Compulsory Gridanian Education

[Kyan]

A while ago in another thread, I pondered the education of younglings in Eorzea. With guilds and trades and skills being highly valued in our realm, it would make sense to me that the younglings would be exposed to, taught and tested in these myriad of skills to see what possible future they would be suited to.

We talked about how younglings in Gridania are orphans, and we don't see many youths in general, et cetera et cetera.

However, with the wonderful implementation of "you have completed this guildleve" green messages, leading to my quest to complete ALL THE THINGS, I have found some wonderful information which makes me think about this all again.

As read in the carpenter leve Compulsory Conjury:

An edict recently passed by Stillglade Fane requiring all children between the ages of six and nine to train in the art of conjury has parents scrambling to find reasonably priced canes and crooks. To make sure they are not undersold by any second-rate foreign merchant, Black Rabbit Traders are urgently seeking carpenters willing to lend their services in the crafting of various conjurer's arms

In fact, the Stillglade Fane has laws about mandatory education (in conjury) for almost all citizens, particularly Wood Wailers (Leve: Spears and Sorcery). Wood Wailers themselves are then teaching citizens residing in remote locations, such as Quarrymill and Hyrstmill, basic conjury (Leve: Heal Away).

We have a nation of people who's children are all learning the art of conjury as a result of the Calamity, and I find this "education is important" approach quite forward thinking for the realm. I wonder what children in the rest of Eorzea are doing?

[Kerberon]

In Ul'dah my guess is panhandling would be the best fit.

[Catapult]

Interesting.

It's a far cry from 13 years of required education, but it's certainly something.

[LaurelinKementari]

I'm not really surprised Conjury is mandatory in Gridania, given how the entire nation stands or falls at the whim of the Elementals. Teaching your children about how to handle and interact with those self-same Elementals seems like the logical thing to do.

[Catapult]

I'm not really surprised Conjury is mandatory in Gridania, given how the entire nation stands or falls at the whim of the Elementals. Teaching your children about how to handle and interact with those self-same Elementals seems like the logical thing to do.

Not to mention that it would help the early identification and indoctrination of talented children, including emerging Padjal.

[Kyan]

Not to mention that it would help the early identification and indoctrination of talented children, including emerging Padjal.

This is what I originally thought, too.

[Saikou]

In Ul'dah, it's kinda who you know. I imagine there are many who try to make it in the guilds. In 1.0, lotta people worked in the mines. Lotta people danced as entertainment for the miners. The DoH guilds are definitely more high society, so I don't know. It seems to me that most Ul'dahns, regardless of their station in society, would be raised to do whatever trade the family knew. We got a feudal society with a government that is socially disinterested. Based on that, people would have no choice but to learn the trade that mom or dad knew and hope they could get employed.

[TinyRedLeaf]

I get the feeling that the pirates and rogues of Limsa Lominsa aren't very much interested in education, unless it involves learning the "finger dance", or the *ahem* intimate ins-and-outs of the opposite sex.

In fact, many Lominsans express open contempt for the city's arcanists, and if it weren't for the Admiral, the nation would probably be wallowing in a state of chaos due to the lack of a functioning civil service (a scenario that Lominsa's seedier types would likely prefer — no one likes the taxman, after all).

Limsa Lominsa's resident spellcasters are unique in that they rarely get any respect, unlike their counterparts in Ul'dah (where the thaumaturges are the much-feared intermediaries between life and death) and Gridania (where the conjurers serve as emissaries to the elementals).

[gornotck]

[...] Limsa Lominsa's resident spellcasters are unique in that they rarely get any respect, unlike their counterparts in Ul'dah (where the thaumaturges are the much-feared intermediaries between life and death) and Gridania (where the conjurers serve as emissaries to the elementals).

In all three cities, the mages are the Law. The Arcanists control the ports, imports, and exports. The Thaumaturges literally are the law making body of Ul'Dah. The Conjurers, as you say, are the intermediary between the Elementals and the city.

The puckish rogues of the pirates may, on the face of it, deride education, and hold contempt for the Arcanists (as the civil service that they are), but I'm not sure that the Arcanists and Limsa Lominsa could exist without each other.

[Enkidoh]

That's a very interesting idea that I admit I've never actually seen mentioned anywhere else in Gridania before, but it does definitely make sense. One possible contradiction though is that the CNJ Quest line clearly shows that Conjury is not an easy school of magic to learn, if the acolyte is stubborn or closed minded and refuses to open their minds to the whisperings of the elementals they're simply incapable of using such magic.

Sylphie's lack of potency in Conjury originally was for this very reason. She insisted on following in her mother's footsteps healing people on a whim (with what is effectively the traditional series White Magic ability/spell Sacrifice), and stubbornly ignored the Guild's teachings, leading E-Sumi Yan to mention "that she cannot conjure so much as a whiff of air or a single pebble."

So thus forcing Conjury onto those who quite frankly refuse to listen could be counterproductive and technically just a waste of everyone's time, not the less the Hearers of Stillglade Fane.