How in the *seven hells* did Martyn learn these spells? [BLU Lv.50~60 SPOILERS]

[Exodus-E]

Perhaps Martyn got a soulstone that wasn't empty unlike the ones we got, and one of the previous owners of it had fought sophia in the distant past

Doesn't seem likely.

The "Soul of the Blue Mage" crystals were made by Martyn himself, based off what he learned from the Whalaqee over the New World.
And even then, I'd assume it's a similar process to what SMNs do to get their Egis/Trances/Demi-Primals (i.e. facing/defeating their originals and/or attuning to their aether).

Maybe it's enough for him to just see or know about the attack to mimic the spell and he doesn't need to actually beat the Primal for it.

Which begs the question: how did he manage to get around their domains unseen/uninjured and with his mind intact...

[ReiMakoto]

Correct. The first Minstrel's Ballad was Ultima's Bane, then the Second Coil of Bahamut, Thordan's Reign and Nidhogg's Rage. ARR EX-fights are all 'real', a new incarnation summoned to be stronger than the last.

Back to Martyn: Well, he is the original Blue Mage and more familiar with the art of blue magic than we are. Maybe it's enough for him to just see or know about the attack to mimic the spell and he doesn't need to actually beat the Primal for it.

Martyn isn't the original Blue Mage the Whalaqee are, he just got the Blu soul crystals from studying them

Doesn't seem likely.

The "Soul of the Blue Mage" crystals were made by Martyn himself, based off what he learned from the Whalaqee over the New World.
And even then, I'd assume it's a similar process to what SMNs do to get their Egis/Trances/Demi-Primals (i.e. actually facing/defeating their originals).

If this is the case, his soul crystal could be different, maybe an actual Whalaqee one and not the new ones he made for others

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Martyn isn't the original Blue Mage the Whalaqee are, he just got the Blu soul crystals from studying them

Well, yeah, but he was the first one to adapt the whalaqee’s cultural ability and 'created' the job "Blue Mage" from it, probably calling it that way because the Whalaqees liked the color blue so much. And while he created it as a business model it's possible true that he has already obtained informations or advanced techniques we haven't mastered yet or our jobcrystall isn't capable of. I mean the stone we got was just an empty vessel to record knowledge and we know of two ways to obtain knowledge:

1) like the Whalaqee did in the first place, by learning it from the enemy
2) by obtaining it from a whalaqee totem

So for every spell Martyn knows it's also possible that his stone either already had those informations when he obtained it - or that he got it from a whalaqee totem instead of learning it from an enemy.

[Exodus-E]

I'm leaning towards the idea of Concepts presented to us in Amaurot, with something like the short story with Hades and an immortal fire bird really hammering the point home. Basically, the "concept" behind the spells (and potentially Primals, see: Phoenix) are ancient, and what we see with Primals like Ramuh and Sophia is the modern expression of them, the twisted shades of what once was, as Ascians might put it. That would mean there is potential for the same concepts to be expressed else where, by other means. A regular old enemy in the New World could simply draw on the same concepts as Sophia and Quasar, that would allow Blue Mages over there to have learned it that way. Obviously the whole "concepts" idea was just an in-universe way to explain reskins, but it works. Why are Living Liquid, Liquid Flame and Salt and Light all basically the same? Because they come from the same ancient concept. Same for Sophia and some as-yet unseen enemy in the New World.

Once again, you bring an interesting point there.
But that would mean that no being is completely unique, if each of them is based around a general "concept" (thus, associated "repertoire" of skills).

Typical aetherial meta-physics...if only there were some Amaurotines around to shed some (further) light into those.

[Brightamethyst]

You also have to remember that we're not exactly duplicating spells. We're making magical imitations based on things we saw and how we interpreted them. Theoretically we could we could learn anything just by making it up.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

You also have to remember that we're not exactly duplicating spells. We're making magical imitations based on things we saw and how we interpreted them. Theoretically we could we could learn anything just by making it up.

That's not exactly right. Lorewise we watch how they manipulate the aether while doing the attack and copy it based on those informations.

[Brightamethyst]

Not all of them involve aether manipulation in the first place. Nothing nothing magical about a gobbie bomb or a cannon.

[Exodus-E]

Not all of them involve aether manipulation in the first place. Nothing nothing magical about a gobbie bomb or a cannon.

Actually, they totally do.
In fact, most entries in the Blue Magic Spellbook say so (see: Bomb Toss or Drill Cannons).

[Brightamethyst]

I meant that the original 'spells' aren't magical. Taken directly form the spell book:

Drill Cannons: Like the physical drills upon which they are patterned, these projectiles excel at penetrating stone.

Bomb Toss: Of course, goblin bombs acquire their combustive force through the use of magically enhanced gunpowder, so mimicking this effect with aether alone requires no small amount of effort.

Goblins and robots are launching physical things at you, and you're making magical imitations of them. That being the case there's theoretically no reason a person with a good enough imagination couldn't just make up their own BLU spell.

[YianKutku]

I meant that the original 'spells' aren't magical. Taken directly form the spell book:

Drill Cannons: Like the physical drills upon which they are patterned, these projectiles excel at penetrating stone.

Bomb Toss: Of course, goblin bombs acquire their combustive force through the use of magically enhanced gunpowder, so mimicking this effect with aether alone requires no small amount of effort.

Goblins and robots are launching physical things at you, and you're making magical imitations of them. That being the case there's theoretically no reason a person with a good enough imagination couldn't just make up their own BLU spell.

And then there's Sardine Toss.

"This aquatic bird just spat a half-eaten fish at me. I should manipulate my aether to create a fish-shaped magical construct to do the same!"