Summoners, Garleans and the Void lore tidbits

[Jove]

So this thread is to highlight some interesting pieces of lore I've come across and to possibly dispel some common misconceptions I've seen in game and on forums.

 

I'll try and keep this as spoiler free as possible with ARR, though I do deal with the story of 1.0. So without further delay, I present to ye wall of texts (in bullet points!).

 

Summoners (the job)

• Primal Slayers?
  Not exactly. Summoners need only to perform a ritual to summon a Primals' egi, and then defeat that egi to bind it to them (yep, all they have to defeat is that mini Ifrit, Garuda or Titan you see floating behind them). It's made very clear that in the lore, the actual Primals themselves are not summoned and do not need to be defeated to obtain their egi.
  
• Origins
  Summoners as we know them today actually practice arcane arts developed by Allagan mages. The term "egi" is an Allagan word meaning "pure" or the "essence of", so for example "Ifrit-egi" literally translates as "the essence of Ifrit". Allagan summoners basically found a way to siphon the essence of Primals and manifest this essence as an egi, which is bound to do their bidding.
  

 

Garlean Empire

• Eikon
  A derogatory word for Primals used by the Garleans but also said by some Eorzeans. To call a Primal an Eikon is essentially to call them a false god, which the beast tribes really hate to hear.
  
• Brainwashing
  It's revealed throughout the 1.0 story that it was actually Nael van Darnus who introduced conscription of Ala Mhigo citizens to bolster his VIIth legion. You have to remember that Ala Mhigo was conquered 15 years prior to the events of 1.0 (20 years now) and that many of its young adults had grew up under Garlean control and propaganda from a very young age.
  Naturally, most Garlemald citizens are in full support of the Empire's actions because of the extreme shift in power and prosperity the Emperor has seized for them, and there's no doubt the Empire employs heavy propaganda, especially in conquered realms, however I don't see any evidence for actual "make you a zombie to the system" type brainwashing e.g tempering. After all, Cid is a defector and the Empire is unable to keep spies out of it's ranks which infers that even Garlean soldiers retain the ability to freely think. Just like the soldiers of the three Grand Companies, the soldiers of the Garlean Empire seem to carry out their duties out of patriotism, loyalty and pride for the Empire, because they believe their cause is just, that they're saving Hydaelyn (and they probably know that failing to perform their duty has harsh consequences).
   
  
• Forced to kill daily
  Again, another one of Nael van Darnus' ideas. Basically this Legatus is known for his brutal methods, and was assigned control of the western front with orders for Gaius van Baelsar and his XIVth legion to support him:
   
  "The tone within the legions shifted radically towards Nael’s brutal standards. Spies within the Garlean ranks reported that troops were forced to kill daily in an attempt to harden their hearts and make slaughter mere reflex".
   
  So essentially this practice was only introduced during 1.0 and only for the VIIth and XIVth legion. It's stated nowhere that this is practised by any other Garlean legion.
  
• Unable to use magic?
  Just to clarify, only pure blooded Garleans have an ineptitude of magic, so the majority of Garlean mages you come across are probably Garlean immigrants or conscripts, however even a half blood or full blood Garlean mage isn't impossible, just very, very, very unlikely.
  
• The nature of Magitek
  So this is completely an opinion! In fact it doesn't belong here, but I didn't want to make a whole new thread for it. Regardless, this article makes a great argument that "Magitek isn't technology; magitek is technology that should not work" and I highly recommend reading it.
   
  Personally I agree with the conclusion and you do see a lot of evidence for it in game, such as the airships and various machina. Still, it's just an opinion, so don't take it as fact!
   
  Here's the whole thing if you don't want to click on the link:
   
   
  I've done a couple of articles on reoccurring concepts in Final Fantasy games before, but this is an unusual one because it seems to barely qualify at times. Final Fantasy XIV has magitek, as did Final Fantasy VI, but those are the only games to refer to it as such. Sure, other games flirt with similar concepts (Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy VII most prominently), but none of them is outright called magitek.
   
  Bit there's still some interesting stuff to unpack when it comes to magitek, even if you don't consider the corner cases as you ought to. At a glance it might look like this is a simple manichean split between two factions, but there's a lot more going on and a lot of importance tied up with the term that can hint as to Final Fantasy XIV's future -- beyond the fact that we'll get to ride some magitek armor.
   
  Let's start with the basics: What makes something magitek? In both FFVI and FFXIV, some standard rules apply. The device is neither wholly magical nor wholly technological; it's mostly a mechanical device powered by magic. The devices acquire their power through draining sources of magic through invasive means. Last but not least, they're used almost exclusively by the larger and all-consuming empire, making these devices the tools of the enemy.
   
  It seems simple enough. Magitek represents technology, technology is bad and evil, we should live in accordance with nature, and so forth. Except that both of the games using the term counter that assumption.
   
  Technology is not solely the province of the Garlean Empire or of the Gestahlian Empire in FFVI. The latter had Figaro Castle, airships, Narshe's mining equipment, trains, and points related. The former doesn't quite have any mechanical playgrounds, but 1.0 made it clear through story scenes that Cid Garlond and the Garlond Ironworks were all about cutting-edge technology. And here it's worth bringing in an obvious corner case in the matter of Final Fantasy VII.
   
