Hello, I haven't used a forum in over decade, but I feel similiar to many people here. A full transformation to an Angel at this stage is too much. What I haven't seen brought up yet is a hopefully sensible and referential solution: One Wing.
In FFXI Wings of the Goddess expansion (Scholar's debut as a flavoured job) the titular wings of the goddess are split between two persons, one wing each, to emphasize codependency. One wing alone can only go so far, but both wings together can soar. Several relics and Seraph herself reference back to this expansion being the reference point of Scholar as we know it.
In FFVII Crisis Core wings manifest on SOLDIERs (mutated military) under certain conditions. A SOLDIER losing their way/ going rogue eventually gain a black wing, on the other hand if they were able to "protect their honor" they gain a white wing (massively simplifying but consistent in a portion of comilation lore at least).
What I propose is for Scholar to gain temporarily a singular white wing of angelic design (with Bismarck's crafted weapon effects for example) to show progress towards "Seraphism", emphasize codependency on a "secong wing" (Eos/ Selene/ Seraph) and protection of an honor code (could be vaguely linked back to its Nymian roots or simply the desire to see allies saefly brought to victory).
At a later point in the leveling process, full Seraphism can be considered again, after we earned the second wing maybe, this part I am less sure about.
I hope I was able to make the metaphoric link between these concepts clear, would love to read your thoughts on this and wish everyone reading this a wonderful day
