Duty Commenced 09 - Lore Lowdown (Aetherytes)

[Anonymoose]

On today's Duty Commenced, the second Lore Lowdown closer featured a little bit about aetherytes. Again, if you've been digging deep into the game for a long time, you'll know most of this - but, also again, expect a bit of new perspective and clarification.

In case you missed the show (and the Lore Train), here's the summary for forum discussion purposes.

Aetherytes

What is aether?
Aether is an invisible, intangible substance that exists all around us and flows through every living being, and is what sustains us. It is also used to weave magicks. Once the spirit departs the body due to death, our remains are reduced to aether and returned to the aetherial river known as the Lifestream, which flows throughout the land.

Return and Teleport
These are spells that allow the caster to reduce his physical form to aether without severing the connection between body and soul, so that he may traverse the Lifestream safely and travel to his desired destination

Return
Compared to Teleport, Return is less taxing on our spiritual energies, as we are naturally drawn towards our “home point” - the aetheryte with which we have the strongest resonance. This spell can be cast quite quickly, making it ideal for emergencies.

Teleport
Teleport offers greater versatility, in that you can travel to any aetheryte with which you have previously attuned. However, it requires a great deal of spirit energy known as “anima” to safely guide one’s body and soul to the weaker aetherial beacon. It also requires extended concentration to cast and therefore cannot be used during battle.

What is an aetheryte?
These crystalline agglomerations of aether, which are a common sight throughout Eorzea, are vital to aetherial travel. They are said to be solid manifestations of the planet’s lifeblood, aether, which form at the intersections of aetherial currents. By touching an aetheryte, the aether which makes up our bodies resonates with that contained in the crystal. This is called “attunement.”

Normally, when one’s body is reduced to aether, it will naturally gravitate to the location with which it resonates the greatest: one’s home point. This is why upon losing consciousness in battle, many wake to find themselves back at an aetheryte. In other words, they act as lodestones, assuring that the body, in its aetherial form, is not lost to the pull of the greater flow.

Why are aetherytes generally found in populated areas?
Aetherytes cannot be constructed just anywhere; rather, they can only be constructed in locations rich with aether, such as the intersections of aetherial currents. Like an oasis in a desert, these locations are often teeming with life. Settlements are commonly established near them, and so it can be reasonably assumed that most villages and cities are ideal locations for aetherytes.

Why does it cost gil to use aetherytes?
During the Calamity, many of the existing aetheryte camps were destroyed. The city-states subsequently coordinated their efforts to reloacte and restore the aetherytes which had been damaged or lost. Much of the capital used to fund this venture was lent by certain men of business from Ul’dah. The gil you pay when either leaving from or arriving at an aetheryte goes to paying off that debt.

While it may appear as though this is automatically deducted from your savings, you are in fact paying this fee to nearby attendants. This scene is simply omitted for gameplay reasons.

Who constructed the aetherytes?
The aetherytes currently found in each of the city-states were reconstructed following the Calamity by Sharlayan engineers. These engineers were the only ones who possessed the skill and knowledge necessary to do so, and so they were richly compensated for their services.

Modern Aetherytes [Example: 2.0 city plazas and camps; image in Lore Train]
These are not an original Sharlayan design, but the product of research into existing aetherytes constructed in ancient times by civilizations unknown.

Early Aetherytes [Example: Falcon's Nest]
These were constructed 1000-1500 years ago during the Sixth Astral Era.

Ancient Aetherytes [Example: 1.0 cities and camps]
These were constructed before the Sixth Astral Era, more than 1500 years ago. Many of these aetherytes were damaged or destroyed during the Calamity.

Naturally Occurring & Repurposed Aetherytes [Example: Ok'Zundu & 2.0 beastmen camps, respectively]
Beast tribes also have their own unique ways of using aetheryte, but these methods, too, were not invented by them. In most cases, they are reutilizing relics from ancient civilizations or making use of the crystals that formed naturally.

Allagan Aetherytes [Example: Azys Lla]
The Allagans possessed aetheryte technologies as well. However, it is unknown whether they developed their methods independently or if they expanded upon those of older civilizations.

[Anonymoose]

Ehh, just gonna do a double post for the conversation starter so I don't muck up the OP summary.

The first question we can discuss was brought up almost immediately when we posted the Lore Train entry on Twitter (Hi, Myranda!): How is the Falcon's Nest aetheryte 1,000 to 1,500 years old when it's clearly in a post-Calamity version of the settlement? I'll take a stab at it, though Occam is not a fan of my current conclusions. (Oh, and by "stab," I meant essay.)

My first impression was "Don't think too hard about it." Look around; there are a few things about 1.0 Ishgard that the design team clearly loved the idea of changing slightly more than the lore team hated the idea of retcons. One need look no further than the Vigils for evidence of this. Also, all of the NPCs hanging around HW Falcon's Nest confirm that 1.0 Falcon's Nest was a tiny hamlet village and Ishgard rebuilt a fortress where it once stood, to the relief of some and dismay of others.

