Scholar lore

[AspectOfWinter]

Has anyone else felt that it was more than a little odd to associate the Scholar class with fairies, given that the class is described as being a military strategist and fairies in most forms of fiction are peaceful?

[XanderOlivieri]

Has anyone else felt that it was more than a little odd to associate the Scholar class with fairies, given that the class is described as being a military strategist and fairies in most forms of fiction are peaceful?

Maybe only if you use today's fairies. Fairy tales I grew up to had all fairies as evil children stealing, life sucking creatures who lived only for themselves.

[Wolfandre]

As odd as this may sound, it's most likely a nod toward Final Fantasy XI.

In that game, Scholars were military strategists from an age past (much like ARR). However, going back in time led to not only rediscovering this lost art (and thus, the Scholar job), but also bearing witness to species before they went extinct. This included faeries, who did similar things as the Scholars: provided succor and help to those around them (fooooorrrr the most part....).

I'll agree that Scholar wasn't exactly my first pick for a pet job, but they made it work well enough, and they even provided a tie-in to multiple aspects of the game (lost civilizations, monsters, etc.)

[AspectOfWinter]

Thing is, I have always felt that the military theme in WoW is the reason why the Alliance and Horde are depicted as being so chauvinistic. It's kind of like how many if not most female characters in TV are extremely emotional, most military personnel in video games in my experience are fanatical warmongers and have that attitude of "my country, right or wrong".

However, the class itself is murky in lore - so until we travel back in time to that era we simply won't know what the general temperament of the ancient Scholars was. It's confirmed that during times of peace they took on the role of doctors, so it's certainly conceivable that many of them actually had a lot in common with Jedi Consular from SWTOR.

[Wolfandre]

Thing is, I have always felt that the military theme in WoW is the reason why the Alliance and Horde are depicted as being so chauvinistic. It's kind of like how many if not most female characters in TV are extremely emotional, most military personnel in video games in my experience are fanatical warmongers and have that attitude of "my country, right or wrong".

However, the class itself is murky in lore - so until we travel back in time to that era we simply won't know what the general temperament of the ancient Scholars was. It's confirmed that during times of peace they took on the role of doctors, so it's certainly conceivable that many of them actually had a lot in common with Jedi Consular from SWTOR.

Well, nationalism is sort of implied in the SCH quest lines. It can even be stretched that it may have been what caused the War of the Magi (nationalism starts a lot of wars...). Though, I doubt this may have been the case for Nym, considering they only really boasted small, elite units rather than a large, expansive navy. Nationalism almost always implies great (or seemingly great) military strength. Nym only had great minds on their side. I'm gonna blame that one on Amdapor, personally...

As for faeries...it is only really implied that they forge a very strong bond with their SCH counterpart. It doesn't really say where they came from (as far as I can remember) nor does it say why they coexist. We (read: I) simply don't have all the information.

[Enkidoh]

Wasn't it stated that Nym was constantly being attacked by foreign sea-going powers but always managed to repel them? I remember seeing mentioned in game info stating something about Nym routing a previously invincible thousand-ship strong fleet. I can't remember where it was I saw that though.

And nationalism was stated even in 1.0 as being an underlying cause of conflict in Eorzea's long and turbulent history, specifically cities guardians from the Twelve, using their respective deity as favouring them - it was stated as such in the original 1.0 manual:

Throughout it's history, the landscape has played home to a number of city-states-the tenuous relations between them fluctuating from friendly to hostile and back again.

The pantheon of the Twelve is followed devoutly by most, and doctrine holds that the past wars of the realm were the wars of the heavens, with the gods and goddesses choosing nations as their respective champions. Whether because of this celestial struggle or more worldly grievances, war spread throughout the realm, discouraging unity and peace.

Of course this is naturally very vague and general, but it does go some way to explaining possible reasons for the War of the Magi, particularly when you look at the fact that Nym apparently venerated Oschon the Wanderer as their guardian, which might have put them at odds with the Amdapori, whichever of the Twelve they worshiped (as far as I know there is no mention as to what their guardian deity was, if any.).

[WellGramarye]

[AspectOfWinter]

The way I see it is, if Nym had more or less the same political philosophy as Ishgard and Ala Mhigo, then Scholars being associated with fairies is almost as contradictory as if it was decided that Dark Knight would be a pet based tanking class that calls on holy angels or something. If they were more like the modern day Twin Adders then I could maybe see a fairy teaming up with them if they were mainly just trying to protect their people from invaders and maintaining the peace.

[Skies]

I haven't unlocked Scholar yet, but
From what I remember the fairies aren't... Quite entieties of their own, they are artificial much akin to Carbuncle

[HumsterMKX]

Fairies are beings of Aether. Kinda like miniature primals. Instead of directly drawing power from the land, the Sch is a conduit for creating the Fairy.