If you played Final Fantasy 14 for a long time, you've almost certainly come across the term Aether being thrown around as what feels like a plot device to explain just about everything that happens. Primal in rage, must be Aether. Someone has mysterious powers, it will be the Aether at work. You may be wondering what exactly Aether is.

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The explanation isn't too complicated, really, with a little suspension of disbelief, but there are a lot of concepts in Final Fantasy 14 related to the Aether that require you to have at least a basic understanding. This article will help you understand not only what Aether is, but also how it interacts with some of the most important elements of the Final Fantasy 14 world.
This article contains information that could be considered spoilers. If you prefer to discover this information naturally while playing Final Fantasy XIV, it's all available and will be presented to you throughout the game's main story quest.
What is ether?
Simply put, Aether is raw magic and the energy of all living thingswhich flows through humans, plants and animals. When something living dies, Aether stops passing through it and some of their Aether returns to the world.
If you've played Final Fantasy 7 and this explanation is familiar to you, you're right to note that this is very similar to the idea of Lifestream. In fact, the term Lifestream is even used in Final Fantasy 14 to describe the flow of aether around the world.
Eat food it transfers some of the remaining ether to the vegetable or animal matter that is consumedlike magic calories in a way, helping to sustain the creature that eats it.
How does magic use aether?
The practice of magic is learning to manipulate the ether. Even though different types of magic users get different results, they all start with the same Aether manipulation step. A destructive Black Mage and a healing White Mage achieve different results, but both manipulate the Aether.

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In this way, even the animals and monsters in Final Fantasy 14 use magic. Whenever you see a creature breathing fire or using some other amazing ability, it's often not because it's biologically capable of doing so, but because it's performing a basic version of ethereal manipulation.
Magically enchanted objects such as staves or rods can be used to strengthen or enhance magic, but they are not required for the magic to work or to manipulate the aether flow.
Are the elements part of the ether?
Scientists have divided the energy of the ether into six primary elements. Certain Earth, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water and Wind. The belief is that areas with higher ether concentrations of a particular element will exhibit that element – areas with a high concentration of ice ether will be cold and covered in snow, for example.
This applies living things as well as locations. Creatures rich in Wind Aether will be able to fly, while burrowing creatures may exhibit a higher concentration of Earth Aether.
The other way in which Ether is classified is with two opposite natures – Astral and Umbral. The Astral is often seen as a form of positive energy, while the Umbral is negative. Alternatively, they can be considered active or passive respectively.
What are crystals?
In Final Fantasy 14, the word crystals doesn't just refer to shiny rocks, but to dense concentrations of ether given by physical form. They happen to form like glowing rocks, but they're like giant magical batteries.
Don't eat crystals, kids. In the real world, it's pretty bad for you, and in the world of Final Fantasy 14, it will throw your etheric energies out of balance and almost certainly leads to death.
The ether that joins together to form crystals becomes static, no longer flowing through the Life Stream. This makes it possible to collect crystals and use them to power incredible feats of magic.
What is Mothercrystal?
The Mother Crystal could be considered the heart of the world, the soul of Hydaelyn itself. It sits at the heart of the planet and is a guiding force throughout the main story of Final Fantasy 14.
What is the etheric realm?
The etheric realm parallels the physical world, known as the corporeal realm. It could be considered the spirit world, but it is more accurate where etheric energy goes to join the flow of the River of Life.

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When a new living creature comes to life, energy moves from the Etheric Realm to the Corporeal Realm. When that life dies, the Aether transfers back to the Aetherial Realm.
Teleportation magic uses the ethereal realm. Etherites, large crystalline formations, are used as anchor points. A being is able to transfer to the etheric realm without dissolving back into the Life Stream, having an Aetheryte attuned to pull them back into the Corporeal Realm. Teleporting without Aetheryte is considered extremely dangerous and unsafe.
What are mayors?
Primals are extremely important to Final Fantasy 14, both for the plot and as central pieces of gameplay, featuring epic boss battles at key moments in the story. Their true nature, however, is misunderstood for much of the beginning of the game.
While many of the various cultures of the Hydaelyn believe that they use crystals to generate the magical power needed to summon their gods, the truth is a little more complicated than that.
If you are new to Final Fantasy 14, this is your last chance to avoid major spoilers.
The truth is that summoning a Primal does not summon a god, but instead builds the summoners' notion of that entity in the Aether. It turns out that this extends beyond mythology, allowing people to make Primals out of historical ideas or figures.
There is no guarantee that a Primal will behave the way the original version of them did, since then they are made up of what people think they are. An example of this is the historical Shiva compared to the Primal version invoked by Ysayle Dangoulain.
Primitives can then corrupt the ether of other living beings, a practice called tempering, which it overwhelms free will and makes the victim unfailingly loyal to the First One himself.
If a Primal is defeated, it can be easily summoned again, and it has been shown that repeated invocation like this can be harmful to a region's aether.
Can the ether run out?
If a person runs out of ether, it almost invariably leads to their death. The ether is, in a way, life itself. A person can have their etheric flow stoppedor consume all of their Aether in one act of magic.
It is possible that the Ether itself, the Life Stream of the planet, is drying up. Mayors consume ether and it poses a very real threat to the longevity of the planet. Not only do they cause chaos and destruction through their actions, but their very existence is a danger.

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