A couple questions about Scholar, faeries and blindness.

[Sounsyy]

• Does blindness exist in Eorzea? Can we see blind people in the game?
• EDIT: As there is a blindfold in-game, is there any point to being blindfolded too?
• If so, what causes are common?
• How is it treated or cured?
• Does braille exist? Do guide dogs (or creatures) exist?

As others have said, blindness exists (along with an absolute slew of other injuries, maladies, diseases, and incurable afflictions) with two of the most notable examples of blind characters being Shamani Lohmani and Y'shtola, along with many an eyepatched individual like Rostnsthal.

Trauma (magical or physical) seems to be the most common cause, though there's also a disease called Ceruleum Eye which causes temporary blindness. It's possible also to go blind or be born blind I'm sure. As far as treatments go, there seems to be no reversing permanent blindness. Shamani Lohmani and Y'shtola are permanently blind, though the latter has found a magical way around this. Eye Drops are able to reverse and treat temporary blindness, however. That said, we've seen no evidence of braille or seeing-eye animals. There's probably not braille, but having a guide dog or other tamed animal does not seem implausible. Go for it!

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• I've read quite a few things about their codex and books, but most are contradictory. Some pretend the ink is aether-infused and thus readable without having to see it. Some pretend it is merely a book with standard ink, that list military strategies from past times. Some pretend it is a magical artifact or focus to channel aether through. What is the consensus on those?
• Do they usually have one book and never change, or do they cycle through the ones needed for each fight? Do they carry libraries around if so?

Arcanist, Scholar, and Summoner tomes are all drawn with aetherially conductive inks and that ink is drawn in specific geometries or patterns that produce a spell. The geometry is the focus, the ink is an accelerator for your own aether. As far as tomes go - the contents of each differs based on the person who penned it. While most of the grimoires in game all show the same few pages, in lore, you're likely looking at a different geometry (and therefor a different spell) on each page. So a book could contain maybe hundreds of spells, or, as far as Nymian Scholar tomes are concerned, many pages worth of military strategems and tactics interspersed with various relevant spells.

Encyclopedia Eorzea: “A form of arcane art using esoteric calculations, arcanima was developed originally by the people of the south sea isles. After discovering a means of expressing natural phenomena in mathematical terms, they refined formulae into arcane geometries - precise patterns that allowed practitioners to weave aether into specific magical effect. This, in turn, bore the school of arcanima.”

Anonymous Arcanist: “For an arcanist to weave his spells, he must conjure in his mind the image of distinct mystical diagrams known as arcane geometries. These geometries are inscribed upon the pages of a grimoire, such as the one you constructed at my request. The most important aspect of any grimoire is the quality of the ink used to illustrate its pages. Geometries drawn with ink that is especially conductive to the flow of aether allow the arcanist to more effectively channel his magical strength.”

Camate: “Many grimoires can be wielded by arcanists, scholars, or summoners. However, each grimoire is tailored to a single profession, which can be determined by examining its contents. Arcanist grimoires contain geometric symbols that shape and direct the power of arcanima; summoner grimoires contain incantations used to call forth and command primal egi; scholar grimoires contain a wealth of tactics and stratagems which can be applied during battle.”

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• It seems they need a soulstone, unlike some classes, to be considered scholars, as it is needed for the fairy/aether construct they invoke. Those soulstones seem to come from Nym and nowhere else ; thus a scholar would need to either find one in Nymian ruins or inherit one from one of his peers. Is that correct?
• To follow-up on this question: it seems we do not have the ability to create a fairy from scratch in Eorzea, as it is ancient lost knowledge or reserved to mages that do not share their ways (Sharlayan mages for example), is that correct?
• Also, while in-game we pack soulstones in our pockets, where are they supposed to be stored?
• As soulstones can be inherited, and only created in Nym in old times, doesn't that mean most fairies are old too? What happens if their stones haven't been found in ages? Do they exist inside them if they're not invoked?

Yes, according to Alka Zolka you need a soul crystal to be a Nymian Scholar. That's where the Scholars of Nym bound their fae familiars to. Soul crystals in general act as aether and memory storage, aiding later generations who resonate with said crystal with memories of techniques long lost. This seems to also be true of the Faery bound within the soul crystal. Their memories and personality are stored there. In the case of the SCH storyline, Lily, our fae, had lost her memories because she had been dormant for so long and her memories seemed to unlock as we grew as a Scholar and unlocked more of the soul crystal. As for where we keep our soul crystals, the lore book tells us that they are worn close to the skin.

Alka Zolka: “According to the tablet, the crystal from which the faerie sprang forth is called the Soul of the Scholar, and it contains the wisdom of those long-dead Nymian mages. With it, you can call upon the faerie as you did before and bind her to your will.”

