Refresher on how classes use Aether?

Hello! I posted this on the subreddit, but thought I would cross-post here.

I've been away for a while, and I can't really remember how this works. A refresher would be well appreciated.

Conjury/White Magic and Thaumaturgy/Black Magic both channel aether from the caster's surroundings to spells. Correct? They are very different disciplines, but both pull aether from the same source: the world around them. This ultimately means that the spells aren't harmful to the caster, but they are, in a great enough quantity, damaging to the world. Is that right?

Red Magic instead uses the caster's personal aether to fuel spells, after the originators saw the destruction caused by rampant White and Black usage during the War of the Magi. This is the inverse of the two traditional schools, leaving no greater mark upon the world, but would theoretically cause progressive damage to the caster, right? I can't imagine an old Red Mage could be the picture of health.

Besides these classes, virtually every other Job in FFXIV channels aether into some sort of effect: be it outright spells or simply using it to augment physical capabilities. Do these other jobs use external or internal aether? Is it ever touched upon?

Thaumaturgy uses the body's own aether to cast spells - as can be seen in the class questline with the sibling of the guildmasters who want to learn thaumaturgy, but has too low aether.
Conjury borrows aether from the surroundings - likely in addition to using the caster's own aether since that can also be used, but apparently does so at a low enough level that it is not considered harmful to the surroundings.

White magic and Black magic draws aether from the surroundings of the caster, and when used on a large enough scale can be highly damaging to the world - just like primals are a danger because they drain aether from the world around them. Used on a small scale they are no problem - the world will quickly replace the aether used.

Red mages use their own aether, but as long as they don't use too much at once it won't be harmful to them. They will recover their own aether in between as long as they don't go overboard with the usage.

The crafting classes all use external aether in the form of crystals to help their crafting. (Fire crystals for heating, wind for drying, etc. etc.)

For the rest of the DoW/DoM classes/jobs it is never explicitly explained just how they use aether - we only assume they do since some of their abilities would otherwise be physically impossible.
The DoW classes almost certainly use their own aether. The DoM classes probably do so as well.

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

For the rest of the DoW/DoM classes/jobs it is never explicitly explained just how they use aether - we only assume they do since some of their abilities would otherwise be physically impossible.
The DoW classes almost certainly use their own aether. The DoM classes probably do so as well.

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To add my knowledge/theories on how other classes are using their aether:

Maschinst:
"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."
Apparently they're using their own aether and then have their devices use it.

Paladin:
Seeing how they were able to use crossclass-skills from conjurer, my guess would be that they're able to utilise aether in the same way conjurers do. All their skills seem to be very "white mage"-based aswell.

Bard:
Since they dont make much use of an form of spell casting, I'd expect them to use their own aether for that one magic ability they have - the wind-magic-dot. The poison-dot is more likely real poison? And all other abilities arent magic based, seeing how they literally sing their songs to buff their friends and weaken their foes.

Scholar, Summoner, Arcanist:
I can only make very vage assumptions based on their skills: They seem to be able to draw aether from their enemies with "Energy Drain", but since thats a specific skill, I'd guess they're mainly using their own aether (they certainly do to call their pets) and pressing that into skills via mathematical-patterns. I wouldnt be terribly surprised if thats even the most effiencient way to use your own aether: By careful calculations.

Darkknight:
Seeing how the whole quest talks about "channeling the darkness inside yourself", I'd expect them to use internal aether and not draw from the outside - I'm not 100% certain that that "darkness" is also a metaphor for aether, but to me it seems like the dark knight is more self-centered in most aspects, so I dont expect them to let the land bleed dry.

Ninja:

"We draw power from the world around us─the heaven, the earth, and the hearts of man─and channel this power into physical form. I am told that this is similar to your concept of...ay-ther, was it? I must confess that Eorzean words and ways remain unfamiliar to me.
How does one channel this power, you ask? Through the use of mudra, hand gestures that call forth each of the three forms of energy of which I spoke. The first mudra I will teach you will call power from the heavens. In Doma, we call this Ten."

Sounds more like mainly external aether - even though "hearts of man" could refer to internal aether.

Dragoon:
In terms of the jobs we can pick in the game, one would need to be more specific and call this the Azure Dragoon - the Dragoon choose by the eye of Nidhogg, which is basically pure aether, and draws their power from it.
"The Eye is no ordinary relic. It harbors the power of the dragon, which it bestows upon a single chosen soul─the strongest and wisest dragoon."
Seeing hoe dragoons arent heavy-spellcasters, my guess would be that they're mostly using their own aether for all of their more magic-like things, which the azure dragoon being able to draw aether from the Eye (as long as it exists, at least).

