Questions For White Mage/Conjurer Character

[Nyx Ashkala]

Yay, my first none art, RP question thread!

 

Ok, just gonna jump right into this.

 

I'm pretty new to FFXIV lore... Like, embarrassingly so. I've not really had any characters that had a truly developed backstory in this world and so I've started chipping away at my Miqo'te, A'ria.

 

My ideas for this character are similar to the NPC from the white Mage quest lines where I believe the name is Sylphie is drawing from her own Aether instead of the Aether from the world around her and it sapping her life from her. I wanted A'ria to have issues with conjuring from the elements and thus giving her a flaw that both explains her small size and her constant illness and weakness. 

 

I've also made her a botanist mostly for the sake of her trying to find other outlets to heal people without actually having to conjure a spell because it will make her fall ill. She desperately wants to help those in need and she will do anything in order to do that.

 

That being said, are these ideas too out there or do they actually work?

[LiadansWhisper]

Yay, my first none art, RP question thread!

 

Ok, just gonna jump right into this.

 

I'm pretty new to FFXIV lore... Like, embarrassingly so. I've not really had any characters that had a truly developed backstory in this world and so I've started chipping away at my Miqo'te, A'ria.

 

My ideas for this character are similar to the NPC from the white Mage quest lines where I believe the name is Sylphie is drawing from her own Aether instead of the Aether from the world around her and it sapping her life from her. I wanted A'ria to have issues with conjuring from the elements and thus giving her a flaw that both explains her small size and her constant illness and weakness. 

 

I've also made her a botanist mostly for the sake of her trying to find other outlets to heal people without actually having to conjure a spell because it will make her fall ill. She desperately wants to help those in need and she will do anything in order to do that.

 

That being said, are these ideas too out there or do they actually work?

 

It wasn't the White Mage quest, it was actually the Conjury quest.

 

Conjurers don't actually draw power from the Elementals.  They are pulling from the lifeforce in the area around them (which is part of Succor).  The Elementals are simply sitting on the magic and monitoring it.  They do not, however, appear to give a shit whether or not random people are using conjury.  They only care when someone attempts to step a bit further and access the rest of Succor (aka White Magic).

 

You can honestly do whatever you want with your character.

[Sounsyy]

I think the concept works. The only thing to be sure of though is that there is a very real difference between "Conjury" and "White Magic/Succor" as Liadan mentioned.

 

Conjury is a form of magic that allows the user to commune with nature, borrowing its life force (aether) to form a spell. It is not monitored or controlled by Elementals.

 

While Succor is forbidden White Magic that belongs to the Elementals. It is their magic and they gift it to very few.

[LiadansWhisper]

I think the concept works. The only thing to be sure of though is that there is a very real difference between "Conjury" and "White Magic/Succor" as Liadan mentioned.

 

Conjury is a form of magic that allows the user to commune with nature, borrowing its life force (aether) to form a spell. It is not monitored or controlled by Elementals.

 

While Succor is forbidden White Magic that belongs to the Elementals. It is their magic and they gift it to very few.

 

Conjury is a part of White Magic.  It's just a very small, very weak portion of it.  It's the tiny bit that the Elementals currently allow mankind to use.  Try to take more than the tiny bit, and the Elementals get pissy.

[ArmachiA]

They get all pissy if you wear your socks funny.

[LiadansWhisper]

They get all pissy if you wear your socks funny.

 

Well.

 

It probably has to do with what kind of fabric you used to weave your socks, or perhaps wearing socks is a high insult to an Elemental.  Who even knows?  It's like asking why the Tornado is coming to tear your house apart.  D:

 

....

 

Actually, I bet the Elementals are mad about Loki's dreads.  Yup.  :bouncy:

[Roswyn]

Yay, my first none art, RP question thread!

 

Ok, just gonna jump right into this.

 

I'm pretty new to FFXIV lore... Like, embarrassingly so. I've not really had any characters that had a truly developed backstory in this world and so I've started chipping away at my Miqo'te, A'ria.

