The Summoning of Susano

[Lutefisk]

Regarding Lakshmi, I think her role in the story was to really drive home the point that you don't need crystals to summon a primal. Any source of aether will do and in this case I think it was simply the death of the broodmother's daughter that provided it.

When a living thing dies, the aether comprising its life is released. It has been learned that when this discharge takes place, a portion of that aether remains, lingering in the physical world. No doubt you have come across aetherial crystallizations in the course of your travels.
The more violent and dramatic the loss of life, the greater the amount of inner aether released to take the form of crystlas or remain imperceptibly in the atmosphere.

This, together with Susano seems to be more build up towards what Ysayle charging at Gration already hinted at. What will the garleans do if it turns out that just about anyone could in theory summon a primal on a whim, be it with the aid of some 'battery' (Odin/Susano) or by killing a random bystander (Lakshmi)?

[Grayve]

Regarding Lakshmi, I think her role in the story was to really drive home the point that you don't need crystals to summon a primal. Any source of aether will do and in this case I think it was simply the death of the broodmother's daughter that provided it.

Unless I'm completely misremembering, it is stated the gems and materials used to craft their jewelry is aether attuned, and that is what was used for the summoning.

[Lutefisk]

Apologies for the super late reply, trying to unlearn years of muscle memory makes for a forgetful mind.

Unless I'm completely misremembering, it is stated the gems and materials used to craft their jewelry is aether attuned, and that is what was used for the summoning.

After a few rereads through the relevant quests I guess I'll have to concede to that, seems like I glazed over that detail in the early morning hours when I was going through that part of the main scenario. And yet I can't shake off the feeling that Anamika's death played the bigger part in the summoning. Perhaps I jumped the gun with assuming that it alone was enough to call forth a primal in this occasion, but it certainly feels like a natural evolution of the concept that was first introduced in 2.1 and later revisited in 3.4/3.5.

But to reiterate the point I was trying to make in my original post, it feels like Stormblood is trying to break away from the rigid, predictable cycle of ”beastmen hoard crystals, beastmen summon primal.” What if you could no longer predict when someone might feel like pulling a primal out of their hat by merely monitoring the trade of crystals? It could very well be that we'll never see a 100% crystal-free soylent primal, but I think the possibility is there.

[Dark-Saviour]

The biggest disappointment with Susano for me is that he didn't really feel tied to the Kojin (or his origin in-game). It felt like Stoned Ravanah and the way it was handled even reeked of, "We need a primal somewhere in here and we want to use Susano, so sure, why not." Had they made him more like Gilgamesh (from F/SN, not so much FF) in that he fought more by spamming/showing off sacred treasures and legendary items, then I'd be less negative about it, but eh...

But to reiterate the point I was trying to make in my original post, it feels like Stormblood is trying to break away from the rigid, predictable cycle of ”beastmen hoard crystals, beastmen summon primal.” What if you could no longer predict when someone might feel like pulling a primal out of their hat by merely monitoring the trade of crystals? It could very well be that we'll never see a 100% crystal-free soylent primal, but I think the possibility is there.

Thordan. He used the Eye instead of Crystals to get what he needed.

So there are alternate avenues. Maybe someone just starts siphoning the lifestream?