How common and fast is aetheryte teleporting?

And are there any regulations on it?

1 - There are aetherytes in almost every town and outpost, even small ones, so presumably they are commonly used, but that being the case why do most people not seem to use them? I get it for merchants with carts and such, but even regular people always walk or take boats or airships everywhere. What was stopping the older Ala Mhigans from just teleporting back to Ala Ghana? Does it require an amount of skill in aetherial manipulation that most people don't have? In that case why bother having aetherytes everywhere?

2 - How fast is it. In game we see it as instant because, well, as a gameplay mechanic it has to be, but is it instant in the lore? In the latest MSQ Cid says: "Time no doubt being of the essence, could I tempt you to a ride aboard the Excelsior? If there's a faster way to Raubahn's side, I will personally apologize to the commander for keeping him waiting." Wait, really? Your airship can get me from Mor Dhona to Ala Mhigo faster than a teleport? What's the point of teleports then?

3 - How is something like teleportation regulated? If anyone can just attune to any aetheryte what's stopping people from going wherever they want whenever they want? What does the Ul'dahn checkpoint do if anyone who's been to the city even once can just teleport back, ignoring the gates and guards? Are the main aetheryte plazas in every city heavily guarded and we just don't see it in game?

Using aetherytes costs money, something most people don't have a near-infinite supply of. It also requires something called "anima," which recharges over time - the Warrior of Light just has a nigh-infinite supply of it thanks to the Echo / Blessing. So in most cases, on-foot transport is more practical.

After the 7th Umbral Calamity, the aetheryte network of Eorzea was thrown out of wack. In order to fix it, Ul'dah paid the Sharlayans (not the Archons/Scions of the Seventh Dawn) to fix it. In order to pay the Sharlayans off, they basically put a tax on aetheryte usage. Outside of Eorzea, it seems aetherytes require some measure of upkeep and it's customary to pay the people doing that a fee.

Aethryte teleporting is instant. My explanation for what Cid says is that he's a Garlean and can't use teleportation so he never thinks of it. We're just humoring him.

The other thing we've never seen people do with teleportation is move large quantities of items. It seems that while moving your own aether is relatively easy, moving the aether of something else is much harder. So teleportation can never oh... replace the shipping business. In order to transport anything in bulk, it needs to use traditional methods.

The aetherytes of all the main hub cities are well guarded. Ul'dah, Kugane and Ishgard are the most obvious about it. There's also the fact that most people can't teleport in quick succession, so most people use it for an emergency and not for normal travel.

It's implied that being able to use aetherytes at all isn't a very common thing as it was mentioned that only a small unit of Doman soldiers was able to offer immediate support against the Imperial counterstrike at the Ghimlyt Dark, the rest needing to take the traditional route.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

It's implied that being able to use aetherytes at all isn't a very common thing as it was mentioned that only a small unit of Doman soldiers was able to offer immediate support against the Imperial counterstrike at the Ghimlyt Dark, the rest needing to take the traditional route.

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Assuming characters are bound by the same teleportation rules as players, that issue wouldn't have been due to a general inability to teleport, but the specific restriction that you need to have attuned to your destination aetheryte. So only the small number of soldiers who had previously traveled to Eorzea would be able to teleport back there.

There might also be additional "realistic" rules about aetherial strength/skill that could prevent some from traveling such a long distance, even if they can travel locally.

Question on traditional that I never seemed to understand.

Just how long does it take to go from X to Y when you're not an aether rich NPC? Airships seem to be the fastest, so the travel from say Ul'dah to Limsa would be how long? Then there's even slower routes like Kugane to the Steppe. I'm always imagining less than magical npcs sitting on a boat, being heckled by Confederates, hoofing it through the forest, through the mountains, and finally Steppes.

We've seen usage of flying mounts like the Yol and falcons, but I don't think Lolorito or every day merchants are transporting themselves or their goods on birbs outside an old fashioned Chocobo.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Assuming characters are bound by the same teleportation rules as players, that issue wouldn't have been due to a general inability to teleport, but the specific restriction that you need to have attuned to your destination aetheryte. So only the small number of soldiers who had previously traveled to Eorzea would be able to teleport back there.

There might also be additional "realistic" rules about aetherial strength/skill that could prevent some from traveling such a long distance, even if they can travel locally.

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There was a comment when you met up with the Doman Resistance that they smashed the aetheryte at their base I can't remember the name of that, when the Garleans were trying to stamp out the last traces of the rebellion, they were trying to force unattuned conscripts through. I forget if it was mentioned what happened to them.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

There was a comment when you met up with the Doman Resistance that they smashed the aetheryte at their base I can't remember the name of that, when the Garleans were trying to stamp out the last traces of the rebellion, they were trying to force unattuned conscripts through. I forget if it was mentioned what happened to them.

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A lot of them died I guess.

