Another source of Aether (Spoilers?)

[Ilenya]

So I was finishing Final Steps on an alt when I started wondering. As far as I am aware there were/are three items mentioned in FF lore that have the capability to grant enough aether for summoning a primal on their own, disregarding any Alagan shenanigans I may be forgetting (Also, may be misremembering what the 3 items do with the aether, but still.)

I can think of Nidhogg's eyes, taken care of after the Royal Menagerie, the Horn used to summon Alexander, also removed from the equation, and Tupsimati, which I am unsure of what happened to it following Shinryu's sealing.

Which made me wonder. Has there been mention of any similar artifact in the game that could be used in a similar manner? I can logically guess the Crystal of Light could in dire circumstances, but was anything else ever mentioned?

[ObsidianFire]

Yasyle uses her Crystal of Light to summon Shiva at Azys Lla, so that one is definitely confirmed in-game.

That is a good question about Tupsimati. I was under the impression Papalymo had used it to seal Shinryu, but that still leaves the question of where it is now...

[Jyera]

Yasyle uses her Crystal of Light to summon Shiva at Azys Lla, so that one is definitely confirmed in-game.

That is a good question about Tupsimati. I was under the impression Papalymo had used it to seal Shinryu, but that still leaves the question of where it is now...

I figured it was consumed and destroyed in the process.

[Ilenya]

I figured it was consumed and destroyed in the process.

See, that's my thought, but considering it survived Louisiox's usage, it could still be out there somewhere.

Edit, also had totally forgotten about Ysayle's usage of the Crystal of Light. It's probably nowhere as strong as the three I mentioned, but it does mean that there very well could be such an item.

[Frizze]

See, that's my thought, but considering it survived Louisiox's usage, it could still be out there somewhere.

I might be remembering all this wrong, so potentially take with a grain of salt. When Louisoix used the staff in the bahamut incident didnt it shatter? Its being used a second time in 3.5 could have been enough to finish destroying it. Of course, the question of whether the aetheric force applied by the spell was what broke it or just the force of bahamuts attack i dont think was answered.

[Ilenya]

It did shatter from what I assume was the backlash of Bahamut breaking the spell, but considering Papalymo's spell didn't shatter, I doubt that the staff broke.

However, thinking about it, the spell specifically failed in the end because it ran out of aether sustaining it, which if nothing else implies that Tupsimati doesn't currently have the well of aether it used to have.

[alimdia]

It's been who knows how long since the alliance took over the wall, if the scions, or Lyse specifically, believed Tupsimati was still out there she would have gone to retrieve it as a memento, the fact that there's zero mention and that the staff was already not enough to power the binding spell a second time makes me believe it was destroyed.

Another thing to remember is that between Moenbryda's aether siphon thing and tupsimati you still didn't have enough aether to summon the blade of light without the blessing of light, so to me it implies that the staff wasn't at its full power, which is why Papalymo had to use himself as a battery the same way Moenbryda did before.

Now whether there are other sources of concentrated aether is hard to know, if there is another device it's probably in Sharlayan, there might also be other creatures out there with a similar condition as dragons eyes being full of concentrated aether.

[koichi88]

Logically the eyes of Hraesvelger, Tiamat and the other two first brood dragons should work in a similar manner to Niddhog's. In fact any dragon of sufficient age should work. After all all they do is soak up aether over the centuries and so long as that aether is not spent on anything it should still be there. Which makes me wonder why primals are so dangerous for soaking up aether when its fine for dragons to do it.

[Ilenya]

Logically the eyes of Hraesvelger, Tiamat and the other two first brood dragons should work in a similar manner to Niddhog's. In fact any dragon of sufficient age should work. After all all they do is soak up aether over the centuries and so long as that aether is not spent on anything it should still be there. Which makes me wonder why primals are so dangerous for soaking up aether when its fine for dragons to do it.

Slowly absorbing aether is entirely different than the active draining that Primals do. Alexander in particular was a massive drain on the land, and I think the primals in general know it (Ramuh in particular, since he was the one mentioned specifically telling the sylphs to not call him unless it was a massive emergency. I doubt the rest fully care.)

Also, I excluded the other dragon's eyes because I cannot imagine a single situation where any of them would allow the eyes to be abused like that.

[Alien_Gamer]

I don't think the dragon eyes are soaking up aether, they're font of aether that grows stronger with time.