 

My ideas for this character are similar to the NPC from the white Mage quest lines where I believe the name is Sylphie is drawing from her own Aether instead of the Aether from the world around her and it sapping her life from her. I wanted A'ria to have issues with conjuring from the elements and thus giving her a flaw that both explains her small size and her constant illness and weakness. 

 

I've also made her a botanist mostly for the sake of her trying to find other outlets to heal people without actually having to conjure a spell because it will make her fall ill. She desperately wants to help those in need and she will do anything in order to do that.

 

That being said, are these ideas too out there or do they actually work?

 

I feel your character would have a very short lifespan. The whole idea with Sylphie was she was eating away at her own life in order to use her abilities. After a few years of using her abilities your character would fall over.

 

It's almost too strong of a handicap to call yourself a conjuror.

 

My character is a novice conjurer. She can manage with external injuries (and she had a bunch of practice as of late..) but when it comes to internal wounds and *gasp* raising she tends to bork it. The one time she tried raising someone she did it incorrectly and almost ended up killing herself.

 

She can't see an incapacitated person now without freaking out that she's going to have to try again and mess up. There is a lot of confusion regarding Raise as well but that is a subject for another thread.

 

I'd suggest giving A'ria a little more room to breathe. Maybe she's in the process of learning how to pull aether to use for her spells. Instead of literally chopping years off her life. Sounds like a very punishing role to play and any other characters that become close to her would naturally urge her to stop.

[LiadansWhisper]

 

 

I feel your character would have a very short lifespan. The whole idea with Sylphie was she was eating away at her own life in order to use her abilities. After a few years of using her abilities your character would fall over.

 

It's almost too strong of a handicap to call yourself a conjuror.

 

My character is a novice conjurer. She can manage with external injuries (and she had a bunch of practice as of late..) but when it comes to internal wounds and *gasp* raising she tends to bork it. The one time she tried raising someone she did it incorrectly and almost ended up killing herself.

 

She can't see an incapacitated person now without freaking out that she's going to have to try again and mess up. There is a lot of confusion regarding Raise as well but that is a subject for another thread.

 

I'd suggest giving A'ria a little more room to breathe. Maybe she's in the process of learning how to pull aether to use for her spells. Instead of literally chopping years off her life. Sounds like a very punishing role to play and any other characters that become close to her would naturally urge her to stop.

 

I had thought about mentioning this, so thanks for doing it for me.  I hesitated because people can be very protective of character concepts.   But yes, this concept would ultimately result in the death of the character, and probably much quicker than "years." In the Conjurer questline, Selphie probably had less than a year - if that - left before she would have died. If I remember correctly, according to E-Sumi-Yan, all it would have taken is a serious Raise or a complicated, difficult healing to have killed her given that she was constantly going around healing things.

 

I should probably also mention that this concept is by no means unique.  I know of at least three other characters I've run into in-game that are playing variations on this very same concept.  The self-sacrificing faith healer archetype seems to be fairly popular.

[Nyx Ashkala]

Thank you for all of the pointers . I just woke up and actually wasn't expecting g much of a response since I sometimes feel like a thread killer lmao.

 

I don't plan on making A'ria just like Sylphie and nowhere near the degree as her. Just a slight issue with her spells that constantly make her weak or sick. I don't want her to be conjuring things that are going to make her lifespan shorter and thus a shorter time Rping her. I was never good at killing off my characters anyways hahah. 

 

There was just a need for some pointers and info before I started delving into what I wanted to do since I've had this character in mind since the beta. Problem is, I love my warlocky types too much and leveled a different character as a black Mage.

[C'kayah Polaali]

-- deleted --

 

When enough people say that forcefully that I'm doing it wrong, it's time to change that part of C'kayah's backstory.

[111]

You could give her some form of Aether allergy. Maybe aether is poisonous to her body, so she can tolerate it in small amounts, but anything big can make her sick.

[Jancis]

Sadly most of the other conjurers I've met have the same 'magic' style where they don't do it properly.

