Why are there pixies, etc. on the First but not the Source?

[ICountFrom0]

Given that the Fae of the first can go between worlds trivially, they could pick to be anywhere, but choose the first. Maybe they actually thrive on the high light aether concentration?

[Lusavari]

Given that the Fae of the first can go between worlds trivially, they could pick to be anywhere, but choose the first. Maybe they actually thrive on the high light aether concentration?

They don't physically manifest anywhere other than the First. Feo Ul does what she does through Dreams. Your pact allows her and her alone to bridge the gap and experience the Source through the Dreams of people close to you.

[Veloran]

Attendant to their lore as manifesting from the souls of dead children (Along with the Fuarth being souls of the drowned), it could be the pull of the Lifestream on the First is significantly less strong than on the Source.

They don't physically manifest anywhere other than the First. Feo Ul does what she does through Dreams. Your pact allows her and her alone to bridge the gap and experience the Source through the Dreams of people close to you.

Tataru says that Feo Ul appeared to tell her about you while she was in the middle of working.

[DPZ2]

Hmmmm. We didn't know about the Ananta, nor the Namazu, until Stormblood.

It's almost like there were undiscovered beast tribes that we suddenly found out about. I wonder if that might mean we don't have any idea what the rest of the world holds for us.

We know that there is at least one entire continent on the Source that hasn't been referenced by anything other than what our Blue Mage trainer has told us. Perhaps the pixies are from there. They certainly weren't in Voeburt until after the Flood.

Again, an event that occurred 10,000 years in the past, creating disparate non-synchronous realms, does not mean there absolutely has to be one-to-one correspondences.

[DPZ2]

As an aside, the level 55 gatherer quest for Fishing has this line:

Reyna: <sigh> Looks like Stenny's away with the faeries again ... [Sten appears to be standing while sleeping]

Who says that just because we haven't seen them, they don't exist?

[LineageRazor]

It's been my theory that the severe tilt toward Umbral/Light on the First had some connection to why Fae appear (not just Pixies, but Fuath, as well). Any kind of magical technobabble could be employed to serve as a link; perhaps the tendency of light-rich aether to "still" causes freed souls to sometimes crystalize into a living form, like ice around a dust particle making snow. (This theory also supports the similarities between ice aether and Umbrally-charged aether noted when they were talking about restoring the ice element to the Empty during the Eden raids.)

I also like the theory mentioned earlier in this thread that the extra density all aether on the Source has (due to many Rejoinings) makes it unlikely or impossible for a soul to reform as a Pixie, instead forming things like Ghosts (I don't think we've seen any Ghost mobs on the First, interestingly).

Those are the main notable differences between the Source and the First, structurally, so I think they're reasonable theories!

[Myvar]

I also like the theory mentioned earlier in this thread that the extra density all aether on the Source has (due to many Rejoinings) makes it unlikely or impossible for a soul to reform as a Pixie, instead forming things like Ghosts (I don't think we've seen any Ghost mobs on the First, interestingly).

I believe there is a quest in Kholusia that

has you defeat the ghost of a mother and her unborn child.

[Jonnycbad]

Also remember 12,000 years ago the Flood of Darkness tipped the balance of the remaining shards out of balance, and the first was tipped closest to light from the onset several millenia even before the flood. The elemental polarity being naturally shifted more towards light might have been an environmental factor that led to Pixies coming into existence.

It's also possible that Pixies did exist on the Source, but maybe were entirely wiped out in any of the 7 calamities that hit the world, whereas the First never had a calamity besides the Flood of Light.

[Iscah]

Also remember 12,000 years ago the Flood of Darkness tipped the balance of the remaining shards out of balance, and the first was tipped closest to light from the onset several millenia even before the flood.

12,000 years ago was the Sundering, by the Source's reckoning. The Thirteenth was flooded sometime after that, but time doesn't flow evenly across the shards so we can't be certain of that timeframe anywhere else - unless of course the various fluctuations of time roughly even out over millennia, which they well might.

In any case, several thousand years is plenty of time for tribes and races to spread differently on different shards with different histories.

[CeruleanArc]

It's also possible that Pixies did exist on the Source, but maybe were entirely wiped out in any of the 7 calamities that hit the world, whereas the First never had a calamity besides the Flood of Light.

This is my view. Especially considering that Bismarck, the fae, existed on both the First and the Source, although he appears to have died long ago on the Source.