Eorzean Magitech

Simple question.

I know Garleans used Magitech in large part because they couldn't manipulate aether. I also know that manufacturies don't open overnight- industrialization can take decades at best.

But, simply put, my question is (totally not because I have watched G Gundam and Gundam 00 for the umpteenth time and a new movie just came out)... do Eorzeans have any interest in it? Obviously they have aether, they don't need to rely on machines. But machines do bring advantages, albeit at great costs.

Unfortunately while for most games I am a loremaster for lack of a better word there's just so much in FF14- much of it told in cutscenes I haven't seen for 6-8 years- that I don't remember much if any Eorzean interest in magitech.

But uh... ngl I would really like to pilot a Gun- Magitech vehicle one day. Besides the mounts... and not counting the ally Machinists can use (which I assume is the most Magitech we get in game, haven't seen any other abilities or classes that interact with tech outside of ones that use ancient tech).

Part of the issue, beyond magic being a good solution to a number of problems, is fueling the magitek. Garlemald is located over actual rivers of Ceruleum, which they use to power their mini gundams and airships. Eorzea has significantly fewer deposits and most of that gets exported due to Ceruleum being too volatile for most purposes.
The Machinist notably does not use Ceruleum powered machines, they instead use a device called an Aetherotransformer to convert pulses of their own aether into lightning aspected energy, (this is also why Machinists don't need to reload bullets, so long as your hearts pumping you have infinite ammo). Of course these devices seem to cap out at slightly larger than a Roegadyn as only so much energy can be stockpiled. Machinist is also a fairly new discipline, enough so that the soul crystal recieved for it has nothing inscribed, it's there to act as the power source for the Aetherotransformer.

Ah gotcha thank you! Yes I’ve enjoyed the Machinist story so far, and “starting” a new job as one of the founders is incredibly enjoyable. The Ceruleum makes sense, especially as that was a major focus in part of End Walker.

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Originally Posted by Layte_Aeon

Part of the issue, beyond magic being a good solution to a number of problems, is fueling the magitek. Garlemald is located over actual rivers of Ceruleum, which they use to power their mini gundams and airships. Eorzea has significantly fewer deposits and most of that gets exported due to Ceruleum being too volatile for most purposes.
The Machinist notably does not use Ceruleum powered machines, they instead use a device called an Aetherotransformer to convert pulses of their own aether into lightning aspected energy, (this is also why Machinists don't need to reload bullets, so long as your hearts pumping you have infinite ammo). Of course these devices seem to cap out at slightly larger than a Roegadyn as only so much energy can be stockpiled. Machinist is also a fairly new discipline, enough so that the soul crystal recieved for it has nothing inscribed, it's there to act as the power source for the Aetherotransformer.

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Ul'Dah has a ton of ceruleum that has been exploited in Northern Thanalan since 1.0. The issue is that the XIVth legion came in to drink their milkshake in the 5 year gap since then and they fight over it now.

But it's not enough of an issue to completely deny Eorzea ceruleum. Native-built airships are still popular in Eorzea and still use ceruleum. Ishgard themselves have a large airship, though it's just sitting in one spot for now. Sky pirates also seem to be able to get their own supply of ceruleum as well. And adventurers in free companies have access to ceruleum and their own airships.

The Eorzeans have very heavily relied on Garlond Ironworks for basically every single bit of magitek engineering except for maybe that 1 airship from the Ixal questline that was a mix of Ixal engineering and the descendant of a lalafell who helped Cid. But with more exposure to Garlean citizens and leftover Garlean equipment, Eorzeans are likely to develop more and more magitek, like how there are pirates using a ceruleum engine.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

The Eorzeans have very heavily relied on Garlond Ironworks for basically every single bit of magitek engineering except for maybe that 1 airship from the Ixal questline that was a mix of Ixal engineering and the descendant of a lalafell who helped Cid. But with more exposure to Garlean citizens and leftover Garlean equipment, Eorzeans are likely to develop more and more magitek, like how there are pirates using a ceruleum engine.

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With all that being true, there's a high likelihood that Eorzea's approach to magitek will be vastly different from Garlemald's, because Garlemald's approach fundamentally came from 'balancing the scales'; they don't exactly have need of a gunblade in the same way Garleans do.

Getting speculative, I suspect the main initial drivers of Eorzean magitek will be transport, because there aren't really magical equivalents. Later on you'll probably see interest in computers and digital archives, but nobody seems interested in driving that right now. And while in the real world the military is a driver of this sort of innovation, but I don't see Eorzea's militaries itching for a new way to cause mass death anytime soon.

