[Tall indeed, and likely taller if not for the way he seems to prefer to vaguely slouch. But there's a polite nod all the same.]

Pleased to make your acquaintance properly. I am Emet-Selch.

[There's a nod at her indication that he should follow, and he does indeed fall loosely in step.]

As you will, then.

I have been involved in the further development of magitek, these past decades.

[Which is to say, definitely more of a specific interest.]

[It is essentially a compound word, in fairness. If perhaps not one that even many Garleans would be inclined to think of as one.]

Is that so?

[He's not surprised she might be interested. But still. He may as well follow in the same sort of footsteps a little before he actually answers. And he does, a moment later.]

The people of Garlemald are incapable of wielding magic. Magitek serves to redress some of that imbalance, in a world where all others can.

Magic is created via the manipulation of aether - an energy that is found throughout the world I am from.

[This is, admittedly, something a simplification, but he figures best to not go too far into the details, at the moment.]

Garleans lack the ability to manipulate aether and thus they have no native ability to use magic.

It does. Aether is part of the world in its entirety. That Garleans have no ability to wield is of no matter.

As to the rest - it is quite simply a matter of genetics. While ability can and does vary within those populations who are capable of wielding magic, Garleans lack those same hereditary traits that allow for repeated, reliable, manipulation of aether.

[For the time being, he elects to not mention that his current form is Garlean in appearance. It's not truly necessary, at the moment.]

I'm certain history would have the answer, should one but look deep enough.

[History that he has, in all likelihood, lived through in one form or another. But that hardly means he has been keeping abreast of every single thing to occur across the whole of even a single shard, much less the Source itself.]

Precisely so. Where magic will not avail them, they turn instead to technology to find an edge against those who would seek to oppose them. And to aid in surviving the frozen realm they call home.

It was not by choice that they had come to settle there.

[For now, he is willing to leave aside the further explanation of why the Garleans had come to live where they do. He might know it as well as any other - and with good reason, considering he'd spent nigh on half a century there himself - but it is less than immediately relevant to the current conversation.]

Though I will not deny their resilience.

They have their benefits. Frustrating though it has been, previously.

Let us simply say that my goals and those of any would-be heroes have not always aligned.