Primals Unquestionably Bad

[Enkidoh]

You're kind of on the right track, at least as far as how 1.0 was hinting at, but the devil is in the detail as they say. In 1.0, Ifrit revealed to the player that they could actually summon their own Primal, and was decidedly annoyed by that prospect, so much he made the character swear that they would never actually summon a Primal themselves (or at least, pretended to).

Unfortunately like much of 1.0's storyline, it was never mentioned again and could technically be considered now retconned, given the fact Ifrit doesn't mention that possibility anymore in ARR.

This is the dialogue from 1.0 that reveals the player's Echo-given ability to summon a Primal (taken from screenshots from 1.0). :

Ifrit: "You avow yourselves blessed by gods, yet lack the capacity to summon them to your aid."
Ifrit: "To which do you kneel mortals?"
Path Companion: "I kneel to whomever I desire - but Primals are not to my taste!"
Ifrit: "Fools. Blind to the grace of those who would grant you protection and bless you with their fortune."
Path Companion: "Between myself and my companion, I have all the protection I need."
Amalj'aa: "Blasphemy! Death to the heathens!"
Amalj'aa: "Mind your tongue when speaking to the Lord of the Inferno, lest we cut it out!"
Ifrit: "Your blindness is born of ignorance."
Ifrit: "I smell the taint upon your soul. Is it Garuda... or Titan? Perchance... Leviathan?"
Path Companion: "Whatever you smell on me, it is not the scent of a Primal."
Ifrit: "Vex me not mortals. The Paragon warned of the godless blessed."
Ifrit: "There can only be one true god in this world, and those without cannot be allowed to roam unchecked."
Ifrit: "Yet the Paragon has entreated that I spare you, and so I shall - on one condition."
Ifrit: "Vow that you shall forsake the summoning of Another. Do so, and your sins shall be absolved. Refuse me, and your soul will burn for eternity."
Amalj'aa: "On your knees heathens, and give your oath! In the name of Ifrit, Almighty Lord of the Inferno!"
Amalj'aa: "Almighty Lord of the Inferno!"
Path Companion: "You're not serious? You think me alluring enough to attract a god do you? But how?!"

and

Almxio: "The woken ones live! This is most fortuitous!"
Zoxio: "Yes, most fortuitous!"
Almxio: "But the scaled ones refused to read our missive... That was most unfortuitous."
Zoxio: "This one's written words went unread... Most unfortuitous indeed."
Path Companion: "So... while we were being subjected to ritualistic humiliation, you we're watching?!"
Path Companion: "Well I do hope you were listening too because there is something I want to know. Is there any truth to Ifrit's suggestion that we can summon our own Primal!?"
Almxio: "The woken one asks a difficult question. The answer, this one knows not."
Zoxio: "Nor this one, unfortuitously."
Zoxio: "But even if the woken one could summon a Primal, this one would advise against such folly."
Almxio: "Those ones who violate the barrier between corporeal and aetherial are transformed."
Zoxio: "Minds are clouded! Hearts are hardened! Souls are darkened!"
Path Companion: "Your sudden concern for our well-being is very moving. That said, we have seen Ifrit's influence for ourselves... Even if this power is ours to manipulate, it may be a taboo best left unchallenged."

Personally, based on this dialogue, I suspect that originally Tanaka was planning on incorporating this into gameplay by eventually allowing players to summon a specific Primal regardless of class, much like the Totemas in FF Tactics Advance. But of course, the change in development team meant whatever ideas were planned in this regard were scrapped sadly.

[Icecylee]

Actually, I'm pretty sure Yoshida has mentioned plans to allow Free Companies to acquire Primals and summon them on the open world / in the large scale PvP zones? Like, only one FC would have access to any given primal per server, and you could only hold onto them for so long before you lost the right and had to fight for it again or something? So, who knows.

[Alberel]

Actually, I'm pretty sure Yoshida has mentioned plans to allow Free Companies to acquire Primals and summon them on the open world / in the large scale PvP zones? Like, only one FC would have access to any given primal per server, and you could only hold onto them for so long before you lost the right and had to fight for it again or something? So, who knows.

