Black Mage city during the War of the Magi era?

Information about the War of the Magi has really kicked up with 2.2, which brings me to an interesting thought.

Scholars have Nym.
White Mages have Amdapor.

What do Black Mages have? And where would it be located? Was this ever mentioned within dialog somewhere or just vaguely hinted at like much of this particular Era?

My guess? The black mage city would've been located in Thanalan, possibly Eastern because it's the closest location to Amdapor.

Just ask yourself: where, in the whole world, is there so much death and destruction that it hasn't recovered in over 3000 years?

Can anyone recall the span of the Belah'dian civilisation? I'm curious if they are our culprit.

According to the Duty Finder blurb, they're a Sixth Astral Era civilization, but their 'temple' is much, much older.

I'll note that this area gets a little muddy: the Omnilex questline specifically mentions Nym and Amdapor being involved in a skirmish against each other during the War of the Magi. So it's not quite a... *sunglasses* black and white (mage) issue.... as there was evidently at least some SCH vs WHM involved as well. What we'd really need is some more sources for the War than what currently exist.

I'd imagine it was the black mages of different thanalan cities fought amongst each other. Think sild vs ul dah

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Originally Posted by Myranda

I'll note that this area gets a little muddy: the Omnilex questline specifically mentions Nym and Amdapor being involved in a skirmish against each other during the War of the Magi.

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Certainly not just black and white mage thing (I noticed that more and more when I did the SCH storyline.). It was a mess, turning the realm upside down essentially, but the specifics are still pretty muddied. I hope they give us more information in the future.

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Originally Posted by myahele

I'd imagine it was the black mages of different thanalan cities fought amongst each other. Think sild vs ul dah

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That's a good point. They may not have been a unified city like Nym or Amdapor.

If u look carefully on how Amdapor Keep was build on the east of the Amdapor city, that would mean that the black mages city state are located either east of south (judging from the impossibility or lack of black magic traces in the shroud and how black mages of old are Lalas) which leads us to the fabled Belah'dian invisible city which fell when their necromancy experiment gone wrong. Or theres a possibility that the great flood which swept the land during the Sixth Umbral Era changed landscape and pathways and Amdapor Keep is not only the fortification owned by Amdapor and there's a good chance that the black mages city state may lie outside the shroud to Ala Mhigo's direction considering the worship of Rhalgr the Destroyer and his meteor symbol aka BLM job symbol.

Just to note, there are also black mage tonberries wearing black mage gowns and hats in the scholar story line - along with the scholar tonberry - which would suggest to me that there were some black mages present in Nym to some degree.

If I remember correctly it's stated that Black Magic was discovered by Shatotto who was beforehand just considered a "sorceress" when she called down a star from the sky during the Sixth Umbral Era and used it to make the Stardust Rod. I have no idea when the War of the Magi took place, but that's something to consider.

Correction: Shatotto apparently lived in the Fifth Astral Era and was a Thaumaturge.

The only problem is that there is little evidence to support that Shatotto, the first Black Mage, was native to Belah'dia. There is also little evidence that the Belah'dians used black magic themselves. If you look at the Lost City of Amdapor, you can see the white magic influence in the names and enemies. You don't get this same vibe when trying to relate black magic to the Sunken Temple of Qarn.

I'm lead to believe that Black Magic as a whole wasn't concentrated to just 1 location like White Magic was. People, in general, feared Black Magic due to its destructive power. Because of this Shatatto was more of a drifter-type, caring more about her own research than anything else, and thus being shunned from society. So Black Magic, other than having its roots with her, doesn't belong to any civilization as a whole. It was more or less just a tool that civilizations adopted to use for their own purposes.

Of course that's all me speculating. If I had to say BLM did have a definitive place within a singular society, I would have to believe it would be with Nym as they were well versed in magicks to begin with.

I'm sure more learned lore-buffs would be able to correct me on this if I got anything wrong. I'm at work so don't really have a ton of time to track down all we know about Eorzean history at the moment.