[Lore] Can we see Aether ?

Hi there !
I'm a roleplayer and I saw lot of other RP who are including the fact that they can see Aether. And I'm wondering if eyes can realy see it. If yes, why does Y'shtola is always wearing an etherimeter ? :)
Pure lore question to improve some roleplayers background :)

LOL Stupid character limit then phone died.

No, we cannot.

In this Expansion it explained that Y'shtola used forbidden teleportation magic, in order to escape the Crystal Braves, but accidently entered the Life Stream. This exposure caused her to be able to see Aether She no longer has to use that device. It is also revealed that having this ability is slowly going to drain her own aether and kill her.

Thank you for the quick answer ! :)

To expand a little bit, the concentrations matter. Aether is the stuff of... all stuff. It's a basic unit of stuffhood. Aether exists in all things, but it also flows in a raw form in rivers throughout the land - some near the surface, some incredibly deep. The ambient aether in the air is too diffuse for us to see (that's why the Scions were wearing those Sharlayan steampunk goggles when we met them, they were tracking anomalous fluctuations in environmental aether to track the wonky events that would eventually be revealed to be Ascian-related). The more aether you collect together, the more likely you are to be able to see it without aid. You can see, for instance, spells being cast ... and crystals ... and the gloom weather in Mor Dhona is thought to be umbrally charged aether, as well.

Think of it like water. It's in the air, but you can't see it - but the more of it you get together, the more likely you are to notice, whether it be a humid haze in the air, condensation, a river, or ice.

As for why people RP being able to see it unaided...? Ehhh, roleplay tends to come in all flavors from, "No fanon allowed - confirmed facts only." to GREAT HAURCHEFANTS GHOST levels of "The Echo means Ifrit will let me ride him like a pony and Shiva was me great, great grandmum."

Or maybe they're also RPing that they're quite the moko grass enthusiasts.

To expand on Moose's explanation of Aether, Aether was one of the six classical esoteric elements with Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and Chaos being the other five.

Earth, Fire, Water, and Air were the base elements with Chaos and Aether being the two higher elements.

Long Story Short, Aether is Matter and Energy at the same time. Kind of like a Photon is a Particle and a Wave at the same time.

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

As for why people RP being able to see it unaided...? Ehhh, roleplay tends to come in all flavors from, "No fanon allowed - confirmed facts only." to GREAT HAURCHEFANTS GHOST levels of "The Echo means Ifrit will let me ride him like a pony and Shiva was me great, great grandmum."

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To be completely fair, we kinda did ride Bismarck like a pony, even as he attempts to eat our aether in the process. So you might be able to ride Ifrit for a good half-minute, given his smaller size.

A whale-pony is best, anyway.

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Aether is the stuff of... all stuff. It's a basic unit of stuffhood.

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I just have to say, these two sentences are the best summary of aether ever.

AFAIK the only place anyone can see aether unaided is Mor Dhona as it drifts through the air and causes the nearly palpable haze that permeates the zone.

Unless its in ridiculous concentrations, no, no one is seeing the aether unaided, not even the warrior of light.

Those RPers are horribly misinformed.

Again I'll make the comparison to XII's Mist, it's everywhere, everyone/thing is made of it, magic is just careful manipulation of it. Heck, you really can't see the mist unless there are very high concentrations of it (in XIV's aether, such as casting spells; in XII's, being inside a big-honking crystal). Also, Magicite (crystals that naturally release mist) and Crystals (elemental-aspected aether made physical)

I thought that Y'shtola's case was that you can effectively "see" it but only by expending yourself so that it wasn't very healthy for someone to do it in whatever doses.

Some RPers like to make up their own lore as an excuse to have an overpowered mary sue of a character. It's not common but sadly it happens.

Actually, you can see Aether. Notable NPCs like Urianger have done it, although he had a very nice set of goggles for it.

Conveniently, the Gold Saucer sells Sharlayan Goggles. Just say you found them, or were given to them as a new member of the Scions of Dawn, and you're set.

Otherwise, spend a fantasia to white out your eyes. Try to at least keep the appearance of aether-seeing eyes consistent with Y'shtola. Good RPers will at least make that connection without you have to explain it.

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Originally Posted by Anova

Try to at least keep the appearance of aether-seeing eyes consistent with Y'shtola. Good RPers will at least make that connection without you have to explain it.

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Isn't the case of Y'shtola the other way around? She was blinded either by use of Flow or her being lost in the lifestream. Hence she uses aether to help her see in some way, but doing so is a drain on her life.

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Originally Posted by Anova

Actually, you can see Aether. Notable NPCs like Urianger have done it, although he had a very nice set of goggles for it.

Conveniently, the Gold Saucer sells Sharlayan Goggles. Just say you found them, or were given to them as a new member of the Scions of Dawn, and you're set.

Otherwise, spend a fantasia to white out your eyes. Try to at least keep the appearance of aether-seeing eyes consistent with Y'shtola. Good RPers will at least make that connection without you have to explain it.

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That's the thing. You CAN see it. But only with help. Or in very specific places or circumstances. What the OP is talking about, correct me if Im wrong, is RPers just claiming they can see it willy nilly. No gear, no specific reasons. Just they can because Echo or some such.

