Quote Originally Posted by Edax View Post
So what is actually creating Quetzalcoatl? Emet? The Ancient Shade that died? Amaurot?
I believe that Emet Selch imbuned the shades with just enough "self" to function as the actual Amaurotine citizens without actually being "alive." Therefore, the shade tried to summon a "guardian" using the same techniques that an actual scholar from the Akadaemia might. That being said, the Quetzalcoatl we fought was a far cry from the Primals that we've seen before in recent expansions, and this might be due to the shade lacking the aether of an actual living being, let alone that of a true Ancient. In other words, Emet Selch's enchantment is technically an act of creation magic (if incomplete or even half-hearted) and therefore the shade would technically have enough free will and aether to perform a somewhat lesser summoning.

I'll even go so far as to point out that Quetzalcoatl as we faced in the dungeon is far more potent than Ifrit when faced unsync'd on hard mode, meaning it's actually quite a potent creation when compared to the summoned Primals we face in ARR. After all, the shade we meet in the story (whose name eludes me right now) tells us that Emet Selch created them to give the illusion of the city as he remembered it. Emet Selch even went so far as to give these shades personalities and the ability to argue with each other without Emet Selch being there to see it. The shades are not truly alive, but they may as well be, and therefore have the force of will necessary to create or summon just as the beast tribes of the Source.