Primals, and their nature?

[treuhavik]

the only way to stop it from ever happening is to kill anyone who can make it happen (which would be everyone).

I'd like to retract this statement. If primes/primals operate how we're speculating, you technically could kill the true prime itself, but we'd need some serious help. Just because we defeat Bahamut Prime in T13 doesn't mean he can't be summoned again. This is because, going back to TinyRedLeaf's theory, his presence is recorded in time, in memories, thererfore imprinted upon the aether. So, while a primal may be controlled by a prime residing in its crystal heart, killing said prime can't erase its "aetherial dna" from the aetherial realm, from time and from the memories of living beings.

Thus, the only way to truly kill a prime would be A) Go back in time and wipe the figure, real or not, from history, B) Erase the memory of it from every living being on the planet in the present, or C) Kill everyone.


EDIT:


Forumuser4: "Uh, Vik, this is all well and good, but it doesn't explain how primals were created in the first place."

Are you sure about that, Forumuser4?

And so myth becomes reality...

When a previously living being's "soul" returns to the "aetherial sea", it carries with it its knowledge, conscious and memories. This means that all someone has to do to birth a new primal is create a myth, a legend, a hero, etc. Once that memory is among the aether, it's separated from reality (pun kinda intended) and logic - it becomes real, so to speak.

Summoning is simply calling that memory, that mental image out of the aether and giving it the means by which to physically manifest.

Belias and Ifrit could be the same mythological fire deity, but since it was called a different name by a different people it became something separate. Imagine if summoning was real, on Earth, Mars and Ares are basically the same deity in mythology, but of different cultures, therefore they would be different entities when called forth from the memories of ancient Greeks or Romans.

Now, the question remains, "Who made these myths, and by doing so, created primals?" And I absolutely, 100%, do not know. It could have been literally anyone throughout history or even the Ascians themselves.

[LineageRazor]

Those are both two massive inconsistence which aren't explained, worse they're created by the Trial story.

I sort of had it in my mind that Zantetsuken actually has two methods for manifesting an Odin body. The first is what we witness in the Trial - the next to touch Zantetsuken after Odin's defeat becomes Sundered, and becomes the next Odin. The second is what happens if NO ONE touches Zantetsuken (or is protected by the Echo): Zantetsuken creates a new body from scratch - out of Aether, perhaps - and out of respect for the individual who defeated him, crafts it to resemble that person.

The former method would be Zantetsuken's preferred method as it takes less effort, but neither does it want to just lay around in the dirt when it could be finding glorious new battles to participate in. And if you think that manifesting a body seems far-fetched, well, in EITHER case, where does Sleipnir come from? Since Zantetsuken already needs to pull a horse out of its metaphorical ass, it's not ALL that unreasonable that it gets a body from the same place.

None of this addresses the issue of how Zantetsuken stays manifested with no worshipers or crystals, but it does cover the seeming inconsistencies between how Odin obtains a body in the trial, and how he gets one after a FATE appearance.

[lololink]

Well considering that we know nothing of the aetherial realm ( except that it's basically the afterlife ), who knows if you can trap anything in there. I wouldn't dare to try to close the connexion between the physical and aetherial realms, as all the spirits would wander in the physical realms that would result in chaos.

What we know of the primals is simple, a spirit ( Usually a deified ancestor or a god from the age of gods ) from the aetherial realm called by prayers gather aethers to create a crystal core for its soul ( [Primal's name]-Prime ) then create a "body" of aether which can even be an item, like the Zantetsuken ( It's unknown though if the primal choses the body or if the worshippers give him his body ), the more aether they uses, the stronger they become. That's what a primal is.

So yes, it should be possible to trap their soul and make it impossible for them to eat aether to prevent them from returning, but then they would just have to worship another spirit to replace him.