What we learned about BLU lore (contains spoilers)

[Raikai]

Below, what we learned about the story of the job:

1) Where it came from: The Whalaqee is a tribe of hyur from the New World and they have a tradition of casting magicks that can mimic the abilities of creatures. Martyn named it Blue Magic, but originally it might have a different name. He did so because of the Whalaqee's reverence of the color blue and the meaning it represents for them. (Also Martyn is biased in having a love for the color blue as well)

2) Tuxedo mask:The Blue Mage aesthetic presented, with the dapper blue suit and mask is something that Royse imposes Martyn to wear (and consequently you, later on), to create a character bound to display magick showdowns on an arena. We also see a couple of images of Whalaqee spellcasters wearing more traditional outfits, in blue.

3) What it feeds on:Blue magic draws aether from the surroundings, like conjury. Though it's not explored about possible harmful effects. I speculate it could be a future plot point for the job quests, when you might harness advanced abilities that might draw more dangerous amounts of aether.

4) How it works: Blue magic attempts to mimic the best it can from the monster abilities. It usually uses aether to shape the material components of the spell, like the fish hurled by "Flying Sardine". The description of the spells are a nice insight on how the job functions mechanically.

5) About the weapon: It's briefly mentioned that the cane is a magic focus, but not any further insight if it necessary to be crafted using something specific, like THM or CNJ arms.

6) About the soulstone: The BLU soulstone, according to the tooltip, functions like MCH's. An empty vessel to record knowledge.

7) Future: Martyn contemplates the possibility of opening a Blue Mage guild as soon as financially possible, to spread the knowledge, so we might see it as an actual organization in the future.

8) How one becomes: How a regular adventurer might become a Blue Mage? The most straightforward route is simply coming across Martyn and purchasing his wares (before he got prohibited, of course), or in the future by enrolling in a possible Blue Mage guild.

Unlikely, but there might be the chance of learning in the source (New World) too.

...

I might add more as I find new information.

[Sarynth]

Ah thank you for this. I haven't gotten to do much but level and get a handful of spells (stupid work), but I want to learn more about Blu lore and such. I'm curious where they'll go with it and if there will be any similarities with the lore of ffxi Blu.

[ObsidianFire]

What's really interesting is that the way one goes about learning Enemy Skills is based on the same principle that Summoners use to be able to create Egi. Namely, when something dies its aether gets released into the surrounding environment, including the person who killed it. It's possible to access that "foreign" aether and do things with it. In the Blue Mage's case, that "foreign" aether is used as a template to recreate an ability of the dead creature using external aether. A Summoner goes a lot further with the technique and uses the "foreign" aether to not just recreate an ability, but to recreate a miniature version of the creature itself with their own aether. Summoner even goes so far that they can make their own aether look like the aether of a creature they killed and cast their spells themselves.

This also plays into what makes the two jobs different. Blue Mage can mimic the attacks of a lot of different, common monsters without much trouble it seems, but it uses the aether of the environment to do so. A Summoner only uses their own internal aether (as far as we know) but they can only make miniature creatures based on primals, which are entirely made of aether and are really ideas given life. While it is technically possible to make miniature versions of anything, the math/geometries of creatures that are based in the material realm is impossible to calculate without an Allagan supercomputer. While they can mimic a creature's moves, it requires a lot of build-up time and so far, it looks like a Summoner can only do that with one creature.

So yeah, both Blue Mage and Summoner are both based off of learning things from the aether-traces left behind in someone when something is killed, but Blue Mage focuses on breadth using external aether while Summoner focues on depth using internal aether.

[Cilia]

Though I just picked it up out of curiosity (and don't intend to do much with it - I like the concept but the restrictions really don't mesh with my playstyle), Blue Mage in this game feels like it has some similarities to Geomancer - both use ambient natural aether, the only difference being Blue Mages use the powers of the local fauna while Geomancers would (theoretically) animate the land itself.