Major Spoilers for all Expansions - Some general things I didn't understand

[Eloah]

Remember, Azem's crystal is just being used as a medium for our Echo. Our unique Echo is the ability to summon/find allies in times of need. We did the searching unconciously before, but now we use the crystal as a medium to bring them to us. So the allies that we summon are basically anyone who is willing to help, regardless of their origin. Though, it's probably people we've met before.

[Cleretic]

Remember, Azem's crystal is just being used as a medium for our Echo. Our unique Echo is the ability to summon/find allies in times of need. We did the searching unconciously before, but now we use the crystal as a medium to bring them to us. So the allies that we summon are basically anyone who is willing to help, regardless of their origin. Though, it's probably people we've met before.

...can I get a citation for... any of that? At all? Because I've never heard any of that, and in fact it's refuted by what I thought were clearly stated facts about what our Echo is (which is... well, not that; we've never used it for that) and what the crystal is doing (it's got a spell within it that's doing the summoning thing).

[Cilia]

Um... good news? This one is actually a GATHERING tribe. Activities for miner, botanist, or fisher. No crafting required. Thats the lopporits.

I don't do gathering either. It's kind of a feedback loop with crafting.

...can I get a citation for... any of that? At all? Because I've never heard any of that, and in fact it's refuted by what I thought were clearly stated facts about what our Echo is (which is... well, not that; we've never used it for that) and what the crystal is doing (it's got a spell within it that's doing the summoning thing).

I don't recall it being an Echo ability, but to my memory it's what the Azem magick does. Azem's magick allows us to summon "allies" from across time and space, with "allies" not necessarily being limited to people we've already met. That's why it lets us summon random people instead of adventurer allies we've specifically already met - it can be directed to summon specific people (as in Ultima Thule) but will otherwise summon anyone willing and able to help us when invoked.

[Cleretic]

I don't recall it being an Echo ability, but to my memory it's what the Azem magick does. Azem's magick allows us to summon "allies" from across time and space, with "allies" not necessarily being limited to people we've already met. That's why it lets us summon random people instead of adventurer allies we've specifically already met - it can be directed to summon specific people (as in Ultima Thule) but will otherwise summon anyone willing and able to help us when invoked.

Yeah, according to everything I know the crystal absolutely just houses the ability to do that, and if you gave it to Y'shtola she'd be able to use it for the same thing*. The notion of it somehow tapping into our Echo for this is a new one on me.

*Y'shtola would not use it for the same thing, she'd summon seven people to get research done eight times as fast.

[Eloah]

Yeah, according to everything I know the crystal absolutely just houses the ability to do that, and if you gave it to Y'shtola she'd be able to use it for the same thing*. The notion of it somehow tapping into our Echo for this is a new one on me.

*Y'shtola would not use it for the same thing, she'd summon seven people to get research done eight times as fast.

It is stated when we are given the crystal that engraved on it is the signature spell of Azem. We learn that the Echo is just the remnants of the Ancients powers, and that any specialties the echo has, like Krile's aetherial tracking or Mikoto's ability to see into the future, are just specialties of their Ancient selves; like Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus's soul sight. The only reason the crystal works is because it is being used by us. Only a shard of Azem is able to activate the spell. This is shown as the reason why we were always able to find allies for our fights, it's what our Echo does, we were just finding them unconsciously before, now we are using the crystal as a medium instead.

It should be noted that this is a retroactive change to our echo, as I doubt the devs thought far ahead as to what our specific echo was capable of, if anything at all. They did say that the echo manifests differently in each person, so they probably had ideas, but when it came time to implement it, they just stuck with "the power of friendship".

[Alleluia]

If we're on the topic of things we still don't understand:

1. Are Darkness and Light elements, just as Lightning, Water etc. are? If so, what's an example of Astral Light and Umbral Darkness?

2. There are three types of aether in a person, it seems: corporeal, soul, and memory. Can you create more memory aether by making more memories, thus a longer life adds more to the lifestream than it took when it dies?

