The Summoner is one of the more interesting DPS classes in Final Fantasy XIV. Instead of dealing damage themselves, the job’s defining trait is their ability to summon certain familiars on the battlefield. These familiars can range from small carbuncles to even essences of Eorzean primals, which allows them to use a variety of different spells from basic mage arts to devastating spells.
The lodestone for Summoner reads, “The beast tribes of Eorzea worship and summon forth beings known as primals, among which are Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan. Yet what is a god to one man is a demon to another, for the city-states of Eorzea see these beings as a grave threat to their collective survival. In times immemorial, there lived mages who had not only the power to summon the primals, but also the means to transmute the primals’ essences, thus binding them to their will. Known simply as Summoners, the existence of these men and women and their arcane art has been all but lost to the ages. “
The Summoner lore in Final Fantasy XIV
So in essence, the greatest strength of a Summoner is not their own, but the fact that they can actually call upon the primal powers and use them for their own needs.
But how are they able to do so?
Well, in the third astral era, the Allagan Empire was at large, trying to conquer the stars. During these times, the empire’s enemies’ main way to fight was these Primal Summons. They would worship certain primals and perform rituals to summon them to fight on their behalf against the Allagan rule.
At this very same time, a new subsection of mages learnt how to actually use the essence of these primals; using these essences, they could create aetherial allies called the “egi”. These egi were employed by the Summoners with great results in the war against the Allagan Empire.
But in no time, the empire took notice of the new breed of Arcanists and employed them themselves. In doing so, however, the Summoner’s reputation took quite a fall. The once respected group of mages were now hunted by a superstitious mob. The people came to believe that the once sacred art of the Summoners was being tainted by the primals’ influence, so the witch hunt continued and led to the entire order getting wiped out.
The mage art of Summoners was lost to the tides of time until one day, Y’shtola’s sister, the scholar Y’mihtra, was able to discover the soul crystal for Summoners and gave the duty of restoring the lost art to the warrior of light, who had come to be known as the eikon killer by then.