In the Blue Mage questline there's a Roegadyn, that learned Blue Magic while in The New World with Martin, who is interested in drilling for Ceruleum and believes that Magitek is the future. Part of the questline is facing off against him in The Masked Carnivale as a contest to determine whether or not he will pursue drilling on Whalaqee sacred land in The New World or not, iirc.

After that, one of the major Roegadyn merchants who has a seat on the Syndicate and heads up the Stone Torches outfits his son in a Magitek power suit in order to try and prove that The Masked Carnivale and Blue Magic are a sham, and not as popular as the Coliseum which he owns. He outfitted his son in the Magitek because he knew that Blue Magic was actually powerful, and Martyn nearly defeats his son, and the son's honor compels him to want a another match but against the WoL, since he only beat Martyn because his Magitek outlasted Martyn's self-destruct, not his skills as a warrior etc.

So Magitek's one of those things even the rich and powerful see as mighty in Eorzea, but it has some way to go before it's common place. Even The Empire's only had it for roughly 80 some odd years.

I need to finish up Blu then, I already enjoy it. I do hope there is an Arrested Development joke or two in the rest of the questlines but an ironman sized suit? Amazing. Blue is my 2nd or 3rd favorite but it just is so, well, limited (naturally).

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Originally Posted by nukemind

I need to finish up Blu then, I already enjoy it. I do hope there is an Arrested Development joke or two in the rest of the questlines but an ironman sized suit? Amazing. Blue is my 2nd or 3rd favorite but it just is so, well, limited (naturally).

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Blue Mage's questline in general is a little inconsistent on body size, but the best comparison for this guy (he's the level 50-60 antagonist) is that it's basically the first ramshackle suit Tony builds in the first Iron Man movie. Very brutalist and purpose-built; it seems like he's just strapped with stuff ripped off of magitek walkers and the like.

Other parts of the Blue Mage story mention other bits of magitek, mostly small stuff used for stage tricks since BLU's story is just professional wrestling with magic. It seems like magitek just isn't very good as far as non-military applications right now.

EDIT: And as to Blue Mage itself, it's best to just see it as a minigame, it's generally been designed like that. Or as 'too powerful to be allowed in normal content', that's also true.

One thing to remember is that Eorzea may have the knowledge to make technology and magitek, they lack sufficent mass-production infrastructure that can cheaply and efficently produce technology at a consumer level, unlike Garlemald who has automated factories for mass manufacturing, and this has been a major limiting factor in Eorzea's take up of magitek (basically all technology in Eorzea is hand built, even the Garlond Ironworks have to assemble everything themselves, so this has ensured any major technological developments have been costly prototypes or one-offs, or limited in their application or supply.)

This shows up in a quest in Ul'dah (I think it was one of the postmoogle quest but I'm not sure) where a swindle involving ceruleum took place - to cut a long story short there was speculation that a technique for cheaply and efficently mass-producing ceruleum engines had been perfected in Ul'dah and that was expected to then drive a massive uptake in mechanized travel, especially airships, and thus the stock price of ceruleum was also thus expected to skyrocket - where in fact no such technique existed and it was all a lie. Needless to say, the ceruleum market spiked and then crashed on those revelations during that quest.

Another thing to remember is Eorzea's culture at large is rather suspicious of new developments, and this possibly has very old roots dating back to the Sixth Calamity, where there was backlash against intelligence in general due to the War of the Magi causing the disaster, ignorance ensured people couldn't tell the difference between "Voidmages that caused the disaster", "technology and the engineers and scientists that produce it", and "anyone who happens to be literate and numerate", and Eorzea collapsed into barbarism that took centuries to emerge from, and still ensured Eorzea's popualtion, especially the smallfolk, from then on were suspicious about new ideas.

An example is in Ul'dah outside the Goldsmith's Guild two lalafell are in a discussion, and one states about a technological idea he had of "a seat suspended between two wheels that you pedal with your legs" (clearly a bicycle), yet his companion dismisses the idea as ridiculous, because after all: "why use that when you have a chocobo?". And to say nothing of the most recent Calamity being caused by ancient Allagan technology instigated by technologically advanced forigeners.

Unfortunately this doesn't help Eorzea shed it's reputation that the Garleans held of it being a cultural and technological backwater inhabited by ignorant savages.