I do not understand how an Astrologian does its Magic.

[Anonymoose]

Being a fantasy game, and what's more a Final Fantasy game which is even weirder at times, it's not outside the realm of possibility that Astrologians are in fact drawing residual aether from celestial bodies.

I got the general impression the Astrologian draws aether from the stars rather than the planetary environment (like conjury) or internal biology (like thaumaturge).

This is what Astrologians believe; the quests do make that clear. I just have my doubts that it's true. If one can truly draw aether directly from ... let's be conservative and just say "farther away than the moon" ... why not places you've been before? Why not cast all fire magicks drawing from Thanalan, for example? I can't shake this feeling that if you can draw aether from space, Black Mages are nothing; something about it sits wrong with me.

Much of my doubt stems from the fact that other things Astrologians believe don't seem quite fully true, either. For example, we know that the seeds of faith that eventually became The Twelve have changed much over time. The Astrologians see the Third Heaven as a realm contains a giant clockwork tower built by Byregot and assailed by Rhalgr's levinbolts, but their understanding of the constellation and artworks associated with it are clearly just cultural memories of Dalamud transferring energy to the Crystal Tower. I choose to keep faith in many things in this game, even when given reason to doubt them - but man is fallible and traditions are often at least a LITTLE askew of the whole truth.

A parallel, Widargelt and Erik have very different interpretations of what the art of the Monk is, but both are right in their own ways.

I won't get too too into it just yet, though, as I'm still reading and translating the quests and collecting quotes.
I could be very wrong; perhaps even during blinding daylight you can tap the distant stars, lol.
It's just my "suspicion of the moment" and it needs more research.

One kooky sentiment that I really liked was that perhaps they are attuning to the energies represented in those stars by bathing in their starlight, which might contain tiny, tiny traces of aether for all we know. After that, they can recall it and attune to it - like being tainted by a primal's death mist. But I literally made that up, so...

But no, I will get back to you on this when I have exhaustively double-checked the quest lore.

For the Greeks, their mythology gave a backstory to many constellations, and in their mythology they weren't not just clusters of stars forming a particular shape, but a living, powerful entity watching, or haunting, the Heavens. Similarly, the constellations in FFXIV are associated with specific entities from mythology, although whether they recognize them as just being stars in a particular shape, or believe them to be actual entities/aspects living among the stars, isn't stated to the best of my knowledge.

To put it simply, Eorzeans believe that these stars represent realms in yet beyond the firmament ("skybox") where the Twelve reside. Gods and man once lived side by side, theology says, but with the First Umbral Era came an end to the Age of Gods, and they left us. Beyond this creation, which we have inherited, they created a Heaven for each of the six elements, and a final Seventh Heaven above all. Two gods live in each elemental heaven, and these six heavens are represented by the constellations that bear their colors. So, to Eorzeans, the First Heaven is of Earth, and is the realm created by Nophica - who planted the Bole - and Althyk - who raised it to greatness.

I'm not particularly inclined to get into a lore debate with you

I respect this inclination wholly, but go ahead and feel free if you ever do feel like it, lol. I welcome all civil debate that amounts to more than "Well, I like my headcanon and we cannot both be right; I will now devalue your theories without sound counter-evidence."

After all, my whole goal is to properly archive the story and history of the game, and we are often here debating things that are not yet known conclusively enough to file away. Debate shaves off those rough edges and, if nothing else, narrows our field of options, theories, and interpretations.

And that's not even taking into account the times that the only reason I haven't filed it away is because it's not something I've exhaustively torn apart yet; someone who has while I was focusing on something else might already have the evidence to box me in before I finish digging!