It has been a long time since this was mentioned by the devs and given the story now it would make no sense for us to do so. We know the primals cannot be controlled and instead corrupt everything around them to their will... in lore terms the players ever summoning a primal would make them no better than the tempered beast tribes. I'm of a mind to think this feature was scrapped.

[NoloeTazier]

It has been a long time since this was mentioned by the devs and given the story now it would make no sense for us to do so. We know the primals cannot be controlled and instead corrupt everything around them to their will... in lore terms the players ever summoning a primal would make them no better than the tempered beast tribes. I'm of a mind to think this feature was scrapped.

I think this "content" will be scrapped because of the provoking thoughts of "omg people are going to get CLAIM of Ifrit, we can't have that in this with one group getting claim, here comes the competition vs FC bots and RMTs." After all it's not content for "everyone" if a Primal is locked out for a week or 2, the original estimates to how long a FC would control the "card." Also the likeliness of the Primal summons being way too overpowered when it came to the things they are allowed to be in, PvP for example in Duty Finder would pretty much mean the other team would auto-lose if the Primal was indeed as powerful as it should. I really would like for a roaming Primal with claim ala NMs and HNMs, but the current environment and way the game is going it just goes against everything. But yeah I'd rather from a Lore and content standpoint, just scrap it.

[jomoru]

It has been a long time since this was mentioned by the devs and given the story now it would make no sense for us to do so. We know the primals cannot be controlled and instead corrupt everything around them to their will... in lore terms the players ever summoning a primal would make them no better than the tempered beast tribes. I'm of a mind to think this feature was scrapped.

We only have the Ascian method in lore we don't know that they aren't actively giving out something that has downsides they profit from. It is entirely possible there are "safer" ways to summon.

[Pentacus]

We only have the Ascian method in lore we don't know that they aren't actively giving out something that has downsides they profit from. It is entirely possible there are "safer" ways to summon.

we actually know of 7 (maybe 8 or 9, it depends how long the ascians have been messing with things and wether tristan's fusion ability counts) summoning methods:

1. the traditional ascian method we all know and love, the "moar crystals! moar worship!" method (from the story, we know this can work on ANYTHING as long as enough people believe in it, it happened with Moggle Mog twelfth of his name (may the smouldering ash I reduced him to never trouble us again), and almost happened with Rhalgr (I honestly doubt that the ascians would be cartoonishly evil to just try and get some kids killed by straight up lying to them, everything they do furthers their plans in some way))
2. the "advanced" method that gave birth to the EX primals (I've not beaten garuda EX yet, but from what Ive been told, it uses some sort of evil thing rather than crystals)
3. Egi summoning, where the summoner focuses on the essence of the primal and not the primal itself (allagan summoning)
4. Tri-disaster, in the quest text, this was actually specifically referred to as "a different way of summoning", possibly using the egi's aether as a spell rather than a traditional summon (also allagan)
5. the "merge with your egi" ability that tristan posessed (what? if the game counts freaking tri-disaster as a summon, I'm sure as hell going to count merging with your egi)
6. loisoix's summoning (interestingly, he seemed to be doing the same thing as the tri-disaster summoning, but with the power of the gods rather than the egis, and their power manifested as a second dalamund-looking structure, so it's possible that what he was doing was also allagan)
7. garuda's summoning of ifrit and titan (interestingly, no crystals were used, instead it required multiple sacrifices of kobolds and amalja, nor was the summoning done by the beast tribes, it was a primal summoning two others)
9.the ascians method of summoning zodiark, although we don't know exactly what it entails
9. it's possible that the beast tribes and allagan empire had a different way of summoning full primals than the one taught by the ascians, at the very least, we can assume that the allagan empire had a method of summoning full primals without requiring worship in order to train their summoners, either that, or the beast tribes must have been summoning the primals VERY frequently to allow enough research to develop egi summoning (I just realized how badass allagan summoners must have been, they needed to fight multiple primals WITHOUT the echo protecting them)

plus, it's implied that the ascians know more summoning methods, they mention in the garuda EX cutscene that they'll "keep giving the beat tribes more and more powerful ways to call upon their gods" (you know, with some new info we learned in 2.1, specifically that ascians can't be seen by people without the echo unless they specifically WANT to be seen, I wonder if the summoner trainer has the echo? she specifically refers to the paragon/ascian that gave tristan belias-egi... which in itself is also interesting)

