Yet another topic about tempering but regarding thoughts about magic (spoilers)

Eikonic Corruption: An Overview (Owen's Report)
This report seeks to provide an overview of the mechanism by which eikons corrupt and bind men to their will. The phenomenon we call “corruption” refers to the alteration of the aether of the soul. Said aether ordinarily exists in equilibrium; no one element being more prominent than another.

But when a subject is exposed to the aether of an eikon, this changes, their soul taking on the properties of the entity in question. By way of an example, exposure to the aether of the Fiend, Sephirot, would cause a subject's aether to become aligned with the element of earth. As a consequence, the subject would attain heightened affinity with earth-aspected magicks, as well as preternatural levels of endurance. Repeated exposure would further enhance these traits, ultimately altering the subject's very flesh.

Thanks to Lyth from the topic Tempering? for the quote !

In this quote at patch 5.4 iirc, Owen explained that corruption alters the aether of the soul and exists in equilibrium so that no element prevails over the other. That makes me wonder that: all elements are basically aspected aether, right? Anyone overexposed to said aspected aether can be tempered at some degrees. Therefore: magus like even conjurers who draws upon aspected aether in their surroundings, are they constantly exposed to these aspected aethers when using their magic?

Furthermore, red mages are using their own aether, therefore, if they use too much of one element, could they corrupt themselve in the long term?

In the end, if the aether of someone basically exists in equilibrium, does that mean that no one births with a particular elemental affinity? Like someone can be gifted with fire magic or such.

One other way I think of someone who could corrupt him/herself, as it is evoked in a chapter of the book Chronicles of Light about Zenos' past, consuming a crystal. In this chapter, by embedding a crystal in his hand, Zenos has been able to unleash a skill with aether in it, to the cost of huge pain on his body though. However I don't remember if it was a crystal of neutral aether or aspected aether and if by consuming a crystal of aspected aether allows the user to temporarily use that same aspected aether for a magic attack. Consequently, if someone were to survive when consuming said crystals, could he corrupt him/herself?

And I think last interrogation for instance: can someone alive become a pseudo-primal, or be stronger if we were to pray strongly enough with one or few ppl only ? or with some crystals providing aether to embed the prayers in this person? (as it seems it's still the case that invocation requires prayers and aether)


Very last question for this post: what do you think about elemental skills of shinobis?
I think they all draw upon surrouding aether and the user's aether, but to me it kinda is like magic but with different activation sequence.

It seems like it takes a pretty decent whack to someone's aetheric equilibrium to bring someone off-kilter; keep in mind that the only time we've seen that happen outside of tempering is voidsent/Sin Eater corruption, which is... you know, extremely severe. Seems to me that aetheric aspecting beyond that equilibrium just doesn't exist at a level less than 'panic-inducing'. Or if it does happen, is so minor and rare that it's literally never come up; nobody's mentioned it and we've never seen it, so chances are no, it doesn't happen much if at all to conjurers, Red Mages, Black Mages (not that Black Mages need the extra threats in their life), or anyone else.

Of course, that's not to say you can't do that in your own writing if you don't want to; god knows basically every roleplayer loves having their character's aether be aspected in a way that only really factors in via flowery descriptions. (I am not immune to this.) But if we're talking straight lore, there's never been an instance of someone's innate aether being aspected towards a particular element in any way that wasn't EXTREMELY dangerous to that person's life and wellbeing.

To your largely unrelated questions...
Could someone alive become a psuedo-primal: Triple triad card descriptions suggest we've already found an instance of that: Ultima (the one in Orbonne), who was some kind of alien being that became even stronger by way of everyone's collective fear about them giving them primal powers.

Are shinobis using magic: I don't know exactly what you're referring to here (I think the elemental spells in the Ninjitsu system?), but every job we've got actually uses aetherically-augmented abilities, so regardless of what you're referring to, the answer is 'yes', because every job uses some kinda magic. That's actually the reason the Garleans were so screwed; their biology is such that they can't manipulate aether, with that all instead being pumped into physical ability, which meant they were always at a disadvantage. It doesn't really matter how good you can swing a sword, if the other guy can magically make his sword swing stronger and also shoot lasers.

We still don't properly understand what factors determine resistance to aetheric corruption, and that seems to be the point of the current story arc. We'll have to wait and see how that pans out.

I'm not sure if it's possible to deliberately corrupt yourself without external assistance. Most magical disciplines seem to be built around maintaining some sort of aetheric balance. If you'll recall, Red Mages still have to balance Light and Dark aspected aether in order to properly cast spells. Likewise, Black Mages and Thaumaturges make use of Umbral Ice to replenish their aether reserves despite using Astral offensive magic.

Conjurers are primarily concerned with cleansing the land of aetheric corruption by dissipating corrupted elementals, and the quest line acknowledges that misuse of these powers can throw the elements out of balance. I haven't seen much with regards to Doman Geomancy outside of the Astrologian quests, but they seem to be built around a similar principle. Interestingly, this is not dissimilar to the approach we take to restore aetheric balance with Eden, or the approach Azem takes to prevent the volcanic eruption in 'Tales from the Shadows: Ere Our Curtain Falls.'

There are plenty of other magic systems out there that are likely aetherically based and subject to the same rules, Ninja Mudras included. But a word of caution - we still don't know how Dynamis fits into any of this, and whether there are job disciplines capable of achieving 'magical' effects without actually using aether.

I don't think that perfect aetheric balance is essential or achievable. Historically, your Guardian from the Twelve conferred different elemental affinities, but I'm not sure if that is still canon now that the system has been removed.

Thanks for your opinions !!

Normally a person's body would maintain aetheric balance on its own, analogous to the real-world process of homeostasis.

Quote:

---

Alisaie: [...] Under normal circumstances, a person's aether naturally tends to equilibrium[...]

---

While a mage is more exposed to elemental aether, one probably need to do something extreme to disrupt this process, perhaps by channeling a large amount of aether though yourself, as White Mages and Black Mages do.