How common and fast is aetheryte teleporting?

[Wyssahtyn]

There was a comment when you met up with the Doman Resistance that they smashed the aetheryte at their base I can't remember the name of that, when the Garleans were trying to stamp out the last traces of the rebellion, they were trying to force unattuned conscripts through. I forget if it was mentioned what happened to them.

They didn't say that they were doing it, they said that there was a fear that they would.

[Yuyuka3]

Iirc, everyone who can manipulate aether to an extent can travel via aetheryte, which means practically everyone except for Garleans. But as said before, you need a certain anima level to do so consecutively, and probably also over longer distances, so it\'s not that easy for people not named the Warrior of Light with a neigh-invinite anima supply to travel wherever they want. And yes, if you look closely, there are always guards at any aetheryte plaza, especially in the city states. Plus, as stated before, the tax. Also, there is one thing everyone seems to forget...
At one point during 3.X I think it was, Tataru mentions that even using the small city aetherytes makes her feel sick; not sure if she said why, but my guess would be exertion. So a kind of travel sickness I guess. Maybe even connected to low anima levels or something? So, I would think that many people are just unwilling to go through that if they have a choice, and prefer slower means of travel.

PS: Forgot to mention something important yesterday. As dangerous as the Eorzean wildlife is for the average person, not many regular people are likely to even have been past the next village over, let alone a big city. So even if they technically could, they are unable to be attuned to all that many aetherytes in the first place, unlike us adventurers who travel all around the world all the time.

[LineageRazor]

While a lot of things are sped up and shrunk down for the sake of making the game enjoyable, I think the general assumption that we're supposed to make is that Hydaelyn is the same size as the planet earth. The maps we have of Eorzea don't give a great idea of where the planetary poles are, so it's difficult to tell just how big the continents we see are - but most probably, it's the intention that the distance between the East and West edges is roughly the same as the distance between Japan and Great Britain. I think we can assume days or weeks of travel by cart or Chocobo between most places in Eorzea, and the boat ride to Kugane likely took months. Even faster vehicles like Airships don't look like they travel nearly as fast as airplanes do.

While not precisely in-game, Alisae's side-story on the Lodestone a while back mentioned that she spent a considerable amount of time traveling with a caravan, and it was clearly implied that this caravan was on the road for days or weeks at a time.

Honestly, it's probably best not to think too hard about it. If pressed, there's likely a LOT of holes you can punch into the story - for example, Hien's nick-of-time arrival to support the siege against Ala Mhigo castle; it's likely that he and his followers were NOT attuned to any Eorzean Aetherite (possible, I suppose, but unlikely), yet they somehow timed their weeks- or months-long journey to arrive just as the Garleans started to mobilize their air force.

[Brightamethyst]

If pressed, there's likely a LOT of holes you can punch into the story - for example, Hien's nick-of-time arrival to support the siege against Ala Mhigo castle; it's likely that he and his followers were NOT attuned to any Eorzean Aetherite (possible, I suppose, but unlikely), yet they somehow timed their weeks- or months-long journey to arrive just as the Garleans started to mobilize their air force.

Yeah. I remember questioning that at the time too. The game is usually very bad about showing the passage of time (blah, blah, time bubble, etc.) As players we see time passing in an instant even though on an intellectual level we know that it must be days or weeks or months between story events.

[Rongway]

While a lot of things are sped up and shrunk down for the sake of making the game enjoyable, I think the general assumption that we're supposed to make is that Hydaelyn is the same size as the planet earth.

I can't link to it because of reasons (other people who have read it will understand why), but a few years ago (during 2.x I think, when we only had access to Eorzea) I read a decently reasoned explanation that used the distance a character could walk in a certain span of Eorzea time, cross referenced with the map of Eorzea, to determine that Aldenard is roughly the size of Wales and Vyllbrand is larger than the Isle of Man. But of course, even if it turned out to be accurate, this would say nothing of the size of Hydaelyn all told.