The Layman's Physics Discussion

[Enkidoh]

As long as we're asking the tough questions: Can you prove this premise you're working off?

If you stand in Kugane and a friend stands in Ul'dah, and you share the positions of your shadows by linkshell at exactly the same time, they'll be the same, despite having a full continent between you in either direction. No matter where you are in the world, the sun is in the same place relative to your position, the clocks are the same, all of it. That shouldn't be the case on a spinning ball-shaped Hydaelyn.

And have you ever seen anything disappear over the horizon? I haven't. There's usually a mountain or a zone border long before you could, to disguise the mind-blowing truth: FLAT HYDAELYN.

the ascian moon cutscene was shot on a garlean soundstage

So the first few moments of ARR's opening movie, plus the 'stinger' scene on the Moon and the model of Hydaelyn on the Astrolabe are a fib, a lie and a bald faced whopper then?

Seriously though, the aforementioned instances clearly show Hydaelyn as a round planet, regardless of what technical limitations the in-game skybox may have in depicting accurate celestial mechanics, which is only to be expected, as the game is not meant to be a virtual simulation of Earth.

Also, there is a handy hint in the game's title, as in, it's fantasy. Science-fantasy to be specific, but fantasy none-the-less, so trying to correlate hard physics in such a setting is never going to end well (lets not forget this is a world where a giant aetheric dragon was encased in an artificial satellite for millennia and the planet itself is not only a living, self-aware entity that takes the form of a giant sentient crystal, it grants psychic abilities to random mortals). So yeah, this is fantasy. Don't think about the 'science' behind it too much.

[PArcher]

I've tried to explain magic with science in some of my settings, and while I can get some things to work, there's a lot that just completely conflicts with known sciences so much you have no choice but to say "its magic!".

For example, how can you explain polymorphing/shapechanging spells/abilities with science? (or at least in such a way that allows complete reversal with no physical harm to the object) Like our much-loved Toad spell in PoTD...

[Mysterysword]

And just for the record, I do understand how and why these issues were glossed over in-game: for the sake of convenient storytelling. But I just want to theorise about how things like these could possibly work, on a lore level.

Let me expand on that: I can accept that the writers of the game will handwave all this away with the explanation of "magic". I just think that's a really boring explanation and want to come up with headcanon theories about how this all works. So can people stop pointing out that this is fantasy? Of course I know it is. I'm trying to ignore that, let my disbelief swing, and fill in the blanks.

[sciencebot]

So the first few moments of ARR's opening movie, plus the 'stinger' scene on the Moon and the model of Hydaelyn on the Astrolabe are a fib, a lie and a bald faced whopper then?

Hey, people have made much stranger claims against much stronger evidence about the planet they're living on! The original draft of that post had Hydaelyn as a donut-shape held aloft in the arms of a great celestial Goobue.

Let me expand on that: I can accept that the writers of the game will handwave all this away with the explanation of "magic". I just think that's a really boring explanation and want to come up with headcanon theories about how this all works. So can people stop pointing out that this is fantasy? Of course I know it is. I'm trying to ignore that, let my disbelief swing, and fill in the blanks.

All goofs aside: That's fair! I think the problem some folks are having is that we don't really know all that much about the specifics of how magic functions other than "y'know... aether stuff". So it's hard to say "this is a plausible explanation for the mechanics here" without also saying "but like, there are also 300 other plausible explanations". But I'll do my best to toss you an actual theory about the Sea of Clouds.

The Sea of Clouds seems to be held up by air-aspected crystal deposits. Like, a lot of them, that place is littered with the things. We know water-aspected crystals create springs by just sort of naturally generating water from quests and landmarks in the area. Maybe the reason the air is dense enough to breathe normally, and we aren't hurled from the place immediately by powerful winds, is that they're constantly putting out enough to be stable and survivable? It's an idea, anyway!

[Alien_Gamer]

Let me expand on that: I can accept that the writers of the game will handwave all this away with the explanation of "magic". I just think that's a really boring explanation and want to come up with headcanon theories about how this all works. So can people stop pointing out that this is fantasy? Of course I know it is. I'm trying to ignore that, let my disbelief swing, and fill in the blanks.

Ok, let the technobabble ensue!


Manipulating aether is the act of imbuing an object or area with enough energy to change its state at the atomic level to create a different element. Given the abundance of clouds one can assume there is large percentage of water molecules that can be split to create hydrogen that can be trapped in the rock for lift and oxygen that can be pushed downward for lift. The natural currents in the air would create disturbances in this flow which causes the bobbing effect of the islands. Perhaps aether crystals are quantum bound with other aether crystals that aren't supporting a mountain and using that to transfer the potential energy from one to the other; hence why you have air aether crystals that can be found on the ground.

For diving, perhaps its both earth aspected and air aspected energy. The earth aether could be bound with potassium in the ground to borrow its properties to react with the water and split its molecules. The oxygen you breathe, the hydrogen floats away as bubbles. The air aether that you get imbued with manages the gas pressure in your metabolism to slow the rate of decompression perhaps through siphoning off the kinetic energy in the atoms and sending it elsewhere temporarily then bringing it back a little at a time until everything is equalized?

[Enkidoh]

We actually know how magic works in Hydaelyn though - magic is the manipulation of aether to produce a desired effect, the source of that aether and how it is manipulated differs depending on the school of magic/discipline involved, from using mathematics and geometry in arcanima to borrowing aether from the environment in conjury, to the most extreme example in the form of Primal summoning where a strong enough will and a huge amount of aether can give form and sentience to a mere wish or idea (unfortunately said wish or idea then becomes an aether-draining monster that brainwashes everyone in earshot to worship them). Of course the subject is far more complex than what is mentioned here, but that is the basic idea behind it.

Aether is the fundamental energy of reality in Hydaelyn, and thus by manipulating that energy, a person can influence said reality. Magic, in other words.

[CaesarCV]

Part of the problem of trying to figure out the realistic physics of the world is that we have no real in-game approximation of it. The physics engine for FFXIV is relatively basic, if it's even there at all. That combined with the fact that the size and nature of the game world is warped for better gameplay makes it rather difficult to understand the 'real world' physics. That being said, it can be generally assumed that most physical laws of our reality exist to some extent, even if they can be hilariously stretched. To go back to the initial post, it can be safely assumed that the blessing of the Kojin provides some way to survive the pressure in addition to the issues with speaking and breathing, although given the relative scientific illiteracy of the Kojin (and Eorzea as a whole) we would have no idea how.

On the subject of Aether though, I'm not sure that we can totally limit it to the conventions of normal science. It seems to be capable of acts far beyond the capabilities of the real world, from instantaneous creation or teleportation of mass to the production of ethereal and unreal creatures. Trying to figure out how some of that might work on a physical level is both fascinating and headache inducing. Even Garlemald's magitek seems capable of breaking physical laws quite easily, so who really knows?