(04-21-2014, 05:59 AM)JFrombaugh Wrote: If I decided to go this route with my character, here's what I'd do for a background story:
Miranda learned Conjury first on the grounds that it appealed most to her, and she was drawn to the beauty of the forest. But the longer she stayed in the Black Shroud, the more she realized how arrogant and sometimes downright hostile towards adventurers Gridanians are. Over time she became increasingly disillusioned, guarded and aloof, and eventually she saw how Papalymo still fought to protect Gridania despite being a Thaumaturge.
So she decided to learn Thaumaturgy in secret, outside of the Twelvewsood, both out of curiosity and as a necessary means of fending for herself. As she reached the advanced levels of both, this led her to have a sort of idealistic rebel against the Padjal, believing that both White and Black Magic can be used for good, in a role that calls for balance in the world, all without letting the wrong person know and getting excommunicated.
Or she could have left the official order on her own accord upon joining the Scions, thus leaving her free to practice her arts on her own. Like Spiritual Machine said, I doubt that Job-level mastery of both will be required lorewise to become a Red Mage, and it would allow me to ignore the fact that Miranda wouldn't particularly get along well with the higher up WHMs.
Another cool part of this background story is that I'm thinking about making Miranda's last name "Koyo" (Japanese for fall colors). This would be a very meaningful name given that the season Autumn lies between Summer (peak of life) and Winter (death), and as a season it is also often associated with melancholia.
But if it would be hard to live a lie and soon she would be found out, I guess Arcanist would work too.
Not a bad idea, but why would she have to learn Thaumaturgy in secret? Why would she be excommunicated for this, especially given Papalymo's status as a Gridanian hero? I haven't really seen anything to indicate that a path of embracing more than one approach to magic would be unacceptable.
For one thing, the game pretty much encourages you to have one character that can learn any and all fields of magic. For another, the guilds are never played up as being discriminating against anyone who isn't evil, nor particularly binding to their members. Finally, Thaumaturgy and Conjury are not considered to be nearly as powerful nor as dangerous as Black and White Magic, so comparisons and anxiety over combining the two wouldn't happen.
All E-Sumi-Yan ever says about Thaumaturgy is that the destructive power of Conjury doesn't rival it, but it makes up for this by being much better at protecting the user and their allies.
