Does Scholar Really Use Magic? - Lore/RP

Think of SCH being similar to Alchemists from Full Metal Alchemists. They draw/create arcane geoemetric patterns using aether o their book to weave effects into existence. So they turn to a page on their grimoire of the Adloquiem spell and swipe their hands over it, empowering it with their aether, then the spell "activates", healing and shielding the players.

It's magic but rather than the effect being some primordial energy, it's more complex. It uses aether like magic, but the command is "executed" according to the geoemetric patterns/blueprints (which is like programming code), which the aether follow. For plain mages, their subconscious controls the flow of the aether to carry out the effects. Think of White Mage and Black Mage as musicians. They play instruments to make beautiful music. Scholar also makes music, but they use a computer. The code/programs/scripts they use tells electricity how to produce sound. Both the mages and the scholar use "electricity", the mages use their body's own bioelectricity and the scholar uses an external device powered by electricity. The outcomes are similar but the tool is different.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

But if a given ability uses 'aether' (vs pure martial skill/discipline/etc), I think to most, that would be magic. Regardless of the source.

tl;dr: Unless we have definitions that specifically separate 'magic' and 'aether', distinctions in sources of aether are interesting to discuss in terms of lore... but in the end, it still all seems like "magic".

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That is pretty much my thought process on it. If the ability consumes MP, it's of a magical property. Semantics can intertwine aether and magic, but all we need to do is look to the lore where it specifically states that Garleans cannot use magic. This tells us the lore makes the two terms separate. Magic is the art of channeling aether through various means for a myriad of purposes. Eorzens use music, nature, written text, jutsu, and even the abyss to harness and wield the aether. Garleans are incapable of any of this. In short, if you could play a Garlean in FFXIV, you wouldn't have an MP gauge of any kind.

We also know that not all magic users are mages - another distinction. Mage in this game is synonymous with caster, hence how we got terms like Bow Mage and Gun Mage in earlier days. BRD, DRK, and PLD are clear magic users, but none of them are mages. Even though some of their abilities are classified as 'spells', we can't call any those melee jobs true mages.

In short; Eorzeans are magical badasses, and Garleans are just jelly. :p

Incidentally, came across this about MCH: "Next, let's talk about that contraption at yer waist. Now, I don't rightly understand it, but the boss tells me it draws on the aether in yer body an' turns it into the spark what'll feed some new devices 'e's workin' on."

Makes MCH seem even more like a mage really - it's not even something like ceruleum-fueled, it's just the lunchbox taking on the role of staff/cane/wand/medium/etc.

Thanks all for the answers to my question.btw, I loved the analogy with Full Metal Alchemist transmutation. xD

about this MCH discussion, i think that is a interesting point. mch uses its own source of magic (ether) via aetherotransformer, but is something automatic, that does not need the ether manipulation. but, I believe that we must know how to manipulate ether to be a mage.

if we compare with allagan, there really are not major differences, because they created "automatic grimoires" with technology. some did not know how to manipulate ether like a allagan summoner and created these tools but they were engineer / researchers who created and controlled (although they did many weapon 100% automatic)