Garuda Story Mode Question

[Grayve]

Wait, so if we can subconsciously tear aether away from a primal and turn it into a crystal... that sounds rather useful. Why can we only do it that time? And I thought makoado said that Crystals of Light were direct gifts from Hydelaen?

[LineageRazor]

To be honest, the circumstances under which we acquire crystals don't seem to have any sort of commonality. Sometimes we're given the crystal, sometimes we find it, and in Garuda's case, we rip it out of her chest. It's like the universe is saying, "Welp, it's been a while since you last got a MacGuffin. Looks like you're due!"

While several crystals are found after defeating Primals, it doesn't really seem like those crystals are tied to the primals in any special way, in spite of the fact that the crystals we got from them were the Primals' element - particularly given that the Ice crystal doesn't even HAVE a Primal. (Shiva's first summoning was well-after we collected the Ice crystal.)

Not the best example of storytelling in this game, imo.

[CaesarCV]

It is a little unclear how the crystals work exactly. I'm not sure there really is a direct answer to it either, and the game has really glossed over them ever since ARR.

One of my favorite Primal origin ideas put forth by the Lore book (and other places) is actually Shiva's. We don't know that much about the original Shiva, although she presumably was an ordinary woman. The primal that Ysayle summons is explicitly quite different from the original one, to the point that Hraesvelgr considers it an insult. There are a few interesting things that have to do with this though. One is that Hraesvelgr seems to have control over light and ice magic, so it's possible the ice connection was conflated from that. The much more interesting thing to note are the similarities between the Heretic's version of Shiva and the goddess Halone. Namely in how Halone is an ice aspected goddess of war, and how Shiva is an ice aspected warrior figure skilled with blades and other weapons. It's quite possible that Ysayle (and the other heretics) version of Shiva was heavily colored by the Halonic doctrine, which is fascinating.

[Leaf_Dragoon]

I'm pretty sure that Hraesvelgr uses Light and Ice not Water and Ice, as I don't remember him casting any water spells during his boss fight.

[CaesarCV]

I'm pretty sure that Hraesvelgr uses Light and Ice not Water and Ice, as I don't remember him casting any water spells during his boss fight.

That's what I get for writing that on my phone. Thanks. I'll edit the post.

[CaesarCV]

Yeah, the Allagans were still explicitly at war with beast tribes during their day, most notably the beast tribes in Meracydia. It's unlikely that they were the progenitors of all the beast tribes, especially with the consideration that enough mastery of aetherochemistry to be able to create Chimeras was only possible near the end of the Empire. Amusingly some Eorzean scholars believe that the Biloko line of enemies (the tree people) are actually the Meracydian tribe that summoned Sephirot in ages past. But they're not even considered fully sapient anymore.

[PArcher]

Yeah, the Allagans were still explicitly at war with beast tribes during their day, most notably the beast tribes in Meracydia. It's unlikely that they were the progenitors of all the beast tribes, especially with the consideration that enough mastery of aetherochemistry to be able to create Chimeras was only possible near the end of the Empire. Amusingly some Eorzean scholars believe that the Biloko line of enemies (the tree people) are actually the Meracydian tribe that summoned Sephirot in ages past. But they're not even considered fully sapient anymore.

Where'd that picture go showing the similarities between Ifrit and Zurvan? That was fairly interesting, even if Zurvan's followers and the Amal'jaa don't look much alike (though are both reptilian...)

New environment and time can do a lot to change the evolution of things, after all...