[SPOILERS] Revelations from Patch 3.3

[ADVSS]

That makes sense, then, that each time a portion of aether is trapped and cannot be restored back to her

[Belhi]

Its worth noting that Hydealyn seems tied to the world's Aether and as that diminishes she has too. She is supposed to be the wellspring of Aether in the world which is why the world shares her name and she is known as the Mothercrystal. Its possible that Aether consumed by Primals doesn't return to the natural cycle of Aether in the world. Regardless its bad for us cause Aether equals life so if the Aether starts to run dry eventually it means the land will die as well.

[Alberel]

Its worth noting that Hydealyn seems tied to the world's Aether and as that diminishes she has too. She is supposed to be the wellspring of Aether in the world which is why the world shares her name and she is known as the Mothercrystal. Its possible that Aether consumed by Primals doesn't return to the natural cycle of Aether in the world. Regardless its bad for us cause Aether equals life so if the Aether starts to run dry eventually it means the land will die as well.

Which is apparently precisely what happened to Unukalhai's world.

[Laili]

So what about all those crystals/shards/clusters we consume when we craft? Shouldn't that be eating large amounts of aether too?

[Cilia]

So what about all those crystals/shards/clusters we consume when we craft? Shouldn't that be eating large amounts of aether too?

Implicitly, any aether we use is returned to the land. It's recycled, in other words. The same is true of the aether that was constituting a primal's physical form - once it's destroyed, the aether is returned to the land.

However, a primal's physical manifestation literally consumes and corrupts aether so it cannot be returned to the land as well as warp aetherial flow, which is why they cannot be suffered to remain manifested on the physical plane. While we haven't really seen any major evidence of primals actually being harmful to the world, some geography can be attributed to a primal's presence - the SMN 30 quest, for instance, somewhat implies the Sagolii Desert is as it is because of Ifrit's repeated summonings.

[Tenkuu]

A: Long ago, you mentioned that 1.0 took place in a “Simpsons Time Bubble.” Are we still in a bubble? Or does time move now that we know Patch = Canon?

KF: It’s still a bubble; you have to have a bubble. There are players joining in Heavensward that are starting at the beginning. The bubble’s just gotten bigger.

While my personal headcanon is that we are indeed atleast 6 years after the Calamity, as far as the story is concerned it is still 5 years. If you have proof against this I will gladly take it so my headcanon no longer needs to have head in it.

We are talking about game time though. In game time, it's impossible for this bubble to exist, at least not on a permanent basis. Even in 1.0, the Echo flashbacks you see date back to ten years before the events of the game. And then, five more years pass between 1.0 and 2.0. Given that we have two full expansions, it should be about two years that have passed since the beginning of ARR.

[Tenkuu]

I think it kind of plays into the whole theme of Heavensward and what the cycle of anger and revenge does to people. Dragonkind was wrong and sought vengeance killing probably thousands if not more in a 1000 years, during that time in response those people of Ishgard demanded vengeance and round and round it goes. The desire for vengeance against those who wrong you feels right, it feels like justice and like with most emotion it is easily for people to get caught up in them and outwardly hate anything that prevents your feeling of anger form being satisfied. In their eyes the Warrior of Light has gotten in the way of their sanctification of revenge against the dragons who they feel wronged them by revealing the truth. It shows how little truth actually influence how we feel about strong emotional responses.

Maybe I'm just overthinking it.

No, I think you're right, it does depict what a cycle of and revenge can do to a person. However, in her case it made very little sense because the Ishgardians were losing the war. The dragons could easily pick Ishgard apart if they so chose, so for someone who is seeing the possibility for peace (and therefore the end of her people's massacre) to go "no thanks, I'd rather we continue war for the sake of war so more of our people can die" is a bit... suicidal. Either way, I think we were lucky that she didn't choose to outright poison us. Or maybe we're just immune to poison?

I think she was meant to show how broken Ishgard has become - even in the face of peace, they'd rather get one of the staunchest advocates of peace out of the picture, even if temporarily, and continue to seek vengeance even in a hopeless (for them) situation...

And were still so quick to pick up the cry of "Death to Nidhogg" at the end of 3.2.

Which is why I think even with the reforms that were passed quickly for changes in how the government of Ishgard works at the end of 3.3, you're still looking at years before old hatreds and old habits are truly set aside or overcome, whether it be against dragon or Elezen who happen to be "of that other kind" (commoner versus noble and vice versa).

Those cries I actually understand. Nidhogg and his brood, at that point in time, were the sole perpetrators of the war, not to mention they were winning their war. As you say though, the girl's idea that they should continue to endlessly fight all dragons would have definitely resulted in nothing other than a hopeless situation for the Ishgardians. Not to mention the fact that it's easy for a person who won't be doing any fighting themselves to be clamoring for continued warfare. It's just empty words when coming from someone like her. To put it simply, she sounded insane, and likely was so with grief. Either way, to me it all goes back to Ishgardians' sense of entitlement. It seems as though no dragons other than Nidhogg's brood are even paying any attention to them anymore except when they're attacked, yet Ishgardians are still going on about how tragic the war is for them. All the while, they let outsiders deal with their problems for them.

