[Spoiler?] Is teleportation just a player convenience and not a real thing?

[Risvertasashi]

Yeah, the only way I can make sense of any of it is if, after we leave, they call off the search. Not in the "You're free to go" sense; but in the sense of "We don't have resources for this. If we get a report or if our investigation turns something up we'll act on it but not until then."

I think this fits with how NPCs react. (SPOILER) "Oh I'd totally report you like I'm ordered... but... I'm not supposed to cause conflict in Mor Dhona." "Oh uh, I won't tell anyone I saw you but you best move along." etc etc xD

Well, in any case, I enjoyed the cutscenes just like I liked LotR despite the Eagle thing.

[Applesnap]

Short answer: It's too much of a deus ex machina to have the ability to teleport anywhere, at any time, with no restrictions. So they don't. (Makes for super dull stories.)

Long answer: Unfortunately, this is one part of the game that doesn't rationalise properly. When you attempt to put any scrutiny onto the hows and whys of teleportation, it becomes incredibly difficult to explain. They even avoid this in-game by saying, "Oh, it's something the Sharlayans know about, but they're really protective of that knowledge. So...well, we don't know."

The closest explanation is this: It takes absolute focus to convert our physical masses into aether and project ourselves into the Lifestream. Even then, we need to somehow channel towards our destination. If any part of the process is interrupted, we can be lost forever and can't physically manifest again. So even the slighest chance of that happening, and no-one's going to try and teleport. That's for us adventurers too; normal people would have an even harder time of this (if it's even possible). You basically have to accept it for what it is and work around it.

(Random fact: you could teleport with aggro at one point, but it was retconned and fixed in a patch).

The answers to these things are usually very complex matters. Another example: How does the xenoglossia part of The Echo actually work? By default, we presume everyone can and does speak Eorzean, but do they? Is it simply being translated for us by Hydaelyn's blessing? Our soul is meant to "resonate" with our conversational partner's and meanings are transferred that way, but even that has problems. What if you're speaking to a room full of people who all speak different languages? Does it only work one-to-one? When we speak, is it automatically translated into whatever it needs to be? That's not even considering our blessing at part of the story has been temporarily "sealed". Or people from other worlds. The more you think, the deeper the entire thing becomes...

If you ever write science fiction or fantasy, these quandaries will end up being very familiar to you. To make a world "realistic" your readers have to be able to quantify it. That often means limiting a superpower or making a miraculous piece of technology have a flaw, because otherwise, we as humans deem it "impossible". Which it usually is anyway, but it seems there's a limit to our incredulity. So that's that...

tldr; convenience > logical rationale.

[Edellis]

And why didn't they just use a Phoenix Down on Aerith?

why wasn't Rufus in pieces after I Cross Slashed him and blew up his dog? Game ended right there, but plot, so...


Seriously though, teleport is a plot device in the story, the Aethercytes are referred to literally, it's just probably not as simple or quick as it is in-game. Say, lore-wise, teleportation would simply take 2 minutes instead of 10 seconds, and it no longer becomes an option.

[DarthSanguine]

And why didn't they just use a Phoenix Down on Aerith?

Because they tried that with Galuf, and it didn't work...

[Waffilicious]

it takes what? 4 secs to teleport in real life, if you convert it to eorzean time that is like 2 min of casting to teleport = not really the best method to escape, plus all the reasons mentioned before.

[AskaRay]

why wasn't Rufus in pieces after I Cross Slashed him and blew up his dog? Game ended right there, but plot, so...

Better question here is why was he not goop, but completely fine, in Advent Children...

[axemtitanium]

it takes what? 4 secs to teleport in real life, if you convert it to eorzean time that is like 2 min of casting to teleport = not really the best method to escape, plus all the reasons mentioned before.

Cast time of Teleport/Return is 5 real life seconds; can't be reduced with Spell Speed. One in-game hour = 3 real life minutes. Therefore, the in-game cast time of Teleport is equal to 100 seconds.

[RobinRethiel]

That's the thing, though. With how we actually left, every nation has plausible deniability. Ul'dah can't go to any of the nations and say, "We know they fled to your lands! Turn them over, or we'll withdraw from the Alliance!" Heck, they can't even be certain that we left Ul'dahn lands. You're right that Ul'dahn actors won't have much influence in any given land, but teleporting into a land would be painting a bull's eye on them for Ul'dah to target.

Actually they should just let them leave. A corrupt state like Uldah would be in this situation is no ally anyway...

[Riepah]

Cast time of Teleport/Return is 5 real life seconds; can't be reduced with Spell Speed. One in-game hour = 3 real life minutes. Therefore, the in-game cast time of Teleport is equal to 100 seconds.

If you take in-game time into account, however, those enemy soldiers won't run any farther in those "100 game seconds" than they would run in "5 real seconds". So the relation of cast time vs. enemies approaching doesn't change at all.

[lololink]

Considering that we have to get to an aetherythe to get to titan, ifrit and other primals I guess it means that lore wise you are forced to be at an aetheryte to use it, just like Ysayle teleport by touching the crystal, she would have just needed to TP to the crystal from anywhere if she could.