Not sure if this belonged in lore or general discussion but I got to thinking about how much the class didn't really make sense in it's repertoire of spells or how they really go about casting them.
As guildmaster Thubyrgeim put it they are 'esoteric calculations to express the nature of aether in mathematical terms that are represented by arcane geometries.' These are the patterns that allow arcanists to manipulate aetheric energy and produce specific effects. It's also what allows them to shape the aether into summonable entities like carbuncle, the egis, and the fairies.
What I don't understand is how all these complex formulas and spells equate out to things of the biological variety like Bio and Miasma. We get a very clear cut definition of how conjurers and thaumaturges are able to cast the elemental spells that they can. (Nature and harnessing their own inner aether respectively)so why or how do arcanists produce these debilitating poisons and how exactly do they get into our enemies that don't have blood or other things of the biological variety like golems and skeletons and such?
I ask because these are things that you would see in the arsenal of an assassin or ninja, not typically a math textbook.
While we are on the topic of arcanists spells lets talk about their animations for them. We apparently need to write out formulas for our spells to have shape but all we do is hold high our books with crossed arms whilst a colorful light circles above until we thrust it at our enemies. (Seems a little silly in description doesn't it?)
The only time we actually use our handy dandy notebooks is when casting the Summon I-III spells where we see our characters feverishly doodling the creature they're trying to summon before a flourish of the arm and a close of the book before we have our little pet burst out of the aether in a Blaze/gust/explosion/shimmering light of glory. But we know that we are writing in the books so what happens to it? What if our book fills up with all the formulas we're writing out? Are we using our own aether as 'magic ink'?![]()
THESE ARE THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS YOSHIDAAAA!!!