Monk:
The whole chakra-mechanic seems to rely on internal-aether - they say that much.
But in order to open your chakras and make use of that power, you need external aether: "We stand on an ancient battleground. A great war was waged here. The spirit of the fight lingers. The aether reaches for the chakra. It aids in their opening. That is why we monks seek such lands."

Warrior:
Only guessing again, but that guess would be that their "rage"-like state is based on internal aether, rather than external, seeing how they loose their mind over it etc.

...I dont have any real argument on samurai, but seeing how that class is more actually build around swords-techniques than magic... internal?

Drawing aether from the land seems to be both dangerous for the user and damaging for the land, and seeing how most jobs dont use extremly powerful spells - exceot BLM and WHM - I'd expect them to not take the risk and just use their own body-aether for the simple, little magic "tricks" they're performing.

Is Astrologian chopped liver? :P

Adding onto the above, AST would probably be classified as using external aether, as it seems to draw upon the heavens for its power. It is explicitly stated (and the plot of much of the 3.X quest series) that one must attune to the six constellations tied to the major arcana to "open gates". Considering the fact that you can use all six cards as soon as you get Draw, I would think said attunements do more than just allow the AST to use card buffs.

I can't remember if it is stated that attuning to these gates is synonymous with attuning to six of the seven levels of heaven? I do believe that it is stated somewhere that the AST is only able to attune to a seventh gate when about to die.

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

Thaumaturgy uses the body's own aether to cast spells - as can be seen in the class questline with the sibling of the guildmasters who want to learn thaumaturgy, but has too low aether.

...The DoM classes probably do so as well.

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Well said, and yes, the DoM classes indeed do so. For instance, Blackmages (developed in the Fifth Astral Era) use their own bodily reserves of mana to fuel their powerful incantations but can also use their aetherial bodies as "conduits" to tap into Hydaelyn's reserves of life energy to launch their arcane spells.

Likewise, Summoners (developed by the Allagans in the Third Astral era) basically transform the essences taken from defeated primals into aetheric allies... what we call "egi".

Yes Ast can only open the 7th gate if they want to die or are dying. It's like how a cnj/whm shouldn't use their own aether when casting raise or a big heal as that could/would end up killing them. Mch can't use their own aether without the box otherwise the whole anyone can become one ideal of the guildmaster wouldn't be able to happen.

Red Magi also use their Crystal Medium as an aetherial accelerator which allows them to get a lot more bang from smaller amounts of aether compared to White and Black magic.

The lore book does say that all the physical classes do use aether/magic as well even if said attack doesn't cost MP.

DRG: The Eye of Nidhogg is what has powered DRG's Dragonfire Dive, as that is a skill unique to Azure Dragoons alone. Since the eye is now gone, we can surmise that the ability has isnce been "imprinted" on us permanently, similar to how Summoners can cast Bahamut despite him being gone because there are aethertrails left by him despite returning to the Lifestream. That said, we also draw upon our latent "dragon within" to power our skills like Blood of the Dragon/Geirskogul/Fang and Claw/Mirage Dive etc. It's never outright stated, but it's more likely than not that these powers come from Midgardsrmr. In fact, the cerulean aether wyrm that appears when using Dragonsong Dive appears to be Midgardsrmr himself.

PLD/GLD: Using a small burst of aether aimed at their blades, they can generate a quick blinding burst of light that reflects off their sword, blinding all surrounding enemies (Flash). Clemency/Holy Spirit are likely spells learned in Ishgard, as the holy knights who revere Halone there have a close tie to the church, and the spell names reflect that. Clemency being sort of a FF version of D&D's "Close wounds", used by Clerics and Paladins as an emergency tactic. These are probably powered via conjury, though the element is obscure, likely unaspected as the aura that's genrated is a spectral one, similar to SCH/SMN spells. Note that neither Clemnecy or Holy Spirit have a green aura like Cure, indicating they aren't conjury.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

Note that neither Clemnecy or Holy Spirit have a green aura like Cure, indicating they aren't conjury.

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The green aura when casting Cure is actually because it's a wind-aspected spell.

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Originally Posted by Vidu

Seeing hoe dragoons arent heavy-spellcasters, my guess would be that they're mostly using their own aether for all of their more magic-like things, which the azure dragoon being able to draw aether from the Eye (as long as it exists, at least).

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Actually, some dragons, and Nidhogg in particular, ARE potent spellcasters. Hraesvalgr says as much when he tests us at Sohr Khai, and promises to bring his own not-insignificant spellcasting ability to bear against us to make sure we have a chance against his brother. Whether use of magic is something exclusive to the First Brood or if any interested dragon could learn if they wanted to is unclear. Dragoons, however, explicitly attune to Nidhogg, and he has no shortage of magical might.

