In a world of magic and fantasy there seems to be unlimited possibilities in the uses of its foreign undefined laws. Most of the time it is extremely vague as to how magic works in a fantasy world other than that fact that it simply... works? Playing in a lawless reality can be fun, but it can also become a bit ridiculous as laws ARE there for a reason. That is to keep order and keep chaos to a minimal. But being someone who always toyed with magic in role play, I of course never really knew what I was talking about because I have never really payed to much attention to the lore of magic classes. Although I would very much like to. I simply always tried to come up with my own logical explanation that SOUNDS like it could work. I ask the question of "To what degree do you limit magic" to get the community to really think. Because while I have hardly researched I also have not seen a guide on magic right in my face, and you would think it would be rather relevant in a world dependent on magic. The magical substance is literally the life force of Hydaelyn and without it nothing can possibly live. Or might not even exist? Unsure.
Now the world is obviously not chaotically filled with black mage's destroying whole towns with the snap of their fingers and training of magic is obviously not easy. But I would like to as a community acollect all the information on Aether and magic and formulate it into a guide with community bound laws and guidelines to help guide players when it comes to magic characters and their capabilities using the lore as much as is there and logical reasoning for the rest. At least until more of aetherical knowledge and lore is released from SE. I will try to contribute what I know, although take my knowledge as a grain of salt because as stated before, no research and I will probably butcher the existing lore as much as humanly possible in this thread because of my lack of magical education. I am no wizard.
Firstly to my knowledge the source of the ability to use magic is Aether. Aether is the life force of Hydaelyn and seems to flow throughout the planet. But not in a perfectly balanced manner either. To the point where some areas accumulate massive amounts of aether compared to others. If I am correct in remembering, in 1.0 it explained that an area in Mor Dhona or so? Where the Garlean flagship had a fight with the king of dragons dude, has a extremely massive amount of aether to the point of the Garleans feeling it absolutely crucial to take it and sending as massive an army as they could in fear that the Aether levels in the area could let the beastmen pretty much give their primals endless life. It is somewhat well known the Garleans do drink tea cheerfully with the primals. So what really dictates where Aether is strongest and how does it really affect the environment. Obviously without Aether the environment would die but it seems that with too much aether the environment simply becomes a crystal wasteland much like mor dhona's case. You can't exactly grow your orange farm in hard crystal. Another thing if I remember correctly is that massive amounts of aether or sudden changes in aether can drive wildlife crazy cant it? Wasn't this a big problem in 1.0? Aether sickness is mentioned in the beginning of FFXIV:ARR and my guess is that this occurs when you travel a long distance and the air-aether content is at a significantly different level and your body needs to adjust to it.
When I think of how aether could affect an environment and its inhabitants it also makes me wonder why some people/creatures seem to be able to harness magic and others cant. As far as I know most creatures cannot use magic in Eorzea but elemental's and the likes can. (Side question. What are elementals? Embodied aether that took a control of a certain element of its environment and started hovering around aimlessly?) There could be animals in game that can use magic too, but I do not know of any and regardless it does not really change the nature of the question, what allows some of them to use magic and what restricts others? Are the bodies of some simply rejecting of Aether in large amounts? Or is it an environmental adaptation? Are all creatures able to use magic but some simply not smart enough to use it? Then what about Garleans? Garleans are just as smart as everyone else but yet they still can't use magic themselves. One explanation I tried to come up with myself is that sense the center of Eorzea is on the the biggest Aether hot spots in the world that it allowed are bodies to adapt over time and be able to control large amounts of aether, enough to be able to cast a spell at least. But for Garleans where they grew up Aether was not overly abundant in the air as it would be in Eorzea or Othard so their bodies did not adjust to be able to use the amount of aether needed to cast a spell. It makes you wonder if a Eorzean were to go to Garlemald and cast a spell what exactly would happen with the significantly smaller air-aether content. If it would even cast at all? But we don't know and it is simply a far out there guess of mine.
Another thing is Aether in its solidified form seems to be crystal, or in massive condensed amounts it turns things to crystal. I am not really sure. And we know that is is possible to extract this aether and turn it into energy to power magitek. But to what degree does crystal actually affect magic. If you were touch a giant aether infested crystal then cast a spell would it be amplified by the greater power source? Could ones body even HANDLE that much aether flowing through them to cast a spell? How much CAN a persons body handle aether wise? You would think there is a limit. Can some races handle larger amounts of aether better than others? (Like in the Garleans case?) What would happen if you cast a spell ON a crystal? Would it absorb it? Or perhaps explode with energy like putting fire to gun powder?