2a. Could this have been how the overall amount of aether was supposed to grow and increase in the original ancients' plan to "raise up life to harvest for Zodiark"? Cus the lifestream seems to be a closed system. Since the aether present on Etherys post-final days came from Zodiark in the first place (he'd restored life to the world), where else would you get the extra you'd need to sacrifice back to him to get something new? If you aren't adding new aether somehow, then you're just shuffling the same finite amount about, and if that's it then you'd have to give up part of the planet's ability to sustain life for that second sacrifice no matter what. Cus you are just sacrificing back part of the aether he gave you to fix it in the first place. If no new aether is found or created, equivalent exchange (and thermodynamics) isn't respected and that does my head in. lol

[Eloah]

1. Are Darkness and Light elements, just as Lightning, Water etc. are? If so, what's an example of Astral Light and Umbral Darkness?

Light and Darkness are both aspects and elements simultaneously. The way I like to describe them is by comparing them to adverbs. They are modifiers, but can act as what is being modified as well.

Also, it should be noted that Light is naturally Umbral aspected, and Darkness naturally Astral aspected. A good example of the reverse, Astral Light and Umbral Darkness can be found on the First and the Thirteenth, as it was those aspects that caused their respective floods.

[Alleluia]

Light and Darkness are both aspects and elements simultaneously. The way I like to describe them is by comparing them to adverbs. They are modifiers, but can act as what is being modified as well.

Also, it should be noted that Light is naturally Umbral aspected, and Darkness naturally Astral aspected. A good example of the reverse, Astral Light and Umbral Darkness can be found on the First and the Thirteenth, as it was those aspects that caused their respective floods.

The first part, I can get behind. The second, I don't understand. The flood of light was astral and yet it left everything it touched in stasis, which we're told is the umbral quality. So... it was an astral flood of umbral light??? Same for the flood of darkness. It left everything it touched in a state of overactivity that ate away all free aether (and apparently merged the lifestream with the physical world leading to undeath). Heightened activity is astral.

Maybe there just isn't really an astral or umbral aspect of light and dark, respectively.

[Eloah]

The first part, I can get behind. The second, I don't understand. The flood of light was astral and yet it left everything it touched in stasis, which we're told is the umbral quality. So... it was an astral flood of umbral light??? Same for the flood of darkness. It left everything it touched in a state of overactivity that ate away all free aether (and apparently merged the lifestream with the physical world leading to undeath). Heightened activity is astral.

Maybe there just isn't really an astral or umbral aspect of light and dark, respectively.

I'll try to explain this as best as I can, because, while it makes sense in my head, the words always feel odd while trying to explain.

Okay, to start, most people are aware that Light and Umbral represent passivity, while Darkness and Astral represent activity. And as elements Light represents the concept of stasis while Darkness embodies change. Those concepts when polarized into either Astral or Umbral then become stability or stagnation or chaos or advancement.

But, since each element naturally aligns to one of the aspects, that means that the opposite aspect is the "bad" one. So Astral Light is stagnation and Umbral Darkness is chaos. It semi makes sense. With stagnation, you are "actively" keeping things at a standstill, preventing anything from occurring at all. With chaos it's the opposite, you are passively letting things happen without a guiding hand, which can lead to natural disasters.

Hopefully, that helps explain things a bit. Like I said, it makes sense in my head, but I'm never sure if I'm explaining it right.

[JepMZ]

The first part, I can get behind. The second, I don't understand. The flood of light was astral and yet it left everything it touched in stasis, which we're told is the umbral quality. So... it was an astral flood of umbral light??? Same for the flood of darkness. It left everything it touched in a state of overactivity that ate away all free aether (and apparently merged the lifestream with the physical world leading to undeath). Heightened activity is astral.

Maybe there just isn't really an astral or umbral aspect of light and dark, respectively.

There's some confusion here. Light is always astral. And darkness is always umbral. It's never the opposite. The devs originally stated astral is activity and darkness is passiveness, but this concept has never been brought up or mentioned in game ever before ShB. It did have me theorize the 7th umbral is light aspected. ShB gave a "plot twist", that Eorzean got the properties of light and darkness wrong all along. But it literally changes nothing of any mentions of darkness and light in the entirety of the game because they never before used polarity concept for anything. It literally doesn't matter if light is active energy or static energy before. Now we have an in-game mention for the first time that Light is passive and Darkness is activity. The "plot twist" isn't gonna be a real plot twist for most people because they wouldn't heard the devs' old explanations in the first place. It's only in ShB and forward they use polarity for in-game phenomenon.