Sharlayan and Astrologian Lore Checks/Questions

[Gobitto]

Hi! I have rp'd before on other MMOs, but I am new to FF14 and its  lore. I was wondering how lore friendly being an Astrologian from Sharlayan is, or at least a scholar. It seems many characters from the main story line at least studied or had some connection to Sharlayan, but I wasn't certain how common that is. Then there is the whole Astrologian quest story line where sharing knowledge outside of Sharlayan was heavily frowned upon. So what would be the best way to set up a backstory for a character with connections to astrology and Sharlayan, if it is possible at all? Thank you!

[Erah'sae]

While there is some Sharlayan knowledge that is kept close to the chest, there is a lot of Sharlayan activity outside of the area proper.    The Astrologer quests are one of the examples of a study that wasn't even well received within Sharlayan proper itself, so it's really an edge case.
 

While you might not have seen many of them yet, there are a number or those with Sharlayan connections you cross paths with as far out as Kugane in the quest lines.  I think you'll be all right as long as you don't claim to be part of one of the really important circles.  

[Valence]

It's not uncommon. Astrology has often been scorned by more "scientific" disciplines and deemed a tad eccentric, but it is still actually part of sensitive knowledge that Sharlayan doesn't allow to spread outside of its own borders. Sharlayan also used to welcome a lot of foreigner students before until up recently where they closed up a bit on themselves and turned isolationist, mostly under the influence of the Bibliothecs faction, who are incidentally also some sort of cabal using very advanced astrology (time manipulation) as seen in the AST quests. It is however starting to open up especially in Ishgard where it was recently admitted to be a serious field of knowledge that wasn't here to scam and supplant traditional Ishgardian astrology. 

 

If you mean a scholar as an erudite, then well, Sharlayan is THE premiere land of scholars and erudites. If you mean a Scholar as the job... it's probably a bit more murky. Scholar is a job that takes its roots in ancient Nym (On Vylbrand, the prior civilization before Limsa). Technically it's a job lost in legend and time as lot of jobs are, but recently discovered again by Lominsan erudites. However Sharlayan is often a very convenient roleplay plot enabler if I may say so, in that Sharlayan seems to have almost infinite repositories of knowledge about pretty much every obscure thing you could dream of in the realm.And a lot more exotic things. You just have to look at what they created with the Antitower to get the magnitude of their arcane knowledge in anything even remotely magical. I don't think we have anything pointing at true sharlayan Scholars using fairies and all the SCH apparatus in lore, but as I said, it's a good enabler or at least a strong stepping stone to get access to KNOWLEDGE, especially if you're a sharlayan native to begin with. 

Edited May 14, 2019 by Valence

[Gobitto]

Thank you for the responses!

 

Valence - Yes I meant scholar as an erudite, not as the job. Sorry I should have made that more clear! Thank you for the detailed response!