Las Vegas Lore Panel - Q: “To follow up on a question from the stream earlier- the taxonomy that fairies fall into. Is there an origin to how they become fairies of Scholars. Were they fairies and then bound to scholars? or did the scholars create them?”

MCKF: “Yes, the second one. Fairies again, while they fall under the taxonomy of elementals, they are actually beings that were created. They did not exist before. The Scholar would take the energies and elements from around them and would basically create these beings that were made of the elements.”

Q: “Those are bound to the soul crystal then and passed from one person to the next where carbuncle is more one per person. Very cool.”

Surito Carito: "I do not know how that soul crystal came into your possession, but I am glad that it did. For the sickness robbed me not only of my body, but of Lily as well. The Soul of the Scholar no longer resonates with my aether. I cannot summon her─only you can. Only you are fit to wield the magicks now."

Alka Zolka: "The treatise indicates that Nymian scholars wielded a far more diverse repertoire of spells than you currently possess. Precisely why you lack these spells, I cannot say. However, the fault may lie with your faerie. One could surmise that the knowledge contained within the Soul of the Scholar is essentially hers. Therefore, if she cannot remember the ancient magicks, it would suggest that... Hm. A thought occurs to me. If it is indeed the case that the faerie, having been sealed for fifteen hundred years, has yet to fully regain her senses, mayhap visiting a familiar location would hasten the process."

Encyclopedia Eorzea: “Ever since the height of the Allagan Empire in the Third Astral Era, the practice of using crystals to store and impart knowledge has been prevalent in Eorzea. An adornment known as a “soul crystal” is worn close to the skin, where the uncommonly clear facets of the carefully cut shard catch and transcribe the ebb and flow of a soul’s aetherial composition - effectively capturing an imperfect echo of the wearer’s memories. This arcane tool engraved with the myriad deeds of heroes from eras past was employed by many of the disciplines of yesteryear to preserve and pass on the skills of successive generations of masters.

The wisdom contained in a soul crystal, however, is not so easily drawn forth - an untrained neophyte cannot simply pick up one of these gems and expect his mind to be flooded with the knowledge of advanced spellcraft and combat techniques. Without first attaining sufficient proficiency and tempering one’s soul to mirror the maturity of the crystal’s contributors, a prospective student will be denied even the slightest glimpse of enlightenment. Thus, as is the case with the more contemporary disciplines, the key to mastering the secrets of a soul crystal lies in diligent study and training.”

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• They seem to have sentience, and personalities, but are still bind to their scholar. Could they resist their will and never do as told or is it "programmed" that they obey their soulstone owner no matter what?
• Do they have a morality compass? Can they distinguish from what is right and what is wrong, even if they are forced to do their master's binding?

They do have their own sentience and personalities, and they can disobey their Scholars. We even see evidence of this in the 30-50 SCH questline, wherein Lily regains enough of her memories to protect a tonberry from Alka Zolka.

Alka Zolka: "Though... does she possess memories, like you and I? Until recently, I had no idea faeries even existed. It may be ages before I gain an understanding of these otherworldly entities...
Then this strongly suggests that each faerie is a distinct individual with her own thoughts, feelings, and memories..."

Alka Zolka: "What are you doing!? Move, damn you! Confound it all! Bah! What happened, Forename!? I thought you could control her! <sigh> I apologize. I know you have only just begun to work with the faerie. Some...disobedience is to be expected.

Alka Zolka: "<sniffle> <sob> I...I nearly killed him! Thank the gods that faerie stopped me. I wonder...did she know it was Surito from the beginning, or was it only... In any case, she has regained a good portion of her memories, if not all of them, I suspect."

Hope this helps!

[Norimancy]

Thank you so much! It helps a lot.

[Brightamethyst]

A somewhat related musing with all this talk about blindness. Do you suppose Y'shotla can read? We know she 'sees' by reading the aether around her but that feels more like echolocation than actual sight. Can actually see words on pages, or pictures, or colors, or anything?

[Sounsyy]

Considering Y'shtola is an archon of exegesis (interpretation of ancient texts and languages, most notably scripture) I would personally hope that SE would make a way bigger deal out of Y'shtola's loss of sight if she was suddenly unable to continue her life's work.

[BiffWellington]

Considering Y'shtola is an archon of exegesis (interpretation of ancient texts and languages, most notably scripture) I would personally hope that SE would make a way bigger deal out of Y'shtola's loss of sight if she was suddenly unable to continue her life's work.

Another thing about Y'shtola's blindness... using the aether to "see" the way she does is slowly draining her lifeforce. So, it definitely has the potential to become a serious problem.

[Brightamethyst]

Another thing about Y'shtola's blindness... using the aether to "see" the way she does is slowly draining her lifeforce. So, it definitely has the potential to become a serious problem.