(there's also the L'Cie summoning that Lightning did, but that's very much unique to herself and is only "summoning" in terms of "thats what it was in XIII")

[Skies]

I am completely uncertain wether magic consumes aether or not, actually.
As far as I am aware, it does not rightfully consumes it, exception being to White and Black. Further actually, as I said exception being to White and Black who have in fact brought a calaclysm of their own forth, none of the arcane arts seem to grant you access to any more aether than you are either given or born with.

Thaumaturgy uses your own, no pilfering from others no taking it from the land or anything, if you do run out and kill yourself, it was only your own aether, which in turn is not really lost, the aether of all things is returne to the land at death, even that of primals.
Conjury you directly ASK the land for it's power, you are definitely not ever given more than it deems safe to grant you. I hardly doubt that hydaelyn is suicidal about that.
Arcanima is an art based on binding the aether for effect, and later letting it dissipate again. No effect is long-lasting and no aether is eternally trapped.

Unlike with primals, who hoard more and more aether to remain alive, and who would ultimately dry up the land to remain existing, unlike every other living being who contains aether, but needs not bigger quantities by the day, they simply contain that which they were born with. Pureblood garleans are no more or less good than others, regardless, as they too consume aether with their science. What do you think their fuel, ceruleum, us?

[Skies]

Just to note, Pentacus, the PLD is very different from the other jobs because there are a lot of paladins.
Paladins are simply the highest rank of the Ul'Dahn royal guard. Nothing more and nothing less. Like, there are certainly only a few called paladins because only a few reach that rank, but every sultansworn you see is actually a Paladin with their own Soul of the Paladin, they just haven't attained the rank and mastery you have.

Which is one of the reasons I love them

[Sakasa]

Interesting subject but I just wanted to add some more facts about Ramuh that the dailies have given us.

Ramuh at least to the Slyphs isn't so much summoned as called from the heaves. While it is vague it is possible that Ramuh is actually out of the aether and roaming the sky above Eorzea. But that would beg the question why would he leave tempered followers about and then leave them to their own devices? Well Slyphs unlike the other beastmen appearently require a certain Slyph to call upon him. Not every Slyph can do it, so its not so much the need for lightning crystals but the need for the special slyph to be given reason to Call him, and by how the quest is read Control him. This special slyph like all slyph are grown and then become slyph from special conditions and in the quest you hijack the special one before the birth to avoid the tempered ones to temper the special one. So what that points to if this isn't reconned is that the tempering was a request made by the last special slyph to control Ramuh and a method to temper to Ramuh with out Ramuh present was created. So effectively it was one bad seed (pun) that was uncharacteristically violent or fearful that lead to the inital temperings not specifically Ramuh.

Also from the main story line the kobold seem to summon titan in response instead of proactively. But you could make that argument about the Ixail as they original took up specific grudges after loosing access to Twelveswood and the lost of their feathers/the ability to fly. The only beastmen that seem warlike from introduction are the Amaljaa and the sahagian both of which summoned or attempted to summon their primal as a armament for their new enemy. In this case 1.0 Uldah because they choice to abandon them and "remove" them under threat of Garlemand and 2.0 Limsa part of the island that was sahagian is no longer claimed by the sea via the dalamud fall. Both of which you could claim are reactive as they did not choose the battle placed before them. But in theory neither did the dragon that made its home in Brayflox or in Stone Vigil as we haven't seen any notion that the dragons have any intelligence beyond that of a wolf beside Nidhogg who seems not only intelligent but sentient.

[FJerome]

Having now spent some quality time with the Sylph quests . . .

Look, I know there's a few nasty side-effects but overall getting tempered by Ramuh is a net upgrade in my book. At least those Sylphs don't spend all their time planting stink-bombs and stealing my underpants.