I want to talk about tempering

[Cilia]

When it comes to Incarnate Summoning and Tempering:

Ysayle and Zenos get free passes since they had the Echo (even if Zenos' was artificial, the Echo is the Echo).

For non-Echo users, it implicitly tempers them to themselves, or at least whatever strong emotion drove their summoner to the summoning. Thordan is powered by his faith in the righteousness of his cause, and loses his primal form shortly before despairing at how his power could be overcome. Tsukuyomi is powered by, as Yotsuyu says herself, her own spite and suffering; she doesn't have enough before the add phase to be a proper challenge, and loses her form during it.

Another oddity is Ga Bu, the kobold child who unwittingly summoned Titan in grief at his parents' deaths. While this isn't Incarnate Summoning, it is quite the unique case in that like Incarnate Summoning it required only one summoner and was very different from a group-summoned primal. The Titan summoned is little more than a manifestation of Ga Bu's rage and sorrow; as a result while Ga Bu may or may not have been tempered by the summoning, he displays none of the fanatical behavior of your typical tempered follower and instead remains in near-catatonic grief.

Elidibus (as Zenos) said that Incarnate Summoning without the Echo makes one into "a slave to whim and desire" (presumably the desires that called the primal). That's pretty cut and dry to me.

This makes the phantom Gosetsu's appearance during the Tsukuyomi fight very impactful...

[LineageRazor]

Another oddity is Ga Bu, the kobold child who unwittingly summoned Titan in grief at his parents' deaths. While this isn't Incarnate Summoning, it is quite the unique case in that like Incarnate Summoning it required only one summoner and was very different from a group-summoned primal. The Titan summoned is little more than a manifestation of Ga Bu's rage and sorrow; as a result while Ga Bu may or may not have been tempered by the summoning, he displays none of the fanatical behavior of your typical tempered follower and instead remains in near-catatonic grief.[/hb]

One possible explanation to the Ga Bu thing... While Titan was clearly influenced by Ga Bu's emotional state, all the trappings for the Summoning had already been prepared by someone else, so it might not be unfair to say that it wasn't Ga Bu himself performing the summoning, even if he triggered it. Additionally, we were right there with Ga Bu: it was demonstrated in the summoning of Lakshmi at the summit that the Warrior of Light can directly shield people without the Echo from becoming Tempered (the whole intercept-the-temper-balls minigame). While we weren't explicitly shown doing so, perhaps we were able to prevent Ga Bu from becoming tempered.

The Ga Bu thing is something that bugged me for a while, and while I do find the reasoning to be a bit shaky, that's what I came up with to potentially explain it.

Another possibility is that Ga Bu WAS tempered - but he was so traumatized by the whole ordeal that he's not ready to start his new life of zealotry...

[Okamimaru]

Do primals know that the aether they need to exist is not unlimited? Can a primal exist on its own if it drains the world? Do they know they would eventually run out of energy and cease to exist or is there and amount of aether that can make their manifestation permanent... or do they just ignore the implications of their aether consumption because it doesn't mesh with their goals? With no aether and nobody left to feed them belief do they just cease to exist?

[Dualblade]

Do primals know that the aether they need to exist is not unlimited? Can a primal exist on its own if it drains the world? Do they know they would eventually run out of energy and cease to exist or is there and amount of aether that can make their manifestation permanent... or do they just ignore the implications of their aether consumption because it doesn't mesh with their goals? With no aether and nobody left to feed them belief do they just cease to exist?

Ramuh and Alexander certainly know, Ramuh was willing to let us kill him so long as we passed his test and Alexander engineered multiple stable time loops that ensured that he could never be easily summoned again. Other primals may or may not know but certain ones certainly wouldn't care. Ifrit and Garuda would for sure and Bismark we don't even know if that one is really all that intelligent.

EDIT INCOMING

Wait is this already li---oh right I always hit the like button for Anonymoose.

[Anonymoose]

Do primals know that the aether they need to exist is not unlimited?

Most do.

do they just ignore the implications of their aether consumption because it doesn't mesh with their goals?

They'll burn that bridge when they get to it.

Primals aren't truly gods, but by virtue of their summoners' intent believe that they are. When this is the case, they often believe that this entitles them and them alone to exist; they believe that no other god should be summoned and that it is sacrilege to give aether to another. Ifrit and Garuda both said so, Titan would have said something similar if 1.x had continued. Titan in fact knew that Eorzea would become a "continent of death" if too many gods were summoned.

Alexander is one of the most interesting, since it's status as a nigh-omniscient calculator overrode the biases of its summoners, causing it to objectively conclude that it should not exist and work to subvert itself by locking itself into a stable time loop.

That's part of the brilliance of the "Knowledge of the Paragons". The spell is calculatedly, deliberately flawed - nigh 100% guaranteed to cause damage to the planet and chaos to civilization eventually somehow by some means. To fully control a deiform and all the consequences of its existence is almost impossible. Plenty of people throughout history have seen this as a sign that they will be the one to utilize the Knowledge of the Paragons and get away with it. So far, they've all been wrong.

[Cilia]

Do primals know that the aether they need to exist is not unlimited? Can a primal exist on its own if it drains the world? Do they know they would eventually run out of energy and cease to exist or is there and amount of aether that can make their manifestation permanent... or do they just ignore the implications of their aether consumption because it doesn't mesh with their goals? With no aether and nobody left to feed them belief do they just cease to exist?

