Jobs and Locations...

[myahele]

Is Ninja truly a 6th Astral era job, though?

In CT and WoD we see Shinobi guarding the area. Additionally, it seems as if the Ninjutsu was practiced in secret in an island off of Doma (descendants of the Allagan Shinobi?) and became popular due to Sasuke teaching the people in the mainland who used ninjutsu to take down an oppressive government or something like that.

[Anonymoose]

Is Ninja truly a 6th Astral era job, though?

Unconfirmed (hence the question mark). But, the job description says the arts were honed "through the centuries" rather than "through the millennia", so I decided to start there and work my way back as I find more information. The Ninja we get today is of the Doman variety; ninjutsu was brought to Othard from an island to its east by Sasuke, long before the Garlean advance. In that respect, I assume it's of the Sixth Astral Era (on account of the "centuries" bit). How long was ninjutsu an art before that? Hells if I know.

However, I don't know if we can fully trust what we see from Allag. For starters, Shinobi and Kunoichi are namesakes inherited from Final Fantasy III. We also see Allagan clones and manikins wielding "thaumaturgy", "conjury", "pugilism", and "marauder...y" ... "maraud...ing?" ... ... anyroad, those words might have had different connotations back then, or we're seeing arts that had different names, but were quite similar, and ascribing those names to them. They might have had daggers, they might have fought from shadows, but were they Far Eastern ninjutsu practitioners? ... Hells if know.

On the flip side, you have that the Saskuke's Blades are considered Zodiac weapons, as in worthy of being wielded during a time of Calamity and passed down through legend in extremely old books. If Sasuke's Blades are that ancient, how old was Sasuke? Could be far more than "centuries" under that belt, after all.

It's anybody's guess until we have more info.

[Yasuhiro]

Is Ninja truly a 6th Astral era job, though?

In CT and WoD we see Shinobi guarding the area. Additionally, it seems as if the Ninjutsu was practiced in secret in an island off of Doma (descendants of the Allagan Shinobi?) and became popular due to Sasuke teaching the people in the mainland who used ninjutsu to take down an oppressive government or something like that.

I figured they only did that because those were pretty much the enemies you encountered in FFIII in that game's crystal tower. So I just handwaved it off as a throwaway reference and never questioned it. However despite being a homage this is still XIV's version of that tower so I guess it does need an explanation.