Aetherytes, Garleans, and You!

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Either way, it's clear the Garleans cannot use teleportation magic, instead they make use of magitek transporter gates which effectively serve the same purpose (albeit with a fixed departure and destination point).

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Thanks for the comprehensive answer! I guess this means that Cid and Lucia have to travel by airship only?

Full disclosure: I'm asking for nefarious reasons. I'm writing a fic involving Cid, and it occurred to me that he can't just use the aetheryte from Rhalgr's Reach to get to Foundation.

I think it might be theoretically possible for someone else to cast Teleport for a Garlean. At its core, the concept of teleportation involves breaking your body down to its component aether, hitching that aether to a ride on the Lifestream, and popping back out at specific preset aetheric "beacons" - in this case, aetheryte crystals.

The Garleans' inability to cast this spell is purely because they cannot innately manipulate aether, but their souls and bodies are still made out of it. If somebody else could break down the Garlean's body for them and send them into the Lifestream, they might be able to do the rest themself. As shown in-game, it is possible to cast Teleport for someone else.

Oh it is definitely not only theoretically possible for someone else to teleport a pure-born Garlean, technically we've already seen this happen at least once. It was presumably how Livia and her unit of shock troops were able to enter the Waking Sands and raid the place without being seen by the Immortal Flames guards patrolling Vesper Bay outside. Lahabrea teleported them directly inside - in his Thancred-suit he would not have raised suspicion and probably just waltzed right in through the front door past Tataru, and once inside thus could freely teleport Livia and her martial thugs inside before anyone knew what was happening.

Presumably the previously mentioned Garlean magitek transporter rings probably work in a similar manner to the spell by breaking down the body's aether and sending over wires to the destination gate.

But this is all speculation so take from that what you will. :)

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Oh it is definitely not only theoretically possible for someone else to teleport a pure-born Garlean, technically we've already seen this happen at least once. It was presumably how Livia and her unit of shock troops were able to enter the Waking Sands and raid the place without being seen by the Immortal Flames guards patrolling Vesper Bay outside. Lahabrea teleported them directly inside - in his Thancred-suit he would not have raised suspicion and probably just waltzed right in through the front door past Tataru, and once inside thus could freely teleport Livia and her martial thugs inside before anyone knew what was happening.

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I thought they flew directly in. It's been a really long time since I watched the 2.0 story, though, but I'd always imagined that they dropped directly into Vesper Bay with a small airship, and left the same way. Otherwise it raises the question of how they got their Scion prisoners out of there as well.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

I thought they flew directly in. It's been a really long time since I watched the 2.0 story, though, but I'd always imagined that they dropped directly into Vesper Bay with a small airship, and left the same way. Otherwise it raises the question of how they got their Scion prisoners out of there as well.

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Not really. Lahabrea is (er, was) incredibly powerful and probably used a quick trip to the Ascian dimension to get people in and out with as little "mess" as possible.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

I thought they flew directly in. It's been a really long time since I watched the 2.0 story, though, but I'd always imagined that they dropped directly into Vesper Bay with a small airship, and left the same way. Otherwise it raises the question of how they got their Scion prisoners out of there as well.

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When the player first arrives outside the Waking Sands in that scene a crowd of villagers is clustered around outside who state they've all heard screaming coming from inside but saw nothing else. A Garlean airship, even a small one, would kind of be noticeable if it landed in the middle of a major port town like Vesper Bay (to say nothing of an Immortal Flames encampment literally next door to the place would have immediately rushed to it's defense if that had been the case.) But all that was known was suddenly there was a commotion inside that was heard by everyone outside, but no one knew exactly what was happening:

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Originally Posted by ARR main scenario quest 'All Good Things'

Disquieted Villager (outside the Waking Sands): "You hear that commotion just now? What in the seven hells were they doin' in there? Wrestlin' a peiste!? You look like the adventurin' type. Mind taking a quick look?"
Frightened Villager: "...Was that screaming I heard? I'm not sure I want to know..."

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In fact, even why the Garleans were even there (to try and capture the player's character) clued Minfilia in that this was no ordinary raid - that they had infiltrated the place magically instead of by mundane means (Livia naturally waves her thought aside). So Lahabrea teleporting the Garleans in and then out with their Scion prisoners is the only logical way that they could have infiltrated the Waking Sands without anyone outside noticing.

To clarify: Lahabrea teleported the Garlean strike team directly into the Waking Sands, without any sort of aetherial beacon to send them to? It actually makes me wonder why he needed to possess Thancred for this, unless that was solely to find out the exact location of the Waking Sands, which seems unlikely because there were a lot of people who already knew where the Scions were, and he could probably have possessed some other, lower-profile Scion adventurer Or was it that he needed to possess Thancred in order to bypass whatever security measures they had on the Waking Sands?

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

It actually makes me wonder why he needed to possess Thancred for this, unless that was solely to find out the exact location of the Waking Sands, which seems unlikely because there were a lot of people who already knew where the Scions were, and he could probably have possessed some other, lower-profile Scion adventurer Or was it that he needed to possess Thancred in order to bypass whatever security measures they had on the Waking Sands?

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Trust. He was an Archon, one of the most trusted and respected members of the Scions. He had access to all sorts of information that others (even the WoL at the time) didn't. Which should have included when you returned to the Waking Sands so you could be captured...but something went wrong and the plan went off early (I debate whether Livia was too impatient, or Thancred himself was able to fool them into thinking you were there)

Ascian possession is such an oddly vague thing. I still don't know if the person being possessed is aware or conscious at the time.

Still doesn't really explain how Lahabrea popped all those people out of the Lifestream, at the exact spot they needed to be, when said spot had no aetherial beacon even in the vicinity. I mean, you could just handwave it by saying "He's an all-powerful Ascian", but what he did goes against the basic facts of how teleportation works in this world.

(Super off-topic, but I find it funny how you refer to Thancred with the past tense, as if he's already dead... because he might as well be, with how stunningly relevant he's been in the story since 4.0.)

We're kind of in a weird spot where Pureblood Garleans and magic are concerned. We were originally led to believe that they could not cast magic at all - and that anything they did do that looked like magic was purely linked to magitek. The lore book, however, confirmed that although it is rare some Pureblood Garleans are capable of using it. Yet we can't really confirm what, exactly, is an example of a Pureblood Garlean using magic when there's the possibility of it simply being tied to magitek or simply being something flashy in the typical 'Final Fantasy' style.

Out of every Pureblood Garlean we've seen so far I'm inclined to believe that Zenos was one of the few gifted with the ability to manipulate aether directly. Though on the other hand there's the whole 'Artificial Echo' angle to consider....which is an additional complication when trying to figure out who is capable of what.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

(Super off-topic, but I find it funny how you refer to Thancred with the past tense, as if he's already dead... because he might as well be, with how stunningly relevant he's been in the story since 4.0.)

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I hope we see more of Thancred, Krile and Y'shtola during the remainder of this expansion. It's almost certain that we'll be seeing more of Alphinaud and Alisae - which I don't mind at all since their progression has been wonderful so far - but I'd like to see Lyse shelved for a while in favour of the spotlight falling on some of the other major protagonists. More of Hien, Magnai and Sadu would be great as well. I'm hoping for that to be the case in 4.2...