 

It really just seems like copying the 'unique' story they game made to make a quest-line and makes it overplayed.

 

To be sickly or something in your character could always do something like a family illness or something along the line where every generation or something since this distant relative there's always children who don't make it and your character has found a way to survive, albeit from healing herself and draining her mind from the process which still leaves her in a weak/sickly state.

 

Or she's constantly going out and healing the elderly and sick to the point she's burning the candle at both ends.

 

That doesn't have much to do with the lore, it's just taking what is suppose to be a fluke person for the game to make people skip cut-scenes and regurgitating it. Lore-based, any conjurer would hella know better than to do something so bloody stupid.

[Warren Castille]

Sadly most of the other conjurers I've met have the same 'magic' style where they don't do it properly.

 

It really just seems like copying the 'unique' story they game made to make a quest-line and makes it overplayed.

 

To be sickly or something in your character could always do something like a family illness or something along the line where every generation or something since this distant relative there's always children who don't make it and your character has found a way to survive, albeit from healing herself and draining her mind from the process which still leaves her in a weak/sickly state.

 

Or she's constantly going out and healing the elderly and sick to the point she's burning the candle at both ends.

 

That doesn't have much to do with the lore, it's just taking what is suppose to be a fluke person for the game to make people skip cut-scenes and regurgitating it. Lore-based, any conjurer would hella know better than to do something so bloody stupid.

 

Consider the alternative, though. There's been a huge influx of adventurers storming Eorzea for the past seven~ years. There's perfectly reasonable doubt that those who applied to help with good intentions just never got the hang of it. Just consider the college application numbers compared to graduation numbers.

 

It's done a lot, yeah, but it's not too far off that there's a large pool of people who just didn't get the teachings properly despite the (one, remember, there's one CNJ guild) best efforts of a limited staff.

[FreelanceWizard]

I'd have to agree that you really shouldn't tie this into being a Conjurer. Instead, as others noted, your character could be especially keenly affected by Aether-sickness; is prone to illness generally; or has a congenital defect that manifests the same way (a heart condition, perhaps?). If you wanted to tie any of these back to your character's use of magic, a degree of focused will is seemingly required to use any of the three forms of Aether channeling, and we know via mechanics that you do eventually run out of some sort of resource when using magic. So you could say, for instance, that your character's weak heart means that channelling Aether quickly exhausts her, essentially playing MP as a measure of endurance.

 

Though Selphie does eventually get over her issues in the level 30 class quest, deciding to learn Conjury properly after a swift spiritual kick in the head.

 

 

 

EDIT: If you want to play someone who, metaphysically, uses their own Aether to heal others while also using magic "correctly," you probably want to go with arcanima (or Succor, but that's an extremely contentious choice in the RP community due to varying interpretations of the lore and setting).

[Nyx Ashkala]

I actually don't mind RPing something that isn't unique. Sometimes RPing something for the sake of being a special snowflake makes for boring RP. I imagine that a lot of conjurers have issues with the correct usage of their spells as not everyone is perfect in their application to everything in real life jobs/specialties/etc.

 

It's also not exactly something I picked up from other roleplayers as sadly I have yet to roleplay with another living creature on this server ><. It's partially to blame for my lack of knowledge with lore.

 

That being said, I'm still not afraid to RP something overdone. Pirates and airships pilots are also overdone but people welcome those with open arms.

[Jancis]

That makes a lot of sense. Honestly I see most of the people who use that as their reason is because they're trying to be special. 

 

I haven't pictured people who were not trained properly to either know enough to have their poor usage pose as a health factor; if it did I kind of imagine that it would be brought to light by other conjurers before it got out of hand. Considering how early on it shows up on the conjurer quest line I took it as a basic training that any book for "home-schooled" or "self-taught" conjurers to have easy access to.

