The Single Most powerful *thing* in FFXIV?

[Absimiliard]

I suspect that siphoning simply wasnt relevant to protect against dynamis anyway. Zodiark was summoned with the full intention of protection and restoring the old world, as we know, primals take over that intention from the creator. As long as zodiark was alive, that intention is basicly a dynamis shield (the motivation to survive is baked in), to destroy the planet and its aether, zodiark must be destroyed through dynamis, but as primal he is immune.

Siphoning wasn't even part of Zodiark's design. At its core, it was little more than an ultracomplex application of the creation magics utilized by ancient society on a daily basis. The aether consumption shown in later primals was intentional; the Ascians taught people flawed derivatives of creation, which in turn begat flawed creations.

While the ascians wouldnt have known this, this intention still gave immunity and to them proved their theory. But it would not costing any aether in the process here because as the negative effects from dynamis would never get through zodiarks. And zodiarks intent is still protecting the world (as that was needed to restore it).

The intention itself had nothing to do with it. It was how Zodiark enacted this intention that made the difference. What protected the world was an enormous shield of dark aspected aether, which Zodiark maintained throughout the ages. Aether and dynamis are for the most part incompatible, the former being quite detrimental to the latter. That said, it's been proven a sufficient amount of dynamis can overcome this deficiency and act upon aether without being undone in return. We don't really see it touched on too much in-game, but there is an implication the shield would have failed eventually. No way of knowing when, of course. Probably thousands more years.

But while zodiarks intention wasnt siphoning the aether from its people. It had no care for the current state of people, and would be willing to siphon all of it away for the sake of restoring the old world. And this is where i think zodiark has the potential for being extremely powerful. It could decide to consume all the aether, and then use that again to summon the world to its old state through creation magic.

It did in fact care for the souls within it. One of the conditions set when they created Zodiark was to safeguard those souls until such time as they could be brought back. The ancients had no intention of leaving their friends and loved ones in limbo forever. Additionally, those souls were in part responsible for Zodiark's instincts. Absent a heart, all it had left to guide it were its programming and the collective desire of those souls to see the world saved.