Equilibrium must needs be restored [heavy sppoiler]

[Anonymoose]

Another thing that bothers me about their obsession with "balance" is they teach people how to summon primals, which sucks up the aether from the world and puts everything in danger. How is that bringing balance back?

Only Lahabrea and Elidibus, the two who were "of this world," have spoken anything of balance thus far. Nabriales specifically stated that Darkness should consume the Light and return all that is to nothingness, a la the Cloud of Darkness. This, however, is (at least on the surface) in direct contrast to what they have in common with the transmigratory Ascians, that they seek to sow chaos so that Zodiark will be reborn.

There's gotta be truth hidden in properly understanding what that even means (including the possibility that it's a smokescreen), otherwise Lahabrea's plan is to stop the unraveling of the laws governing the aetherial and corporeal realms (literally replacing all order with pure chaos) by ... sowing chaos. And now we have Elidibus trying to clean up the mess of Lahabrea's failed papal-primal project by slaying primals to stop the awakening of eikons because there'd be too much destruction. Did they only want a specific type of chaos? A specific amount?

If Zodiark returns and Hydaelyn is burned out, what balance is gained that isn't also immediately lost?

Urianger said that balance is always sort of present, even if it hangs in the balance of a swinging pendulum...

is where is that aether going?

From the primals? Do we have any reason to believe that it's going anywhere aside from being torn from the land and then returned to it?

[Nadirah]

Watch through Doga and Unei's Allagan History Lesson again. The Tower's overflowing light was enough to satisfy every want of every common citizen, but the Empire itself went into a serious decline as a direct result. Sounds a whole lot like the light was out of balance there to me, but it's never been brought up again in game since it was first mentioned. Sounds fishy, though, once you consider everything that happened to correct it snowballed into an Umbral Era, because that means Ascians.

The Allagan became lazy and docile because they had technology to do everything for them, including fight their wars(see: Fractal) When their leaders went corrupt, no one noticed and no one did anything until it was too late.

No one could do anything for themselves.

[Fenral]

From the primals? Do we have any reason to believe that it's going anywhere aside from being torn from the land and then returned to it?

We do. Remember the readings we were taking before we stumbled across poor Wilred? I'm disinclined to believe that dropping aether levels are entirely unrelated to the Ascians' plot. There could be some sort of entropy involved in dissipating primals, but it's hard to know one way or the other right now.

[Cilia]

We do. Remember the readings we were taking before we stumbled across poor Wilred? I'm disinclined to believe that dropping aether levels are entirely unrelated to the Ascians' plot. There could be some sort of entropy involved in dissipating primals, but it's hard to know one way or the other right now.

Personally, I don't think there's much more to it. The summoning and sustenance of primals eats up aether, but any in reserve that was not spent is returned to the land upon the primal's defeat. So any spent aether is gone, but whatever was ready to sustain it is still there or returned.

It's sort of like filling up a gas tank, driving a bit, and then siphoning out what's left. The overall level is lower, but there is some left.

Aether levels have just dropped significantly due to the massive number of primals that were summoned during 2.x (which makes me shudder to think how much aether Bismarck used up, given he was around from when we first go into the Sea of Clouds at 50 to his canon defeat at 57 / 58).

[Fenral]

The Allagan became lazy and docile because they had technology to do everything for them, including fight their wars(see: Fractal) When their leaders went corrupt, no one noticed and no one did anything until it was too late.

No one could do anything for themselves.

Exactly. Which is the precise why behind their wish to Salina to ensure that the tower might be restored: it did everything for them and they couldn't imagine life without it. Even after its power was turned against them, they refused to acknowledge its role in setting up their downfall, placing all the blame on Xande instead. Though their magi like Doga and Unei were aware of the effect it had, they had died trying to stop him and as a result weren't around to offer counsel after the fall.

Unless I missed something, we're ignoring the lessons of history and bullying ahead with our "no, light is always good" mentality heedless of the consequences; paving the way for a new "flood of light" to occur sometime in the future if our present course continues unaltered.

