So aether, how does it work exactly?

A question I'm putting it up here. We know aether is essentially the building block of the world, but it appears to be finite, non-renewable in danger of running out.

Thinking of aether like matter is making my head hurt, because it defies so many things like conservation of matter and matter cannot simply disappear.

How does it work?

hey don't you try and bring real world physics into a FANTASY game! Aether just...... is.

I wouldn't even say aether is finite or non-renewable or in danger of "running out". That's what the entire cycle of aether leaving the Lifestream to be born and then going back to the Lifestream when something dies is all about. I would say that the percentage of where it is and who has it needs to be kept within certain perimeters for the world(s) to function correctly. And the Ascians have been playing around with that for a long, long time.

"Aether Loss" is something that makes my head hurt every time people talk about it.

Personally, I see the depletion of aether from over-wielding magicks and summoning primals the way I see the depletion of the water table in areas sustaining a larger-than-advised population. It's possible to draw water from the land, making it harsh and taking away its ability to sustain life, without breaking the rules of a closed system or annihilating water forever.

So far, the only thing that's been hardline defined as causing true aether loss is a Flood of Darkness/Light.

I'm really curious about what exactly happened in the Burn that led to it becoming an aether-starved wasteland, because we've never seen aether-related damage on such a scale anywhere else before.

If it was a convention of primals like the Garleans seem to believe, that still begs the question of what could've pushed the parties involved to partake in such a mass summoning.

Well, far as I can figure... aether is like a combination of matter and energy. Therefore it behaves like both and neither.

Remember, energy cannot be destroyed - it simply changes form from usable to unusable. Sunlight helps grow trees, which can be burned for energy, leaving only unusable ashes. In the world of XIV, this is simply not true - aether changes from one element to the next, spinning on the elemental wheel observed as a part of the UI in Eureka.

That's not to say aether can't become unusable - corrupted aether and crystals are highly volatile and can't be used for anything but disrupting other "normal" types of aether, such as when it was used to help breach Garuda's barrier and endure Leviathan's Tidal Wave on the high seas. If corrupted aether then transitions into a usable state... well, that I'm not sure of.

Either way, one of the major reasons primals are so dangerous is that they introduce true entropy to Hydaelyn - the aether that makes up their physical form returns to the land when felled, but any other aether a primal consumes while on the material plane is simply gone or otherwise converted at a very poor rate into loose aether upon their defeat. (Case and point: Bismarck, known to eat islands in the Sea of Clouds, leaves nothing behind upon death but the key to Azys Lla. Why wasn't that destroyed? Plot, I'd wager.)

It's also scientifically provable that aether levels across Hydaelyn have dropped through the ages, evidenced by Matoya's Crystal Eye (an ancient Crystal of Light) and the Crystals carried by the contemporary Warrior(s) of Light. This is implied to be due to Calamities and primals; where the aether is going isn't explained, but can be presumed to be going toward awakening Zodiark.

As Moose-senpai said, a Flood of Light or Darkness can also destroy aether - Dark compresses it into a singularity, while Light bleeds it away into nothingness.

That's all the information I have on aether, with a little bit of extrapolation by YT thrown in.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Well, far as I can figure... aether is like a combination of matter and energy.

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Æ=MC²

Problem solved!

Just think of it as 'the force' from star wars. basically the same concept. flows through all living things, those strong in it get magic like powers, there's glow-y swords, people flying around.......

I always figured the only way aether can truly be destroyed is through a primal consuming it and in the event of a Flood of Light/Darkness. I've always thought of primals as a sort of "black hole"; as was mentioned before, when they die, the aether that makes up their form is returned to the land, but the aether that they've eaten for fuel is just kind of... gone, as Cilia stated.

It's a lot more complicated then that. On the one hand, Aether is almost more similar to atoms and the Fundamental Forces (weak force, strong force, gravity, electromagnetism) then anything else. You've got the building blocks of everything in the elemental aether (lightning, fire, earth, ice, water, wind) and the "rules" for how it behaves depending on weather it's Astral or Umbral aspected. And that's just the material side of things.

In the quests leading up to the Ridorana Lighthouse, it's revealed that even immaterial "things" such as memories, thoughts, feeling, will, etc. are made out of aether. That's probably why it's possible to do things like teleportation. You're sending all the aether that makes you you though the sea of aether that is the Lifestream and it all comes out the other end. All you need is a beacon (aethyrite) to send it to.

The Ridorana Lighthouse also has a lot of technobable concerning aether and a lot of it seems based off the natural phenomena of waveforms (think light or sound). Funnily enough, Quantum Mechanics (the set of physics that has to do with describing how atoms function) has a lot to do with waveforms... but whether that was on purpose or just a happy coincidence I don't know. It is true that in-universe, Aether studies are treated more like a kind of Physics then a kind of Magic. The line between the two is Eorzea is so blurry as to be non-existent.