Also a topic to touch upon is the actual USING of magic. It seems impossible to use magic without casting something normally through a medium of some sort like an arcanist's book of geometric shapes and jibber jabber or a Conjurers big wooden stick. Most also take time to cast. What is actually going on? And how does one actually CAST magic? Does it really require a medium? as from what I know Black mages pull from the "Black" or something and that does not seem to require a medium to cast other than ones own body. (Another side question; What is the black and what is the void? They seem like awkward cousins of aether that I definitely do not understand.) I am pretty sure I have seen people roleplay for arcanists as having to write intricate geometric shapes/symbols into a book to activate a cast. But why do they have to do this? It seems like with conjurors they can just cast from surrounding aether (*Does not know how a conjuror works*) and wouldn't it be far easier just to do what they do? Or does pulling from raw aether outside of a pretty symbolized medium require a stronger body handling of aether that would prove too difficult to some so they are forced to revert to arcanist methods. For all I know arcanist magic and conjuror magic could have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with aether and each other. Although I hope they would because it would be a whole hell of a lot more confusing if they were not at least distantly related.
Another thing is (I may be a bit redudent here I am kind of forgetting what I have already gone over
) is to what DEGREE you can harness the aether and turn it into magic with. Primal's seem to ABSORB aether and get extremely powerful. Dalamund as it was getting dragged towards Hydaelyn was also sucking up a crap ton of aether from the planet itself as the elder primal Bahamut fed of its energy correct. How much can a primal actually hold? Could it absorb the whole planet? Or would it eventually break down from the absolutely insane amount of aether? There must be some limit as to how much a person or primal can take even if it is just a certain amount of the surrounding air content otherwise what stops a primal from being a aetherical black hole and just sucking all the aether from the planet whenever is spawns? To what degree is it limited? And more importantly to what degree is it limited on a player? In the intro cut scene you see the old archon dude build a extremely huge badass shield that protects from Bahamuts mega flares of awesomeness, what allows him to get THAT powerful? And what kept him from being powerful enough to hold it and it eventually shattering his staff. Was it his staff that was just an insanely powerful medium and him controlling it well? Or did he actually have the ability to control aether to that extent? If the former does this mean that even an amatuer in magic could do MASSIVE destruction if given a medium that could handle it? Or is there actually personal limitations depending on how long you have practiced using it. Is it like a muscle in that the more you stress it at a steady and organized pace the stronger it gets and will grow? But even muscles have limitations... Don't they?
I kind of wonder the science of magic and what you can actually do with it and what you can't do with it. You can conjure elements with it. You can heal wounds with it. But to what degree? Do you have to be able to see/imagine what you are doing? Meaning if you want to cast a fireball do you imagine the aether surrounding your hand combusting then controlling it from there? And for healing does it only heal injuries you can visibly see and imagine healing? Which is why more grievous injuries require more concentration to imagine repairing all the damadge done and why for some people it is supposedly difficult to repair damaged vocal chords because I mean, how to you imagine repairing damaged vocal chords? I do not even know what they look like! Or is it something ENTIRELY different?Â
Ahh... I can't really think of much more at the moment (*has stayed up all night and is very tired*) But I know there is definitely more questions that could be asked and I highly encourage anyone and everyone who has a question about aether and magic and their abilities to post it in the comments. Not all these questions have answers in the lore I am sure. But I would like to learn everything there is to know about magic that is IN the lore then fill in the blanks with as I said before, community decided guidelines that make sense until SE releases an official explanation. So any facts you find. Post them! Educate the rest of the people like me so that way next time I talk aether I can actually feel like I slightly know what I am talking about! And any suggestions for how the grey areas of aetherical lore work should ALSO be posted! As any and all ideas are welcome in the pursuit of order and greater knowledge of how things work in this world of magical beauty.
I hope that if we can get enough information and fill in the blanks with our own we can make a guide on Aether and magic with how it works that can be somewhat understandable and help guide RPers in how to use and handle magic. It might help avoid those situations where under one characters logic it seems impossible to heal a broken bone instantiously while under others they can instantly heal a whole BODY of broken bones to somewhat good health. Then there is conflict on who is magically correct in their healing abilities. I would also still love to hear answer to the title question. I apologize for this being a giant thread of questions but I merely want to get the best understanding of Aether/magic that I can.
