Kind of. What you're wanting is Ceruleum, which is refined Aether crystals.
In its crystalline state, Aether is not combustible/dangerous, as the actual "energy" is trapped within the crystal. The Ceruleum refinement process drains a crystal of its Aether into a crude, highly volatile, liquid state. The process off-gasses a blue waste product that would likely cause aether sickness if not used to, and it also leaves behind a "deaspected crystal" which is a dead husk of crystalline aether.
Ceruleum can also actually be found naturally in Eorzea deep below the surface in the areas around Northern Thanalan and Mor Dhona. There are Ceruleum deposits in other places of the world, but apparently they are quite rare and there is no other known deposit as large as the one in Northern Thanalan. Natural Ceruleum, like real world Crude Oil, occurs when aether escapes the Lifestream and crystallizes underground. Over the centuries, pressure builds up and reduces the crystalline aether to a liquid, which then can be mined.
As for a few other of your points:
1. Mor Dhona has actually had all of those Crystalline deposits since the crash of the Agrius 15 years ago into Silvertear Lake. Silvertear Lake is actually the fount of all aether in the planet. It is the Garden of Eden essentially. However, with the death of Midgardsormr and the explosion of the Ceruleum fuel tanks of the Agrius mixing with the Lake, a massive aether death crystallized the surrounding landscape.
When talking about the Aether crystals left behind by the Calamity, you have to be very careful to note the color of the crystal, as the Calamity (because of Bahamut) actually drained a lot of the planet's aether before the massive Eorzea-wide aether death event. So if you see an orange crystal formation, that is actually dead aether. Completely useless. If you see blue formations, like the ones in Mor Dhona, those will be useful.
2. While the shards can be easily mined or gathered, the Crystal Market is actually heavily policed and trade of shards, crystals, and clusters is closely monitored by an organization called the Ashcrown Consortium. So while obtaining said crystals may be feasibly easy, distributing them or collecting a massive quantity will be more difficult legally.
It depends on the amount and purity of the crystal. But in 1.0, Cid mentions that a small amount of Ceruleum can level a mountain. So let's assume that it's quite a bit of energy. However, you'd need an absolute mass of crystals to create a small amount of Ceruleum, and even more needed to summon a Primal/Twelve, etc.
There's also something called an Overaspected Crystal, in which a cluster has taken on a massive surge of aether from multiple sources/elements. This Overaspected crystal is extremely powerful. (In 1.0 it increased like all attributes by 25% or something rediculous?) That's like Echo power...
Anyways, hope this helps! ^^ And lemme know if you have more questions!
EDIT: Cuz I'm slow typer.
Corrupted Aether seems like a viable idea. Basically, with Corrupted Aether Shards, the aether is still in the process of dying and is slowly leaking from the crystal, reacting dangerously with the area around it. (ie. Pharos and Dzemael) This aether, for one reason or the other, cannot return to the Lifestream and has become stagnant. Hence the corrupted aspect. It's within the realm of possibility to harvest this leaking corrupted aether, but I imagine it'd be an extremely dangerous task. Go for it! =D
In its crystalline state, Aether is not combustible/dangerous, as the actual "energy" is trapped within the crystal. The Ceruleum refinement process drains a crystal of its Aether into a crude, highly volatile, liquid state. The process off-gasses a blue waste product that would likely cause aether sickness if not used to, and it also leaves behind a "deaspected crystal" which is a dead husk of crystalline aether.
Ceruleum can also actually be found naturally in Eorzea deep below the surface in the areas around Northern Thanalan and Mor Dhona. There are Ceruleum deposits in other places of the world, but apparently they are quite rare and there is no other known deposit as large as the one in Northern Thanalan. Natural Ceruleum, like real world Crude Oil, occurs when aether escapes the Lifestream and crystallizes underground. Over the centuries, pressure builds up and reduces the crystalline aether to a liquid, which then can be mined.
As for a few other of your points:
1. Mor Dhona has actually had all of those Crystalline deposits since the crash of the Agrius 15 years ago into Silvertear Lake. Silvertear Lake is actually the fount of all aether in the planet. It is the Garden of Eden essentially. However, with the death of Midgardsormr and the explosion of the Ceruleum fuel tanks of the Agrius mixing with the Lake, a massive aether death crystallized the surrounding landscape.
When talking about the Aether crystals left behind by the Calamity, you have to be very careful to note the color of the crystal, as the Calamity (because of Bahamut) actually drained a lot of the planet's aether before the massive Eorzea-wide aether death event. So if you see an orange crystal formation, that is actually dead aether. Completely useless. If you see blue formations, like the ones in Mor Dhona, those will be useful.
2. While the shards can be easily mined or gathered, the Crystal Market is actually heavily policed and trade of shards, crystals, and clusters is closely monitored by an organization called the Ashcrown Consortium. So while obtaining said crystals may be feasibly easy, distributing them or collecting a massive quantity will be more difficult legally.
(01-16-2015, 02:26 PM)Telluride Wrote: How much energy IS locked into a crystal (allowing for variations of purity, corruption elemental attunement, etc), and would it be enough to develop a way to use them as bombs or ammunition in the same way as TNT, Firesand, Goblin Grenades, nukes, etc.?
It depends on the amount and purity of the crystal. But in 1.0, Cid mentions that a small amount of Ceruleum can level a mountain. So let's assume that it's quite a bit of energy. However, you'd need an absolute mass of crystals to create a small amount of Ceruleum, and even more needed to summon a Primal/Twelve, etc.
There's also something called an Overaspected Crystal, in which a cluster has taken on a massive surge of aether from multiple sources/elements. This Overaspected crystal is extremely powerful. (In 1.0 it increased like all attributes by 25% or something rediculous?) That's like Echo power...
Anyways, hope this helps! ^^ And lemme know if you have more questions!
EDIT: Cuz I'm slow typer.
Corrupted Aether seems like a viable idea. Basically, with Corrupted Aether Shards, the aether is still in the process of dying and is slowly leaking from the crystal, reacting dangerously with the area around it. (ie. Pharos and Dzemael) This aether, for one reason or the other, cannot return to the Lifestream and has become stagnant. Hence the corrupted aspect. It's within the realm of possibility to harvest this leaking corrupted aether, but I imagine it'd be an extremely dangerous task. Go for it! =D
