Quote Originally Posted by Teakwood View Post
There sure are a lot of huge spires of crystal - frozen aether, effectively, in game lore, if I'm not mistaken - including some -truly- impressive specimens to the north of Thanalan as you get closer to Carteneau...

Amusingly, the OP's theory was my theory for the -longest- time when we first found out they were going to be scrapping everything and doing over and letting us change our characters. Given what we know now, it's definitely not the path they're taking, but it was at least something that strongly occurred to me too
The large pieces we see such as "Dalamud's Talon" near Castrum Meridianum are chunks of Dalamud and over-aspected aether crystal.