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+--- Thread: Using astromancy to prolong life? (/showthread.php?tid=11904)
Using astromancy to prolong life? - Magistrea - 06-04-2015
The title says it all really. I don't really know how people would react to this but from the little lore we have on astrologians I can see it being a possibility given that astrologians have "power of fate".
So yeah, what do people think of astrologians being able to prolong their lives by having power of their own fate?
RE: Using astromancy to prolong life? - Dogberry - 06-04-2015
I don't really think we know enough about Astromancy to say one way or the other. It's best to wait for Heavensward to come out and see what it may or may not be capable of.
RE: Using astromancy to prolong life? - Gegenji - 06-04-2015
Gonna have to agree with Dogberry.
And even running off what little we know right now, I don't see how it can "prolong" life. Maybe give you a warning of big things that might be coming down the line, like with the Dravanian attacks. So, at the very least, you might live longer because you don't get ambushed by an Eorzean-equivalent Mongol horde or something... but that's about it.
RE: Using astromancy to prolong life? - Lilia Lia - 06-04-2015
I think it's feasible. Heck I would think that conjury could prolong life also, in theory.Â
It would have to be a pretty rare talent though, so it would rely on a kind of esoteric wisdom rather than being a no-brainer of conventional astromancy. You would need to be able to explain how it was that your character came to possess this special knowledge because it would certainly be a coveted talent if you have the secret to prolonged lifespan. Bearing all of these things in mind, I think the only foreseeable issue with it is the extent to which it makes your character "special," which might bother some people.
I doubt the lore will explicitly touch on this kind of thing but you should wait to make sure it's not explicitly contradicted. Other than that I'd say go for it, as long as you give it a realistic amount of weight and bear in mind how specialized it is.
As for waiting for Heavensward, that might be advisable since I am sure the job quests and guildmaster dialogue will shed a lot of light on Astromancy.
RE: Using astromancy to prolong life? - Hammersmith - 06-04-2015
I think it could, in an indirect way. Â Since it's a management of fate and omens, it could, in theory, steer you away from major life events that would be detrimental. Â Don't go outside on X day, storm strikes, don't travel to X an Y day, place burns to the ground.
IN short you'd have a long natural life span at the expense of being boring as hell. In order to do anything with your long life you'll have to...well...put it at risk.
RE: Using astromancy to prolong life? - Lilia Lia - 06-04-2015
(06-04-2015, 04:13 PM)Hammersmith Wrote: I think it could, in an indirect way. Â Since it's a management of fate and omens, it could, in theory, steer you away from major life events that would be detrimental. Â Don't go outside on X day, storm strikes, don't travel to X an Y day, place burns to the ground.
IN short you'd have a long natural life span at the expense of being boring as hell. Â In order to do anything with your long life you'll have to...well...put it at risk.
This would be hard to RP though because theoretically your character would never put themselves in life-threatening situations, so if a life-threatening situation ever came up through natural RP you'd have to explain why your character didn't foresee it.
RE: Using astromancy to prolong life? - Hammersmith - 06-04-2015
(06-04-2015, 04:20 PM)Lilia Lia Wrote:(06-04-2015, 04:13 PM)Hammersmith Wrote: I think it could, in an indirect way. Â Since it's a management of fate and omens, it could, in theory, steer you away from major life events that would be detrimental. Â Don't go outside on X day, storm strikes, don't travel to X an Y day, place burns to the ground.
IN short you'd have a long natural life span at the expense of being boring as hell. Â In order to do anything with your long life you'll have to...well...put it at risk.
This would be hard to RP though because theoretically your character would never put themselves in life-threatening situations, so if a life-threatening situation ever came up through natural RP you'd have to explain why your character didn't foresee it.
Oh, I never said it was a viable char concept, I didn't think that was the question.
Totally viable for some wrinkled NPC in a tall tower though. Â You see a lot of "Looking" forward in the Coerthas stuff, the astrologers are all segregated and in controlled sections there.
Given the shit happening at Ishgarde, astrology has to have a major flaw. Â Either it becomes impossibly complicated for normal people on a macro scale, making it impossible to have a nation state like Ishgarde steered soley by it, or it's subject to more chance and "This or that might" forking prophecies not "This is" definites.
So either it works on a small scale but not large, which means it'd be great if you want to be a really old codger who lives in a tower, or it's a complex web of questions and branching possibilities like the Foundation series wrote about with their social mathematics, which I think also lends to it's "complex on large scale" issues.
Obviously it can't be perfect or Ishgard would have seen all this coming, like you said.