
Originally Posted by
Anonymoose
Thancred + Magitek
Did Thancred just start this patch by mis-defining "magitek"? I thought magitek was pure technology driven by ceruleum combustion engines that mimicks, replaces, and triumphs over magicks in a way that doesn't truly, accurately replicate them like aetherochemistry would? Why did Thancred just equate "magitek" and "aetherial manipulation"?
Time to be cheeky, and also time to misunderstand Japanese!
I don't think so. I'd wondered why this stood out to you. Is it a definition leftover from 1.0?
Either way, let's look at Ceruleum and Aetherochemistry and the word Magitek. From what I understand, Ceruleum is basically liquid aether. I've read its description as being the "lifeblood" of the planet in the BLU questline, and I've also read elsewhere that it's the liquid essence of crystals. So it would seem, in the context of FFXIV, Magitek engines burn ceruleum to power themselves. Thus they burn a form of aether, and in so doing, may manipulate aether, generally towards destructive ends. Though obviously there's things like the Boilmaster that heats water for tea.
Aetherochemistry... I'm not sure on? I don't think there are many examples of it in the game, and certainly none that aren't Allagan. The Allagans had the ability to manipulate aether directly, unlike the Garleans, who must do everything with their machines. I'd reckon the difference between Magitek and Aetherochemistry is that you don't necessarily need a machine for the latter.
As for Magitek itself... I am unsure if they're using the same vocabulary that was in FFVI, but in FFVI the word for Magitek in JP is Madō, which as I understand it directly translates to something like, "Sorcery" or "Spellcraft." But if you break down the kanji it's, "Demon Guidance." It is the result of the Empire in that game researching Espers(Phantom Beasts), and then draining their powers. At first the Empire wanted to imbue humans with magical powers, so they performed on Kefka, and it broke his brain, so they moved on to giving it to machines instead. Once the process was perfected, they again performed the imbuements on humans, resulting in Celes. The connotation is always that Madō is unnatural or devilish. The localized name for the Magitek Research Facility's theme is, "Devil's Lab" and I didn't understand that for a long time.
You may want to look at the Japanese version of Thancred's dialogue to know for sure, but he's describing the structure adornments, and he's paraphrasing Urianger while he's at it. With the context of the original definition for Magitek, and the idea that it's a nightmarish structure, nothing about it seems out of place to me.