(03-15-2015, 09:02 PM)Flickering Ember Wrote:Quote:Has there been a revival of white magic or is your PC the only person learning white magic outside of their school? A.) If everyone was the WoL, no one gets to have a sense of being the hero. “YOU.†There are other ways to get white magic. Through deviant means and might show up in the future.
Quoted from the Fanfest lore panel.
I for one am very eager for this storyline involving alternative Succor methods to come out already. If for no other reason than to have an alternate IC excuse to help players become the White Mages they so desperately want to be. As strict as the lore is, I've spent a good deal of time trying to find ways within the boundaries of lore to become a White Mage that requires the most minimal of bending. And just about anyone can vouch for that.
The main problem with this quote from Fernehalwes and much of the lore surrounding the White Mage job in general, is that, yes in the future there may be more IC ways of becoming White Mages, however, most of the people who are RPing them... have been ICly White Mages for a while. And it's a timeline that doesn't quite add up.
If we count the 1.0 storyline Derplander's Lalafell companion as the "first" non-Padjal White Mage since the times of Amdapor 1,600 years ago, granted White Magic by Oha-Sok Herself, this still marks a pretty solid 5 year line in which it's canonically stated by Seedseer and Elemental that no other man has been granted this blessed privilege. So while there may be new ways, deviant, nefarious, or otherwise to obtain this gift, it's gotta be a fairly recent thing.
Especially if you're taking the finding an Amdapor Soulstone route, as Amdapor was inside of a gigantic Hedge Tree until a chunk of Dalamud went hurtling through the tree and opened it up for the world to see. (Can go to Tranquil and see it.) Which pretty much leaves you with the "The Elementals gave me Succor because, like Derplander's Lalafell, I am judged pure of spirit and incorruptible in the face of evil." Which, to me, is fine. So long as it's recent, it makes sense with the timeline.
But you will see people who are 20 and White Mage, or 40 and White Mage for 20 years and then you have to scratch your head and go "how?" And at that point, because no alternate method for exploring Succor has been introduced yet, this basically leaves us with a bunch of lore that says it's just not possible, which is why so many people get in a huff about this subject. It's one of those things that can be bent, just gotta do it well if you want to stick within lore. If you don't care about the lore, that's fine too, but that's generally where your character is gonna catch a lot of heat.
There's just so much stacked against a non-Padjali WHM right now.
1 - Non-Padjal shouldn't even know what White Magic is, much less that it exists. It's a closely guarded secret known only to like six families in the entire world, and they're all inside the Twelveswood living in the Woods, not even living in Gridania. And it's not something you're born with unless you're Padjal, in which case you belong to a race specifically created by the Elementals to host and protect Succor.
2 - Elementals literally flooded the world and grew up an entire forest (and a giant friggin tree) around Amdapor to keep people out and didn't let anyone into the forest for 1,000 years. Just to keep mankind from discovering Amdapor existed.
3 - One Elemental very slowly decides that the Player Character is good enough to represent all of Mankind, meanwhile, the other Great Ones decide that it's high time to destroy the world again.
4 - You have five years since the Calamity to find a reason to become a White Mage and dedicate yourself to healing the Wood and Eorzea (if you're so inclined to leave the Twelveswood after the Elementals gave you a great gift.) To me, after the Calamity greatly weakened the Elementals and laid waste to the Twelveswood, I can see the Elementals bestowing the knowledge of Succor on worthy few to help aid the limited number of Padjal and Hearers restore the forest. It makes the most sense. Or you can sneak into Amdapor post-Calamity and steal away with a White Mage soulstone and deviantly begin learning its secrets. Either works within lore.
