Summoner and the people?

[jarshr]

Okay so I can't understand how exactly the peoples of the realm regard summoners?

According to the wiki page it mentions something about demons. Are the primas demons? Are the summoners some kind of warlock? Or is the wiki just giving a description of what the primals appear to be in the minds of the local population.

Really like the class but I have never been a fan of playing the evil Mage type running around with demons.

Any info on this would be great thanks!

[Enkidoh]

A little suspension of disbelief is needed here when regarding SMN. Most of the game's Jobs are actually considered 'unique' as far as the story goes (in fact, the description for Jobs on the main FFXIV website stated that Jobs "were disciplines from previous eras that have since fallen out of use", and SMN is one of these). SMN was a discipline that was created in the Third Astral Era by the Allagan Empire during their research into the Primals, where they learned that after a Primal is summoned, some of it's residual aether remains behind even after the Primal's physical form itself is destroyed, a residual trace that the Allag learned to harness and create from that aetheric residue a miniature simulacrum of the original Primal that is devoid of free will, merely an aetheric puppet.

They are thus somewhat similar to the Carbuncle entities modern day ACNs summon from gemstones (this is why SMN piggybacks on the ACN class). Primals aren't demons per se, they're actually thought forms, a will or idea given flesh by enormous quantities of aether (usually given in the form of crystals used in the summoning process).

Narrative wise, there are technically only two actual SMNs during the time of the game's storyline, the player's character and Tristan Lightflicker, the main antagonist of the 30-50 SMN Job quests. The player gained theirs through Y'mhitra's studies, while Tristan was given his SMN crystal through a shady deal with the Ascians. There are no other SMNs running around at this time to my knowledge (bare in mind I haven't done the level 60-70 SMN Job quests yet so I have no idea if another SMN shows up in them). Really, most smallfolk would probably just consider a SMN WoL as just another ACN at the very least, or more than that an ACN experimenting with modifying the Carbuncle into different forms (which isn't too far from the truth).

[TinyRedLeaf]

Let's just say, there's a reason the title that SMNs get after completing the level 70 job quest is "The First Caller".

Level 60-70 SMN quest-line spoilers:

In the level 60 to 70 quest line for SMNs, the Immortal Flames sets up its first unit of summoners, comprising a trio of soldiers who survived at least one encounter with Ifrit, and are thus able to summon Ifrit-egi.

The highest-ranking of the three is also a former member of the Company of Heroes that defeated Titan back in the day, so he's only the second current summoner in Eorzea capable of summoning more than one egi.

I would strongly suggest that the thread starter consult the job trainer, Y'mhitra. She provides the lore for the job right from the beginning. It's not hard to learn the background for the job on your own.

[Anonymoose]

In terms of how The People would see you, you kind of have to put yourself in their heads; they only have you as an example. Are there people secretly trying to learn the art through nefarious means? Probably. (Hells, there are people learning white magic illegitimately. Egi are way more attractive to the less-than-law-abiding.)

As Enkidoh said, an egi is your own aether, split from your soul and fashioned into a biddable avatar. Carbuncle's form and behavior would be governed by mathematics and gemstones; an egi is governed by your memory of a primal and its aetherial waveform signature imprinted on your own aether from having been there when it died. (Think of it like magnetic tape.) In that sense, an egi is little more than a tool - the wielder becomes the inspiration for how that tool is seen.

To the people, it can be a symbol of hope. The aetheric demigods of the beast tribes, the stuff of nightmares - demons who take away your will and claim your soul - can be stood against, and defeated, and their essences can be turned against them. The summoner has tamed an untame-able force and now wields it in their defense.

That's how the Allagans saw summoners, too ... at first. But eventually those summoners became corrupt. They wielded the power for their own ends and became secondary manifestations of primals = bad in the eyes of the populace. Indeed, it was easy for them to make the mistaken assumption that the SUMMONER became bad BECAUSE the primal was bad, that wielding such powers corrupt and influence the user.

Thus the witch hunts of the Third Astral Era led to the summoners' extinction ... until now.

It's up to you do to better.

[TinyRedLeaf]

In terms of how The People would see you, you kind of have to put yourself in their heads; they only have you as an example.

I'll add that the art of summoning is not yet common knowledge to ordinary Eorzeans in the present era. This will become apparent later, in the levels-50-to-60 job storyline.

This is relevant to the OP's question, as the layman has little to no knowledge of egi. Something like Ifrit-egi would terrify ordinary villagers, and you can expect that most of them to be unable to distinguish the aetherial construct from the voidsent, which is far more commonly known.

So, in lore terms, it won't be surprising if smallfolk equate summoning with "demonic arts". But this won't show up in our experience as players, because of the segregation between gameplay and lore.