A thought came to me from another post on the connection between Hydaelyn and aether. It's commonly known that summoning the primals causes mass amount of aether to be sucked from Hydaelyn and it's the reason for kicking them off this plane. Now it makes me wonder if aether itself is part of Hydaelyn the crystal herself ("Hydaelyn as some Gaia figure, the planet itself literally") or a substance that exists on Hydaelyn the planet (a physical energy that takes forms). Sorry if this post is a bit ranty, I am streaming my thoughts.

The first idea is viewing Hydaelyn as literally the planet, taking a physical form. If that's the case, then is aether produced by Hydaelyn? Or some X amount stored in the planet? It would seem then that life is always in a give and take with aether, taking it to create life, then releasing it upon death (the ciiiiircle of liiiiife). If that's the case... is aether specifically tied to this planet or does it appear on others?

The other idea I have is that it could be that over time aether kept clustering into a larger and larger crystal until sentience evolved from aether. Hydaelyn being literal atheryte, would require some large amount of aether to keep sentience, and it would be in her best interest to keep primals from leeching off her aether. However how does that differ to any of the other primals then (there's that theory of "we are tempered" again)? It would just mean she is the top dog of primals (along with Zordak). If anything, she is as much as a threat to life as the primals (mass amounts of aether locked away). However I see her as a benevolent ruler, regulating aether levels to keep life going, instead of just feasting on it for herself.

My original reason to thinking this is: Do the living things of the planet need Hydaelyn to live? The Scions seem to think so, but it seems that the main... soul of a person is aether, rather than Hydaelyn. Also if Hydaelyn was needed, it would mean leaving the planet would be impossible, yet the Allag were able to do just that with Dalamud.