Quote Originally Posted by Kith_Whulfth View Post
I'll point out that during one of the side quests we were given a concept template for robes and a few lightning crystals (or clusters, I don't recall which) and our only issue with making the robes was that we didn't know how to use the template and creation magic. It would seem that while our personal capacity for aether is insufficient, a simple handful of crystals is supposedly enough to compensate. In fact, the fact that summoning is described by the ascians as a form of creation magic, which we witness being used in the Akadaemia Anyder final boss cutscene.

So, if we do possess the ability, we might actually be able to use it.
But notably the Ancient shade didn't make the robe for us. Perhaps it was incapable due to the nature of being a reflection. As for Akadaemia Anyder, I'm not sure if what is happening in that duty is even "real". Is the boss actually being summoned? If it is a recreation of events, when what causes that boss to appear? What powers it?

Quote Originally Posted by Kith_Whulfth View Post
Heck, given the animations for the crafting classes, we might already be using a corrupted or diluted form of creation magic already, but that could just be due to game mechanics and limitations in the game engine.
I think it's the latter because there's no fundamental explanation why grilling a hot dog requires aether from fire crystals when a plain heat source should be able to suffice.