So aether, how does it work exactly?

[GenericMagus]

A question I'm putting it up here. We know aether is essentially the building block of the world, but it appears to be finite, non-renewable in danger of running out.

Thinking of aether like matter is making my head hurt, because it defies so many things like conservation of matter and matter cannot simply disappear.

How does it work?

[DrWho2010]

hey don't you try and bring real world physics into a FANTASY game! Aether just...... is.

[ObsidianFire]

I wouldn't even say aether is finite or non-renewable or in danger of "running out". That's what the entire cycle of aether leaving the Lifestream to be born and then going back to the Lifestream when something dies is all about. I would say that the percentage of where it is and who has it needs to be kept within certain perimeters for the world(s) to function correctly. And the Ascians have been playing around with that for a long, long time.

[Anonymoose]

"Aether Loss" is something that makes my head hurt every time people talk about it.

Personally, I see the depletion of aether from over-wielding magicks and summoning primals the way I see the depletion of the water table in areas sustaining a larger-than-advised population. It's possible to draw water from the land, making it harsh and taking away its ability to sustain life, without breaking the rules of a closed system or annihilating water forever.

So far, the only thing that's been hardline defined as causing true aether loss is a Flood of Darkness/Light.

[KageTokage]

I'm really curious about what exactly happened in the Burn that led to it becoming an aether-starved wasteland, because we've never seen aether-related damage on such a scale anywhere else before.

If it was a convention of primals like the Garleans seem to believe, that still begs the question of what could've pushed the parties involved to partake in such a mass summoning.

[Cilia]

Well, far as I can figure... aether is like a combination of matter and energy. Therefore it behaves like both and neither.

Remember, energy cannot be destroyed - it simply changes form from usable to unusable. Sunlight helps grow trees, which can be burned for energy, leaving only unusable ashes. In the world of XIV, this is simply not true - aether changes from one element to the next, spinning on the elemental wheel observed as a part of the UI in Eureka.

That's not to say aether can't become unusable - corrupted aether and crystals are highly volatile and can't be used for anything but disrupting other "normal" types of aether, such as when it was used to help breach Garuda's barrier and endure Leviathan's Tidal Wave on the high seas. If corrupted aether then transitions into a usable state... well, that I'm not sure of.

Either way, one of the major reasons primals are so dangerous is that they introduce true entropy to Hydaelyn - the aether that makes up their physical form returns to the land when felled, but any other aether a primal consumes while on the material plane is simply gone or otherwise converted at a very poor rate into loose aether upon their defeat. (Case and point: Bismarck, known to eat islands in the Sea of Clouds, leaves nothing behind upon death but the key to Azys Lla. Why wasn't that destroyed? Plot, I'd wager.)

It's also scientifically provable that aether levels across Hydaelyn have dropped through the ages, evidenced by Matoya's Crystal Eye (an ancient Crystal of Light) and the Crystals carried by the contemporary Warrior(s) of Light. This is implied to be due to Calamities and primals; where the aether is going isn't explained, but can be presumed to be going toward awakening Zodiark.

As Moose-senpai said, a Flood of Light or Darkness can also destroy aether - Dark compresses it into a singularity, while Light bleeds it away into nothingness.

That's all the information I have on aether, with a little bit of extrapolation by YT thrown in.

[Anonymoose]

Well, far as I can figure... aether is like a combination of matter and energy.

Æ=MC²

Problem solved!

[Timmyz]

Just think of it as 'the force' from star wars. basically the same concept. flows through all living things, those strong in it get magic like powers, there's glow-y swords, people flying around.......

[Miyha]

I always figured the only way aether can truly be destroyed is through a primal consuming it and in the event of a Flood of Light/Darkness. I've always thought of primals as a sort of "black hole"; as was mentioned before, when they die, the aether that makes up their form is returned to the land, but the aether that they've eaten for fuel is just kind of... gone, as Cilia stated.

[ObsidianFire]

It's a lot more complicated then that. On the one hand, Aether is almost more similar to atoms and the Fundamental Forces (weak force, strong force, gravity, electromagnetism) then anything else. You've got the building blocks of everything in the elemental aether (lightning, fire, earth, ice, water, wind) and the "rules" for how it behaves depending on weather it's Astral or Umbral aspected. And that's just the material side of things.

In the quests leading up to the Ridorana Lighthouse, it's revealed that even immaterial "things" such as memories, thoughts, feeling, will, etc. are made out of aether. That's probably why it's possible to do things like teleportation. You're sending all the aether that makes you you though the sea of aether that is the Lifestream and it all comes out the other end. All you need is a beacon (aethyrite) to send it to.

The Ridorana Lighthouse also has a lot of technobable concerning aether and a lot of it seems based off the natural phenomena of waveforms (think light or sound). Funnily enough, Quantum Mechanics (the set of physics that has to do with describing how atoms function) has a lot to do with waveforms... but whether that was on purpose or just a happy coincidence I don't know. It is true that in-universe, Aether studies are treated more like a kind of Physics then a kind of Magic. The line between the two is Eorzea is so blurry as to be non-existent.

Aether Technobable (and normal translations) from Ridorana Lighthouse

My apologies. The Otius is no ordinary crystal, even discounting its obvious historical importance. The specimen is more than a simple manifestation of elementally aspected energies─it is, rather, an aetherial lodestone whose facilitation of both the absorption and transmission of distinct-frequency NRR–type harmonic vibrations has been observed to promote aetherial amplification.

The resultant neuro-harmonic disturbance allows for a highly unique emittance of CPRS waves that, instead of radiating outward with a determinate factor of dispersal, instead resonate inward at a frequency so labored, my estimates place the rate of VRT decay at upwards of several centuries...though I must admit I lack sufficient variates to complete a truly comprehensive graphical assessment.

Simpler... Right... Um... Aether is not only the building block of all things material, but those immaterial as well. Thoughts, memories, feelings, one's very will are all understood to be aetherial phenomena, and can be measured as such. Unlike most crystals, which only can emit elemental energies, auracite is tuned not only to absorb aether, but aether specific to the immaterial. That aether is then stored and multiplied within its crystalline confines until external stimuli precipitate release.

Uh... Ahem. Under appropriate conditions, a strong will or desire can become imprinted upon the auracite and stored until fomentation, at which time the desire becomes manifest─