[Anonymoose]

We do. Remember the readings we were taking before we stumbled across poor Wilred? I'm disinclined to believe that dropping aether levels are entirely unrelated to the Ascians' plot. There could be some sort of entropy involved in dissipating primals, but it's hard to know one way or the other right now.

Considering that they were in the Black Shroud at the time, I've (for now) just been assuming that it's connected to the Odin storyline, where O-App-Pesi theorized that Zantetsuken reforged its own wielder by consuming ambient aether over an extended time. I think Odin's more important than we've been led to believe; even the 3.00 story invoked the Dark Divinity when talking about the true eikons. The drop in ambient aether seems (to me) more likely to be related to eikons than primals, now that we know the difference. On one hand, that quest did specifically say they were studying the impact of primal summonings on the aetherial balance. On the other, they clearly didn't know anything about the difference between primals and eikons until this patch, anyway. I'm unsure whether the observation supports anything they were looking for or whether they found it incidentally. It might have been the Calamity itself that siphoned Eorzea's aether somewhere else ("Yet even as it enervates, the Ardor empowers our master.")

The summoning and sustenance of primals eats up aether, but any in reserve that was not spent is returned to the land upon the primal's defeat. So any spent aether is gone, but whatever was ready to sustain it is still there or returned.

This is also possible, though I've been thinking of aether as raw energy; not created or destroyed but changing forms. To use Garuda as an example, if a chunk of the Land's aether were trapped in wind crystals, and then those crystals were consolidated into her form, and and then she expended some of it using her attacks, I just assumed it was no different than releasing the power of the crystals into, say, a synthesis. Energy converts forms, wind shows up, aether is freed and returns to the land.

[Fenral]

Energy converts forms, wind shows up, aether is freed and returns to the land.

Now you've got me brushing up on thermodynamics.

Scientifically speaking (yeah, yeah, I know, it's magic), the tiniest amount of energy is always lost in conversion. "Entropy" is both the term for that loss, and also describes the increase of disorder (get it? chaos) in the system caused by that conversion. So the repeated summoning and dispersing of primals is increasing systemic entropy.

Since Eorzea is not an isolated system, the increase of entropy in Eorzea is decreasing the entropy of the environment. It could be going the rest of the world, leading to equalized aetheric levels across the whole of Hydaelin, or it could be going to Zodiark. The former would enable us to take our aether-powered l33t d33ps to other continents in future expansions. The latter is probably really bad.

[Anonymoose]

So the repeated summoning and dispersing of primals is increasing systemic entropy.

I'm much more comfortable with this polished version of the concept. The idea of aether vanishing bothered me; if anything, some would just escape between two forms (crystals and Garuda), which doesn't explain how it disappears from the aetherial system at large. Focusing on entropy as disorder makes more sense to me, especially considering the Land-to-Aetherial Realm system isn't very concrete.

So, I think you're right: We can reasonably ask (if it's not simply being quietly consumed) "Where could it be going?"

Eikons or Zodiark seem to be the most likely scenarios from my present point of view.

Since Eorzea is not an isolated system, the increase of entropy in Eorzea is decreasing the entropy of the environment. It could be going the rest of the world, leading to equalized aetheric levels across the whole of Hydaelin, or it could be going to Zodiark.

In addition, it could simply be returning to the aetherial realm at large. Minfilia's PowerPoint pointed out that a slain primal's essence returns to the land and the excess aether runs off to the aetherial world. Though, that seems too simple, lol.

Unless we come full circle back to the Dark Crystal, in the aetherial realm, being Zodiark...

/facedesk

This is the section of future-prediction that I'm bad at, lol.

[Nadirah]

Unless we come full circle back to the Dark Crystal, in the aetherial realm, being Zodiark...

/facedesk

This is the section of future-prediction that I'm bad at, lol.

Try not to think about it *too* much. I'm still reeling from the headache that is trying to make sense of the Elder Scrolls canon, lore, and metaphysics.

PS: don't go there if you value your sanity.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Maybe we all need to rest our brains for a while until the next patch?