  Mako technology in FFVII is not called magitek, but it bears the same hallmarks. This is the same game that adds a man with a gun-arm and an animatronic carnival mascot to your party. What Shinra is doing to the planet is clearly a bad thing, but the simple use of technology isn't problematic. You can write it off as an inconsistency, but I think there's more to it than that. And I think the heart of it lies in another game that doesn't use magitek but clearly has callbacks to it.
   
  In FFXII, one of the major elements of the plot is magicite. Magicite itself is valuable but plentiful, but nethicite is the real prize. Nethicite is magicite that can absorb magical energy and then discharge it before refilling. The important distinction is that only three pieces of real nethicite exist; most of it is manufacted nethicite from the Archadian Empire. This manufacted nethicite is used to empower airships to behave in ways that should not be possible, and it can even directly empower an individual to be more than simply human.
   
  You know, much as magitek is used in FFVI and FFXIV.
   
  The parallels run even a bit closer than that. The word magicite first shows up in Final Fantasy II, but it becomes majorly important in FFVI as the remains of a dead Esper. Espers are also the source of power for magitek devices; the difference is that magicite shards are the more powerful form, whereas the Empire's draining techniques are inefficient.
   
  There's a common thread here in all of this. Magitek isn't technology; magitek is technology that should not work. Magitek devices are those that outright break the rules of the world, tearing away energy without care for the cost. Magitek isn't a parallel for mechanics or themes or anything similar -- it's a metaphor for overreaching ambition.
   
  FFXIV has a countering influence in place: the beastmen. 1.0 made it very clear that unlike Final Fantasy XI's victims, FFXIV's beastmen would very happily bust everyone back down to the most basic tribal level. The Primals are manifestations of that same energy that powers magitek in raw unchained form. Ifrit doesn't care what burns, only that something does. Bahamut is wanting revenge not just on any target in the End of an Era trailer but on everything within range of his destruction. Tear everything down and let nothing survive.
   
  Magitek is the opposite number. Magitek is about building so quickly that you don't care how unsteady your foundation is. It's about having a gun that will explode in your hand and kill you the moment you pull the trigger, but that's fine as long as it kills your target. There's nothing coincidental about the fact that both empires wielding it will happily brainwash others or even take control of a mind as necessary. They rush in a direction with no concern for the consequences.
   
  Between these two extremes stand players. And therein lies a last point of comparison: In FFVI as in FFXIV, a maniac found a path to great power that allowed for the destruction of the world. Kefka and Van Darnus both brought destruction to their respective worlds. We know what happens afterward in FFVI, and it frequently wasn't pretty.
   
  It remains to be seen how ruined the world will be when we can return to FFXIV. But there will need to be a balance, and the player characters will be a very small middle between two massive extremes.
   
   
  

 

The Void

• A reality beyond
  The Void is a netherworld strife with shadows and monstrosity that if strong enough, can just breach our reality via a "Voidgate".
  Creatures from the void are called "Voidsent" and include those creatures that are "unnatural", such as the spirits of the undead, unholy manifestations, Ahrimans, the Mindflayer, Voidoriga... basically anything you'd expect from a Lovecraftian tale, there's even a book called the Necrologis that is able to summon these Voidsent.
  

[Navarre]

Great information. Thanks for posting it.

[sindurion]

Very awesome! I hope you post one on Black Mage too!

[Chisae]

I love the idea of magitech being "tech that shouldnt work", it makes so much more sense than trying to explain how something mechanical works with magic instead of electricity or some such.

[C'io Behkt]

Summoners (the job)

• Primal Slayers?
  Not exactly. Summoners need only to perform a ritual to summon a Primals' egi, and then defeat that egi to bind it to them (yep, all they have to defeat is that mini Ifrit, Garuda or Titan you see floating behind them). It's made very clear that in the lore, the actual Primals themselves are not summoned and do not need to be defeated to obtain their egi.
  
• Origins
  Summoners as we know them today actually practice arcane arts developed by Allagan mages. The term "egi" is an Allagan word meaning "pure" or the "essence of", so for example "Ifrit-egi" literally translates as "the essence of Ifrit". Allagan summoners basically found a way to siphon the essence of Primals and manifest this essence as an egi, which is bound to do their bidding.
  

 

I'm going to politely contest your findings on Summoners under the label "Primal Slayers" because, in the Job's story, you are told to and are required to defeat the Primal whose essence you draw upon BEFORE you can even attempt to summon the and bind the egi. Furthermore, through the investigation of that Job questline, the NPC narrows down the list of suspects through use of a "Primal Slayer" list that one of the Grand Companies keeps, stating heavily that only those who have bested a Primal can even be considered candidates for Summoning. This is all very explicitly stated information. They do need to be encountered and survived prior to egi binding.

 

Now, what I think you mean by the "actual Primal" is the difference between the Primal's true essence, which exists outside our plane of existence, and the Primal's manifestations, which is what we see in the game and what the Beastmen conjure through crystal sacrifice. No mortal can defeat a Primal's true form because the true form never appears; instead, a mortal can defeat the manifestation. The egi is also a manifestation, but on a much smaller scale (and speculated to be free of the problems plaguing fully manifested Primals).