Now the world is obviously not chaotically filled with black mage's destroying whole towns with the snap of their fingers and training of magic is obviously not easy. But I would like to as a community acollect all the information on Aether and magic and formulate it into a guide with community bound laws and guidelines to help guide players when it comes to magic characters and their capabilities using the lore as much as is there and logical reasoning for the rest. At least until more of aetherical knowledge and lore is released from SE. I will try to contribute what I know, although take my knowledge as a grain of salt because as stated before, no research and I will probably butcher the existing lore as much as humanly possible in this thread because of my lack of magical education. I am no wizard.
Firstly to my knowledge the source of the ability to use magic is Aether. Aether is the life force of Hydaelyn and seems to flow throughout the planet. But not in a perfectly balanced manner either. To the point where some areas accumulate massive amounts of aether compared to others. If I am correct in remembering, in 1.0 it explained that an area in Mor Dhona or so? Where the Garlean flagship had a fight with the king of dragons dude, has a extremely massive amount of aether to the point of the Garleans feeling it absolutely crucial to take it and sending as massive an army as they could in fear that the Aether levels in the area could let the beastmen pretty much give their primals endless life. It is somewhat well known the Garleans do drink tea cheerfully with the primals. So what really dictates where Aether is strongest and how does it really affect the environment. Obviously without Aether the environment would die but it seems that with too much aether the environment simply becomes a crystal wasteland much like mor dhona's case. You can't exactly grow your orange farm in hard crystal. Another thing if I remember correctly is that massive amounts of aether or sudden changes in aether can drive wildlife crazy cant it? Wasn't this a big problem in 1.0? Aether sickness is mentioned in the beginning of FFXIV:ARR and my guess is that this occurs when you travel a long distance and the air-aether content is at a significantly different level and your body needs to adjust to it.
When I think of how aether could affect an environment and its inhabitants it also makes me wonder why some people/creatures seem to be able to harness magic and others cant. As far as I know most creatures cannot use magic in Eorzea but elemental's and the likes can. (Side question. What are elementals? Embodied aether that took a control of a certain element of its environment and started hovering around aimlessly?) There could be animals in game that can use magic too, but I do not know of any and regardless it does not really change the nature of the question, what allows some of them to use magic and what restricts others? Are the bodies of some simply rejecting of Aether in large amounts? Or is it an environmental adaptation? Are all creatures able to use magic but some simply not smart enough to use it? Then what about Garleans? Garleans are just as smart as everyone else but yet they still can't use magic themselves. One explanation I tried to come up with myself is that sense the center of Eorzea is on the the biggest Aether hot spots in the world that it allowed are bodies to adapt over time and be able to control large amounts of aether, enough to be able to cast a spell at least. But for Garleans where they grew up Aether was not overly abundant in the air as it would be in Eorzea or Othard so their bodies did not adjust to be able to use the amount of aether needed to cast a spell. It makes you wonder if a Eorzean were to go to Garlemald and cast a spell what exactly would happen with the significantly smaller air-aether content. If it would even cast at all? But we don't know and it is simply a far out there guess of mine.
Another thing is Aether in its solidified form seems to be crystal, or in massive condensed amounts it turns things to crystal. I am not really sure. And we know that is is possible to extract this aether and turn it into energy to power magitek. But to what degree does crystal actually affect magic. If you were touch a giant aether infested crystal then cast a spell would it be amplified by the greater power source? Could ones body even HANDLE that much aether flowing through them to cast a spell? How much CAN a persons body handle aether wise? You would think there is a limit. Can some races handle larger amounts of aether better than others? (Like in the Garleans case?) What would happen if you cast a spell ON a crystal? Would it absorb it? Or perhaps explode with energy like putting fire to gun powder?
Also a topic to touch upon is the actual USING of magic. It seems impossible to use magic without casting something normally through a medium of some sort like an arcanist's book of geometric shapes and jibber jabber or a Conjurers big wooden stick. Most also take time to cast. What is actually going on? And how does one actually CAST magic? Does it really require a medium? as from what I know Black mages pull from the "Black" or something and that does not seem to require a medium to cast other than ones own body. (Another side question; What is the black and what is the void? They seem like awkward cousins of aether that I definitely do not understand.) I am pretty sure I have seen people roleplay for arcanists as having to write intricate geometric shapes/symbols into a book to activate a cast. But why do they have to do this? It seems like with conjurors they can just cast from surrounding aether (*Does not know how a conjuror works*) and wouldn't it be far easier just to do what they do? Or does pulling from raw aether outside of a pretty symbolized medium require a stronger body handling of aether that would prove too difficult to some so they are forced to revert to arcanist methods. For all I know arcanist magic and conjuror magic could have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with aether and each other. Although I hope they would because it would be a whole hell of a lot more confusing if they were not at least distantly related.