But yeah, considering that DRGs can continue to DRG after Nidhogg and his eyes were destroyed, I'd say the power from them was a crutch, at best. Either that, or attuning with the Eye implanted a permanent and regenerating pool of dragon-aether into each Azure Dragoon, and we draw upon that even now that Niddy's gone. I, personally, like the latter explanation better, as it feels more unique.

I always kind of figured that in the case of the Bard, while they use physical implements like arrows and probably traditional forms of poisoning them, that some of their fancier attacks were aether imbued, as well as weaving a degree of aether into their songs. Though since they are not outright spells, I imagine they use their own aether, and it is at a lower cost than it would be for casting classes. Empowerment more than outright casting.
Likely this is part of what sets bards apart from mere archers besides the usage of songs.

Oooo. Maybe Bard songs use Dynamis. Think about it Bards are supposed to up lift their fellow combatants spirits so that they can fight on.

Some Bard abilities did used to use MP if I recall correctly, back when the job had a more explicitly magical focus.

It used to have the healer Limit Break too, was pretty fun to pull those clutch healer LB3 mass rezes as a support DPS. Thinking about it, given how things used to be, it's kind of odd that casters ended up with battle-rez instead of the physical-ranged role.

Bard was the odd one out in ARR since it was the only physical ranged. Army's Peon and Mage's Ballad restored TP and MP respectively, and used the BRD's MP, Foe Requiem also consumed MP and I guess it was easier to share healer LB than to craft an entire LB only one job would use (which, in retrospect, hah).

It's certainly a strong contender for one of the jobs that could be using dynamis, at least for their buffs.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

snipped.

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Expanding in this they sort of did in 1.0; Bard required Conjurer and Thamaturge as a sub job so you could use Cure, Raise, Protect, Stoneskin, various caster abilities (e.g Sacred Prism), and even Thunder (not that you’d use it but it was still funny that you could use it lol). Of course, that was before ‘physical ranged’ existed as a thing lol

When 2.0 came out (I think it was either during the alpha or beta?), SE came out and said they didn’t want ‘physical’ jobs to be using ‘magic’, so they deleted Conjurer/Thaumaturge as a subclass for Bard and replaced them with Monk/Dragoon (which given how things are now is pretty hilarious).
Then after Heavensward they mistook Bards saying ‘we don’t want our normal weapon skills to be cast times’ as ‘we don’t want to sing during battle anymore’ and replaced them with the oGCD abilities we have now and with the exception of Requiem. Then Bard was too strong because Refresh/Tactician + Foe Requiem plus Dancer was coming, so they struck Requiem off Bard’s song list along with various other changes to make it less appealing.

As a result you have a job that bears absolutely no relation to its ‘traditional ff’ lore / counterparts, or indeed even to its own lore description given within the game (i.e ‘you sing to support your comrades’ except you sing for your own dps and it hurts people with explosions instead of helping them). Sadly that leaves a lot of Bard’s capabilities unexplored in terms of lore, especially in regards to anything from 3.0+ when they kinda stopped making job lore lol. I’ve still never seen a convincing answer as to what Iron Jaws is lol. We waggle our finger…and it makes the enemy more poisoned? Wut? Is it like a song? An Archery technique? Is it a Bard skill? How are we doing this? Is it Aether manipulation? Some esoteric archery trickery?

And for that matter, why the hell would these Archers that supposedly started singing after being overwhelmed by emotion upon seeing the carnage of battle unfold…invent all these ultra destructive blasts that unleash carnage on the battlefield?!
They saw their friends were all dying and were like ‘Yes this motivates me to shoot a large laser beam shaped like an arrow…’ what happened to the singing?! I thought you wanted to help!

Maybe I’m wrong but FFXIV’s Bard is the only time a job has appeared in the entire series (including spin-offs) bearing no relation to the general ‘ff’ version of the job. Assuming the game actually uses a ‘traditional job system’ (e.g FF3, FF5, FF11, even counting spin-offs like Bravely Default) you’re not going to see a Summoner kicking enemies around with martial arts, or a Black Mage that stealthily dual wields knives from the shadows, anyway, outside of making that choice yourself through customisations…

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Originally Posted by Vidu

...I dont have any real argument on samurai, but seeing how that class is more actually build around swords-techniques than magic... internal?

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Much like NIN with Mudra, and MNK with chakra; SAM just has another name for the explosive manipulation of aether. In their case it is Sen. Iaijutsu is the process of taking the Sen/aether they've gathered and compressing it into their blade while sheathed. When the blade comes out, all that energy bursts from the edge and into their opponent(s).

All the jobs have their way of manipulating aether. 'Magic' or arcana, is just the way mages do it.