Primals and Egis

[Niniyo]

My friend and I, both arcanists who trained as summoners, have two contradictory views of the Primals and, by extension, our egis. I'd like to share both of our thoughts, in hopes that someone would be able to confirm what parts are actually canon, if there is any on the topic.

Thank you very much in advance for any input you might have =D

EDIT: Because of posting limitations, some definitions here:
True Primal - the essence of the primal (Garuda, Titan, etc...) as they exist in the aether without physical form
Primal - The True Primal once they manifest physically
Egi - A less powerful physical manifestation of a True Primal

[Niniyo]

Neutral Primal Thought
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The Primals themselves, as they exist in the stream of aether, are mostly or completely neutral in regards to personality, and are merely aligned with the flow of certain types of elemental aether. That is, Garuda is not particularly violent any more than the wind is continually violent, but possesses the potential of a calm breeze or terrible gale.

Sticking with Garuda, when the Ixal call her, they themselves desire a force of violence (to use against Gridania) and so the Primal Garuda is horribly violent.

When a summoner calls Garuda-egi, they pull from the True Primal in a similar way to create a smaller, less powerful manifestation. Because of this, the actions of the beast tribes do not directly effect the True Primals. (That is, our egis would seem no different now, with "extreme" primal battles as when we were in the story battles)

[Niniyo]

Violent Primal Thought
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In the aether, the True Primals are violent creatures. Garuda, in particularly, being blood thirsty, and Titan being incredibly protective.

The beast tribes, by worshiping the Primals, are changed by them. The Ixal become more violent, the Kobalds more defencive, etc...

Because of this, our egis are changed as the beast tribes become more desperate and sacrifice more crystals, etc..., because the True Primal is driving the beast tribes to call them back to the world, and therefor our egis would likewise grow more violent, defencive, etc...

[Toranja]

When Ifrit is summoned, it is shown they retain their consciousness in the aether. They are who they are independently of who summons them.

I would call an egi a weak and brain-dead primal manifestation. Did you ever had a conversation with an egi?

[WellFooled]

Hmmm, from my understanding the 2nd theory is closest to the truth. I say this because of the Primal's ability to temper.

The Sylphs for example summoned Ramuh after the Calamity and this physically and mentally changed them. They are now purple colored and are fiercely territorial and go out of their way to try and have their untempered kin brought into the fold. This all suggests that the Primal changes their worshipers, not the other way around.

[Inktail]

I agree with theory personally, especially after seeing screen shots of the neutral beast tribe factions that will be coming in 2.1, and how much they differ form their tempered brethren. And seeing the trailer for the King Moggle Mog XII fight, and how the moogles's pom poms differ form normal moogles which highly suggest they are tempered too, it makes me wonder what physical changes can undergo other races who are tempered by a primal of another race.

And I know this sounds fanboyish, but I would hope getting tempered by King Moggle Mog would result in mooglefications X3

[synaesthetic]

The way I see it, the summoners are really evokers or conjurers (not in the XIV sense, but in the general sense) that form the egi creatures from aether with the same aspect and flavor as the actual primal. From what I gather, the egi are created from a very tiny fragment of the actual primal's power and built up around that with aether.

For scholar it's a bit different, as Eos and Selene are actual independent entities rather than poorly-made and vastly depowered copies of the original.

[Anonymoose]

See, I'm already eyeballs deep in my own theory on the matter. Instead of seeing yours through my lenses, here's my theory on the subject. You can compare it to the two you've provided as you will or reject it entirely. ^^

So far, I'm inclined to say that aether is pure, formless potential for energy and life. If you focus on this energy and manipulate it in the correct manner, you can form life with thought. This would be how carbuncle comes to be. The Arcanist focuses on the mathematical breakdown of what carbuncle is and shapes the aether accordingly. If the Arcanist wants fierce, offensive Carbuncle, they shape it one way. If they want a stonewalling, defensive Carbuncle, they manifest it the other. We see something similar with the scholar, however the memories accumulated by the faeries they summon are stored in the job crystal they carry. Thus, if you use someone else's job crystal, you're using an already-established faery consciousness.

If my theory is correct, this would be how Louisoix summoned the power of the Twelve. He carved their symbols into stones and asked us to make a pilgrimage, praying to them and filling the aether of the land with the messages of our prayers and images of the deities we believed in - and then twisted it to his will like an arcanist and used it to attempt to bind Bahamut. Is it mere coincidence that we prayed to symbols on stone and they manifested as symbols in the sky? Who knows what they would have looked like if he summoned them fully - an amalgam of our own mental images of them and personalities we ascribe them?

If my theory is correct, this would be what primals are. The beast tribes develop a culture around their environment, where the aether naturally shifts towards a certain elemental aspect. In the hot deserts of Thanalan, where the aether more easily imbalances towards the aspect of fire (notice all those fire sprites hanging around?), they create a mythology of their god. When they, like the arcanist, gather a great deal of aether together and focus their prayers and hopes upon it (as the ascians, under the guise of the Paragons, taught them to do), the primal takes the form of their prayers. Think of it like an unnatural concentration that is a stark contrast to the natural, consistently diffuse nature of the aether. Their power and existence depends on consuming aether, so they consume and hoard as much as possible to become dominant and self-preserve against other primals and threats to those that summoned them. Killing them diffuses the aether back into the land, nourishing it, but the essences and prayers remain. Elder primals would thus be essences from long ago, not actively kept alive by the prayers of their worshipers, but either diffuse amongst the stream as memories or alive in the world, undefeated.

So what are Egi?

If my theory is correct, those who have fought primals retain memories of their power and abilities. The summoner calls forth blank aether concentrations, like with carbuncle, but inheres their memories of a primal's power into this creation and gives life to the puppet. However, they must first show that they can dominate it, or, like the primal it was born from the memories of, it will fight them tooth, nail, and claw. This would be why only those who have fought a primal can summon primal-egi... they have the memory, the experience, to inhere into the aether as prayer does. In the summoner storyline, then, what we saw was an Ascian giving Tristain the memories and experience required to summon an elder primal-egi, possibly empathetically taken from the Summoner job stones he had Tristain collect.

These are just my thoughts, though...

It wouldn't be the first time I came up with something that made a lot of sense and was totally wrong.

[Nahara]

If my theory is correct, those who have fought primals retain memories of their power and abilities.

I love your explanation, but have to object to this.

If you follow the events of the Summoner quest line chronologically with the events of the main story line (ie. you were to look at them as if you were doing them at the same time), then this theory falls apart as soon as you hit Lv45 and proceed to unlock the Garuda-Egi.

Story-Mode Garuda (which you do as early as Lv44) does not summon Suparna and Chirada, but the Garuda-Egi that you fight does. If your theory were correct, Garuda-Egi in that fight should not have been able to summon Egi versions of Suparna and Chirada, because we would have had no idea such a thing was possible until fighting her Hard Mode variant at Lv50.

[Niniyo]

I love your explanation, but have to object to this.

I think it's still possible that most of the explanation is correct, but it's just slight different?

We fight story Garuda and gain her crystal and knowledge of her powers and abilities. Not all of her powers and abilities, but enough to basically reach out and connect this creature we're created with the "essence" of Garuda. Then, having connected our puppet to true Garuda, she can then use all of her abilities, but because of the relative power of her "container", those powers aren't as powerful as when she is called by the Ixal.

While the -egi battles are similar to their primal counterpart, there are differences in each (iirc). For example, I could have sworn Ifrit-egi called out a bunch of fire sprites during our fight, but not in the story (or hard mode). Obviously they should be able to, but the choose to against the summoner, but not against the group.