The Great Flood

[YianKutku]

Actually, this gives me a new point to bring up, while aether is treated like matter is in the context of FFXIV, unlike real matter, aether is finite. In fact, the whole act of a calamity using up aether in astronomical amounts is the Ascian's whole game plan, since it forces Hydaelyn to make up the difference out of her own being and/or to eat up one of the shatterred reflection worlds.

I get the impression aether is finite in the same sense the amount of blood in a person's body is finite. One can give a blood donation and eventually have that deficit refilled through daily activities, but if you lose too much blood too quickly you'll die.

EDIT: In light of Moose's timely reminder, I should mention that this is only my own speculation based on my immediate impressions of the text (eg in the lorebook).

[Ametrine]

Honestly, using the quotes Moose gave as the concrete stance, that's just what I understood was happening between the egregious amounts of flavor text spit out by anyone hinting towards the truth, particularly the Word or the Mother.


Seems Ethys and I came to the same conclusion, anyway;

"Make up the difference from her own being"
I'm referring to events such as Hydealyn's direct intervention during the Ultima fight. We know Hydaelyn is much weaker than she used to be from the Calamity induced aether drain, this is confirmed by Midgardsomr and Krile. Krile in particular remarks Matoya's Eye is a very, very old crystal of light. The recently gifted crystals employed by the WoL, the WoD, and Ysayle are dwarfed by it both in size and power.

We know she's weaker, and we know Hydaelyn=the source of all life, and we know our world is the Source, the original, so the primary one Hydaelyn is forced to care for. (The only thing I don't have much inkling of is if the whole Hydaelyn=life is absolutely literal. As in, is Hydaelyn a seperated, dimensional being overseeing the worlds or is the giant crystal just our brains trying to make sense of anything and everything being condensed into one singular form? Or both? Neither?)

"Eat up the shattered reflections."
Breaking down the dimensions through Calamities is the Ascian goal, correct? Well, we have confirmation that the world so overwhelmed by darkness, the Void (as confirmed by Unulkahai), is garbage to their plan. Conversely, the Warriors of Darkness are witnessing the opposite problem, and worked side by side with the Ascians to fix their world from being all light. Aether to grossly warped to such purity on one end of the other is useless for the Joining, which refers to either the reflection breakdown post calamity or hooking Zodiark back up to Hydaelyn. Context seems to indicate both are the same.

We also know that the world's aether acts cyclical. You die, your aether returns to the earth, which fuels more life BUT using certain magic burns it up outside this neat cycle, which causes very nasty side effects to the balance (WHM quests and basically every focussing on the third astra era).

Looking at all that all that split up terminology, that was my best conclusion with the current info. Hydaelyn is running low on her personal aether stores. Calamities on the Source are sending aether in their so out of wack that the dimensions between the source and reflections break down, but the reflections with aether aspects that are almost primarily a single type are no good.

So... What else would the dimension breakdown and subsequent destruction of those reflection worlds be doing other than freeing up the variety of aether there to pump back into the Source? Using Yian's metaphor, it'd be like a blood transfusion given to someone who is very sick but would otherwise die without it.