I'm just going to quote a few passages from this reddit post the other day that will give you an idea of why red magic isn't illegal or bad etc.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/...se_people/
Show Content
Reddit Quote 1
Rdm aether is precisely explained in the game, but it is not clear. It takes some unpacking.
"To manifest more powerful spells, the first red mages adopted a method by which precise sword techniques would harness and amplify the energy of their spoken incantations--the mage's own physical form serving as an arcane accelerator."
First he states a goal: Cast big dick spells Implied problem: casting big dick spells with only your own aether fucking murders you Solution: developed sword technique that solves this problem Implied question: how does the sword technique solve the problem? Answer: the sword techniques harness and amplify power of spoken incantations (normal spells) Clarification: Specificaly, the act of spell casting accelerates the level of aether in the sword. Since the blade is being accelerated, the mage themself is the accelerator Result: Rdm's cast safe spells, but can still attain high potency by charging up their swords and safely dumping massive amounts of aether.
Specifically in terms of healing. We know that it is possible to safely cast small spells with your own aether, the danger is casting spells that are too taxing. This break point seems to be around the level 2 and higher spells (though a thm can safely use fire 2, it's it not hard and fast, but a good guide post.)
So a rdm can safely cast cure 1, aero 1, etc. which is all a rdm does cast with their personal aether. In fact, the only taxing spell a rdm would ever cast with their personal aether is raise. But, because it is only one spell, and presumably not ever spammed enough to drain their life aether, it's not a big deal.
Here is why: the process of dumping aether from the sword resets the rdm's personal aether. We know from thm/blm that any time there is a big imbalance in aether (such as a vacuum left by a lot leaving) it is natural for aether to flow in to refill it. The real danger isn't actually using up your personal aether like drinking all of the water in a glass, but rather in over aspecting your personal aether in a particular direction (this is why trying to cast blm level spells without the stone causes you to burn from the inside, your personal aether is too aspected to fire.) rdm's solve this problem by resetting their internal aspect (which never gets that far out of balance to start) during spellbalde.
Show Content
Reddit quote 2
Hence the doublecast mechanic. RDMs' stronger spells are normally dots when cast by a BLM or WHM (Aero, Thunder), but a red mage accelerates the entire duration of the dot into an insta-cast spell using the sword.
This is also why RDM is MP-neutral. A BLM casts enormous Fire spells that use a ton of MP (aether) and that cause them to be aligned with fire aspect, so they have to switch to Ice spells for a while to recover their aether and reset their elemental alignment. RDMs aren't casting huge expensive spells like that, they're just spamming cheap thunder and aero spells and are keeping themselves elementally neutral by rotating through the elements.
...except for Verraise. Raises use a full quarter of a RDM's MP, so they are taxing on the aether reserve. You get four at most before you're in Sylphie territory.
I'm also in the discord with the people that discuss this type of lore and concept for the red mage, as well as developing how it makes sense. In short, red mages are the combination of thaumaturges and conjurers, just amplifying simple and weaker spells through their focus and blade to make it stronger. Take thunder 1 as stated in the 2nd example, normally a dot used by thaumaturges. The red mage uses this skill by applying their aether into the blade and aspecting it to be thunder elemented, then adds their own aether and a small portion of their own aspected to amplify and "accelerate" it to be a powerful burst to send out. The sword absorbs the undesirable effects that black magic commonly has from using more powerful spells, such as casting Fire 3, flare and etc.
Spells like flare and the like used by a black mage without a shantotto stone would envelope your natural aether in your body in fire. Your mana reserves are basically becoming too far elemented to where your body can't take it. Imagine lighting your blood on fire from the inside and it ignites throughout your whole system. That'd be like flare, a powerful spell to use but also dangerous to one's self, the shantotto soul stone prevents this through amplification and control. This is why black mages still need to recover their mana, they're still using the technique, they just need to recover from it when they switch to umbral ice, essentially balancing their mana reserves out between being fire aspected and ice aspected, like cooling yourself off. Now imagine a thaumaturge, they only take a lil bit of ether (assume my example of blood still) and just cast somewhat light spells. This doesn't cross the line or go too far to cause them to destroy themselves, it costs less mana and isn't lighting up all their aether on fire at once, they're using a small portion that's balanced out by the rest of their natural mana reserves.
This leads into how red mages are unique. A red mage by my previous example is pouring their aether into their sword and essentially aspecting it there to cast rather than holding the aether that's naturally in their body to be aspected to fire. Think of the sword as a form of filter for all the negative effects, the red mage puts the aether into their rapier and it absorbs all the extra unwanted effects of giving your spell an element. When cast, it's released as an amplified attack or accelerated depending on the spell, while the sword still contains all the gunk that would normally be volatile and harmful to your being. We then unleash the enchanted sword attacks all together and discharge it naturally, then igniting the discharged aether on the opponent.
How is any of this relevant? Simple, the red mages were created from the Sixth Umbral calamity's war, from people using too much of types of aether that lead to all the ambient aether suddenly becoming aspected into water with the lack of usage of water spells. They then decided after that to keep fighting for the same cause and use safer techniques that were just as powerful but safe for the environment and themselves. So they developed a method that uses both disciplines basic forms of thaumaturgy and conjury, while still amplifying them to be nearly as powerful as black/white mage spells while only using their own mana still, rather than the ambient aether on the planet. The discipline is revolved around safer yet still efficient methods of magic by not having to aspect so much of one's own aether to be deadly, while also not aspecting the planet's aether again so much to repeat another flood.
tl;dr?: They created a method that would keep themselves okay to cast and also not cause another damned calamity. Black and white magic is commonly watched on or illegal because they're both deadly of killing the person from aspecting their own mana too much, like turning all their aether to ice and getting frozen, fire incinerating themselves from the outside, stoning themselves, etc etc etc... But it's also deadly to the planet without proper control, as using too much of the planet's aether creates a sort of "vacuum effect" that sucks in all the types of aether. If you use say only earth, fire, wind, ice, and thunder aspected aether, the planet basically goes "shit all I have left is water.... THERE'S SO MUCH" and essentially bursts out. The same could happen to any form of aether as well, assuming you used all of the aether but thunder, you could probably aspect heavy thunderstorms and lightning strong enough to leave craters in the planet. It creates an imbalance and disturbance int he natural balance of elements/aether, so black/white magic disciplines are more deadly and capable of reproducing unwanted effects like this. Red magic isn't, solely because of what was learned from the prior 2 magics.
Red magic was taken from the concept of the two disciplines but isn't the basis of them by any means since red magic uses your natural born mana instead of drawing from the planet's ambient aether or from another deadly source like the void. The only things red magic picks off the two disciplines is where they began in thaumaturgy/conjury and levels of power that invoked upon those 2 classes. Red mages just decide to manipulate the concepts to their own advantage than directly taking from them. Just keep in mind that black and white magic are disciplines, red magic isn't actually the two disciplines, just their fundamentals combined for their own purpose/practices.
Sorry my tl;dr: got long.. lotta this was repeated too, I got into it again xD.
