Where's the aether? (Spoilers)

[EusisLandale]

If you are talking power or strength or literal levels or why some random dude on the 1st can put up a reasonable fight against you, it’s because it’s a video game. (As unsatisfying as that is)

They did to an extent explain that in Endwalker. Being Aetherically thin grants better access to Dynamis, so despite being weaker in one regard the reflections are stronger in another and balancing out.

[Basteala]

They did to an extent explain that in Endwalker. Being Aetherically thin grants better access to Dynamis, so despite being weaker in one regard the reflections are stronger in another and balancing out.

To expand on this, some jobs care about aether more than others (and some, arguably, about dynamis more than others). For the sake of argument, a shard where people have lesser aether might have say....more potent dancers or dark knights (or their respective equivalents), but potent mages would be in very short supply.

Think about it. How many good mages were there on the First? Or on the Thirteenth for that matter? On the First, the only real cases we see from a caster standpoint that I recall were very specifically bred for generations to be the ultimate mage, and all that work seemingly paled compared to some of the greatest mages we've seen on the Source.