Black mage questions help!?

[Aerazen]

Black mage they use eather from both heaven earth and man correct?
What type of spells other then ice fire lighting do they use?
What spells can they do that you don't do ingame?
Can they cast spell without a staff or wand?
How do they perform their spells?

[Anonymoose]

Black mage they use eather from both heaven earth and man correct?

That's just Ninja. As far as we know, BLM just sticks to the standard elemental wheel.

What type of spells other then ice fire lighting do they use?

Occasionally they use spells that appear to be associated with Darkness and void (probably more leftover Mhachi influence), but it's usually those three. The thaumaturges claim that these three elements are those of destruction, and used in their funeral rites.

The truth is a little more complicated. In 1.0, jobs didn't exist, only classes. Conjurer, the class that communes with the Elementals, was thus master of the six elements. When jobs were added, Black Mage was assigned to Thaumaturge, but in Final Fantasy history, Black Mage is the master of the elements. They tried to reconcile this by making CON and BLM split the wheel - three elements each: three for nature's creation, three for nature's destruction.

It's a lore quirk specific to Final Fantasy XIV (though if you look far back in FF, Black Magic always did focus a bit more on these elements). I've always hoped that the rest of the elemental wheel would manifest in each job somehow by LV99, but no dice so far.

What spells can they do that you don't do ingame?

No idea! Because of the quirks in the lore, I can't say with much confidence.

I'd like to think that a BLM of the THM guild still has hypothetical access to 1.0 spells (Poison, Scourge, Drain, Siphon), but some of them were aligned with Light (Banish, Dia) and that makes little sense in ARR.

I'd also like to think that there are rarely-known spells for the other three elements. I want to see a Black Mage use Quake just like I want to see a CNJ-trained White Mage use Shock Spikes.

Can they cast spell without a staff or wand?

The mage weapons are said to just channel, focus, and amplify aetherial manipulation, so I would assume they could cast something bare-handed. How complex the spells could be, how powerful their effects would be, how focused the energy would be, how accurate the cast would be... that's another story. Seems dangerous.

How do they perform their spells?

Most aetherial manipulation is done using the mage's own aether. They cast from within themselves. Black Mages, however, being focused on destruction, require more energy than their internal wellspring provides. They tap into aether in the environment around them and circumvent the limitation, a process discovered and made famous by Shatotto.

[GunksFoy]

If I remember correctly, during the Black Mage questline, they state that casting without a proper focus can cause great harm to the caster as they are channelling the focused aether through their body instead of an object. Might have even been the original Thaumaturge quests. Not 100% on this, but i definitely remember the focus being VERY important.

[Sounsyy]

Moose already gave some good answers, so I'm just going to start by dropping a link to a post of mine giving a basic overview of the mechanics of how magic is drawn, focused, and cast in the setting. Towards the bottom it focuses a little more on black magic.

Aetherology Overview, Magic Schools, Sources and Foci

To quickly go over the questions:

Black mage they use eather from both heaven earth and man correct?

The "heaven, earth, and man" is a Far Eastern concept that is seemingly equivalent, though in Eorzea, magi just call it aether - as all things are made of aether, it's more encompassing I guess. Black Mages, specifically, draw from the wellspring of aether from the planet, Hydaelyn. As I said in the link above, a Black Mage doesn't always have to draw aether from the planet since their own personal aether (mana/anima) is usually sufficient to cast most spells, but sometimes more advanced magicks require a greater aether source.

We draw power from the world around us─the heaven, the earth, and the hearts of man─and channel this power into physical form. I am told that this is similar to your concept of...ay-ther, was it? I must confess that Eorzean words and ways remain unfamiliar to me.

Can they cast spell without a staff or wand?

This was another question that got brought up in response to that initial link and I had to do a follow up addendum here, but my answer is focused more towards arcanum. I agree with Moose in that it is theoretically possible, but as the staff is the magick's channel and focus of these energies, attempting advanced incantations of the black without the proper tools would most likely be unwise.

Considering the massive amounts of energy Black Mages attempt to channel through their bodies like a conduit, the simplest miscalculation during casting or mistake in the incantation could have disastrous consequences, as Ququruka found out.

Blinded by my own lust for power, I altered one of the incantations. It was... arrogant. And foolish. I watched as chaotic aether washed over my three friends, ripping their bodies asunder.

What type of spells other then ice fire lighting do they use? What spells can they do that you don't do ingame?

Like Moose said, it's hard to say with certainty just what remains available in the Thaumaturge's arsenal. It's one of those questions that's come up several times. Can the conjurers still control all six elements, even though we only have access to three now? Can a thaumaturge still utilize astral and umbral damage? Personally, I take the repetitive appearance of Essences & Permutations: A Treatise of the Six Elements, a tome which used to grace Stillglade Fane, popping up in 2.0, 3.0, and the lore book as a sign that conjurers still can commune with every element. Otherwise, it seems strange that the elements aren't divided by the three Conquests and three Submissions.

An interesting thing to note about thaumaturges (and by extension modern Black Mages), is that in both 1.0 and 2.0 the thaumaturge arsenal focuses heavily upon balancing Astral and Umbral polarities. The only difference being that in 1.0, thaumaturges altered the polarities in other creatures with the Banish and Scourge spells to inflict more damage, whereas in 2.0 they only manipulate their own polarities. I go into the polarities a little more here. But I don't see any reason why a thaumaturge who has been training in the guild for many years couldn't learn to alter both.


Hope this helps! (Sorry about all the links, but after realizing there's a pretty small character limit after that paladin post, I decided it was best not to squeeze in the vast amounts of magical theory that I've already written recently on tumblr.)

[WhiteArchmage]

Also! There's a few (very few) FF games (and Bravely Default which is a FF game in all but name) where Aero is part of White Magic so it also fits in with the CNJ in XIV.

I'd also like to point out that it's the BLM soul crystal which prevents the user from burning up from channeling all the excess aether, not their staff, but the staff itself is also a focus on Thaumaturgy (and Conjury, for that matter) without which the spells would (in theory) be wild and, heh, unfocused. If you notice, our spells seem to come out of our staves (THM animation literally shoots them from the tip, BLM channels from the staff even if the effect happens a few malms away) so, while theoretically possible, it's by no means recommended.