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Originally Posted by ExKage

I thought that Y'shtola's case was that you can effectively "see" it but only by expending yourself so that it wasn't very healthy for someone to do it in whatever doses.

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'Shtola can see it cause she got "mutated" by it. It blinded her and left her with the ability to see it, but at the cost of her own life-force.

In my understanding, all non-Pure-blood Garleans* have a 6th sense to go along with the 5 (Hearing, Sight, Smell, Taste and Touch) that we have: an Aether sense and it is what allows for the use of magic. This sense is not normally a strong/dominant sense for the Spoken races. It takes fairly dense concentrations for most to noticeably "see" Aether. Many of the visible effects we see (energy tethers, Aether currents, Darkside Aura, etc.) are visual representations of the Aether our characters sense.

The Sharlayan googles do something similar to real world infrared goggles. We can naturally sense temperature with our sense of touch, but because of how weak and short range this sense is we developed an method to convert heat patterns into visible images. The Sharlayan googles do this for Aether patterns.

Y'shtola's trip trough the Lifestream blinded her, and like many real world blind people she shift focus from her lost sense to another sense in order to compensate. Instead of shifting to hearing she shifted to her Aether sense. For some currently unknown reason relying heavily (to the point that in compensates for total blindness) on your Aether sense drains your personal Aether shortening your life.

*Pure-blood Garleans may have it, but it may have atrophied to the point of non-function.

An alternative if someone really is hell-bent on seeing aether as a central ability for their character, is to simply make them a non-PC race. Maybe the character is actually a Padjal with their horns cut off, or a fiend (au'ra or a suitably emo full armor set can pull this off decently well).

It still smacks a little of a gary stu/mary sue and takes clever writing to pull off; but everything in the lore suggests those races have better aetherial senses than the PCs.

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Originally Posted by Shirobi

'Shtola can see it cause she got "mutated" by it. It blinded her and left her with the ability to see it, but at the cost of her own life-force.

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Hold up, hold up... The dialouge between Y'shtola and Matoya, as well as Y'shtola and the PC, lead me to believe her trip through the lifestream (and subsequent reconstitution) left her blind and now she is sensing aether to "see," effectively. I don't recall any mention of this ability to manipulate aether being attributed to any change the lifestream may have had on her. However it is clearly stated that doing this expends her own life force and is more than likely no small feat. The way Matoya talks about it makes it seem like more old, forbidden, Sharlayan magic to me, not something unique.

There are other NPC's as well who can be found sensing ambient aether, The little Lalafell scholar at Highbridge, for example, yells at you for breaking his concentration while studying the aether there.

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Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur

Y'shtola's trip trough the Lifestream blinded her, and like many real world blind people she shift focus from her lost sense to another sense in order to compensate. Instead of shifting to hearing she shifted to her Aether sense. For some currently unknown reason relying heavily (to the point that in compensates for total blindness) on your Aether sense drains your personal Aether shortening your life.

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That also explains how she's much more powerful after her little vacation. She throws out WHM spells like nothin'.

You can also think of Aether as matter. Everything is made of aether/matter, but unless it's super concentrated we can't see it. We can't see individual atoms, but we can see the desk, computer, and PS3/4 that the atoms made. That fire spell is made of aether, but since it's so condensed we can see fire.

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Originally Posted by Attarik

Some RPers like to make up their own lore as an excuse to have an overpowered mary sue of a character. It's not common but sadly it happens.

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But Im Minfilia's sister's daughter with Cid and part elf, part sylph, part primal. And a vampire. And a Garlean Princess. Really you guys.

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Originally Posted by Yata7

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I got absolutely nothing from that conversation that would make me think its a spell of any sort and everything indicating that it was a change in her. Where are you getting any reference to it being any sort of spell? Granted there are spells that would allow such, but where was there any indication that Tola was using one? You said it yourself, spells require concentration, effort.

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Originally Posted by Shirobi

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I meant that it seems like something Matoya has seen before. A natural ability being used in an extreme manner. Like I said, there are other npcs that are shown sensing aether through meditation/concentration. I just don't think it is a mutation, or gift, or whatnot from her little swim in the lifestream.

My takeaway from that scene between her and Matoya is that either Flow or the trip in the lifestream is what caused Y'shtola to lose her eyesight. Matoya sees that Y'shtola is exerting considerable strain on her life by seeing with aether.

Okay so, we watching the scene in question casting Flow is likely what blinded her Matoya even references this as to why they're called "forbidden spells." The casual way in which they mention sensing aether in order to see that leads me to believe that just sensing it is not something that is unique to Y'stola, however using it to compensate for c get blindness is eating away at her life force.

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Originally Posted by Yata7

I meant that it seems like something Matoya has seen before. A natural ability being used in an extreme manner. Like I said, there are other npcs that are shown sensing aether through meditation/concentration. I just don't think it is a mutation, or gift, or whatnot from her little swim in the lifestream.

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Where are any characters shown seeing either without the use of magic (And hence concentration.) or machinery or some other contrivance? Aether isnt the Force. We arent Jedi.

Im sure Matoya has seen similar spells before, but its pretty clear Tola aint using one. She isnt concentrating on using the ability, and there have been plenty of times when others, if they had such an ability, would have used it in an emergency if they could have did so.