This led to my second idea - Ishgard just lugged one in from... somewhere. Tailfeather has an "early" aetheryte, maybe they just took one from nearby. Idyllshire has an "early" aetheryte, too. Maybe Rowena oversaw the selling and transportation of one - maybe there was one in Arkhitekton storage. But... why would they do that? Look at Ishgard's use of post-calamity Aetherytes. Foundation, Camp Dragonhead, and even Camp Cloudtop are sporting Sharlayan reverse-engineering. Why wouldn't they just order a fourth?

This all leads me to my current best-guess, based on this quote:

When it became clear that the snow would not stop falling, we had no choice but to order a complete withdrawal. The settlement─and the entirety of the western highlands─were to be abandoned. ...Abandoned to the heretics. Lady Iceheart and her kind have walked these lands with impunity ever since.

The heretics had uncontested control of the area for roughly five years. I figure they might have brought one in from Dravanian lands and the Ishgardians, upon reclaiming the settlement for reconstruction, just figured, "Woohoo, free kit!"

[myahele]

I was gonna make a new thread about my particular question, but since this came up now I guess this is as good a place as any since it's somewhat related.

We all know that we are charged gil by the guards patrolling the major Aetherytes across Eorzea to pay for the upkeep/fees of that particular Aetheryte.

What I wan't to know is this: why are we getting charged (by the dragons?) to use the Aetheryte in Anyx Trine? What lore reason could there be for that since that place is largely abandoned and is Dragon territory? Same can also be said about Asys Lla, but to a lesser extent.

What do the dragons need gil for? Unless they're using that gil to help fund Ysayle's branch of Heretics?

It is interesting that they mentioned that the Allagans themselves may have gotten the Aetheryte technology from an older civilization, but that's pure "speculation" at this point by the team.

[Kallera]

A person chooses to return to their homepoint or a dungeon's entrance. But return(either willingly or by ko) is a choice, which remains in control during a KO. If a person loses conciousness in battle, how do they retain control over when and when not to reduce the body to aether, such as a raise being casted on you? If a person has no control over the raise process, what would cause it to kick in when loss of conciousness occurs?

[ExKage]

A person chooses to return to their homepoint or a dungeon's entrance. But return(either willingly or by ko) is a choice, which remains in control during a KO. If a person loses conciousness in battle, how do they retain control over when and when not to reduce the body to aether, such as a raise being casted on you? If a person has no control over the raise process, what would cause it to kick in when loss of conciousness occurs?

People beat me to it! As it came up on RPC I hoped to see what insight people might have here. Their post was this

So I guess an alternate explanation of why we homepoint when we "die" is that we're reflexively making use of the Return spell? Interesting food for thought; I suppose that means that anyone playing a sufficiently-aethered-up adventurer (namely anyone embodying a Job full-on) should be extremely difficult to kill if they aren't one-shotted, since the body will naturally try to ride away on the Lifestream to a homepoint.

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this idea because traveling using aether still requires some type of consciousness and concentration does it not? When we use return, we are still casting (hence concentrating). If we were able to do such a thing without consciousness, wouldn't the concentration factor be heavily reduced?

[Jonnycbad]

Either that or it's Hydaelyn doing it. Maybe you were pre-destined to be the Warrior of Light even before you started your missions (born of the crystal/as the WOL?) so when you die, she whisks you through the lifestream to protect your soul.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotArmor

[MilesSaintboroguh]

As for why we need to fork over gil to teleport to the dragon's home, think of it like this: We're compensating them for the wars they endured :P

[Enkidoh]

To be really honest, I'm wondering if the design change of aetherytes into Heavensward is simply due to technical reasons - the 'large' heavily detailed ARR style aetheryte works perfectly fine in ARR's smaller zones but would be a bit of a resource hog especially in HW's new huge areas, so the new 'ancient' style aetheryte is smaller and less detailed (notice how the central crystal is much more smoother than the ARR style?) to compensate, to make it less demanding on the system. Camp Cloudtop can get away with it due to the fact much of the Sea of Clouds is... empty space.

So yeah, I think this is just one of those cases of 'form follows function' here and any lore explanation for it is just a handwave to explain the differences in design.

[TheMunimai]

HW SPOILERS!

If we reduce our physical form into aether when using teleport or return how is this different from the spell "Flow" which is considered "forbidden" but from my understanding works in the same way - reducing the body into aether?

Is it because teleport and return have "anchors" in the way of the Aetherytes and "Flow" does not?

[MilesSaintboroguh]

From what I understand, Flow seems to let you teleport not just yourself, but another person as well and to be anywhere you want to go.