ancients, the original precursor race of the world prior to it's Sundering, with the thirteen named 'Overlord' Ascians all taking the names of the seats they held in the Convocation of Fourteen, the Ancients' ruling body/government (the missing fourteenth member resigned their seat just prior to the Final Days, and as it turns out,

this person is actually you, aka, Azem the Wanderer, defender of the world and it's people (or rather, your character is their reincarnation and possesses their soul).

We actually do not know all that much about the Ancients' early history - there is comments made in Elpis about Etheirys originally being an "untamed wilderness" before the Ancients' civilization came along, and Akademia Aynder went into a little history of the Convocation of Fourteen, specifically the first members of several of it's seats (the first Halmarut for instance specialized in sea life and aquatic ecosystems and from then on the Words of Halmarut took that as their main specialization.).

But other than that, we know very little to next to nothing about their early history and origins, such was the destruction the original Final Days, the Sundering and the seven Calamities wrought. So where they originally came from/who created Etheirys is completely unknown (given the big revelation in EW is that there are countless other alien worlds with life out there in distant space (or rather, were), it seems that life has always existed in some form or another, regardless of how it actually formed). But I digress.

[KageTokage]

There's a lot of stuff hinting that there's more to the aetherial sea/Lifestream then we know presently.

It's also been suggested that Etheriys is just fundamentally special somehow compared to other stars (Exceptionally high levels of aether being one specified quality), which may be partly why it's managed to survive in an universe that's mostly if not entirely dead otherwise.

I don't think the future story involving deeper truths about the world itself is necessarily off the table (The origin of the Ancients and by extension the Echo being one of them), especially if the events of Endwalker start having unforeseen consequences that need to be addressed to prevent another existential crisis.

[VictorTheed]

Interesting, ty guys for the info.

Anyone else got any thoughts about this, I'd love to read yours as well the next time I log in.