Are the Primals really Primals?

[Empressia]

It would seem that there are "TIERS" of primals regarding their powers, manifestation and dependence on energy to summon them hence,

tier 0 : "Mother" Hydaelyn and her alter ego, "Father" Zodiarc
tier 1 : Elder Primals, aka Odin n Bahamut
tier 2 : Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, Leviathan, Ramuh, Shiva
tier 3 : King Mog XIII

*tier 0 seems to switched sides depending on the amount of aether present, if it drained, Hydaelyn may enter a hibernation state, and waking Zodiarc until the aether amount reached the minimum level to wake Hydaelyn and put Zodiarc to sleep. Thus balance between light and darkness. The real question is not about can Ascian be considered as the worshippers of Zodiarc but if its possible to cycle the balance NATURALLY without a third party trying to speed up the cycle? If the natural cycle didn't involved third party scumbags, then our toons can exterminate the Ascians forever; unless they're part of the natural cycling and the battle rages on for eternity

*tier 1 seems to be have a personality of their own. doesn't have followers or worshippers (excluding Nael since he's worshipping Dalamud not Bahamut; i won't go to the other debate about Dalamud is the Allagan word for Bahamut) and they manifested without crystals

*tier 2 seems to take personality to whatever quality their worshippers have in common (Ifrit have a prideful personality as Amalja'a does), MUST HAVE followers or worshippers to sustain their ties to the physical world before they "slide" into the aetheric world, and they need crystals as some sort of a ticket to enter pysical world

*tier 3 seems to have personality based on the expected image of their worshippers, must have imagining followers or worshippers to mold the shape of its physical entity and need crystal as a catalyst to empower their idea

[Kicha]

I really like the idea of Tiered or ranked Primals. I'm not so sure about Hydaelyn and Zodiark being primals, unless by ranking them as 0 you mean to say that they are the source of the other primals manifesting (ie. the other primals would not be possible without Hydaelyn and Zodiark). Is there truly a way to kill a primals then? We know that they can be sealed away, but can they actually be killed permanently?
Also, this makes me wonder also about the opening cinematic from 1.0. When the Agrias crashed into Silvertear Lake, we see a whole lot of primals being released. The ones they show us that we can recognize are Ifrit and Titan, but what about all those other streaks of light. Were all the Tier 2 primals locked away in Silvertear? We know where Odin and Bahamut were sealed and broke out from, so where did all those others come from? And where did they go for that matter?
I'm interested in what you all think the other primals released from Silvertear are.

[Morningstar1337]

I really like the idea of Tiered or ranked Primals. I'm not so sure about Hydaelyn and Zodiark being primals, unless by ranking them as 0 you mean to say that they are the source of the other primals manifesting (ie. the other primals would not be possible without Hydaelyn and Zodiark).

I have this theory that Hydalelyn and Zodiark actuary are primals and that the Echo is a watered down tempering. This can also explain exactly why those with the echo cannot be tempered, because they already are, they just don't know it and it doesn't drive them to fundamentalism or becoming a puppet to the primal who tempered them (in this case Hydaelym.) Think Dragon Quest VIII (incoming spoilers) where the protagonist was cursed during infancy, resulting to him being immune to other curses such as the one that turned most the inhabitants of his home into plants.

There are some holes, such as "How did she touch them?", but it's a start

[Duuude007]

It would seem that there are "TIERS" of primals regarding their powers, manifestation and dependence on energy to summon them hence,

tier 0 : "Mother" Hydaelyn and her alter ego, "Father" Zodiarc
tier 1 : Elder Primals, aka Odin n Bahamut
tier 2 : Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, Leviathan, Ramuh, Shiva
tier 3 : King Mog XIII

Don't forget Elder primal Belias "egi" from the SMN quests.

I'd also like to point out that King Moggle Mog isn't a primal at all.

[source]

So far the primal battles have focused on four or eight adventurers battling against a primal. However, Good King Moggle Mog XII looks to even the score as the battle will pit 8 adventurers against 8 enemies at once!
(Though, keep in mind that Good King Moggle Mog isn't a primal!)

[Darske]

Another thing to note about primals, specifically Odin, is that despite being slain over and over again, Odin always re-appears. We could perhaps interepret this as his aether coalescing on its own, without the need for followers. And on the subject of Bahamut, perhaps this is why he was bound rather than simply slain over and over, because a Primal of sufficient power can force itself to exist in the material plane.

But what exactly might be the difference between a normal and an Elder Primal? Is it as simple as "a primal that is strong enough can will its aether to coalesce"? If a normal primal ingests enough Aether, can they attain this level of self-sustainence?

And most intriguing to me, and possibly relevant to the Ishgard/Shiva theory, is the question of "What happens if a Primal is summoned, but its followers aren't being troubled by humans?" If the source of the worshipper's problems was, say, dragons, would the Primal have any ill regard for the rest of the world?

[Zorzi]

But what exactly might be the difference between a normal and an Elder Primal? Is it as simple as "a primal that is strong enough can will its aether to coalesce"? If a normal primal ingests enough Aether, can they attain this level of self-sustainence?

Wasn't there supposed to be wandering primals in the overworld that when defeated could be summoned by FCs or something? I vaguely remember this being addressed recently and said it would come when it makes sense for the story. I wonder if this is where the storyline is headed what with the primals getting more and more powerful.

[TinyRedLeaf]

"What happens if a Primal is summoned, but its followers aren't being troubled by humans?" If the source of the worshipper's problems was, say, dragons, would the Primal have any ill regard for the rest of the world?

As Minfilia and Thancred explained early in the story, the mere physical existence of a primal is trouble enough, as it would constantly drain aether from the world to sustain itself. So, even if the primal doesn't directly threaten other people, like Ramuh for example, it would still have to be tackled eventually for the sake of Eorzea's environmental well-being.

Furthermore, primals are, in a sense, the physical manifestation of intensified extremism among the people who summoned them. Their summoning comes as a result of a growing feeling of existential threat; an extreme backlash against looming danger. Couple this with the tempering that all followers are subjected to, I doubt that any primal would stop at just the original intruders that prompted its summoning. The temptation to grow its influence would be too strong, I reckon.

[Catapult]

Mortal's Question: Oh, Deep Thought. What is a Primal? Like, what is it really?

Deep Thought: Hmm, I'll have to think about that.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Deep Thought: Hmm, I'll have to think about that.

The answer is 42.

[Akoree]

Oddly enough whenever people start speculating about Primals, nobody ever brings up the cinematic intro of 1.0 where we see tons of Primals seemingly being "unleashed". I haven't seen any discussion about it since 2.0 and given a few of the theories in this thread I think it would be important to point it out as it confirms certain things such as Primals not taking the appearance of their followers but already having a shape of their own.

Here's the video.

Also, aren't Moogles pretty unique even amongst "beastmen"? Given how they, according to their own legends, descend from the heavens. Sounds to me like their ability to give form to an other entity could be due to their unique nature, I imagine we'll learn more about this in future content updates though.