Aether Technobable (and normal translations) from Ridorana Lighthouse

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Originally Posted by Mikoto, 1st try

My apologies. The Otius is no ordinary crystal, even discounting its obvious historical importance. The specimen is more than a simple manifestation of elementally aspected energies─it is, rather, an aetherial lodestone whose facilitation of both the absorption and transmission of distinct-frequency NRR–type harmonic vibrations has been observed to promote aetherial amplification.

The resultant neuro-harmonic disturbance allows for a highly unique emittance of CPRS waves that, instead of radiating outward with a determinate factor of dispersal, instead resonate inward at a frequency so labored, my estimates place the rate of VRT decay at upwards of several centuries...though I must admit I lack sufficient variates to complete a truly comprehensive graphical assessment.

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Originally Posted by Mikoto, 2nd try

Simpler... Right... Um... Aether is not only the building block of all things material, but those immaterial as well. Thoughts, memories, feelings, one's very will are all understood to be aetherial phenomena, and can be measured as such. Unlike most crystals, which only can emit elemental energies, auracite is tuned not only to absorb aether, but aether specific to the immaterial. That aether is then stored and multiplied within its crystalline confines until external stimuli precipitate release.

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Originally Posted by Mikoto, 3rd try

Uh... Ahem. Under appropriate conditions, a strong will or desire can become imprinted upon the auracite and stored until fomentation, at which time the desire becomes manifest─

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Let's take it one step further...

The various elements have different energy charges, depending on where they are on the elemental wheel. Astral elements will naturally have a higher energy level, while Umbral elements will have less; more accurately, Astral elements generate energy, while Umbral elements absorb energy. Lightning, or plasma, is the most powerful state of matter in existence - so great atoms are being ripped apart. (The Sun itself is a giant ball of plasma.) Ice, or more accurately cold, is the state in which matter has the least energy in it - it will consume any energy it can to change its state to a more energetic one.

All of the Astral elements (Wind, Lightning, Fire) are ephemeral and cannot exist in a solid state; they must lose energy and turn into an Umbral element (Earth, Ice, Water) to do so.

... with the exception of elemental crystals, of course.

As for immaterial concepts (thoughts, memories, etc.) - yes, they exist, but only as aetherial fluctuations, not aether itself. Auracite works by attuning itself to an aetherial wavelength (say, B'gamnan's desires or the original Ramza's personality) and then does something with it; the Duma makes the user's desires manifest on the physical plane, while the Otius is a sort of aetherial floppy disk containing the original Ramza's personality. (Someone correct me if the Auracite Ramza picked up during the Ridorana closing scenes was actually the Duma.) This is how Fordola's Resonant Echo allows her to fight Ultra Instinct style - it picks up on the aetherial fluctuations of her opponent(s), allowing her to react before their attacks are launched. Aside from Urianger's Aetheric Burst tool, theoretically it could be overcome by simply quieting one's soul so there are no aetherial fluctuations... or simply by fighting so recklessly your attacks couldn't even be predicted by yourself... but I digress.

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Æ=MC²

Problem solved!

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Amendment:

Æ=(MC²)*e

... where e changes depending on the element, with Astral elements having the highest value and Umbral elements having the lowest (possibly even negative).

Except that's not how Astral and Umbral aspects work. When the Lore Book gives an example of what the difference between Astral and Umbral are, it uses the same element, fire.

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Originally Posted by Encyclopedia Eorzea

In addition to the six elements, there also exist two poles -- astral and umbral -- which greatly influence the nature of the elements -- an astral charge bringing more activity, while an umbral charge resulting in more passiveness. For example, when in an astral state, fire exhibits high volatility, whereas its umbral state is characterized by dryness.

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All six elements can be astral or umbral. You can have Astral Ice just as you can have Umbral Fire. In fact, two of the weather patterns in Heavensward are Umbral Static (in the Churning Mists) and Umbral Wind (in the Sea of Clouds).

As far as I can tell, Astral and Umbral have nothing to do with how the elements relate to each other. That relation seems to be something intrinsic to the elements themselves and no mention is made of the aspect the elements have.

Right, in fact, the Twelve actually demonstrate this: each member of the pantheon has an elemental affinity, but because there are only six elements and... well... twelve gods/goddesses, it's obvious that each element is shared. Accordingly, of each divine elemental 'pair', one is umbral aligned, the other astral. An example is the two fire aligned members of the Twelve: Azeyma and Nald'thal. Azeyma is astral fire, while Nald'thal is umbral fire, which makes sense, given Azeyma is the goddess of the sun and thus is in the 'heavens' (thus, sunlight), whereas Nald'thal is (among other things), the god of the underworld, and thus, darkness or at least a more earthly 'light' (like the fire from lava). Both are fire signs, but very different aspects of fire/heat.

