Verilys

It's a fun way to think about things, at the very least! The reason why WHM discussions tend to be rather controversial is simply because there's a lot that we don't know. It's in a place where SquareEnix could easily crush anyone's character based on White Magic based on a single questline. But for that very same reason, there's a lot of wiggle room to come up with strange, yet plausible theories. Mind you, I don't play or intend to play a White Magic-based character, but the way that conversations unfold around the topic are really interesting to me.

Well, that's what they said happened. They're not just going to go about and admit to murdering their citizens. Sylphie's mother documented that the use of her magics were angering the Elementals -- something then that was shown not to be the case for Conjury in the quests. So... what would Sylphie's mother have been casting to anger the Elementals and then soon die thereafter? 8-)

WOOD'S WILL BE DONE Though the 1.0 Gridanian MSQ entertained the possibility/likelihood that the Elementals may just be some made up thing to keep Gridanians subjugated, the game itself showed them to be very real and every bit as powerful as they were made out to be. They may have been severely weakened by the Calamity, but breaking the Pact of Gelmorra is still a very real concern that the Gridanians should not test. I can't watch the videos from my current location, sadly! But though Elementals obviously exist and have real power (and that's relatively well-displayed in many questlines), do we have an unbiased source with regards to Succor? I kinda like the idea of it not being something of the Elementals' own power, but if they catch you using it, they'll smite you down. Which is probably exactly what happened to Sylphie's mother. ... Or maybe she was assassinated by Padjals. Adorable child-like bearers of wisdom? Or bloodthirsty beasts of Elemental Law?

Was excellent fun! Caex'ra won after a very intense final round that saw the final 3 all on a single hp. And he won with a roll of 100-something!

I would like to drink lots, should there still be room!

This is pretty neat. I think it's an interesting read for anyone, even if they (like me) are not actually playing a courtesan! It provides a very thoughtful look at how the various cultures might act in a way I hadn't given much consideration towards.

Perfect for procrastination!

I'm typically cautious of what devs say in off-the-cuff situations, such as panels. It depends on context. I'll need to check out the live recording of where that particular quote from White Mages comes from to say anything about that one in particular, so I won't reference that in particular! However, devs (even lore devs) will often respond from a mechanical point of view and the gameplay's overall story narrative, rather than from the lens of lore as roleplayers tend to see it. So, I'm really, really wary of saying that they're the word of god with absolute certainty. They tend to think of the game AS that main story arc; not the rest of the world, not the side characters, the people who are making their quiet living in amongst all the other stuff going on. But as I mentioned earlier, I'm also new. So, I don't know how reliable Fernehalwes is. Other people would have a better perspective there.

As a new player, I've found the discussion on the White Mage stuff very interesting, but I've been having difficulty finding explicit statements that'd conclude against players playing as one. I don't want to beat on the topic further either -- would someone be able to message me and point me towards the resources?

That really is an ambiguous statement! And really it depends on the definition of fate and whether or not it can be changed normally. Then there's the decision as to what, exactly, they can change. Personally, I would see the powers of fate-changing as something that can be done indirectly, but not overtly. For example, imagine that fate is a river -- the Astrologian might not be able to change the river's destination, but they can throw rocks into it to alter the various things. Throw enough and maybe they can dam the flow outright. In practical RP, this might be something like... using their powers to cast a protective shield around an ally to deflect a heart-seeking strike. Alternatively, they may be able to silence a mage and thereby potentially alter the outcome of a fight. If you wish to be more literal, you could even treat a spell as a 'luck buff'. Perhaps if you and your friends use /random for fighting, the spell could add 10% to the result. (Though I'd naturally say to make sure you only do this with friends or people who otherwise agree with that system -- I imagine altering rolls liek that unannounced may cause some upset!) It's also probably best to ignore the question: "If someone changes fate, was it fate that their fate be changed?"

As a note, playing cards are also a great alternative for anyone who might like to get into that aspect of RP, but don't want to drop money on a prop that they might never use again. They're quite different in that they don't have the major arcana and such, but still work really, really well.

Was a fun event, I'm glad I came along