What about White Magic brought about an Umbral Era?

[moonboy7]

I don't understand this part of the lore with White mages causing an umbral area, can somebody explain in a way someone with asperger's syndrome who's mind focuses on tatics, logic, and reason can understand.

[mosaicex]

Holy went out of control.

[godwin]

In a nutshell, to many cooks spoiled the brew.

[Talia_Hailwind]

Lost City of Amaphor happened. 5th umbra calamity if I recall.

[point09micron]

I don't recall the details presented in-game, but my impression was that simply too much was wrecked in the war between the White Mages and Black Mages.

[Cherub]

Well
I guess we have to go back to the 5th umbral era. It's an Ice age(I don't know what caused this Ice age but it's got nothing to do with the WHM's). Man (re-)discovers magic. Which brings in the >5th astral era<. In this era black magic was born and the elementals tought the people in the woods white magic to balance out destruction and succor.

White mages did start to abuse their power, yes, but that's not exactly the cause for the 6th Umbral calamity. If you wonder what I mean by abuse, well imagine it like this: You have a simple cold and go to the doc and the doc tells you "Give me 500$ and I'll give you this medicine that should actually be free of charge". I think there are many other ways people abused the power of white magic. Imagine it quite corrupted. We don't have explicit details but yea it COULD go in that direction.

But! That's not the cause for the calamity.
The astral era flourished. People shared their knowledge, learnt from each other. But then there is this is unknown something that caused the war of the magi. This "unknown something" we guess to be simply rivalry between the nations.
BLM's from an unknown nation, SCH's from Nym and the WHM's of amdapor began a destructive war. And the war is what caused the calamity, not white mages only. But they were a major part of it. The elementals got pretty pissed and Oha-Sok, the elemental of nihility ushered in the floods to wash away all the magicks on the lands. The flood is the 6th umbral calamity and ended the 5th astral era.

[Belhi]

My understanding off it was that rampant overuse of magic started to create a great strain on the land. Magic uses Aether and Aether is also the stuff of life so overuse taxes the natural world around you.

We know that White Magic was abused. How exactly we don't know. Perhaps some White Mages started using the magic to make themselves immortal or eternally youthful. Perhaps they found more sinister methods of using the magic. We don't have enough details.

Regardless the abuse of magic by the three nations eventually triggered a great flood. There is some indication in the 1.0 White Mage quests that the Elementals, in there pain caused by the abuse, summoned a special Elemental called Oha Sok, who is an Avatar of the Elemental's Wrath, who triggered the flood. This was the same event that caused the elementals to turn hostile to the people who entered the Twelveswood.

Interestingly at last years Fanfest in America at the lore panel, they mention that the Pad'jal are not the only ones to have inherited the White Mage mantle and another group may be trying to revive it, with less pure motives. I suspect one way or the other we will almost certainly delve more into the history and events of the War of the Magi. It is one of those key moments of significance in FF14 lore.

[Velox]

In a nutshell, White Mages utilize the aether in the environment to cast magic. Over use drains the land dry of aether and disrupts the natural flow (we kill primals because their existence has the same effect).

[Zohar_Lahar]

BLM's from an unknown nation, SCH's from Nym and the WHM's of amdapor began a destructive war. And the war is what caused the calamity, not white mages only. But they were a major part of it. The elementals got pretty pissed and Oha-Sok, the elemental of nihility ushered in the floods to wash away all the magicks on the lands. The flood is the 6th umbral calamity and ended the 5th astral era.

That sounds awfully familiar.

[Belhi]

Oha Sok, isn't quite the same. The elemental actually is present in the 1.0 White Mage quests and is the elemental that convinces the other elementals that they need to give the mortal races a chance after the damage caused by the calamity. Rather than just unleashing destruction upon being summoned Oha Sok choses to observe the mortal races first through the Warrior of Light. The Warrior of Light's compassion wins her over, and so she convinces her kin to give them another chance to set things right.

In that regard she is probably more like Ramuh though she isn't a primal.