Garlean Soul Crystals?

[Reaper]

From what I've gathered of Soul Crystals from the WHM quest line, it appears that people can intentionally create them and impart their experiences into them, and from the MCH lore it indicates soul crystals are craftable as blank states.

 

If I'm understanding it correctly then, it implies (without stating) that soul crystals are crafted and carried by a 1st party (party A) and then after they become deceased party B can pick it up and learn from it (given they show enough aptitude and skill on their own to receive the gift of knowledge from the soul crystal).

 

Is there any lore indicating whether or not Garleans leave/employ soul crystals? More specifically, I'm imagining a Garlean gunblade wielder (Centurion rank+), or some other engineer / magitek weapon wielder. I have a character who would benefit from such a soul crystal, but I am uncertain if there's enough lore to reasonably assume I could hunt Garleans down until I found one.

[Valence]

There is no lore indication of such a thing, however soul crystals are an allagan creation so I would find it unlikely that garleans don't know about them. The only logical conclusion would be for them to either use them for some things, or just decided not to use them, although I find it unlikely considering that everything allagan, they unearth and desperately try to make work.

 

However it's also possible that their lack of affinity to aetherial feats just bars them from using such crystals to begin with, which is a very high probability in my opinion. 

 

In any case you don't necessarily need a soul crystal for a lot of jobs, even if some definitely require those (WhM, BLM, SCH, MCH).

[Unnamed Mercenary]

In the case of MCH though, aren't you the player making the soul crystal?

 

For many of the jobs though, they are more indeed like getting shortcuts, tips, and tricks to said job as opposed to "this is vital." Most of the physical jobs fall into this category. You unlock a chakra before becoming a monk. Paladin is extra arts and teachings that they could just teach you if given the time. Non-official-titled dragoons really meant "has killed a dragon." And so on.

 

And even then, the job had to have existed before someone could make a soul crystal for it. *cough* BLM *cough* ...but the difficulty of "just figuring it out" especially when most people are playing average intelligence teen-20-something year olds is a bit of a statistic impossibility when it comes to an entire school of magic.

[Reaper]

In the case of the MCH, Stephvanien (sp) makes it to mimic the "traditional" soul crystals.

I was unaware they were Allagan tech. That makes a lot of sense.

Alas, even the "ancient" ones such as SCHs and BLMs must have had original ones. The SCHs need them to summon faeries, and the BLMs need them to avoid deep frying their soul, ergo even the first ones to use them would require it, ergo there was a "first" soul crystal crafted for their use that contained no knowledge. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, there is no lore for these "first" soul crystals that must have existed logically.

Also, Valence, I think it makes sense the Garleans would likely employ soul crystals then, as they're Allagan tech - though likely only incredibly rarely as most Garlean soldiers are slave-soldiers who aren't given the best tools for the job most likely, and as soul crystals are fairly rare I doubt they'd go wasting them on soldiers they feel are disposable.

[Gerel Kha]

I'd say the reason to question whether or not Garleans employ soul crystals is due to the reason they're used in the first place: to bypass the learning process inherent to aetheric techniques or mitigate the damage associated with them. Both of which aren't exactly a thing for true-blooded Garleans to worry about, considering. While Garlemald owes much of its success and progress to reverse engineering pre-existing Allagan technology, Allag was still incredibly dedicated to aetheric arts and practices for much of its history--a component that is lacking in the Empire of today. 

 

Could they use soul crystals with their more loyal conscripts? Maybe. But I doubt it'd be all that common to begin with.

[Reaper]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think the physical classes (while they do use aether) don't necessarily gain magical strength, aetheric techniques, or damage mitigation by holding them?
I've only done the Dragoon one and the Paladin. Dragoon sounds like it gives instincts to the wielder (and in doing so enables more rapid dodging and more expert spearwork, but not through magical manipulation, just through the learned muscle memory). The Paladin one I don't recall all that well at the moment.

If it's purely for an aetherical boost, you're 100% right, the Garleans have no need for them. But if the muscle memory / skills of someone are transferred, that in and of itself is quite useful for both men of learning & soldiers both. I concur they're far, far too rare to just waste on conscripts - they'd be better served selling them off to some private party or noble who had an academic interest and using the funds for more magitek weapons.

[Skae]

I do not remember seeing anything implying that soul crystals are an Allagan creation, although I suppose it is possible they invented the first ones.

Be that as it may, people in the current day certainly know how to create new soul crystals (as evidenced by the MCH questline.)

 

In most cases soul crystals are simply a tool to accelerate the learning process, and not only for aetheric stuff.

 

There are one or two jobs were it is implied you actually need the soul crystal for one reason or another, but for the vast majority of jobs a soul crystal is not really necessary, it "merely" lets you master the job in a matter of months or years rather than the decades it would take without one - this by letting the wielder draw upon the memory impressions recorded on the soul crystal by previous users.

.

[Valence]

If you want more info on soul crystals

[Gerel Kha]

8 hours ago, Reaper said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think the physical classes (while they do use aether) don't necessarily gain magical strength, aetheric techniques, or damage mitigation by holding them?
I've only done the Dragoon one and the Paladin. Dragoon sounds like it gives instincts to the wielder (and in doing so enables more rapid dodging and more expert spearwork, but not through magical manipulation, just through the learned muscle memory). The Paladin one I don't recall all that well at the moment.

If it's purely for an aetherical boost, you're 100% right, the Garleans have no need for them. But if the muscle memory / skills of someone are transferred, that in and of itself is quite useful for both men of learning & soldiers both. I concur they're far, far too rare to just waste on conscripts - they'd be better served selling them off to some private party or noble who had an academic interest and using the funds for more magitek weapons.

 

Yes and no. Do they grant enhanced strength? In some instances, yes, they do empower artifacts or relics associated with the crystal in question. Do they impart techniques that're likely to use aether? Very much so. Effectively all jobs, including melee, utilize aether to push themselves past normal limitation. It's why magitek became such a threat: it allowed them to match the devastating capabilities of rival nations in a fraction of the time without the need for years and years of training. 

 

There's also the stipulation that you have to "match" the nature of the memories within a Soul Crystal, else they generally just act as a pretty stone. And that does mean matching the basic "start point" of many of the former bearers--hence the often-needed aetheric requirement. That's why I question somewhat the ability of a Garlean to even tap into the crystal's knowledge to begin with. Though you may be right on the idea of some more eccentric researchers finding and using them for experimentation. 

 

And since memories, themselves, are apparently aetherical to a degree? That clouds things even further on whether or not they could adequately create and use them from the get-go due to the Garleans' inability for magick--something to do with the "weakness" of their aetherical flow. But I'd say it's feasible. 

Edited September 14, 2019 by Gerel Kha