Garuda Story Mode Question

[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.