Garleans and Aetheryte

In the heavensward storyline, Yshtola mentions that she may have accidentily Thancred's ability to use magic, and in turn he is unable to teleport using aetherytes.

Garleans are by nature unable to use magic.

Internal aethernets could be substituted for magitek transporters, but would they have aetherytes, considering they potentially have many non-garlean folks living there?

A curious question!

We see in places like Ala Mhigo and Doma that - at the very least - Garlemald isn't smashing other nations' aetherytes after they take control out of pure spite. In fact, loyal conscripts, spies, and successfully indoctrinated citizens who are not purebloods could all make use of the technology, so why not take advantage? And blend in?

But would Garleans knowingly raise aetherytes in their own pureblood strongholds ... hm.
(And are the aetherial rivers there even "good enough" to sustain the network?)

There seems to be no shortage of purebloods who've adopted an attitude of, "Our kind were pushed around, and now we're gonna do the pushing!" Perhaps some would look on aetherytes in Garlean cities as less of an obvious utilitarian benefit and more as an insult, pragmatism be damned. "When in Rome, use the Magitek."

Tough call!

Presently unknown.

It would not make sense for aetherytes to be in ancestral Garlean lands, but one must remember that their holdings were rather miniscule just a century ago. It would then fall on the native peoples to their conquered lands to have installed aetherytes, and seeing as the Xaela were capable of getting aetherytes in some of their more permanent settlements, it doesn't seem particularly difficult (though if we're to believe Lolorito it's somewhat costly to install and maintain).

Would the Garleans install aetherytes themselves? Maybe, maybe not. It's very useful for their conscripted soldiers, but presents a grave security risk and they can't use them themselves... they might not destroy functional ones, but I don't see them installing new ones.

I have not considered the security risk that they present, considering that was the reason the Aetheryte at the house of the fierce was dismantled.

Very good point.

From a game-mechanics as well as lore-based thought process.... aetherytes are what the player is used to, and there has to be some form of 'warp points' available in any location we visit. Would it be better to maintain that familiar label, or go with a 'local flavour' version and call them magitek transporters even though they do exactly the same thing?

Actually it might be best to stick with aetherytes because of Return. Given the lore explanation of how the spell works, it probably wouldn't make sense to be able to mark a magitek device as your home point instead of a real aetherial beacon.

[deadpan tone so confident it can only be trolling] Obviously the reborn Republic of Garlemald, having seen the error of their ways as an Empire that has committed so many wrongs in trusting a hereditary military dictatorship, will simply install aetherytes as a gesture of conciliatory goodwill on behalf of the Populares once we are in alliance against all the true evils of this world ... like ... uh ... the resurrection of Zodiark ... and ... the Allagans returning from deep space ... and ... uh ... a Wings of the Goddess-esque invasion from a doomed shard ... and ... other eldritch abominations from the Whorl which defy the very laws of nature and feed on the collapsing aetherial stability of Hydaelyn's cosmos and the madness of Her children.

Assuming, of course, that it's not just a dungeon, again.

Well, if Azyz Lla can have an exotic Aetheryte design that's never used elsewhere, I don't see why Garlemald couldn't have it's own model. Also... I get the feeling Aetherytes would be the kind of thing the Allagans would manufacture...

One of the things about Garlemald that often gets overlooked when discussing it is that there has always been a sizable minority of non-Garlean races who have always been Garlean culturally. As in, with full citizenship, rights, etc. The lore book puts 30% of Garlemald's non-conquered population (not the population of the provinces) at being non-Garlean racially. If there's always been that many non-Garleans living in the Garlean homeland, I could see them having an Aetheryte system in place for them. Especially since Garlemald is so far north that everything we know about it makes it seem like Garlemald has the same climate as Siberia. Getting around in winter in those conditions would be way easier (and safer) to do with Aetherytes.

The other thing to consider is that magitek teleportation has probably only been around as long as magitek itself has. Garleans would still have needed to get around their Republic before that. Given how prized mages are too them, I could see them having Aetherytes specifically for the few mages they do have.

