What IS the "Black"?

[Burglisi]

The title, more or less, explains my question - What is the Black? Is it a sentient force behind Black Magic? Is it Nald'thal? Is it just a fancy way to revere the knowledge and power bestowed to Black Mages?
I apologize if this is answered in the BLM 50+ quests - please do not directly spoil those in answering me!

[Ayuhra]

I think the Black is a general term for the forces used to craft Black Magic.

[Iagainsti]

It has always been referred to as Black magic, right from FF1. I think it's comparable to Wiccan beliefs; that destructive magic is "Black" and restorative is "White".

[Ayuhra]

It has always been referred to as Black magic, right from FF1. I think it's comparable to Wiccan beliefs; that destructive magic is "Black" and restorative is "White".

I think OP is referring to the curious way that Black Mages, when they become Black Mages, are said be "taking the Black". I'm fairly certain it refers to the "path" of Black Magic. After level 50 I don't remember seeing people say "the Black" all that much but my memory might be failing me.

[Iagainsti]

I think OP is referring to the curious way that Black Mages, when they become Black Mages, are said be "taking the Black". I'm fairly certain it refers to the "path" of Black Magic. After level 50 I don't remember seeing people say "the Black" all that much but my memory might be failing me.

Oh Gotcha, then it's actually a reference to the Game of Thrones, the crows or something(not a fan, but everyone I know seems to be so )

[Deifact]

I always thought of it as kinda like taking the red or blue pill in the matrix. It's choosing the path of the black Mage.

[Burglisi]

I think OP is referring to the curious way that Black Mages, when they become Black Mages, are said be "taking the Black". I'm fairly certain it refers to the "path" of Black Magic. After level 50 I don't remember seeing people say "the Black" all that much but my memory might be failing me.

This does indeed answer my question, thanks folks! Though feel free to continue the discussion

[Cilia]

There seem to be three schools of magick in XIV: White, Black, and Void, depending on where they get their power from and how they use it.

White Magic is asking the elementals for aether and using only what you need. As CNJ and WHM are very druid-lite (in fact, CNJ is named "druid" in the DE client), this only makes sense, and it's often the subject of CNJ / WHM trainers' lectures. SCH uses White Magic as well, though how exactly that relates to the school of White Magic is up for debate.

Black Magic is forcefully pulling aether in from the environment and doing what you want with it. Where a CNJ / WHM is nice and asks, a THM / BLM just takes what they want. The downside to this, aside from mass environmental devastation through aether drain, is that to use Black Magic a mage has to use up some of their own aether to harness the environment's as recompense for their more forceful methods. Use of Black Magic could actually kill the mage, though thankfully the BLM soul crystal acts as a sort of power regulator to prevent this from happening to the Warrior of Light.

Void Magic is mostly related to demons. How it works exactly is unknown, though presumably there's some risk of losing sanity as suggested by the DRK 30-50 line. Though, given most "Void Mages" we encounter seem to be Black Mages with demon-summoning powers, it could be that we've yet to encounter a real Void Mage and all the ones we've encountered are just Black Mages who succumbed to the temptation of power offered by Black Magic and/or went nuts. Or Void Magic is just an obscure offshoot of Black Magic. /shrug.

[CyrilLucifer]

Well, since we're on the subject of magical types, what exactly is going on in the Aetherial Rift/Chrysalis with White Mages?

I assume the White Mages just stop "asking nicely" and start pulling/demanding like Black Mages when casting in the Rift. Theoretically, ignoring the whole gameplay and story segregation, wouldn't that make mages in general much less limited than in the normal world?

[Cilia]

Well, since we're on the subject of magical types, what exactly is going on in the Aetherial Rift/Chrysalis with White Mages?

Now we're going into the realm of conjecture, buuuuuuut...

In the Void (where the Chrysalis is probably located and the World of Darkness is definitely located), there's probably very little to no background aether beyond what you bring with you. However, even a scrub CNJ like me remembers Sylphie burning her own aether to use conjury (watered-down White Magic) instead of asking for it from the elementals, so as a last resort it's probably possible for any mage to do this. Desperate times call for desperate measures, y'know!