Another thing is (I may be a bit redudent here I am kind of forgetting what I have already gone over
) is to what DEGREE you can harness the aether and turn it into magic with. Primal's seem to ABSORB aether and get extremely powerful. Dalamund as it was getting dragged towards Hydaelyn was also sucking up a crap ton of aether from the planet itself as the elder primal Bahamut fed of its energy correct. How much can a primal actually hold? Could it absorb the whole planet? Or would it eventually break down from the absolutely insane amount of aether? There must be some limit as to how much a person or primal can take even if it is just a certain amount of the surrounding air content otherwise what stops a primal from being a aetherical black hole and just sucking all the aether from the planet whenever is spawns? To what degree is it limited? And more importantly to what degree is it limited on a player? In the intro cut scene you see the old archon dude build a extremely huge badass shield that protects from Bahamuts mega flares of awesomeness, what allows him to get THAT powerful? And what kept him from being powerful enough to hold it and it eventually shattering his staff. Was it his staff that was just an insanely powerful medium and him controlling it well? Or did he actually have the ability to control aether to that extent? If the former does this mean that even an amatuer in magic could do MASSIVE destruction if given a medium that could handle it? Or is there actually personal limitations depending on how long you have practiced using it. Is it like a muscle in that the more you stress it at a steady and organized pace the stronger it gets and will grow? But even muscles have limitations... Don't they? I kind of wonder the science of magic and what you can actually do with it and what you can't do with it. You can conjure elements with it. You can heal wounds with it. But to what degree? Do you have to be able to see/imagine what you are doing? Meaning if you want to cast a fireball do you imagine the aether surrounding your hand combusting then controlling it from there? And for healing does it only heal injuries you can visibly see and imagine healing? Which is why more grievous injuries require more concentration to imagine repairing all the damadge done and why for some people it is supposedly difficult to repair damaged vocal chords because I mean, how to you imagine repairing damaged vocal chords? I do not even know what they look like! Or is it something ENTIRELY different?Â
Ahh... I can't really think of much more at the moment (*has stayed up all night and is very tired*) But I know there is definitely more questions that could be asked and I highly encourage anyone and everyone who has a question about aether and magic and their abilities to post it in the comments. Not all these questions have answers in the lore I am sure. But I would like to learn everything there is to know about magic that is IN the lore then fill in the blanks with as I said before, community decided guidelines that make sense until SE releases an official explanation. So any facts you find. Post them! Educate the rest of the people like me so that way next time I talk aether I can actually feel like I slightly know what I am talking about! And any suggestions for how the grey areas of aetherical lore work should ALSO be posted! As any and all ideas are welcome in the pursuit of order and greater knowledge of how things work in this world of magical beauty.
I hope that if we can get enough information and fill in the blanks with our own we can make a guide on Aether and magic with how it works that can be somewhat understandable and help guide RPers in how to use and handle magic. It might help avoid those situations where under one characters logic it seems impossible to heal a broken bone instantiously while under others they can instantly heal a whole BODY of broken bones to somewhat good health. Then there is conflict on who is magically correct in their healing abilities. I would also still love to hear answer to the title question. I apologize for this being a giant thread of questions but I merely want to get the best understanding of Aether/magic that I can.
![[Image: hFalP38.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/hFalP38.jpg)
). No explicit statement is made either way, so we have an opportunity for characters to differentiate themselves and for players to interpret the lore differently. L'yhta's carbuncles, for instance, are purely aetheric constructs that have no personality. They're basically a very persistent spell for her, not a magic puppy that follows her around. How do I reconcile the different approaches? OOC, I recognize it's a grey area and accept that others will want to play different things that still mesh with the lore. IC, L'yhta views this as an area ripe for research, and uses it to surmise that summoning spells build their physical pattern partially from the thought patterns of their summoner; the spell quite literally, so she believes, creates the summon its summoner wants, down to the personality (or lack thereof) of the construct.
![[Image: Emblem%252520by%252520Rhea%252520Zaheela%252520x50.png]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5YSh8yMniHU/VlLStr_7SSI/AAAAAAAAIQ4/qLoOmtz-Jdg/s100-Ic42/Emblem%252520by%252520Rhea%252520Zaheela%252520x50.png)
![[Image: L8vXR94.png]](http://i.imgur.com/L8vXR94.png)
![[Image: NCtCate.png]](http://i.imgur.com/NCtCate.png)