 

It wouldn't be a big secret beyond the weird hermit girl with her young mother that was herself a hermit and ended up killing herself leaving her daughter confused and sad about the world in her own twisted perspective. That's all. While the Conjurer Guild wouldn't have propaganda that "CONJURING KILLS!" they might have a calmer banner that "Conjuring: Is it for You. The Things You Need to Know."

 

Also I've never met an airship pilot. Le Sad... but Yo Ho and a bottle of Rum to the pirates!

 

As long as you're having fun you're winning the game.

 

:lol:

[Warren Castille]

That makes a lot of sense. Honestly I see most of the people who use that as their reason is because they're trying to be special. 

 

I haven't pictured people who were not trained properly to either know enough to have their poor usage pose as a health factor; if it did I kind of imagine that it would be brought to light by other conjurers before it got out of hand. Considering how early on it shows up on the conjurer quest line I took it as a basic training that any book for "home-schooled" or "self-taught" conjurers to have easy access to.

 

It wouldn't be a big secret beyond the weird hermit girl with her young mother that was herself a hermit and ended up killing herself leaving her daughter confused and sad about the world in her own twisted perspective. That's all. While the Conjurer Guild wouldn't have propaganda that "CONJURING KILLS!" they might have a calmer banner that "Conjuring: Is it for You. The Things You Need to Know."

 

Also I've never met an airship pilot. Le Sad... but Yo Ho and a bottle of Rum to the pirates!

 

As long as you're having fun you're winning the game.

 

:lol:

 

I pictured the Conjurer's guild to look like a big-city public school. Wall to wall packed with people all learning at different rates and so on.

 

That's whether or not you want to consider that everyone practicing conjury even went through the guild proper. Lots of folks picked up a sword after witnessing heroes slay a dragon; There's no reason someone with some innate talent on the far side of the world doesn't just stick with what works. You're a poor kid in Ul'dah taking care of your starved family and find out you can smooth over the nicks and wounds of the refugees that are stealing food and raiding caravans. Do you care that you're doing it "properly" or that you feel better after eating more than a handful of beans and some seeds?

[Jancis]

 

 Do you care that you're doing it "properly" or that you feel better after eating more than a handful of beans and some seeds?

No, you don't care.

 

Then again you either:

a) Are told how to do it proper and listen to that advice.

b) Get "found" for such innate ability and given a scholarship, ergo start doing it right.

c) Die a short time later. Or long time later.

 

Overall, I am really confused why the whole concept of using one's own aether is some big secret. I get that it was hyped up for the quest, but in practice it doesn't make sense to not have that common knowledge.

 

We also have an universal spoiler that our characters typically live through anything, making them heroes to some extent or at least damn lucky. So yes, you the poor kid from the refugee group healing people from whatever you managed to figure out on your own would likely be found and 'saved' and survive.

 

I mean it's as likely as a highlander not trained in arctic conditions to go out on a search by himself and then get lost in the frozen tundra and surviving somehow after hours of being exposed to the elements. Lalalalala elements...

[Warren Castille]

You cut me like a knife, dear Jancis.

[Jancis]

Le Gasp! What have I done!

 

Being right has so many burdens...

 

... please someone go north and use their personal aether to heal Warren and bring him back safely.

 

:chocobo:

[Warren Castille]

You're actually reading that overdramatic wreck of a blog? For shame!

[C'kayah Polaali]

-- deleted --

 

When enough people say that forcefully that I'm doing it wrong, it's time to change that part of C'kayah's backstory.

[LiadansWhisper]

I wanted to expand a bit on what I wrote before, because I think the reasons I chose this limitation can be applied to a lot of the people who did so.

 

Five years ago the Red Moon crashed down on Eorzea and everything changed.

 

The Garleans had been pushing into Hydaelyn, and things were looking grim. C'kayah was living in the Shroud at the time, and as the Garleans pressed forward, he moved to Gridania proper. The soldiers who weren't already out fighting were massing for the last defense of Gridania. Anyone who was able bodied was taught to use a weapon, because there was every expectation that they would have to. And anyone with the barest hint of conjury was hastily trained by the conjurer's guild. C'kayah already was a decent field medic, both from his tribal days as a hunter and from his weeks in the field guarding caravans and the like. His possession of the conjurer's talent led to him also being taught to tap into it. Because time was short, the training was hasty and incomplete.