It's worth noting that Pureblood Garleans can make use of some manner of teleportation. The Warring Triad quests show Regula van Hydrus making use of such after the solo duty. Magitek has also been frequently shown to mimic many aspects of magic, including summoning familiars. It doesn't seem a huge stretch to me that Garlemald itself will have its own variant of aetherytes that Pureblood Garleans can make use of. They are, after all, very keen on efficiency. Furthermore, there's strong implications that the inhabitants of Goug were among the ancestors of Pureblood Garleans as they, too, were unable to use magic. Ramza was shown to be able to make use of Goug's transportation features so it isn't a stretch to assume that Garlemald has created its own network...though it is most likely limited to short to medium rather than long distance travel.

We've seen, and even made use of, magitek transporters capable of teleporting people between locations since as far back as Dzemael Darkhold.

From what I remember, there was some sort of warping structure at Cape Westwind that was used to funnel troops and supplies to and from Castrum Occidens. It would stand to reason that the Garlean mainland has found a way to mimic Aetherytes, though I imagine not perfectly (and highly limited to short distance travel between two specific points).

Perhaps Garleans have a device that would allow them to use an aetheryte.

I thought that the larger aetheryte crystals were a natural occurrence on hydaelyn and that cities were built on or near them on purpose? Much like real settlements developed near rivers or bodies of clean water in reality.

The reasoning was the ease of transportation once the magic to use them as such was discovered. Now, they could get away with them being in garlemald cities by having them use magitek to somehow suction off their natural energies to power other mechanical parts of the city. Heating, cooling, lighting, etc. Then we sneak on in there and instead use it to warp around. Think of a city like Midgard using mako energy.

While, yes, it would pose a potential security risk, remember we as the warrior of light can use that teleportation much easier because of our innately massive reservoirs of aether due to the blessing of light. But almost the whole world's population don't have that option, instead requiring massive amounts of shards to use up, as in the summoning of a primal, in order to move something the size of an army so far instantly. Its why normally armies walking into each other's city via the aetherytes isn't a real military tactic in Eorzean history.

The enclave has a small amount of fighters and had to worry because all it would theoretically take would be an equally small amount of trained, and well equipped non garlean soldiers to have attacked it, hence they're breaking of said aetheryte.

Not to mention, youd have to sneak the entire army in the first place to attune themselves one by one before the second step could even be considered.

Christ I'm a nerd..... -_-

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Originally Posted by Blackbard

I thought that the larger aetheryte crystals were a natural occurrence on hydaelyn and that cities were built on or near them on purpose? Much like real settlements developed near rivers or bodies of clean water in reality.

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It's not unreasonable to believe so, but remember that the Scions turned down having Lolorito install an aetheryte in Vesper Bay so they wouldn't be indebted to him (which is why there's the ostentatious statue of him there), that the Onishishu are involved in maintaining Othard's aetheryte network, and the monetary fee for teleporting goes toward that maintenance. This all suggests (if not confirms) that aetherytes aren't naturally occurring and are actually somewhat difficult and costly to maintain.

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Originally Posted by Blackbard

Not to mention, youd have to sneak the entire army in the first place to attune themselves one by one before the second step could even be considered.

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You are aware of what a Trojan Horse is, I assume? You don't need the whole army attuned to aetherytes to use them for tactical advantages...

Anyway yes, the Garleans do have a magitek transport system; it's on display at Cape Westwind leading into Castrum Marinum. It seems to use a wire though, which would make it much more prone to failures and disruption. All it takes is the wire being knocked down to take it out of commission... (Everyone loves electricity, but as anyone who lives in places where winter weather is irregular can attest, all it takes is a bit of ice and the whole thing comes crashing down...)

Geez I really took my graphics card for granted... this lower resolution seriously sucks.

Cities did originally crop up where aetherytes naturally are, but that has less to do with the aetherytes being there and more to do with the fact that aetherytes form where there is lots of ambient aether in the first place. Lots of ambient aether being in places leads to there being lots of life (both plant and animal) in the general area which makes for stable cities, especially in the ears before technology (both magical and mechanical) became more developed. Once technology developed to a certain point, then cities can be formed in areas that don't have as much life and they'll want aetherytes for those.

Given that aetherytes are basically large synthetic aether crystals... yeah, I can buy them needing maintenance to keep them stable. They've got to connect to the Lifestream somehow even if the area doesn't have lots of aether in it... kinda wonder how they get all that working.