[Tenkuu]

I personally find it very sad that everyone involved in MSQ is ignoring Yda and Papalymo completely. We as players get a hint in maybe two patches about where they might be right now but that's it. Y'Shtola isn't curious about them, Thancred not interested, Alphy too worried about his internal conflicts to even bother...

I don't think it's a lack of interest as much as it is what the Scions seem to suffer from in general: lack of communication. Thancred and Krile were both back at the Rising Stones between 3.1 and 3.2 but apparently have not asked around to see if there were any news. They all tend to focus intensely on their own work and can sometimes miss the bigger picture.

Except we're not ignoring them, we just haven't heard of *any* news about their locations. The last thing we know about them was the remains of their linkshells were found in Ul'dah. After that they were untraceable.

That's not that no one isn't looking, or no one cares, we have no leads, no ideas, nothing to go on. Basically, there are more important things we need to be doing than worrying about them for now, or searching aimlessly around Eorzea.

When something is found, you can be sure that lead will be followed with the same zeal as the other Scions.

If you talked to one of the people in Rising Stones between 3.1 and 3.2, they definitely had an idea that Yda and Papalymo were most likely in Little Ala Mhigo even if there was no absolute confirmation of it. That was definitely a lead to follow, but likely no one thought to ask that person, or they were simply too focused on both finding Minfilia and dealing with Nidhogg to think of much else at the time. Another possibility is that they heard the rumors and figured that as long as Yda and Papalymo were alive, there were more pressing matters to deal with.

For what it's worth, while Riol (who has been coordinating the search from the Rising Stones) hasn't heard anything since their linkshells were found, Yda and Papalymo have made zero effort to make themselves findable in the first place. They've been holed up with the Ala Mhigan Resistance (a suspiciously well-funded and official-looking faction of it, at that), and Yda is emotionally invested in that pursuit to the point that Papalymo feels he has to remind her that there's a bigger picture.

I assume they'll be part of the portal between the Ishgard and Ala Mhigo story arcs.

Have you spoken to the Rising Stones NPCs between 3.1 and 3.2 though? There is definitely a suspicion on where they are even if nothing is actually being done about it.

[PArcher]

SNIP

Or, someone is investigating (3.1-3.3 isn't that much time, maybe a week or three); could be nothing has come of the lead (investigated, maybe found something, but nothing that really says anything on its own), still ongoing (scouts haven't returned yet), or it proved to be a dead end.

But, if its just a suspicion based on where their last known location was (potentially a month or more ago) and no real evidence, it may not even be worth looking. Resources can't just be spent on a gut feeling from the "rank-and-file" Scions (heck, *we* can't even waste them on gut feelings...we need something somewhat solid to stand on. Yeah, the Echo breaks it a little, but we don't pull that card on anyone except those who trust our word completely...which isn't that many people)

There's also the possibility that the Scions have found something bad, and just do not want us burdened with the news just yet (maybe evidence that they left for Ala Mihgo, and since we cannot get there at this time...). We're just starting to recover from what happened in the Dragonsong War (they may not know the details, but do know we were at the center of the conflict and have lost a lot in the war), its not unwise to get some rest and have spirits raised a little before something troubling comes around again (which we know will, as long as the Primals and Garleans and Ascians are around). Otherwise, we may just let Fray lead us away from everything...

[AutumnHarvestwind]

Forgive me if I sound slow to the uptake...
Is it just me or does the Conversion of Energy/Law of Energy really come to effect here? That's what it feels like to me. Humor me on this but when a Primal gets destroyed the aether doesn't disappear from Hydaelyn because She does not own the actual aether (maybe the lifeforms that the aether supports?) So the amount of energy is converted and transferred over to Zodiark. Aether that supports life on the planet diminishes because it's not being recycled in that system of flow. Or it went full on Chernobyl and became overaspected. This really fits into the theory of duality, except one system of flow is obviously more sinister ( according to Word of the Mother).
This analogy may sounds confusing so I apologize for the 'lolwut' lol.

In an effort to explain my point, say you have two people in a tank that only fills up with water when a primal dies. One person breaths oxygen, and the other breaths water (yes I know water has oxygen in but this is an analogy). Each time the water fills up, Hydaelyn, or the person who can only breath oxygen has less air to breath until she drowns. Now let's say all life of Hydaelyn are akin to microbiota/normal flora to us, there's microbiota in the gut, on the skin, in the mouth, on the surface of our eyes and etc. In this analogy, there are quite a few germs that are called opportunistic pathogens, which are big deal when one's immune system is weak. It seems like WoD are these opportunistic pathogens, causing our poor Hydaelyn to go septic and die. The weird guy in the water is thriving because he has the means to sustain himself, and any "microbiota" that live on or in him.

Primal slaying seems to be the conduit that transfers energy between two 'major systems'. I tend to categorize voidsent with the realm of Zodiark, and evil as those creatures may be, he may be the "central system" to which their river of life flows. Which is bad for us, and fucked up the Mhach. So, if SE was going this shade of gray evil morality route, Zodiark rejoinings are bad for us because Hydaelyn supports US, but good for those who are supported by Zodiark.