How do you treat soul stones ICly?

[Miah Gamduhla]

To me, soul stones are a shortcut to mastery and are not required (in most cases). Like... there is the normal, real-life way of learning and then there's the soul stone way where you learn at a much quicker rate (maybe like having a grand-master tutoring you every waking hour of the day?). Those are my thoughts on it anyway.

 

I've considered having the MCH soul stone ICly because of its nature - its a new job and the stone itself isn't inscribed yet (according to the items text), but even though I main MCH, I haven't really put much attention on it in RP so I might just ignore it for now. Before HW, I mained BRD, but Miah was just an archer as far as RP went. I don't play BLM at all... so I don't have to deal with that mess.

[S'imba]

Too me it would be harder to explain the lack of a soulstone if claiming to be able to do a job than how one actually came to get it.

 

Even if you had a teacher to teach a student it would still mean having a soul stone. It's a secure way to record a person's life's work. Then as it gets passed down more and more people add to that knowledge. 

 

Some of the jobs that have more restricted knowledge or just lost knowledge would be needed to. It seems pretty unlikely a person can go and casually find a book titled being a dark knight for dummies. 

 

I would say not having one severely gimpy a person. Rather than having access to exactly how a person originally spent a lifetime developing a basic fundamental of a job, the practitioner would have to do all that same work themselves. 

 

Kinda the reason why I thought all paladins had a soul stone.

[Warren Castille]

One of the ways I tried to analagonize (that's not a word) how they work:

 

Have you ever been playing a new fighting game, but tried to input attacks from previous ones? And it works? You're a first-time player suddenly throwing out fireballs and canceling supers in an entirely brand-new situation. It's instinct, yeah, but you shouldn't have it by technicality.

 

Soulstones, in my headcanon, are just enhancements on those kinds of reflexes. Someone using one just gets the gut feeling of how to throw that one-two-kick combination, or how to brandish a spear to inflict painful, bleeding wounds, or how to manipulate aether to make their spells do specific things. Stuff you have no real training or experience in, but the powerful hunch in your stomach of what should come next.

[Shofie]

I don't actually know! I've never encountered anyone who used one, and my character and the people she associates with don't use them, so I imagine she would find them quite odd if she ever saw one.

 

OOC, there's reasons some people would have them for sure (i.e. Astrologians, Machinists would almost assuredly have them), but I'm not entirely sure how much soulstones really come up in the average roleplay encounter or how relevant they really are most of the time.

[Valence]

Even for 'machinists', MCH is just a job like any other. You can perfectly be a gunslinger without being a machinist, much like you can be an archer without being a bard and whatnot...

 

I mean, people with flintlocks in Eorzea are probably far more numerous and don't use aetherotransformers and the associated soulstone, which are the mark of the MCH.

[The Black Healer]

I'm pretty sure someone has said this in here somewhere but I don't think that you NEED soul stones to do the job. It just seems to help you learn faster. You have all of this knowledge built up in it from "eras past" that gets awoken and shared with you as you train with it. It's pretty much a lore exp dump. 

[Valence]

Except for some jobs where it's specifically stated that you need it, like Black Mage (or else you can still use the spells but literally burn yourself from the inside), or MCH (as a catalyst for the transformer).

[Ashe]

Way to revive a year old thread o/

 

Some jobs need them ICly...

Otherwise you kill yourself.