Soul Crystals?

[Havoc Snow]

My guess is no, it's not needed except by the WoL because he needs to learn the skills super fast. The soul crystals also double as a plot device for several jobs if not all of them.

 

The only ones I can clearly remember it doesn't is SMN/SCH.

I can state at least one point where someone other than the Warrior of Light uses a Soul Crystal as well, that being Curious Gorge in the Warrior quest line. He makes reference to how his Soul Crystal no longer glows anymore until the end where his fighting spirit is rekindled. Whether this meas it is required or not isn't really clear. Ninjas also wield Soul Crystals, as you pick up the one you use off the dead body of a Ninja near Wineport and Oboro tells you that they all use them.

Now, for my next question, would it be possible for a stone to have a sentient soul in it?  Like possessing it?

We actually know this is possible, as the questgiver for the CT weekly quest is an archmagus that put her soul into a vessel and then transferred her consciousness into the body of the woman that found her. But I believe that is an entirely separate magical function than the one soul crystals are used for.

This is a little nitpicky, but Noah was actually a he when he was alive, not a her, and not it wasn't a Soul Crystal that he contained his consciousness inside of.

 

Soul Crystals as far as I have been able to tell are basically like Holocrons from Star Wars, they are a crystal that contains gathered information, knowledge, and experience and are capable of passing that onto the wielder as they become more and more attuned with it. Most Soul Crystals never have a designated previous wielder (some do however) and in some cases they are implied to contain the experiences of numerous people of that Job (like the Warrior one and Paladin ones). When you do the Materia questline that teaches you melding they state that Materia works pretty similar, that all of the experience and knowledge within your gear can be forged into a crystal form which creates Materia, so basically Soul Crystals are kind of like Super Materia.

 

When you die the aetherial energy that encompasses your lifeforce escapes and returns to Hydaelyn while your soul travels on to the afterlife.

 

In FFXIV lore, Aether and Souls are one and the same, your Aether returning to the Lifestream Aether Flow is the same thing as your Soul passing on to the Afterlife.

[Kuzhuk]

That seems to conflict with this ingame dialogue:

 

"What is aether you ask? Why, only the source of all being! Though it cannot be seen, it is everywhere... or should I say, it is everything.Aether flows around us and within us, and without it we would cease to exist. When we die, it is believed that the shock separates our spirits from our corporal forms. Our bodies are then broken down and are absorbed back into the aetherial river, while the soul is left to journey to its final destination in the afterlife. Some call this "returning to the Lifestream." However, our ancestors discovered ways in which, through meditation and focus of spiritual energies, one could reduce her body to aether without losing the grip on her soul, in turn allowing us to travel upon the Lifestream. These methods have been given the names Return and Teleport."

 

Source, the first bit of dialogue here : http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Nicia

[Briggs]

I just assumed they were like the spheres in FF10.

 

They're harnessed essence of the job; with potential memories and specialized innate skills.

[Havoc Snow]

That seems to conflict with this ingame dialogue:

 

"What is aether you ask? Why, only the source of all being! Though it cannot be seen, it is everywhere... or should I say, it is everything.Aether flows around us and within us, and without it we would cease to exist. When we die, it is believed that the shock separates our spirits from our corporal forms. Our bodies are then broken down and are absorbed back into the aetherial river, while the soul is left to journey to its final destination in the afterlife.  Some call this "returning to the Lifestream." However, our ancestors discovered ways in which, through meditation and focus of spiritual energies, one could reduce her body to aether without losing the grip on her soul, in turn allowing us to travel upon the Lifestream. These methods have been given the names Return and Teleport."

 

Source, the first bit of dialogue here : http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Nicia

I think some of this may have been retconned however in the 2.3 and 2.4 storylines when they explain how Aether works, the Primals, and the Ascians. I think they just say that we return to the Flow of Aether when we die, though perhaps I'm wrong. I'll have to go rewatch the cutscenes again.