Quote Originally Posted by Skies View Post
ALSO the usage of Egi... According to Fantasia it means 'To do, drive, lead', or to 'pass or spend time' in Latin... You know, saying "Ifrit Egi" would pretty much be the same as saying "Ifrit Driven" or "Ifrit Led", which is exactly where I think they went the "Powered by" sense of 'driven by'.

Of course i'm not sure if latin works that way but, it makes sense
That makes the most sense out of any explanation of the word's usage I've come across; the pet being "driven by" the power of the relative Primal, tapping into its power, and not actually channelling from the Primal directly.

In a way I can kind of imagine the SMN pets being a kind of empty vessel, and that vessel only takes form once you've called upon the power of the Primal to 'complete' it. In a sense the pet could potentially be the same creature in every Egi state, but it's just being imbued with the essence of a different Primal whenever its summoned.