(08-10-2017, 02:54 PM)MagicCat Wrote: Is there any direct reason that Arcanists/Summoners are tied to diseases and such with their spells?
I don't think there's a "direct" reason given in lore, but there's a couple of things that I think might've heavily influenced the class's direction.
The first is out of lore, sorta. In an older Fanfest interview, Fernehalwes said that when the arcanist class was originally meant to release in the 1.0 version of the game, its original storyline revolved around a disease which was spreading rapidly around Vylbrand called the Green Rot. Due to the lethality of the disease, many foreign merchants and alchemists began selling fake tonics and potions, preying upon the desperate. As arcanists, being assessors of the port's custom house, it was your duty to halt the spread of this contraband and find a real cure for the disease.
Senah Chalahko Wrote:I used t' sail the five seas with the League o' Lost Bastards, but I packed it all in when me ma came down with the Green Rot. I now gather herbs for the local medicine women, hopin' that while I'm at it, I might find a cure…
Trinne Wrote:Fishback raids, legendary serpents, the Green Rot, an' now the sirens… There be some as say we're witness t' th' Navigator ventin' Her wroth. Mayhap 'tis time I paid th' bethel another visit.
Because of development issues in the early game, the arcanist class was never put into the game until ARR and the original storyline was scrapped - though traces of it remained in the game, as seen in the quotes above and in the existing 1.0 alchemy questline where arcanists attempted to aid the Phrontistery only to be shooed away for fear that they would steal alchemy secrets to solve their own woes. Similar to how the Marauders' Guild was originally penned as the Executioners' Guild, I think the ARR redraft of the class and its abilities gave a shoutout to the original storyline. (Similar to how the marauders are no longer executioners, but abilities such as Butcher's Block and the addition of the central pirate faction known as the Bloody Executioners were included as callbacks to the original idea.)
Koji Fox Wrote:In Limsa Lominsa, the original Arcanist quest that was supposed to be released in 1.0 was actually about this disease spreading around La Noscea called the Green Rot. It would infect all of these people and they would die. To make money off of this, a bunch of merchants would try to smuggle in snake oils and tonics and things like that, and try to sell those to the people dying so they could get their money because they knew they were going to die anyway and were desperate.
You, as the Assessors (because at Mealvaan’s Gate the arcanists are Assessors) would check the stuff coming in. One of the jobs would have you check ships and confiscate all of this contraband. That was going to be the original arcanist story, but that got completely scrapped and turned into the current version.
The second point of influence is from the lore behind the origins of the Arcanists. Them being the survivors and descendants of the Scholars of Nym 1600 years before. As well as being masters of arcane magicks, military strategems, aetherial manipulation, and knowledges allowing them to create and bind elemental-like deities to them and their soul stones - the ancient Scholars of Nym were also talented healers and phrontists. A single scholar and faerie able to maintain and support an entire party of Nymian marines.
Encyclopedia Eorzea - Leeches Wrote:This spell cleanses the recipient of deleterious effects. According to the histories of Nym, it was devised to counter the insidious, debilitating magicks favored by the black mages of Mhach.
In order to develop cures for myraid diseases, however, the disease usually must be studied or even recreated. Perhaps this is why the Scholars grew so adept at the art? Though adept healers of many ailments, even the scholars of Nym eventually succumbed to a disease wrought by a Mhachi-summoned voidsent. Those debilitated were sealed away within the Wanderer's Palace to quarantine the spread.
But the scholars can trace their routes, though far more distantly, to the Summoners of Allag. While I can't flat out say why the paragons of Allagan magic decided to focus so heavily upon magicks which debilitated their foes instead of vanquishing (perhaps because they already had powerful egis to accomplish that for them?) or even why it was those specific magicks which survived to the modern day, the lore book does give a hint at what might have inspired the creation of those spells:
Encyclopedia Eorzea - Tri-disaster Wrote:An offensive incantation comprised of three separate corrosive elements that gnaw away at a foe's corporeal being. This technique is thought to have been devised in remembrance of the trio of catastrophes instigated by the Warring Triad.
In short, we don't know for certain. Though we have enough info for pretty good guesswork. Hope this helps though! ^^ You can find more lore on the modern arcanists and various aetherology questions in the links below:
-Arcanist and Mealvaan's Gate Lore
-Aether and Magic Lore Compilation Index
