Soulstones and Job Abilities

[Ginal]

I can't recall any direct explanation in the game, so, what exactly is a soulstone? Does a soulstone's creation and source of power vary per job it comes from?

A related question, can the abilities of jobs be learned without drawing them from a soulstone? Is it possible that, perhaps through extensive training or the stress of a dire situation, these abilities can be learned by someone who doesn't hold a soulstone?

[MilesSaintboroguh]

My memory is fuzzy, but soul stones contain souls of people who were masters of their discipline and, depending on the job, can have other qualities; one example is the Black Mage soul stone allows its user to wield Fire magicks without literally burning themselves up, which is something that the post LV 50 BLM quests show and explains what happens when someone can't control their own power.

As for your second question, it's probably possible, but like everything else, mastering skills takes a lot of time and dedication. I remember some NPCs in certain job quests are exasperated at how you were able to master a bunch of skills in the matter of moons while they struggled for years.

[synesthetic]

I see soulstones as an adaptation of crystals from the FF Tactics games.

http://lifeinaggro.com/comic/2015/03/15

Essentially, crystallization of a person's life and experience.

Probably not everyone in the world has the aptitude to pick up any soulstone and become whatever they want though. Even players have to work at it to learn from soulstones. And it's probably because of this aptitude that soulstones don't resonate with everyone.


edit: Sticking the comic into a spoiler tag. >_>; Sorry, didn't realize it'd show up so big.

[WhiteArchmage]

Soulstones seem to be a person's experiences and knowledge encased in a crystal. More like FF7 materia and less FFT's crystals, the prime example is the MCH soulstone that's mentioned that it doesn't contain the knowledge of machinists past because it's a brand new job and you're making up skills as you go along.

The crystals for the other jobs carry their knowledge inside them and when you further attune with the stone. Unlike materia, most soulstones that had a previous owner needs to choose its new owner (WHM/BLM/WAR/SCH/DRG/DRK), some don't seem to have that problem (AST).Also like FF7 (more like Crisis Core) materia, soulstones can be MANUFACTURED, but only by someone who completely knows the job, hence why we don't see many scholars after you find the SCH soulstone but the Sons of St. Coinach have either found more SMN stones or made some (I honestly forgot), BRD stones are given by the moogles. I do think Moose could know more, Primals and WHM lore is more my thing...

[Zojha]

Warning, post contains spoilers!

My memory is fuzzy, but soul stones contain souls of people who were masters of their discipline and, depending on the job, can have other qualities; one example is the Black Mage soul stone allows its user to wield Fire magicks without literally burning themselves up, which is something that the post LV 50 BLM quests show and explains what happens when someone can't control their own power.

Note that this might just be a case of the infamous "NPCs only know so much.". Logically, if you needed a black mage soul crystal in order to use black magic, black magic could never have been discovered as everyone who discovers it would be incinerated.

As for soul crystals, we don't know overly much. We know the MCH one is blank and incidentally also the only job where you have to learn everything yourself, which leads to the assumption that soul crystals require a previous owner to instill it with knowledge. Which in turn would mean that the knowledge of any ability the crystal holds had to be gathered by someone else prior, likely "the hard way" of doing research, experimenting and practicing.

The process is most likely spiritbonding. Potentially, soul crystals are even soulglazed or something similar in order to create a stronger bond with the user, but that's pure speculation.

On spiritbonding:
Garratt:No, this sword is mine, and if you want it, you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands! Which, in truth, is how aetherial gear comes to be. You've heard of spiritbonds, I assume? That spiritually charged aetherial connection you form with any gear you have equipped? Well, in rare cases, when someone wielding an item with an especially strong spiritbond is slain in battle, the energy created by that bond remains trapped inside, rather than returning to the Lifestream. That energy enhances the gear, and voilà! You have an aetherial shortsword, or an aetherial subligar, or a pair of aetherial goatskin smithy gloves of gathering.

(Not 4th wall breaking at all, that last one)

On soulglazing:
Gerolt:Ye see, soul energy naturally becomes attuned to its host through use. Problem is, bein' composed of aether, that energy's fickle as sin─gets easily distracted by forces outside the host.
Fer attunement to happen, ye need to get rid o' them pesky outside forces. Ye can do this by makin' yer weapon “aethertight.” Buggered if I know how, though─ye'll have to work that bit out yerself

Another fun fact is that A-Towa-Cant was able to manifest himself through his soul crystal, so there might even be consciousness within the crystals, but it also might have been a special case (Thought the 60 Paladin quest does seem to imply a consciousness in the crystals as well). It's also unclear whether Belias Egi in the summoner 50 quest required multiple soul crystals in order to sufficiently recreate the aether/memories of the primal or whether those were just part of a bargain.

Either way, I treat soul crystals as plain shortcuts to knowledge, with the caveat that in order for the crystal to hand over the knowledge within, it needs to resonate with the wielder, which requires either fitting aether compositions (luck) or forced resonance (doing deeds that resonate with the consciousness within? Shaking it to make aether waves? Who knows!)