The Perception of Summoners and Their Story Moving Forward

[Blueyes]

This post may seem a bit disjointed in writing as I attempt to gather my thoughts. There is a topic elsewhere that provides a place for people to talk about wishes and desires for their favorite jobs going into Stormblood and beyond. I came to the realization that in specific regards to Summoner, what I most desired going forward was more lore focused than anything.

I'm going to deviate a little bit to talk about FFX which I have recently started playing through once again. At least early on, or when talking about how they are perceived by the general public, Summoners are widely viewed as heroes or saviors. They call upon great aeons to do battle against a powerful threat to their world.

Contrary to the FFX story, the primals (aka eikons) in FFXIV are widely perceived as a negative force that must be vanquished. At least in the eyes of the general public if my understanding is correct. This, however, does not seem to tarnish the role of a Summoner who call upon the power of primals in the form of an egi which does not possess the same negative qualities of a full primal.

The full extent of what a Summoner can achieve is a little unclear. We witness the summoning of Belias-egi which is quite powerful, yet still classified as an egi. The one to call forth this egi proceeds to express the desire for power is sought with the intention of vanquishing the primals. This gives the sense of a "fight fire with fire" approach, trending a fine line, but with the ultimate goal to achieve something good.

I have to wonder if there is story left to be told. Although primals are viewed as a negative force I believe there is room for Summoners to rise forth. I can imagine a point in the story where a Summoner possess the means to rival a full-fledged primal in a one-on-one engagement. And I speak from a lore standpoint when I say that.

However, I wouldn't say that I want Summoner to reach that level as early as Stormblood. It's something that I perceive as near the end of the Summoner arch, but I do hope that we will start to see steps taken in that direction. And I don't just say that because I want to see Summoners achieve a higher power, but rather I want to see them powerful enough that the common people can look to them with hopeful eyes. To view Summoners as a force for good against the greatest threats to Eorzea.

So in the end this may just be me rambling. I'm not really asking a question nor am I even desiring for people to agree with me. Playing through FFX feels like such a different experience from what FFXIV brings forth which has left me longing for that type of experience once again. I'm content with FFXIV's base story in regards to primals, but with Summoners having already found a way to harness their power in a way that does not cause harm to their world, I do hope that the story will be expanded to great heights.

[myahele]

Back in the days of the Allagan Empire summoners were widely respected and revered. They were active in the military and tasked with killing primals and those who summoned them probably. As time went on, all that power went into their heads and they became quite power hungry and dangerous. Then by the fall of the Empire, Summoners were feared and were hunted down and killed by citizens.

Anyways, in order someone to be a summoner, they'll need to be exposed to the essence of a Primal and no matter how benevolent a Primal may be, they'll need to be summoned via Faith and Aether. Not only that, but it seems simply summoning a Primal might temper (debateable) those who called them forth. It doesn't help that a Primal can't "kill" themselves, but must be killed.

Theoretically, you could capture and store a Primal into a container of sorts and use their energy infuse others with Primal aether so they could obtain an egi that way. But such methods are unethical and dangerous.

Outside of learning more about Summoners, Y'mithra's goal is for Summoning to be viewed positively. But I think that's mostly because her research will be shut down and made forbidden.

[Darkstride]

The nature of Primals is different than that of summons in previous titles. Primals are willed into existence by their worshippers. They are not generally summoned with benevolent intentions and their behavior reflects that. They also temper their worshippers to follow their lead.

Summoners merely create a construct consisting of a portion of the aether of a Primal. The Egi construct has no direct relationship to a Primal summoned by Beast tribes and has no inherent personality good or bad. It's an extension of the Summoner.

[Belhi]

I think the WoL is generally a good mascot for whatever Job he or she choses to engage in. Black Mages suffer an even harder road to acceptance since their magic is known about already and is widely forbidden. I think in the same context it is a matter of the practitioners proving that the magic itself isn't evil even though it can be misused.

I think in both contexts its a situation where the magic is open to acceptance though with strict regulation. Its noteworthy that even the BLM teachers are of the view that only those who can show they can handle the magic responsibly should be allowed near it.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Thanks for creating this thread!

As someone who chose to play as a summoner from the get-go, and who stuck with the job through thick and thin, I've developed a very strong emotional bond with its lore, and how it relates to my character, Lyland.

Lyland's time as a summoner, as I imagine it, has long since deviated from the way it's been narrated in the main- and job-storylines.

As such, the way I've rationalised some of the very pertinent questions you raised will not be officially lore-compliant. But perhaps it may help inspire you to come up with your own role-playing answers to your queries. I'll hide the account between spoiler tags, though, as this is just my personal head-canon and so it doesn't actually belong in the lore forum (I wish we had an official roleplay subforum!).

To begin with, as you've noted, the primals are a "negative" force. Moreover, from the time Lyland defeated King Thordan, I've long pondered why the dying primal perceived the Warrior of Light as a shadowy, ominous presence.

This was when it struck me that, in the process of repeatedly "giving form" to the primal essences imprinted on his aether, Lyland may have unwittingly allowed the egi to deepen their taint on his life force. Recall that summoning is different from arcanima, in that an egi is summoned forth from the evoker's aether.

