(07-07-2015, 01:02 AM)shotgunbadger Wrote: From what I understand it's 'common knowledge' that the magic war or whatever it was called involved incredibly destructive and world shaping magics, and among the very magically educated they know the names of those magics. Basically it'd be like if it was common knowledge that World War 2 ended with a horrific use of a military weapon, but only people really educated in history or military stuff would know 'yea those were nukes, dawg'.
That's my understanding at least, Black Magic is more 'common' in the sense that it's fairly known there is a special kind of very destructive magics that was especially powerful, but White Magic has literally been buried in the forest for ages.
Except WW2 was only 75 years ago, versus 1,600. And without internet or access to public education, on top of the fact that this knowledge was intentionally hidden from the public, I find it hard to believe that any of this was common knowledge.
The reason Black Magic specifically is more commonly known in Ul'dah, is because the surviving Magi from the 6th Umbral Calamity came together and formed the city of Belah'dia - a city specifically for Magi because the rest of Eorzea had ostracized them and cast them out. Belah'dian Magi retrace the routes of Black Magic back into Thaumaturgy and continue on the practice for the next thousand years. Belah'dia splits into Sil'dih and Ul'dah, and Ul'dah still exists to this day. And, quite pertinent, to the original 1.0 storyline for Thaumaturge, it required them to do a lot of reading and study on their magic and its roots. However, we are told that these tomes on the "dark arts" are kept in the forbidden section of the Ossuary's library.
White magic, on the other hand, was supposedly all but wiped out. First by the Black Mages when they destroyed Amdapor shortly before the end of the war. Then by the Flood which swallowed Eorzea. The Elementals then cast out everyone from Amdapor and grew up the forest (and a giant tree) around Amdapor. Egress into the Wood was not permitted to anyone for 1000 years afterwards. Succor was then only gifted to the Padjal, a race of the Elemental's own creation, of which we only know of six families. It's expressed in the WHM storylines that this is an extremely close guarded secret of the Padjal and that likely Gridanians don't even know exactly what separates a Padjal's Succor from a very skillful Conjurer. Given that the Elemental's word is law, I find it hard to swallow that there are too many within Gridania who are keen to pry into the Elemental's power. And outsiders have only been allowed into the Black Shroud in the last 100 years since the Autumn War, so not a lot of outsider influence to be had there either.
