Quote Originally Posted by Ransu View Post
Ultima straight up tells you that in their time the blight was a byproduct of using magic. There is no difference between the blight during ultima's time and the blight during Clive's. The only core difference is the mothercrystals accelerated the process as they gathered aether to cast the spell raise which would destroy everything and recreate the world.

Cid's explanation was from someone who didn't know fully what the blight was. The entire point of that was to misdirect the players which is literally a core part of FF story telling. All your "hints" are just you trying to compound information prior to learning what the blight actually was during the final confrontation with Ultima.
No, he never said that. He said that the "price of this boon" was the pall that descended. This could mean anything, like other jealous gods cursing their land. Before you say "price of this boon" obviously means that it's the direct result of using magic, you should note that people use that kind of phrase to mean indirect effects as well, like someone saying that "the price of our pride is to be banished from the realm"; that doesn't mean the pride literally banished them but that their pride incurred the wrath of someone who banished them.