Lore Source

Quote:Aether is not only the source of all magicks, but also the fount of all life. Yet despite its ubiquity, it remains imperceptible to the senses of man. When a living thing dies, the aether comprising its life is released. It has been learned that when this discharge takes place, a portion of that aether remains, lingering in the physical world. No doubt you have come across aetherial crystallizations in the course of your travels. All scholars now agree that these are the physical manifestations of great concentrations of aether.

I have a theory, hower, that they are not the only such manifestations. Allow me to give an example even you can understand - that of ghosts, spirits, disembodied souls. Apparitions of the deceased come back to haunt and generally unnerve us? False!

These are nothing more than the luminescent glow of aether in the atmosphere. It is possible, though highly unlikely, that you are asking yourself why a portion of the aether remains. Right, well, the amount of aether that can shift between the physical and aetherial realms in any given instant is limited. I call this the aetherial threshold. Any aether present in excess of that threshold is left behind. The more violent or dramatic the loss of life, the greater the amount of inner aether released to take the form of crystals or remain imperceptibly in the atmosphere. And you surely recollect the scene I identified as the most apt to produce such violent deaths? On the field of battle!

-Erik

Magi Text
Thaumaturgy Lore Post #1
Thaumaturgy Lore Post #2
5th Astral Era Timeline

"The art now known as white magic dates back to the Fifth Astral Era. It was then that a brilliant young sorceress - for the first time in history - succeeded in channeling not merely her own life energy, but the aether that inhabits the very land itself. Her magic was that of destruction: black magic. The people of Amdapor felt this power was too great to be allowed to go unchecked, and so it was that white magic - the magic of healing and solace - was born. So it was that the forces of magic were brought into equilibrium, and civilization flourished.

But this era of peace and prosperity would prove short lived. War broke out, and the realm was thrown into chaos. The War of the Magi. To rain death and destruction on their foes, mages summoned forth greater and greater powers. The war raged on, until the aether dried, and the land itself could bear the burden no longer. So did the hubris of the magi bring forth the Sixth Umbral Era... and with it a mighty flood that swept away entire civilizations, leaving naught but ruin and suffering in its wake.

The survivors - what few there were - banded together. Vowing never again to repeat their mistake, white and black magic were declared forbidden arts, never to be practiced again. The Elementals of the forest, knowing that men could not be trusted to keep such vows, took action as well. The Twelveswood grew, swallowing the ruins of Amdapor, and the power of white magic was sealed away deep in the forest, far from the reach of mortals.

Ages passed, until five centuries ago, the Elementals at long last welcomed people back into the forest. So the nation of Gridania was founded, and my people - the Padjal - came into being, to serve as mediators between Elementals and those who would reside in their forest home. It is from the Elementals themselves that we inherited white magic."
-Raya-O-Senna

"White magic and conjury are close relations, the two are governed by the same laws. The former, however, places the utmost upon healing and protection and demands of its practitioners the greatest intimacy with the Elementals. On account of this, its use is granted only to those few who are deemed worthy. It is the sacred charge of the Padjal to ensure that the art survives, and in righteous hands."
-Raya-O-Senna

"Amdapor was not always thus afflicted. Indeed, the city once owed an age of prosperity to the benevolent art of white magic. But that was before the War of the Magi. It is told that the enemies of the Amdapori abandoned all caution in their pursuit of victory, and used their dark magicks to summon a king among demons. Though the mages of Amdapor eventually succeeded in imprisoning this fell creature, its recent resurgence speaks eloquently to the impermanence and unpredictability of arcane energies."
-E-Sumi-Yan

"Thaumaturgy is a form of arcane manipulation that allows the practitioner to unleash his/her will as deadly manifestations of primal power. The origin of our art can be found in the cumbersome magicks of our ancestors - subsequently focused and refined through their use in the funereal rites of the Order of Nald'thal. Though once used exclusively for the preparation of the dead, these incantations of destruction soon found new purpose on the battlefield. "Death," of course, is still very much the central focus of the discipline."
-Cocobuki

"The origins of black magic can be traced back many, many years - to the beginning of the Fifth Astral Era, to be precise. There lived at that time in Eorzea a powerful sorceress named Shatotto, who strived to push the destructive power of magic to its very limits. The typical practice of magi is to weave magic using their own aether. The ability to do so is the greatest magical gift, yet at the same time that gift's greatest limit.

Shatotto was able to overcome such inherent limitations by developing a new technique which allowed her to draw upon the aether all around her as the fount of her magic. It was this technique that came to be known as black magic. Following the War of the Magi and the Sixth Umbral Calamity, however, black magic was branded far too great a danger to life, and so its use and even its mere mention were made forbidden. Over time, it came to be forgotten entirely. Or so it was thought..."
-Lalai