Patch 3.4 - Soul Surrender

[PArcher]

I feel like what Frixio was talking about there had to do with the fact that Ramuh was summoned *to* temper the Sylphs; he just wouldn't be able to know that it was specific to this summoning, not in general.


I also feel like each Primal has their own rules on tempering. Ifrit tempers whoever he can, being insecure and believing the more followers he has, the more power he gains. Garuda probably believes her tempering to be a blessing only for her children, and a means to turn her greatest enemies to her side (an eternal punishment for their misdeeds). Leviathan only tempers landwalkers. Thordan will temper anyone he needs to.

[RobinMalvin]

This is simply speculation, but I think primals are nothing but huge amount of aether given corporeal form, just like crystals. Crystals of aether are known to cause dizziness and sickness from direct contact or near vicinity, so I think it's similar to primals, if you get exposed to primals aether too much, you'll get something like drug effect; you get addicted to it and your mind broken, only wanting for more aether. I think this is why some companions survived from becoming a primal's thrall; they never get exposed too long to be addicted, and the primals they encountered never showered them with huge amount of their aether.

[Frederick22]

This is simply speculation, but I think primals are nothing but huge amount of aether given corporeal form, just like crystals. Crystals of aether are known to cause dizziness and sickness from direct contact or near vicinity, so I think it's similar to primals, if you get exposed to primals aether too much, you'll get something like drug effect; you get addicted to it and your mind broken, only wanting for more aether. I think this is why some companions survived from becoming a primal's thrall; they never get exposed too long to be addicted, and the primals they encountered never showered them with huge amount of their aether.

It is known already what the primals are and how they temper

[RobinMalvin]

It is known already what the primals are and how they temper

Then we already know why Ramuh inadvertenly tempers his followers even when he doesn't mean to, why the captive Flames were fine until Ifrit schorched them, why Merlwyb and the Scions and Yugiri weren't drowned when Leviathan appeared.

[PArcher]

Then we already know why Ramuh inadvertenly tempers his followers even when he doesn't mean to

He *did* intend to temper them. He didn't want to, but they *demanded* they be tempered, so he complied.

Primals have to actively temper; its not a passive effect (or we wouldn't have seen Ifrit tempering everyone in the blue flames. Or why Garuda had to focus that whirlwind on you explicitly to temper you. Or why the Company of Heroes was able to best Leviathan and Titan, and the Immortal Flames can fight against Ifrit; if it were passive they'd have all been tempered, not just some, and victory would have never come). Yes, it involves Primal Aether, but its very specifically used only to temper.

[Belhi]

Tempering seems to require some active effort on the part of the Primal. More over, its not something a Primal can just continuously do without a break. The Company of Heroes strategy was based around this.

They divided into three waves. The first wave would be the sacrificial one, fighting till they were tempered by the Primal. The second wave would then engage the first one and keep it and the other primal followers occupied while the third wave would flank and engage the primal directly. This is how they successfully beat two primals, with admittedly a very high loss of life.

I suspect tempering requires Aether and so Primals don't do it wastefully. In a lot of cases they don't have to. Their beast tribes worship them without the need for tempering.

Curiously with 3.4, I get a feeling the WoD have figured out some way to turn the Primals on the beast tribes that summoned them. We see Titan killing Kobalds, and in the scene with the WoD we see burned ground and a dead Amal'jaa. It would certainly be potentially an effective way to get the beast tribes to stop summoning their primals. That though seems strange to me. Why would the Ascians seek to stop primal summonings now? Perhaps how that Hydaelyn is so weak, further primal summonings might start undermining their own goals? Weaken the host rather than killing it?

[Morningstar1337]

Curiously with 3.4, I get a feeling the WoD have figured out some way to turn the Primals on the beast tribes that summoned them. We see Titan killing Kobalds, and in the scene with the WoD we see burned ground and a dead Amal'jaa. It would certainly be potentially an effective way to get the beast tribes to stop summoning their primals. That though seems strange to me. Why would the Ascians seek to stop primal summonings now? Perhaps how that Hydaelyn is so weak, further primal summonings might start undermining their own goals? Weaken the host rather than killing it?

Consider that Unukalhai (who is implied to have some connection to the ascians...I blame the cowl) wanted us to stop Ravana and Bismarck (EX trials) and the Warring Triad, i think this might be likely

[MilesSaintboroguh]

snip

Or it's some sort of convoluted plan by the WOD's Ascian BFF to get them powerful and use that power to stop the WoD maybe?

Screw it. Ascians. Always Ascians.

[Toranja]

Primals are not just a collection of aether. They are people.

They have their own reasoning, personality, memories and essence. None of that is borrowed from a summoning.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

None of that is borrowed from a summoning.

I'm pretty sure a large part of it actually is, though, considering it's been outright said that the temperament and personality and appearance of a Primal is based on the circumstances of its summoning (ie, the intent behind it, the beliefs of the worshippers, etc).