Garlean attacks aren't magic, so what are they?

[LilimoLimomo]

Artificial magic-like effects created using ceruleum as fuel. Pretty much everything they do is technological in origin.

I guess I had thought that things like Magitek were supposed to be like real-world technology, in that they were mechanical and obeyed physical laws. But from what you're saying, it sounds like Garleans can somehow use technology to create something that looks like magic and acts like magic, yet technically isn't magic? Am I getting that right? If so, is there any lore that explains that further? My brain is having trouble wrapping itself around pseudo-magic that can be birthed from technology (presuming that we're outside of the space of really advanced sci-fi stuff like nanomachines).

[Absimiliard]

I guess I had thought that things like Magitek were supposed to be like real-world technology, in that they were mechanical and obeyed physical laws. But from what you're saying, it sounds like Garleans can somehow use technology to create something that looks like magic and acts like magic, yet technically isn't magic? Am I getting that right? If so, is there any lore that explains that further? My brain is having trouble wrapping itself around pseudo-magic that can be birthed from technology (presuming that we're outside of the space of really advanced sci-fi stuff like nanomachines).

Ceruleum and lifestream/aether share many of the same properties. You might even say it's like a hyper-condensed form of it risen to the planet's crust. Magical crude oil, in other words. The Garleans started out just using it as a source of fire and heat, that is until Solus Galvus (i.e. Emet-Selch) pulled up to show them how varied and potent its applications could truly be. They did have magitek of a sort beforehand, but it wasn't anywhere remotely close to as powerful, reliable, or versatile as what we see them using in the game. In effect, the Garleans take a natural substance with aether-like properties, refine it further, and use it to produce phenomena that would otherwise have been impossible for them to replicate.

There's a catch. Stuff is crazy volatile. Unrefined ceruleum vaporizes almost immediately on contact with open air. Refined ceruleum... well, that's how Midgardsormr died. >_>