Thus in the elemental wheel astral and umbral are rather like extremes on a pendulum, each element can shift to either polarity and are not necessarily restricted to being solely aspected to one or the other.

Yes I know there are technically thirteen members of the 'Twelve', given that Nald'thal is technically two separate gods counted as one, but for simplicity's sake there are twelve in the... um.. 'Twelve'. :p

Well I don't have the encyclopedia, so I'm running on real-world knowledge.

Anyway - even if you want to take the Astral / Umbral bit out, it still works... mostly. You'd just need to amend the formula a bit more:

Æ=(MC²)*(e/A)

Let e be the element (Lightning will naturally be highest, Ice will naturally be lowest) and A be the aspect (Astral is lower, Umbral is higher). Astral Lightning would be, say, 6/1, while Umbral Ice would be 1/6?

Fantasy physics is hard.

I'm writing this in the absence of the lore book, so some assumptions may be incorrect.

I labor under the impression that the aether/energy-matter relation and conversion is a thing - indicated perhaps the strongest by the fact that aether can coalesce into physical form as well as dissipate from crystal to back to "free" aether. Although in-game lore defines aether as being able to assume elemental attributes, I suspect that the six elements mentioned are simply peaks and that aether can exist in intermediary states. Adding to that, there are probably other peaks that don't conform to the elemental theory (and/or are not practically observable) and are thus disregarded by mainline Eorzean/Sharlayan scholars.

When it comes to the astral and umbral alignments, I first thought it was something akin to energy states in the sense that astral aether seeks to emit energy to reach a neutral state, and that umbral aether seeks to absorb energy to reach said neutral state. But the example of astral and umbral fire, where the latter is a dry heat, it may be better to think of alignment as something along the lines of nuclear spin albeit more readily observable on a macro scale.

Thus aether type could possibly be described as one or several matrices containing the values of possible aspects and alignments. Though I am uncertain as how to merge that with the wave-description of aether. But it feels like you’d be digging yourself a bit into linear algebra for that, for limited practical applications.

On the topic of the Twelve, I honestly believe that the easily observable peaks and alignments served as a building block in the belief that via culture through time manifested as “the Twelve”. But since the nature of aether and the soul allows for belief/mental exertion to result in physical change such as the actualization of primals/gods it may very well be the case that the belief in the Twelve self-reinforces the attributes and abilities of the members of the pantheon, furthering it’s establishment in the world.

Aether cannot run out. When they say Primals are draining Aether, what they mean is that their presence is siphoning Aether, preventing it from returning back to the lifestream (which is how new life is formed). Thus, in an area or region where there is a local Primal, plants and animals die and stop reproducing. Even a short stint of this can have huge repercussions for foodchains and the ecology of the ecosystems. If you played FF7, it's similar to how Mako plants were draining energy from the lifestream, slowly killing the planet, gradually delaying rebirth of new life

Yeah... the game really should go more into aether-theory somewhere (Sidequests in the expansion that has Sharlayan anyone?). The entire first section of the Lore Book is all about Aether science, the structure of Hydalyen the star/planet, Hydalyen and Zodiark's relationship, the Twelve and the Heavens and Hells. The book treats them like they're all part of the same system, or at the very least have something important to do with each other. Said system goes back at least to the Allagans (for all their science, they did worship the Twelve; this is the civilization that gave Eorzea the deck the Astrologins still use, etc.). It actually goes back further as magic stemmed from religion, not the other way around, in the 2nd Astral Era. However, we haven't really seen anything in all this time (fives Astral/Umbra eras since) to disprove that those ideas are incorrect.

I highly doubt any of the fundamental rules are going to change any time soon. Or revealed to have been false this entire time. Too much of the game assumes the characters and players are familiar with how the system roughly works to pull the rug out from under us three expansions in. It's one thing to put information we've gleaned from various places in it's proper place, it's another to say it was wrong.

I kinda skimmed over this thread, but something I wanted to make sure was clear is that all matter in the game is also made of aether, much like the link between matter and energy, albeit with a far more equal conversion ratio. Which is part of how you are able to turn equipment into materia, as well as teleport.

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Originally Posted by Shadotterdan

I kinda skimmed over this thread, but something I wanted to make sure was clear is that all matter in the game is also made of aether, much like the link between matter and energy, albeit with a far more equal conversion ratio. Which is part of how you are able to turn equipment into materia, as well as teleport.

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As far as we know, that is correct.