 

After Carteneau, his teachers urged him to complete his training, but he had other plans for his life. After the attack on him at the Royal Ball, he spent some time in Gridania under the conjurer's tutelage, but he's still got a long ways to go.

 

I imagine his is a very common story.

 

It's important to remember that the average person trying to learn Conjury can't drain their own aether.  They don't have the innate talent for it.  The reason Selphie was able to drain her own life force to heal others is that she was quite literally born with the innate ability to perform conjury without any training.  This is because she was born a Hearer (and had been suppressing/ignoring that aspect of her abilities for years).  So the average joe with a half-assed bit of training in conjury is just going to fail the spell they're trying to cast - not drain their own life force instead.

[111]

I wanted to expand a bit on what I wrote before, because I think the reasons I chose this limitation can be applied to a lot of the people who did so.

 

Five years ago the Red Moon crashed down on Eorzea and everything changed.

 

The Garleans had been pushing into Hydaelyn, and things were looking grim. C'kayah was living in the Shroud at the time, and as the Garleans pressed forward, he moved to Gridania proper. The soldiers who weren't already out fighting were massing for the last defense of Gridania. Anyone who was able bodied was taught to use a weapon, because there was every expectation that they would have to. And anyone with the barest hint of conjury was hastily trained by the conjurer's guild. C'kayah already was a decent field medic, both from his tribal days as a hunter and from his weeks in the field guarding caravans and the like. His possession of the conjurer's talent led to him also being taught to tap into it. Because time was short, the training was hasty and incomplete.

 

After Carteneau, his teachers urged him to complete his training, but he had other plans for his life. After the attack on him at the Royal Ball, he spent some time in Gridania under the conjurer's tutelage, but he's still got a long ways to go.

 

I imagine his is a very common story.

 

To think of it in physical terms. There are probably Archers who learned the wrong form, and are fucking up their shoulders and back with every shot, or gladiators who never quite learned the proper form.

 

Plenty of people learn 'How' to do things when time is short, but they often don't learn the why. I can imagine conjurors in time of crisis learning some jury rigged method of closing wounds or throwing rocks at people, but not really understanding what is going on.

[111]

I wanted to expand a bit on what I wrote before, because I think the reasons I chose this limitation can be applied to a lot of the people who did so.

 

Five years ago the Red Moon crashed down on Eorzea and everything changed.

 

The Garleans had been pushing into Hydaelyn, and things were looking grim. C'kayah was living in the Shroud at the time, and as the Garleans pressed forward, he moved to Gridania proper. The soldiers who weren't already out fighting were massing for the last defense of Gridania. Anyone who was able bodied was taught to use a weapon, because there was every expectation that they would have to. And anyone with the barest hint of conjury was hastily trained by the conjurer's guild. C'kayah already was a decent field medic, both from his tribal days as a hunter and from his weeks in the field guarding caravans and the like. His possession of the conjurer's talent led to him also being taught to tap into it. Because time was short, the training was hasty and incomplete.

 

After Carteneau, his teachers urged him to complete his training, but he had other plans for his life. After the attack on him at the Royal Ball, he spent some time in Gridania under the conjurer's tutelage, but he's still got a long ways to go.

 

I imagine his is a very common story.

 

It's important to remember that the average person trying to learn Conjury can't drain their own aether.  They don't have the innate talent for it.  The reason Selphie was able to drain her own life force to heal others is that she was quite literally born with the innate ability to perform conjury without any training.  This is because she was born a Hearer (and had been suppressing/ignoring that aspect of her abilities for years).  So the average joe with a half-assed bit of training in conjury is just going to fail the spell they're trying to cast - not drain their own life force instead.

 

While someone might not literally be a hearer, I think it's possible they could still damage their body by not conjuring spells correctly.