It's possible to teleport to an unattuned aetheryte, same as it's possible to drive down a busy road with your eyes shut and the music turned up.
Got a vague idea of where you're going, there's a chance you'll make it to the end intact, 100% not recommended but you might give it a go if someone held a gun to your head.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

There was a comment when you met up with the Doman Resistance that they smashed the aetheryte at their base I can't remember the name of that, when the Garleans were trying to stamp out the last traces of the rebellion, they were trying to force unattuned conscripts through. I forget if it was mentioned what happened to them.

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I think they mentioned in the quests surrounding Shiva that trying to travel to an unattuned aetheryte poses the risk of getting lost in the Aetherial Sea, which is about as good as being dead (Unless you're exceptionally skilled and have people able to bail you out like Y'shtola did).

Losing access to the intended destination during transit would presumably ensure such a fate.

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Originally Posted by Gula

Question on traditional that I never seemed to understand.

Just how long does it take to go from X to Y when you're not an aether rich NPC?

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As long as the plot needs it to take.
The developers have (deliberately I am sure) always been very vague about travel times and passage of time in general.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

There was a comment when you met up with the Doman Resistance that they smashed the aetheryte at their base I can't remember the name of that, when the Garleans were trying to stamp out the last traces of the rebellion, they were trying to force unattuned conscripts through. I forget if it was mentioned what happened to them.

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They didn't say that they were doing it, they said that there was a fear that they would.

Iirc, everyone who can manipulate aether to an extent can travel via aetheryte, which means practically everyone except for Garleans. But as said before, you need a certain anima level to do so consecutively, and probably also over longer distances, so it\'s not that easy for people not named the Warrior of Light with a neigh-invinite anima supply to travel wherever they want. And yes, if you look closely, there are always guards at any aetheryte plaza, especially in the city states. Plus, as stated before, the tax. Also, there is one thing everyone seems to forget...
At one point during 3.X I think it was, Tataru mentions that even using the small city aetherytes makes her feel sick; not sure if she said why, but my guess would be exertion. So a kind of travel sickness I guess. Maybe even connected to low anima levels or something? So, I would think that many people are just unwilling to go through that if they have a choice, and prefer slower means of travel.

PS: Forgot to mention something important yesterday. As dangerous as the Eorzean wildlife is for the average person, not many regular people are likely to even have been past the next village over, let alone a big city. So even if they technically could, they are unable to be attuned to all that many aetherytes in the first place, unlike us adventurers who travel all around the world all the time.

While a lot of things are sped up and shrunk down for the sake of making the game enjoyable, I think the general assumption that we're supposed to make is that Hydaelyn is the same size as the planet earth. The maps we have of Eorzea don't give a great idea of where the planetary poles are, so it's difficult to tell just how big the continents we see are - but most probably, it's the intention that the distance between the East and West edges is roughly the same as the distance between Japan and Great Britain. I think we can assume days or weeks of travel by cart or Chocobo between most places in Eorzea, and the boat ride to Kugane likely took months. Even faster vehicles like Airships don't look like they travel nearly as fast as airplanes do.

While not precisely in-game, Alisae's side-story on the Lodestone a while back mentioned that she spent a considerable amount of time traveling with a caravan, and it was clearly implied that this caravan was on the road for days or weeks at a time.

Honestly, it's probably best not to think too hard about it. If pressed, there's likely a LOT of holes you can punch into the story - for example, Hien's nick-of-time arrival to support the siege against Ala Mhigo castle; it's likely that he and his followers were NOT attuned to any Eorzean Aetherite (possible, I suppose, but unlikely), yet they somehow timed their weeks- or months-long journey to arrive just as the Garleans started to mobilize their air force.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

If pressed, there's likely a LOT of holes you can punch into the story - for example, Hien's nick-of-time arrival to support the siege against Ala Mhigo castle; it's likely that he and his followers were NOT attuned to any Eorzean Aetherite (possible, I suppose, but unlikely), yet they somehow timed their weeks- or months-long journey to arrive just as the Garleans started to mobilize their air force.

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Yeah. I remember questioning that at the time too. The game is usually very bad about showing the passage of time (blah, blah, time bubble, etc.) As players we see time passing in an instant even though on an intellectual level we know that it must be days or weeks or months between story events.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

While a lot of things are sped up and shrunk down for the sake of making the game enjoyable, I think the general assumption that we're supposed to make is that Hydaelyn is the same size as the planet earth.

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I can't link to it because of reasons (other people who have read it will understand why), but a few years ago (during 2.x I think, when we only had access to Eorzea) I read a decently reasoned explanation that used the distance a character could walk in a certain span of Eorzea time, cross referenced with the map of Eorzea, to determine that Aldenard is roughly the size of Wales and Vyllbrand is larger than the Isle of Man. But of course, even if it turned out to be accurate, this would say nothing of the size of Hydaelyn all told.