…you must focus. Visualise the aether flowing through you, a vibrant current of energy transforming into living fire. Hold this image in your mind, and the raging heat of your life force shall spawn an egi wreathed in flames!

Had Lyland not experimented with summoning, perhaps the taint on his life force would not have coalesced into the sentient beings that have to be forcibly tamed before they would accept an evoker's commands. The egi may obey him, but he can sense that they're constantly gnawing away at his consciousness, in a neverending attempt to reassert control.

Neither he nor Y'mhitra could have forseen what summoning truly entailed. Lyland was inspired by Y'mhitra's belief that resurrecting the ancient Allagan art might well give them "the power to bring this age of conflict to an end". He truly believed at the time that summoning would be a force for good.

But he later witnessed the horrors of what the Allag did with Bahamut, and experienced at first-hand the megalomania of the last Emperor, Xande. His belief in the Allag was thus shattered forever, redeemed only slightly by G'raha's sacrifice. The further horrors of Azys Lla only served to deepen his disillusionment with Allagan magic and technology.

By the time Y'mhitra related the doomed history of Allag's summoners, Lyland was already about to abandon the art. Unfortunately, although he had defeated Lahabrea in the aetherochemical facility, the Paragon's minions remained, and they remained determined as ever to provoke the beast tribes into ever more summonings.

Y'mhitra and Lyland were thus forced to tap the Dreadwyrm trance to permanently destroy the lesser Ascians. It was to be a pyhrric victory, however, because tapping Bahamut's latent aether had further worsened the primal taint on Lyland's soul. He could sense he was on the brink of falling into the madness that also claimed the ancient summoners of Allag.

The stop-gap solution came, ironically, from a return to arcanima. Thanks to Ardashir of Thavnair and Ulan of the Far East, Lyland was able to artificially create an entirely new class of arcane entity: the anima.

Housed in Lyland's newly designed relic, the anima now serves as a filter on his aether. It helps to regulate the primal taint on his life force, as he channels his aether through the relic to evoke his spells.

In the meantime, Y'mhitra has continued her research into a permanent solution to the primal crisis. There are no concrete solutions as yet but, intuitively, Lyland senses that it will require some means of pacifying the rage of the egi within him. Otherwise, the cycle of hatred and reprisal will only continue.

War is inevitable, yet it is war itself that frightens the beast tribes and spurs them into ever more primal summonings. And the more primals he slays, the more Lyland gets doused in their aether, and the harder he'll have to fight to maintain his aetherial integrity.

And that, as it stands, is Lyland's journey with summoning thus far. It's an unfinished story, and I'll have to wait and see how future developments in the official storyline influence the direction of his narrative.

The basic meta point is this, though: I would love it tremendously if the future storyline delves into the growing risks of containing so many arguably hostile egi within the evoker's aether.

It would be profound if Y'mhitra discovers that it wasn't just power that drove the ancient summoners astray, but also the primal taint of the egi themselves.

I think it would be incredible (and deliciously dark and gritty!) if the story explores the possibility of a summoner going insane with bloodlust and megalomania as he relies ever more heavily on his egi. Mortals are not meant to wield the power of gods, and there should be a price to pay that goes beyond just resisting the base temptations of sheer power.

Whelp, that's my wish for Stormblood and beyond, anyway.

[LineageRazor]

I think it would be incredible (and deliciously dark and gritty!) if the story explores the possibility of a summoner going insane with bloodlust and megalomania as he relies ever more heavily on his egi. Mortals are not meant to wield the power of gods, and there should be a price to pay that goes beyond just resisting the base temptations of sheer power.

This possibility reminds me a great deal of BLU's storyline in FFXI. Blue Mages were created using dark and ethically questionable techniques to allow them to absorb the essences of the monsters they slew, thereby gaining their powers. Eventually and seemingly inevitably, Blue Mages succumb to the fiends' essences within themselves and are twisted into horrifying monsters like Soulflayers and Flans.

Of course, player characters are an exception, and seem to be able to hold off the corruption indefinitely. This would likely be the case in this game, as well, if it is revealed that Summoners are subject to a "tainting" influence like the one you describe.

I'd feel badly for Y'mhitra if that was the case, though. So much for all her hard work!

[Belhi]

The BLM and DRK story is a bit of the 'Dark and forbidden magics' thing already. I suppose they could do something similar with Summoner but in truth nothing in the story seems to be suggesting that is a direction they seem to be going in.

The closest we have to stories of primal corruption is from the tales Unikalhai told us in which people found a way to trap Primals in Auracite and used them as weapons but the leaking energy seemed to turn the wielders into primal like beings. The key corrupting factor is the hunger for Aether. The core difference here is that the Summoner uses only their own Aether in the magics they cast and don't draw on outside sources in the same way. For that matter, beyond the hunger for Aether, not all primals are particularly bad. Titan is known as being very benevolent to his children and his anger is only due to the injustice done against them. Ramuh we could literally negotiate with. Pheonix literally saved Eorzea. Hell if Ysayle was alright, and she literally turned into a primal, I doubt what the summoners do is a big problem.