Wait a minute...is this a plot-hole (Austerities of Wind and Main Scenario-related)?

[Alberel]

Ultima Weapon traps the primals and prevents them from being summoned again.

Same goes for the seal from mor dhona and Dalamud trapping Bahamut, all Allagan techs were aimed so that primals couldn't be summoned again.

Ultima Weapon simply consumed the primal that was summoned. We weren't expressly told that the Ixal, Amal'jaa and Kobolds were unable to summon again during that time. If that were the case then we would not have been able to summon the egis prior to Ultima Weapon's destruction either as they draw on the very same aether the primals are constructed from.

The seal in Silvertear Lake was something else entirely as it prevented summoning as a whole, including primals like King Moggle Mog who had never been summoned before. One of the persistent theories is that the seal simply sealed off enough ambient aether that there was not enough to actually summon anything. The original 1.0 cinematic showed the primals escaping the lake, yes, but a lot of 1.0 content was retconned and the introduction of primals like Moggle Mog and Shiva threw a wrench in the works there as neither of them had ever been summoned prior to our encounters with them so they were not sealed in that lake. The whole 'myth made manifest' thing makes it incredibly unlikely Silvertear Lake actually held the primals themselves but rather just a catalyst needed to create and summon them.

[lololink]

The primals weren't all prevented from being summoned, the empire saw a primal being summoned in Othard before invading Eorzea.

[Kaiser-Ace]

It's only called an Egi to reference the fact that it's smaller than the full primal, and under the Summoner's control. And you're very likely correct about the solo summoning, at least as we are now Summoners would have no hope summoning a full primal without perhaps the full power of a limit break (and then it's still questionable). So don't lose hope! And keep working on your theory, it has its merits. The idea of differentiating the summoning methods is good, but it's important that those who can poke holes do, so that the theory can be more elaborative and precise.

Not losing hope. I always look forward to hole poking because it tells me where to rework my theory. So any time it gets shot down that just puts us all that much closer to finding the truth.

[WyrahFhurrst]

Ultima Weapon traps the primals and prevents them from being summoned again.

Same goes for the seal from mor dhona and Dalamud trapping Bahamut, all Allagan techs were aimed so that primals couldn't be summoned again.

I agree on the Allagan technology parts. That was the idea behind Dalamud, so that the trapped Bahamut couldn't be summoned again (because he was already manifest and trapped), so I can only presume that, that is proof of a Primal's ability to only be manifested in one location at any given time. As for the continuous mention of a "seal" on Lake Silvertear, I don't actually know where that's coming from. As far as I know the lake is spoken of as the font of aether for Eorzea and the explosion we see is a large amount of aether washing over the realm.

[Kaiser-Ace]

I agree on the Allagan technology parts. That was the idea behind Dalamud, so that the trapped Bahamut couldn't be summoned again (because he was already manifest and trapped), so I can only presume that, that is proof of a Primal's ability to only be manifested in one location at any given time. As for the continuous mention of a "seal" on Lake Silvertear, I don't actually know where that's coming from. As far as I know the lake is spoken of as the font of aether for Eorzea and the explosion we see is a large amount of aether washing over the realm.

Middy guarded the seal over that aether fount. How ever I'm not sure that was actually sealing the primals or was stableizing the aether in Eorzea.

Other than a slight reference to the seal being destroyed in the battle of Silver Tear Skies there was no mention of it even in 1.0 about its origen or purpose.

Not that I recall anyway.

[WyrahFhurrst]

So is there any actual talk of there being a seal, or is this the case of someone said there was and everyone ran with it? Because I've only ever seen people talk like there was one, and everyone be like "Mhmm, yes. The seal. Indeed."

[lololink]

I think you could go beneath the lake were the seal was in 1.0, there is also the 1.0 cinematic where you see agrius falls and all the primals going out in the burst of Aether.

Also even if there was no seal at all there is still Dalamud and Ultima, they trapped primals and prevented them from coming back.

[WyrahFhurrst]

I think you could go beneath the lake were the seal was in 1.0, there is also the 1.0 cinematic where you see agrius falls and all the primals going out in the burst of Aether.

Also even if there was no seal at all there is still Dalamud and Ultima, they trapped primals and prevented them from coming back.

What I'm saying is that if there wasn't a seal, then the whole cinematic was a representation of the massive release of aether into the world and the birth of many primals. The ambient aether in Eorzea before the explosion wasn't nearly enough for the Primals of the world to exist as easily as they do today. Secondly, those Primals that come flying out of the explosion couldn't have been sealed away, because, as we know, they are not Elder Primals and Elder Primals have to exist for 3 or more Astral Eras, since elder-ness is a measure of age, and not power.

[lololink]

First as I said before, there was a primal summoned a few year before the fall of the Agrius, in Othard, that event didn't make primals summonable, you could summon them before, at least some of them.

Second, Elder Primals are Primals that have been summoned since multiple Astral Eras without being vainquished. That's why it only counts Bahamut and Odin that have been summoned during the allagan empire Era.

Ramuh was here in the Era of the gods as he says himself and yet he is not an elder primal because he was last summoned only recently. Elder primals are also much stronger because they are here for so long they could suck as much aether as they wanted from the land.

[Anonymoose]

Elder Primals are Primals that have been summoned since multiple Astral Eras without being vainquished.

We've since gotten confirmation that the underlined part isn't actually very important. The primary distinction between Primal and Elder Primal is the sheer number of years that have passed since mass-worship began (even if its since evaporated).

Koji: Basically it’s all a matter of length of worship. With primals, it’s all about how you have someone worshiping you and you become that primal and they believe in you and you get your power from that. For the Ixal or the Amalj’aa, it’s the belief that makes the aether combine to summon forth these primals—so when you look at Ifrit, and Titan, and the one’s we’re calling primals, they’re considered very young. They’ve been believing in them for a long time, but looked at in a span of all the eras it’s not that much time. <...>

Anwyll: <...> [So,] it’s just has to do with the length of time.

Koji: Basic length of time.

For instance, Belias was forgotten pretty much entirely since twilight of the Third Astral Era (as far as we know) and memory of him was re-awoken from a summoner job crystal and passed to Tristan by an Ascian - and there Belias was called Elder. There are, of course, hints that the Ascian manipulated Tristan quite a bit and never told him the whole story. The power of Darkness takes root in him throughout the storyline until he's basically just using Dark Aether Ifrit-Egi (assuming that's not what Belias is in the first place, of course) and Dark Aether Starstorm.

Kinda makes me wonder - if we didn't (presumably) put Tristain down, would he have opened himself up to the Darkness more and more, drunk on its power, until he simply died? Or could he have ended up a black-mask one day? But I digress.