A question about conjury.

[Megidolaon]

So I was doing the turtle guildhest the other day and something hit me: how do enemy conjurers do their thing?


If I'm remembering correctly the CNJ quests made a pretty big deal about needing to draw aether from the land, and needing the permission of the Elementals to do such, to use the art without burning out your own internal reservoir.


So what does this mean for Garlean troops and Mr. Joe Schmo bandit? Are the rules not as strict? Do the Elementals just not care? Am I looking too far into this?

[Rawrz]

I'd imagine the lesser elements look beyond good and justice and look at more primal characteristics. Passion, strength, desire, loyalty, survival. Stuff like that can get you their permission, but won't convince the more goodly elementals to entrust in you something like holy (undead seem to get a perverted holy or learned it before they were corrupted.) That's my guess as to why cure, for example is so common to master, because they agree with something within your character.

[Belhi]

I don't think applying good or bad quite fits the Elementals. They just really are. Their care is for the natural world and balance. They don't tend to get tied up in mortal concepts of justice, right and wrong, morality and ethics. Its like asking if a river is evil or a tree. The sun gives life but it can also kill you in the right circumstances.

The Elementals do care how nature is treated and frankly there are conjurers out there who are part of groups that aren't very elemental friendly. However I suspect at you don't have to have the Elementals permission to use conjury. Is just doing it in twelveswood, where the player learns it, you run the risk of pissing them off if you don't do it with their blessing. Its abuse of nature rather than use which rubs them really the wrong way.

[Jacost]

Conjury was originally developed in order to talk to the elementals so that they could gain permission to live in the forest in the first place.

[FJerome]

It's all just Gridanian Propaganda to keep the Hearers in power! Don't believe their lies!

. . . Though it's probably more to do with how the Elementals only seem particularly strong around the Black Shroud. Elsewhere, like Sharlayan where Y'shtola learnt her Conjury, you can probably take aether from the land directly without having to go through the middle-men.

[LineageRazor]

I don't think that the Elementals directly provide conjury power. The reason the Conjurers of the Shroud need to gain the blessing of the Elementals is because the Elementals are essentially their landlords. Gridanians can't do ANYTHING without getting the Elementals' blessing first. Elementals are particularly touchy about white magic, though, given the disaster that happened in the war between the Amdapori and the Mhachans.

Conjury is powered by nature, and while the Elementals are "closer" to nature, they're not able to stop anyone from drawing upon natural forces. If you're in the Shroud, though, they ARE capable of punishing you if you use those forces inappropriately. (Well, maybe; the Elementals really don't seem to be all that active or powerful in ARR, at least compared to how they were in version 1.0.)

[Enkidoh]

I don't think that the Elementals directly provide conjury power. The reason the Conjurers of the Shroud need to gain the blessing of the Elementals is because the Elementals are essentially their landlords. Gridanians can't do ANYTHING without getting the Elementals' blessing first. Elementals are particularly touchy about white magic, though, given the disaster that happened in the war between the Amdapori and the Mhachans.

Conjury is powered by nature, and while the Elementals are "closer" to nature, they're not able to stop anyone from drawing upon natural forces. If you're in the Shroud, though, they ARE capable of punishing you if you use those forces inappropriately. (Well, maybe; the Elementals really don't seem to be all that active or powerful in ARR, at least compared to how they were in version 1.0.)

Except the level 1-30 CNJ quest line actually stated that to use Conjury you actually are directly calling upon the elementals to borrow their power (after all, what do you think are those coloured orbs that fly around your staff when Conjuring?). Also the elementals are not 'closer' to nature, they are nature, they are the natural world personified and given a will of it's own - a will that is actually beyond the comprehension of most mortals (this leads often to resentment when mortal needs and wants do not fit in with the needs and wants of the elementals).

Before you can use Conjury, you first have to accept the existence of the elementals and be open and accepting of their will - someone who is closed minded and refuses to accept their existence simply cannot conjure (this was Sylphie during the CNJ storyline - E Sumi Yan clearly stated she could not "conjure so much as a whiff of air or a single pebble" due to her stubborn refusal to hear the elementals, insisting instead of drawing on her own aether to heal people on a whim (essentially the traditional White Magic ability 'Sacrifice' from previous FF games), something that was slowly killing her. Once the player's character (under E Sumi's direction) finally made her let go of her stubborn pride and 'open her mind', she suddenly realized she could hear the voices of the elementals and accordingly could now Conjure spells effectively (you even train her how to do so).

Hence any npc that uses Conjury specifically would have to accept the elementals existence before they could cast Conjury - it's not just something anyone can do on a whim. And Sylphie's case is not isolated either - many Eorzeans (especially those from outside Gridania) regard the elementals as nothing but a myth at best and an outright lie employed by Gridania simply to control their population at worst, and it is these people who will never be able to use Conjury, because they are close minded and regard the elementals as a fairy tale, so of course the elementals are not going to give them the powers of nature at their disposal. This was a particular driving point of the original version 1.0 Gridania storyline especially.

And it should be noted that the elementals do not only exist in the Black Shroud, they exist in everything, even rocks, water, the air. For some reason they have always been more potent and powerful in the Black Shroud than anywhere else in Hydaelyn though.

So basically, to answer your question, anyone that uses Conjury has to be accepting of the will of the elementals - because the elementals have no concept of the idea of 'good' and 'evil', at least, in mortal terms, this is why you see antagonistic forces using Conjury, to the elementals the petty affairs of man are not their concern, only as long as those who want to use their power abide by their will and accept their existence will they then allow them to Conjure equally.

[Belhi]

Sounds like a good question for Koji Fox.

My personal theory is that while the effect is similar, the method is differing between what we do and what people outside the twelveswood do, similar to how many wrestling techniques in our world have many similarities, even if they have evolved in different places and using different training methods. That's just how things work. For those who follow the Gridanian school of Conjury, I suspect its mainly a case of the individual showing respect to nature. Elementals don't really care about politics, morality of mortals or mortal laws.