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

[Alberel]

Exception being Bahamut come Heavensward, apparently.

There's meant to be a fair bit of story pertaining to Bahamut in Heavensward so it's entirely possible players that haven't cleared Final Coil will be exposed to his aether in some other way.

[Anonymoose]

Let's not forget that Summoner was invented by the Allag - people who practically worshiped their own dominance of Bahamut. Draconic likenesses are hidden all over their gear (not so hidden on the dreadwyrm but I can't even figure out if we're supposed to think that they wore that or if it was "aetherially created" a la Louisoix and Nael's new frames). Look at the summoner horn - even it is suspiciously similar to Bahamut. One big central horn, two smaller horns to the sides of it, triangular pieces over the ears. With Bahamut's essence returned to the aether (and he's the size of a city - that's a lot of formerly-of-Bahamut aether), one need not necessarily have cleared Coil to be able to channel his power; something could just as easily come up in the job quests (though, as others have said, we now know that the storyline is canon by patch - you in the story finished the Coil in 2.4, even if you the human didn't clear it yet.

[lololink]

Maybe they'll force the players into going into Coil story mode, they talked about including it so that everyone can experiment the story in the coil, so maybe that will do the trick.

[Kaiser-Ace]

By the time period of Heavensward, the Warrior of Light has already cleared the Final Coil of Bahamut; it's part of the story, even if not a mandatory one for each and every player.

Don't be surprised if the game acts as through you've defeated the Coil storyline regardless of whether or not you actually did; World of Warcraft does the same because it's easier and more sensible not to make the effects of raids only available to the raiders able to complete it and it's very rare that completing a raid will make a difference in how people treat your character.

Since there were i think 3 or 4 others in the "Hydaelyn's Crystal" CS at level 15 I'm assuming that there's the usual 4-5 WoLs that usually appear in final fantasy. So it wouldn't be out of the question that One of the Warriors was Canonically responsible for stopping Bahamut, While another was felling the EX primals, while a Third Was exploring Crystal Tower, all while Deprplander was clearing the Main Story's events. Thus giving use a little more flexibility with the plot.

[axemtitanium]

Actually, the 2.0 Summoner quests are some of the few quests that explicitly require Main Story progress to continue. If you try to accept the Austerities of Wind quest before you've cleared Garuda (normal mode), the game will not let you. Same with Titan (and presumably Ifrit, even though that part of the story should be long done by the time you hit lv 30 SMN).

As for the Ultima Weapon thing, even though Ultima Weapon absorbed the power/aether of Garuda, Alphinaud explicitly states that the Weapon is a deterrent. There's nothing stopping the beastmen from summoning their primals again post-Ultima Weapon except fear that they'd just be eaten immediately. This actually proves that the exact same "quantum of aether" in the aetherstream is not summoned every single time a particular primal is summoned. However, it does not discount the possibility that all of "Garuda's aether" comes from a larger source in the stream and summoning her into the physical plane just draws a small quantity of it.

[Kaiser-Ace]

. This actually proves that the exact same "quantum of aether" in the aetherstream is not summoned every single time a particular primal is summoned. However, it does not discount the possibility that all of "Garuda's aether" comes from a larger source in the stream and summoning her into the physical plane just draws a small quantity of it.

Could that be similar to how Atomos Prime in WoD collapsed/died by being forced to summon multiple howling atomoses at a fast rate? Seemed like when it was channeling it's either to the clones that killing the clones was slowly killing it until it used up more than it had. (Which I think the THM and CNJ quests says will kill you)

[Lethorian]

Let's not forget that Summoner was invented by the Allag - people who practically worshiped their own dominance of Bahamut. Draconic likenesses are hidden all over their gear (not so hidden on the dreadwyrm but I can't even figure out if we're supposed to think that they wore that or if it was "aetherially created" a la Louisoix and Nael's new frames). Look at the summoner horn - even it is suspiciously similar to Bahamut. One big central horn, two smaller horns to the sides of it, triangular pieces over the ears. With Bahamut's essence returned to the aether (and he's the size of a city - that's a lot of formerly-of-Bahamut aether), one need not necessarily have cleared Coil to be able to channel his power; something could just as easily come up in the job quests (though, as others have said, we now know that the storyline is canon by patch - you in the story finished the Coil in 2.4, even if you the human didn't clear it yet.

Let's not forget how ARR even came about, the land has been warped by being showered by all the residual aether as a result of the battle between Luisioux and Bahamut. There is no short supply of Bahamut essence in Eorzea without looking into coil. The devs also mentioned we will be exploring a little bit more of Bahamut's story in 3.0, and SMN getting access to his powers just might be the way they choose to dig a bit deeper into that story.

[Kearney]

What if the Summoner Crystal (job Crystal) which contains the memory and powers of its previous user. What if one of its previous users were the one of the Summoners to defeat and imprison Bahamut? D:

[Alberel]

Could that be similar to how Atomos Prime in WoD collapsed/died by being forced to summon multiple howling atomoses at a fast rate? Seemed like when it was channeling it's either to the clones that killing the clones was slowly killing it until it used up more than it had. (Which I think the THM and CNJ quests says will kill you)

That was indeed how I interpreted that fight. Atomos Prime was within a giant crystal as well, much as Bahamut Prime was, with the implication being that the Prime was keeping the manifestation(s) alive. By forcing Atomos Prime to channel more aether to the manifestations it eventually destroyed itself. Similarly destroying Bahamut Prime caused his manifestation to return to aether.

I know there are many that like to cite Koji's classification of atomos as voidsent but the fact that we have two crystals containing primes of a creature born of aether suggests the truth of atomos' nature may be more complex. If, for example, he were a primal from the void (which I believe he is) would it not still be correct to classify him as voidsent and primal? Koji's prior classification does not preclude all others.

[lololink]

Maybe it is just a voidsent that works the same way primals work, they eat aethers, then turn into crystal and summon monsters to defend themselves with that aether.