Lore Question in regards to the in-universe Dragoon Powers of our Warrior of Light.

[XmasForJuan]

I realize that I am pretty late to ask this question, but I have only recently picked up this game again together with my sister, which has been a great experience due to always having somebody to talk to whenever the story leaves us stunned and wide-eyed ^^
In one of our discussions we were talking about Estinien and how he has kept most of his abilities even after the destruction of both of Nidhogg's eyes and looking even more badass than ever judging by that Endwalker Cinematic Trailer, and I felt that could have been easily explained by him becoming a host for, and even briefly transforming into, Nidhogg himself, thus keeping lingering traces of draconic power that enables him to function as a Dragoon even without having to draw powers from the Eye.
The same could be said for most of the lesser Ishgardian Dragoons, seeing as they all contain heavily diluted remnants of Ratatoskr's lifeblood, hence why they're capable of the iconic gravity-defying feats that we know and love them for.

...but what about our Warrior of Light?
I have to admit that it has been a while since I played through the Dragoon Job Quest, but as far as I remember, we too communed with Nidhogg's Eye for a while, which is what enabled us, a non-Ishgardian, to perform the crazy leaps and jumps to begin with. Later on Hraesvelgr is kind enough to serve as our new source of power by lending us his Eye, but what happens after that?

• Do we remain bonded to Hraesvelgr even after we return his eye, just as Estinien was able to draw on Nidhogg's Eye's power even while it was kept in Ishgard and he was fighting Dragons outside its walls?

• Has Midgardsormr been our source of draconic powers all along?

• Is our Soul Crystal enough of a Power Source to replace the Eye and overcome the lack of draconic blood?

I am sorry if I am asking some very obvious questions, and I am sure that they are probably answered to some extent in the Eorzea Encyclopedias, but unfortunately I don't have the means to buy them right now, and cursory searches on Google only provided me with some vague answers to that question.
Not that it is particularly important of course, nor does it impact my enjoyment of the game, but I was simply wondering of there were any Loremasters out there that know the answer to my question, or whether or not this is actually common knowledge and I've just completely missed it while playing the game T.T

[Brightamethyst]

IIRC that wasn't the point of the eye. Jumps and such are aetherically enhanced in the same way all the other physicals skills are, using the "caster's" own aether. The eye makes the user stronger, which is why they get the fancy Azure Dragoon title, but it's not the main source of dragoon power. All DRGs can jump. The eye just let Estinien do it better that everyone else. A power he retains, having absorbed the remaining energy from the eyes at the end of 4.0. (The WoL replicates this simply by having an absurdly huge amount of aether compared to most people.)

Fun fact: The wings and fins on DRG gear are actually flight stabilizers for more powerful and accurate jumps.

[Tensaihime]

Fun fact: The wings and fins on DRG gear are actually flight stabilizers for more powerful and accurate jumps.

And all this time I just thought I looked cool!

[thegreatonemal]

1. I don't think we ever bonded with him he just gives us his eye to us real quick.
2. Probably, its implied through the lore books that before dragons and man were at war dragoons and dragons worked together dragons lending the humans power for things like blood of the dragon. So he's the one we made a pact with
3. Dragon blood has nothing to do with being a dragoon. Dragon blood only affects Ishgardians if they drink it.

[XmasForJuan]

That... actually makes a lot of sense. I don't know how I got under the impression that some aspect of the dragon was necessary for Dragoon abilities. Perhaps I just took the whole Ratatoskr eat-out a little bit to literally?
But seeing as we've seen other Jobs accomplish crazy physical feats with their Aether, it makes sense that Dragoons would be no exception.

Thank you for the quick replies! You've actually cleared up a huge misunderstanding I've had for a year now! ^o^

[ICountFrom0]

If you take notice the two times you have Estinian in your party (well, once under your control, once in your party) he's actually FAR more powerful a dragoon compared to the hero of light. While the Hero of light has more options, multiple classes, and Estinian has only the dragoon soul, it's as if he took everything we spread out and focused it into one singular task. I think we'd have trouble in a 1 on 1 fight, until things were desperate and we called in reinforcements or hydalin.

[HiraishinNoJutsu]

If you take notice the two times you have Estinian in your party (well, once under your control, once in your party) he's actually FAR more powerful a dragoon compared to the hero of light. While the Hero of light has more options, multiple classes, and Estinian has only the dragoon soul, it's as if he took everything we spread out and focused it into one singular task. I think we'd have trouble in a 1 on 1 fight, until things were desperate and we called in reinforcements or hydalin.

Pre-Nidhogg he loses pretty soundly and when he tries to accept the Eye's power Haldrath's Spirit stops the deal with the devil.

Estinien is no slouch combat wise but, you can scale him relative to someone the WoL beat soundly that being Zenos. Who he admitted he would struggle to beat. (Only experience he had against Zenos was when Elidibus was piloting not the man himself)

Aside from the Warrior of Light he's definitely the strongest Scion though. Thancred can't wield aether anymore, G'raha isn't bonded to the crystal towers near-limitless reserves, and I doubt any spell Y'shtola can cast has the sheer destructive potency of Estinien's dives.

[Vyrerus]

Pre-Nidhogg he loses pretty soundly and when he tries to accept the Eye's power Haldrath's Spirit stops the deal with the devil.

Estinien is no slouch combat wise but, you can scale him relative to someone the WoL beat soundly that being Zenos. Who he admitted he would struggle to beat. (Only experience he had against Zenos was when Elidibus was piloting not the man himself)

Aside from the Warrior of Light he's definitely the strongest Scion though. Thancred can't wield aether anymore, G'raha isn't bonded to the crystal towers near-limitless reserves, and I doubt any spell Y'shtola can cast has the sheer destructive potency of Estinien's dives.

Huh? Estinien and Gaius fought Zenos right after he'd reclaimed his body.

[HiraishinNoJutsu]

Huh? Estinien and Gaius fought Zenos right after he'd reclaimed his body.

That was my bad on phrasing "Only SOLO Experience he had fighting Zenos*"

That's lowkey why I hope we get a rematch between the two in Endwalker. Zenos clearly has more crazy ascian magicks up his sleeve and Estinien didn't use his Nidhogg trance which we know he had at the time cause he fights Arch-Ultima right after. Both parties were sandbagging pretty hard and a real fight between the two would round out how the Azure Dragoon and the Imperial Prince kept missing each other by the slightest of margins and a full on duel never took place.

[ICountFrom0]

Pre-Nidhogg he loses pretty soundly and when he tries to accept the Eye's power Haldrath's Spirit stops the deal with the devil.

Estinien is no slouch combat wise but, you can scale him relative to someone the WoL beat soundly that being Zenos. Who he admitted he would struggle to beat. (Only experience he had against Zenos was when Elidibus was piloting not the man himself)

Aside from the Warrior of Light he's definitely the strongest Scion though. Thancred can't wield aether anymore, G'raha isn't bonded to the crystal towers near-limitless reserves, and I doubt any spell Y'shtola can cast has the sheer destructive potency of Estinien's dives.

Remember at that time Zenos was able to stop you with a single slash. Down for the count. You got more powerful, and so did Estinian. He can solo a weapon, and does. We won't be able to do that until at least level 95.