To an extent. It varies from primal to primal and probably depends on what their goals are. Ramuh, for instance, is as wise as the Sylphs imagined him to be - he is aware of the stress he puts on the environment, and as a consequence doesn't want to be summoned except in times of great danger and will allow himself to be banished back to the aetherial plane if his presence is unwarranted. (Like all primals he's still rather extreme in his mindset, but the point stands.) Bismarck, on the other hand, doesn't even appear to be sentient, so he's likely unconcerned with any of that. For your average primal (i.e. Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, etc.) they may be aware of the load they put on the environment, but consider fulfilling their summoned directive (for want of a better term) and tempering followers (as a means of self-preservation) more important.

A primal can't exist without consuming aether, so if one managed to drain the world dry... yeah, it would cease to exist. If all memory if it was scoured from the world, it would cease to exist as well; that's the point behind tempering. Even if you killed all of a given primal's tempered followers, that primal would still exist as long as someone remembered it and could, theoretically, be summoned by an untempered individual or group.

EDIT
Beat to the punch...

[ObsidianFire]

To further complicate matters... It's highly likely that a Primal should only be considered "normal" when they aren't summoned. Their default state of existence (where they aren't putting a strain on anything as far as we know) is as some kind of beings in the Aetherial Sea. Only unlike living things that die, go back to the Aetherial Sea as aether and then are reborn as something else, they never naturally leave it. I don't know if it's quite fair to say that primals can't exist without consuming aether as the bulk of their existence happens someplace that is nothing but aether. And the Ascians certainly don't want them staying there as that doesn't further their goals (as far as we know). I think it's more accurate that the primals can only survive in an aether-rich environment and the material realm simply has far, far, far less aether then they need.
As a result, they've got two options, go back to the Aetherial Sea or absorb what aether the material realm has. However, them going back to the Aetherial Sea doesn't help the Ascians (that we've seen). It probably isn't a coincidence that the first summonings we see are of gods that are always supposed to be around in myths. So "leaving" isn't something they are going to want to do. Others of them seem to have goals that they want to accomplish, but it would take too long for them to complete them (or their goals can't be realized for obvious reasons). And then there are some primals that actually do accomplish their goals/purposes. Alexander is supposed to find the best future, it just so happens to be one where he's not around. Susano wants to see which of you are the stronger, which happens. Rahmu needs you to kill him if he judges that you're worthy of the job. I'd be interested to see what would happen if a primal's goal was fulfilled that didn't automatically lead to them being forced out of the material realm and back to the Aetherial Sea.

Headcanon Part

Personally, the most fascinating part of this is how different the primals are in myths vs how they are now. Ifrit was someone who rewarded the strength of the Amaja'a's ancestors, not someone killed of their enemies for example. Titan fills O'Guarmo with ore so the Kobolds can defend themselves. Leviathan brought water to a desert area and died from it. Bismark creates the sky islands instead of destroying them (this difference is mentioned in-game). Given that it was apparently possible to summon primals before Silvertear Skies... there's no reason any of the primals we fight now weren't summoned before. I'm kinda wondering if the "original" Primals in the Aetherial Sea are more like the mythic versions of the primals and are getting more then a bit frustrated because of all the constant summonings. And getting really annoyed that their supposed followers aren't at least giving them the goals/desires they're supposed to have.

Ironically... most of the beasts in the Beast Tribes quests end up doing things that are a lot closer to what the mythic versions of the primals do...

[Cilia]

The important thing to remember there is that primals... aren't natural beings. They are the beliefs and wishes of mortals made physically manifest; they exist only due to mortal desire, so unless summoned in the first place they don't exist at all. This is what makes the only theoretical way to permanently kill a primal wiping out all traces of its memory - as long as someone remembers a primal (or myths surrounding it) it should still exist in the aetherial plane. Their entropic nature and immaterial existence is precisely what makes stopping the primal threat for good nigh-impossible.

It's lightly implied that primals are twisted into something advantageous to the Ascians' goals - at least when it comes to summons carried out using the Ascian-taught ritual, which most are. Primals summoned by Echo users who Incarnate Summon are naturally exempt from this, but so too is Louisoix, who became Phoenix due to the fervent prayers of Eorzeans and the massive amount of aether drawn for re-sealing Bahamut.

[LineageRazor]

One thing that I'm curious about, is whether Aether drained by Primals regenerates over time, or if it's gone forever. Aether seems to be tied to Hyaedalyn in an intimate way; she is weakened when Aether is abused, which is very likely why Ascians are so gung-ho on Primal summoning. Presuming that the summonings were to stop, though, would Hyaedalyn eventually recover, and return Aether to the world (including Aether-drained areas like the Burn), or is her current diminished state a permanent thing?

If Aether can be restored over time, perhaps the existence of a single Primal would not be that big a deal. That could be the rationale behind Ifrit's and Garuda's insistence on other summons being heretical - as long as they're the only one on the block, Hydaelyn can handle the strain, and they get to promote their agenda without worry of long-term harm coming to the planet via Aether drain.

The existence of the Burn might imply that lost Aether is a permanent change - but, on the other hand, the Burn was a pretty extreme case, and may simply take a long time to heal - time the Ascians are not allowing her, with their continued harassment.

[Eisenhower]

One thing that I'm curious about, is whether Aether drained by Primals regenerates over time, or if it's gone forever.

It could be that aether once committed to a primal becomes incompatible with Hydaelyn. In such a case, the aether could very well disperse and exist but still deny Hydaelyn power. If the Ascian-derived summoning methods were part next-level plotting, it may also be the case that such dispersed aether remains compatible with Zodiark, should it (he?) ever need the aether.