How can there be a White Mage and a Black Mage simultaneously on a character?

[Skyhound]

I think I just figured it out. As it was stated before, training in multiple disciplines(classes) is common. That's why all you have to do to use that discipline is grab that weapon.

Jobs are different, they're tied to our job crystals. As explained in their description, Job Crystals carry the experience of the warriors who have used that crystal before. If anyone has watched Avatar: the last airbender, it's similar to how the avatar has access to the power of previous avatars. As a result, the reason we can be multiple jobs is because the power is within that crystal. Our training in that job is actually us attuning to that crystal. It's like setting your homepoint on an aetheryte. Want to be a BLM? Attune to the BLM Soul Crystal. Want to be a Warrior? Attune to the Warrior Soul Crystal.

With that in mind, I believe it's perfectly possible and canon that the main character has every soul crystal and just attunes to it when he/she needs to use that Job.

[Urthdigger]

While they are two opposing viewpoints, I do not feel that it is impossible to be a practitioner of both. They are more like two sides of the same coin. Both draw large amounts of aether from the surrounding area, and led to an umbral era. Both are now outlawed for general use. The difference is simply the source of their power.

The only things you got right in your description of the two is that white magic is healing and draws from nature, while black magic is destructive and calls upon the Void. Neither is inherently good or evil, one can certainly use healing magic to support the soldiers of a ruthless invasion, or use black magic to strike down a powerful foe. They are simply the choice between defense and offense.

[Tarta]

Goodz

That made perfect sense. I will stick to your ideology as it coincides with mine.

[AspectOfWinter]

First off, thank you to all who replied. I can see where a lot of you are coming from.

One thing that someone pointed out that I would wholeheartedly concur with in terms of RPing is that the Player Character IS often at odds with the various townsfolk (in fact, the entire Titan storyline revolves around your character being harassed, mistreated, and even manipulated by the NPCs who claim to be the only ones who know who know how you can find Titan), and because of this I view/him/her as being more on the Scions' side than his/her City State's. So your relationship with the Scions could have allowed you to view the use of magic in ways that most Gridanians/U'ldahns are too blinded by pride to accept. In a way, since both types of magic were outlawed, this might fit the outcast persona.

Not to mention that it is revealed in 2.1 that the Echo has some kind of bond with the Void.

Lorewise, I would say my character tends to be a lot like Terra at times. But with a different element.

EDIT: As for myself, I always thought that Yuna was me on my good days, and Lulu was me on my bad days.

[Melithea]

With that in mind, I believe it's perfectly possible and canon that the main character has every soul crystal and just attunes to it when he/she needs to use that Job.

Pretty similar to my thinking. The average Eorzean will master one class in their lifetime, if any, and maybe dabble in 2 or 3. The PC, in contrast, has a special level of talent, physical ability, and learning potential where they can master many disciplines in a much shorter time. Yet even job abilities are beyond their reach without the benefit of a job crystal empowering them, and once again they have the ability to adapt and attune to many job crystals where most folks would have to dedicate their lives to the techniques of just one job. In this case you're basically benefiting from a short cut. Your ability to attune to seemingly any job crystal may come down to the power of the Echo, but it would be useless without the massive potential to grow and learn our characters also enjoy (represented by the need to reach level 30 in a class first). It's a little Mary Sue, but you wouldn't expect the average person to win the Olympics, either.

Of course the waters instantly become muddied when you consider that there is more than one player. Some story dialogue suggests that the other PCs who raid Praetorium with us are simply elite adventurers, while from their own perspective they're the Chosen One. In cases like this the story, lore and the mechanics are disconnected in a way that defies a satisfying explanation. There's nothing you can do about this other than hand-wave it.

[AspectOfWinter]

Whatever SE have planned for possible future Jobs, I think it's a little too soon to be making guesses as to how the lore could allow such magic - technically RDM as it traditionally is depicted, is just a swordsman who can use White and Black Magic without excelling in either. It should also be noted that in FFXIV both White and Black Magic were outlawed because past practitioners of those schools of magic brought about Umbral Eras through their misuse. I presume RDM would have a similar explanation. But then I guess we'll see.

I personally would really like to see Red Mage as a melee dps Disciple of Magic that plays kind of similar to Harbinger from Rift. (mixes melee attacks with CNJ and THM in some way, for example Fire might do more damage if used after a melee attack, or another attack might have a chance of making Stone II instant cast)

Lorewise, I think it would be cool if you discovered them as kind of a Monk-like cult with a similar philosophy on fighting, and the concept of a yin-yang balance between the two types of magic.

[WellGramarye]

Relevant; read the green text then the text box:



and

[cotti]

Excellent points were made here, and I will second the notion that you can be every class, since they do not compromise you in any kind of "destiny". You just happen to have talent to use the particular skills of each.

As for jobs, I consider it a fusion between the character and the spirits within the job stones. When you are using one, you are bound to the destiny of that particular stone, but when you take it off or change your stone, you are not bound by that destiny anymore, and consequently can't use the job's specific skills nor have their additional powers.

Such is the life of an independent adventurer.

[Effie_Bigglesworth]

Are black mages evil? In the black mage story quests the impression I got from Ququruka rode a thin line, wielding tremendous destructive power but using that power to safeguard the world from the Void. All the quests you undertake as a black mage involve destroying voidkin and sealing portals to the Void. Judging by Ququruka's backstory, the power is seductive and sometimes actively corrupts black mages, but his intent (and presumably our intent as black mages) was always to use that power to help others. If Black Mages were bad to the bone, wouldn't your story quests involve tearing bigger and bigger holes to the void and letting all sorts of nasties in?

Is black magic powered by the void? Even after completing all the BM story quests I had trouble telling whether this was the case or not. I seem to remember early on in the quests being told that Thaumaturges draw upon their own internal aether reserves, but Black Mages draw upon the ambient aether.

[Wolfandre]

Want to be a BLM? Attune to the BLM Soul Crystal. Want to be a Warrior? Attune to the Warrior Soul Crystal.

Pretty much what I said (great minds think alike, eh? ). We don't have the time nor the interest to actually become White Mages, and we use the experiences unlocked through become more and more attached to our Soul Crystals (progressing through the Job Quests). We have better things to do, like save the world and romp around in deep, dark dungeons. Instead, we use the Soul Crystals to cheat, using the experience of actual White Mages and actual Paladins to help us accomplish our goal and bypass all of the pomp and circumstance.

Are black mages evil?

Strictly speaking, no, adhering to a specific profession, no matter how profane, is not what makes a person evil. People are people and then they delve in to their field of preference. I'm sure there were evil White Mages and heroic, goodly Black Mages. It is the power of these jobs that is what corrupts what is already there, not the nature of the source of said power.

We could get into an existential conversation about good vs neutral vs evil, but, to put it simply, no, not all Black Mages are inherently evil (they just sometimes wind up that way).