I do not understand how an Astrologian does its Magic.

[YianKutku]

That said, it's clear that the Astrologians are not infallible. Like most, they thought that Dalamud was a true moon and plotted their astrology accordingly - up to the point when it was called down and Bahamut broke free. Even afterwards, though, they continue to perform their astrology assigning importance to the empty place Dalamud used to be.

I've always been curious about this. From the example of Dalamud and its current absence, it's clear that what the Astrologians believe to be true may not actually be the case... but they still manage to construct an entire discipline, complete with tangible effects and outcomes, out of this belief. When questioned how, I recall the in-game answer being "we have no idea, but it all works out anyway".

They base their calculations on mistaken premises, but even after the truth is revealed, those calculations still work. Something is going on here.

[JMadFour]

I think it telling, and somewhat a fault of SE's storytelling on this, that there is not a plain, straightforward explanation for how an Astrologian does what it does. Most of the other classes have this.

Strip away the flavor and the ideals and the concepts of a Class/Job, and you get a basic, simple answer to the question: "Where does *insert class* get their aether from and what do they do with it?"

There does not seem to be a straighr explanation for the AST, only high-minded speculation that I may just not be smart enough to grasp.

[TristanBlane]

I love discussions on Astrologian lore (~￣▽￣)~♥ Please give me more. (ﾉ◕ ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[Allyrion]

I know that the source of the magic is important but I'm surprised how no one is mentioning how the healing spells of AST is implied to use some sort of time magic.
As in how the npcs mention that it is as if they were never hurt in the first place. It's a little ambiguous so maybe rather than saying they reversed time, it makes more sense that they changed the fate of that individual to be less hurt.

I think that's the most interesting dynamic of AST healing since it's very different than the other healers.

[Shadotterdan]

Yeah, I have noticed that AST is basically this games Time Mage. Although despite the space theme of the class, many of the space themed attacks in the series are offensive in nature, such as comet, demi, and x-zone.

[Okamimaru]

The class is like a cross between time mage and arithmetician (from tactics)... or that's kinda how I perceive them...

[Shadotterdan]

Well, I think that the idea of changing a fate that already happened makes sense for them, but I kinda like the idea of a more offense oriented Time Mage. Focusing on the gravity manipulation and space warping abilities to make attacks.

[Saiah]

crystals. Any plothole can be answered with crystals.

[Sylvain]

I think it is specifically drawing aether from the starlight that has traveled to Hydaelyn's surface. That is, after all, the tangible phenomenon an Astrologian is observing when you attune to the heavens. And if the Crystal Tower can draw aether from sunlight, it should be possible to extract aether from starlight.

I know it's a fantasy game but SE tend to keep things coherent within the universe.
If we would draw our power from the the starlight, then shouldn't we get stronger in daylight than during nightime? Since we'd receive more?


Assuming the game makes a difference between our star and other stars (which would be odd, also considering we have those diurn and nocturnal stance), we would still receive the same amount of starlight during day time. We just can't see because the sun ocercast the faint light coming from these distant stars.

Yeah, I have noticed that AST is basically this games Time Mage. Although despite the space theme of the class, many of the space themed attacks in the series are offensive in nature, such as comet, demi, and x-zone.

I know many people do not agree with me on this regard, but I do believe through a sheer amount of wishful thinking that Time Mage and Astrologian would be 2 side of the same coin.
They both manipulate time and space, but not in the same way.
Astrologian heal by rewinding the person time back to a state when they weren't hurt. (oddly enough, they're not slowed, just the wound seems to go back in time)
I would easily see the Time Mage do the opposite, instead of reverting time, they'd greatly accelerate one's body function making them age without necessarly hasting the whole person (since the astro seems to be able to locally rewind time, logically, one could locally forwind the body, hasting one's heart only wouldn't do too much good I think)

Beyond the lore, I think there's a lot of potential in a DPS job based around time manipulation (cooldown and buff/debuff manipulation and such).

Yoshida in a not so long ago interview was asked why he stopped on the RDM and SAM, he basically said that the community was screaming so much for RDM that it was a no brainer (and that it felt good with the theme of the new xpac), for the SAM, it was a bit different, they were looking at various other job that could fit the dps role, Time Mage for example (yes, he gave 1 only example and it was time mage), but then they felt that SAM was overall also extremely requested and there wouldn't be a better opportunity than SB to introduce it.
And the whole thing about space and gravity manipulation would fit perfectly well too. Afterall, space and time are one thing.
I also forsee the classic "but Astro got gravity", well if what's prevent SE from making the Time Mage is that gravity was giving to the Ast, it means they'd seriously lack imagination, which isn't the case imo.

So... I have hope... maybe my dream job will make it to the game one day... probably not 5.0 as someone told me Yoshida said the next xpac would have a tank and a heal (I can't find the interview / post though)

[LineageRazor]

I know it's a fantasy game but SE tend to keep things coherent within the universe.
If we would draw our power from the the starlight, then shouldn't we get stronger in daylight than during nightime? Since we'd receive more?


Assuming the game makes a difference between our star and other stars (which would be odd, also considering we have those diurn and nocturnal stance), we would still receive the same amount of starlight during day time. We just can't see because the sun ocercast the faint light coming from these distant stars.

Not odd at all, really. It's only relatively recently in human history that we've discovered that stars are just faraway suns. Prior to that, it was believed that they were totally different types of celestial objects. A fantasy universe like this one can go with whichever interpretation it likes.

However, it IS stated that Midgardsormr carried his brood to Hydaelyn from another star, I believe, which implies that it is known in the game that the sun is also a star... Or perhaps, the planet is. In this cosmology, it could easily be the case that the sun is not a humongous ball of nuclear gas, but instead a small, but very warm object also in orbit around Hydaelyn. (Think of how the sun is portrayed in the Discworld series of books.) So, the stars we see in the sky are other planets like Hydaelyn, visible because they also have tiny bright suns spinning around them.

Even in the tiny sun case, though, your question is still unanswered: Why couldn't AST get more star power from the sun, an incredibly nearby star? There's a couple of explanations. Perhaps they DO - but star power does not dilute over distance. The amount of energy we get from our sun is no greater or lesser than we get from far suns. The sun is just another celestial body providing exactly one celestial body's worth of Astrologian power. Or, another explanation, perhaps traveling interstellar distances cures or tempers the star power in some way that makes it usable to Astrologians, while the nearby sun's power doesn't travel long enough to get the same effect. The space between astral bodies has, after all, been referred to as "the aether" in classical times in real life; perhaps there's some kind of aether star power travels through as it moves that empowers it in some way.

There are many possible explanations - and the game itself hints at pretty much none of them. Probably never will, either, as delving into this kind of nitty-gritty is a great way to get your lore tangled up over time. :P