Why we pay for aetherythes

[awbalto]

So in the most recent duty commenced it was said that we pay for aetherythe transportation to repay the debt the city states made by reconstructing the aetherytes.

Now you might say that the WOL is the only one using these things but it's clearly said in various dialogue that your adventurer companions need to join you, and I doubt they will walk from Limsa to the dravanian forelands. So more people are using this service

Economists might disagree with the following but stay with me for a bit.

The wealthy men of Uldah ( I presume these to be the Monetarists) funded the city states for rebuilding the Aetherythes thus creating a gigantic loan which the adventurers pay off by paying for the teleportation either before leaving or after arriving.

Let's say that in-game time story wise only a year or two has passed(and not go by the day night circle of eorzan time) since we started our adventure in Eorzea.
The amount of teleportations done is going to be a very big number in this time span.
Even if we only had to pay 100gil per teleportation, the amount of gil payed should have been enough to pay back these loans + the interest.

If that is not the case then the amount of gil funded by "the wealthy men of ul'dah" is so big that we could never repay this amount. If that is the case then I hypothesize that the total wealth among adventurers is not even close to the amount funded.
In that case there would be such an amount of gil in circulation that the value of the gil would be next to nothing.

Please i would like to hear your thoughts on this

[Frederick22]

There already an explanation for this, on the orther hand I would wanna know why we have to pay on gil on areas that are abandoned or in control of beast tribes ( dragons, zenith, azys la, moogles ), not the vanu vanu beacase they may need gil to do bussines with Ishgardians in camp cloudtop

[fm_fenrir]

Borrowing money from the Monetarists is like borrowing money from a loan shark. You never pay it back.

[Cilia]

It costs money to maintain the aetherytes. Even if it wasn't built as a post-Calamity transit system, you have to pay the local owners to keep the aetheryte in working condition.

Sounds simple enough, right?

[Berethos]

Borrowing money from the Monetarists is like borrowing money from a loan shark. You never pay it back.

"High interest rate" seems like it would be a common middle name for business men and women in Ul'dah.

As for how much was actually loaned and the wealth of those who put out the loan? I think using the amount of teleporting done by the actual players won't be an accurate way of gauging that amount, and it's supposed to be based on the "lore correct" amount of use they see. It's still something used frequently by adventurers, and others who need it, but I'd imagine that within canon that number isn't nearly as high as the amount of time it's been used by players based on a real life count.

So within the context of how often it's used in canon lore, it's a large amount that has been paid off, but that number isn't higher than the actual cumulative wealth of players. May not even be close, considering I know of several within just my FC who are easily in the 10s of millions of gil, and I've seen a YT interview with at least one player who has over 700 million gil. I'd be surprised if the original loan was in the billions of gil like it would need to be to exceed player wealth.

[Berethos]

It costs money to maintain the aetherytes. Even if it wasn't built as a post-Calamity transit system, you have to pay the local owners to keep the aetheryte in working condition.

Sounds simple enough, right?

Well, we've been told the payment isn't current maintenance but rather paying off the cost of the original work order (much like my wife and I in real life are currently paying off the financed cost of replacing the windows in our home), at least in areas settled in and frequented by the five races.

Maintenance costs for those in other areas not repaired by that particular work order almost makes sense...except most of those groups don't need seem to need gil. Dragons and Moogles certainly wouldn't, nor would I think the Vanu, and all of those appear to be older or naturally occurring aetherytes. Idyllshire is really the only one where the associated gil cost for maintenance still makes sense, in my opinion.

I mean, I get that the cost associated is for gameplay reasons ultimately...just that there are several places where it doesn't fit in the lore versus the other areas where it does fit the lore.

[Enkidoh]

Well, if you take into account exactly how many aetherytes there are around Eorzea, and then juxtapose that with a typical large scale public works project like a highway or bridge in real life, and the long-term loan idea that never seems to actually be paid off starts to ring true.

For instance, here in Australia at least capital projects like bridges run into the billions of dollars and can take four or five decades for the government to fully pay off the loans that fund their construction - the world famous Sydney Harbour Bridge is an example of this; it's construction was completed in the 1930s and yet the original British loan than funded it wasn't fully paid off by Australia until the 1980s.

So the reconstruction of the aetheryte system definitely seems like such a costly undertaking to require tolls for it's use for a very long time, even more so given the avarice of the Monetarists - they're not going to exactly back down from a lucrative income stream such as aetheryte tolls.

[LeeraSorlan]

MMOs need a gil sink, repairs, aetherytes, shops.

This is a gil sink. They just decided to throw a generic excuse as to why we pay this time around.

Ah, but i suppose you are asking from a lore and story point of view instead of a gameplay one.


In which case i truly believe its just some minor dialogue as to why and no real information or conclusion was or will be given, you pay because city wants your gil, why? (insert excuse) end of branch.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

MMOs need a gil sink, repairs, aetherytes, shops.

This is a gil sink. They just decided to throw a generic excuse as to why we pay this time around.

Uhhh.....Duh? No one is questioning that. People are wondering how the original excuse for paying for teleports apply to areas where no one has been to for ages.

[dementiondrive]

the places we teleport to even through to Anex for example is paid up front from where you are. they omitted from gameplay you always running up to the person to give them the gil.

the teleport that we have now are mostly relocated crystals that were rebuilt. when the debt actually goes away is when "Anima" returns as that is what was used during 1.0.

after the Calamity a lot of the crystals in the city states and around various parts were destroyed. they paid the debt to have them rebuilt and relocated. other crystals pop up naturally where there is plenty of Aether and beast tribes and cities naturally just build around them. like forgotten springs and drybone. while some crystal were completely destroyed or buried beneath the ground with the shifting land of where paths opened up. camps that are no more like camp bearded rock.

for my speculations. i think we will see the return of "Anima" in the 4.0 series.