Maybe, but let's face it, being a Scion is really dangerous. I doubt any of the main Scions expect to die of old age.

[Rosenoire]

Back in WoW we had a guild where some people got upset that when a character died in a plot line, they couldn't just resurrect him. As if that's supposed to be an easy thing healers can just do willy nilly at the drop of a hat. I think the most a healer could commonly do is maybe resuscitate someone that had died just a moment before, but you can't just find a dead body and cast Raise either and expect it to work. When actual resurrections happen they tend to be under special circumstances.

I'm still upset that I couldn't raise a certain character in the MSQ.

[Sylvain]

Thank you for all your answers!

So, we could theorize that blindness in FFXIV can come from the same reasons or consequences as IRL, as illnesses, birth defects, injuries, and we could probably add some magical/aether discharge accidents in the mix, but otherwise it seems quite a standard condition then. Would a healer be able to do anything about it?
It seems through the lore I've read, that most handicaps can't be fixed through healing if they're old or serious enough (incapacitated or cut limbs, deep scars and so on), but just to be sure...

From what I've read (and understand), healing magic bring back someone to the recent condition it was (not sure about lost limb, I bet you would need some very powerful magic user there to reform an entire limb)

So for instance, let say you just fought and have an open wound on the arm, a healer could close it (and perhaps even make it so without any scare, no source on that), but if you were to let it heal naturally well... there nothing to do, it's already healed! You can't heal something that isn't damaged.

So I guess it woud work the same for blindness (for instance), let say someone got their eyes damaged for X reason (like, too light, burned, punctured) a healer could probably fix it as long as the eyes are still damaged. If the person were to wait for too long, and let the eye actually heal (which doesn't mean recovering eyesight) then there would be no way to return the original eyes, because it's been healed, it's too late (Technically it's the same irl with scare, you can prevent scare formation but once it's done, it's done you're stuck with it)

[Iscah]

So I guess it woud work the same for blindness (for instance), let say someone got their eyes damaged for X reason (like, too light, burned, punctured) a healer could probably fix it as long as the eyes are still damaged. If the person were to wait for too long, and let the eye actually heal (which doesn't mean recovering eyesight) then there would be no way to return the original eyes, because it's been healed, it's too late (Technically it's the same irl with scare, you can prevent scare formation but once it's done, it's done you're stuck with it)

I think that must be how it works. Lots of characters have scars of varying degrees - it seems like those minor wounds should be the easiest thing to mend in a world where instant magical healing is possible, and yet they still happen. So it seems likely that it depends on how quickly the wound is treated, and it could also depend on the individual healer's skill level.

Magical interference is also possible. Apparently the attack used on [you-know-who] is used on players in the EX trial, and inflicts a status that prevents healing.

More generally, I figure there must be some kind of "threshold" between a severe injury that can be repaired with Raise, and one that simply cannot be undone. I figure in cases where we "should have been able to cast Raise" we either made an unsuccessful attempt to do so, or a good healer can actually sense the difference and know whether it should be attempted or not.

I expect in 'real' healing rather than the simple gameplay approximation, you need to basically flood the person with aether, and possibly even 'manually' mentally guide the repairing of damaged body parts. There must be a limit to how much you can do.

[Sylvain]

I think that must be how it works. Lots of characters have scars of varying degrees - it seems like those minor wounds should be the easiest thing to mend in a world where instant magical healing is possible, and yet they still happen. So it seems likely that it depends on how quickly the wound is treated, and it could also depend on the individual healer's skill level.

Magical interference is also possible. Apparently the attack used on [you-know-who] is used on players in the EX trial, and inflicts a status that prevents healing.

More generally, I figure there must be some kind of "threshold" between a severe injury that can be repaired with Raise, and one that simply cannot be undone. I figure in cases where we "should have been able to cast Raise" we either made an unsuccessful attempt to do so, or a good healer can actually sense the difference and know whether it should be attempted or not.

I expect in 'real' healing rather than the simple gameplay approximation, you need to basically flood the person with aether, and possibly even 'manually' mentally guide the repairing of damaged body parts. There must be a limit to how much you can do.

Regarding raise, I think this is more a game gimmick instead of actual lore. (Otherwise we'd simply raise the dead)
Imo, the actual "Raise" spell doesn't exist. If you wanna roleplay around it, it would just be advanced healing to put back on feet someone who's been seriously injured and isn't able to fight anymore

There's a new Manga released set in the world of FF14 and this is actually one of the main plot (spoiler alert)

Basically, a character (from our world) is sent into the world of Eorzea with his sister for god knows what reason, through some event the sister dies and the group healer is desesperately trying to heal her, then the main character is like "but wait, this is the world of FF! Why don't you simply cast "Raise"!"
When he says that everyone looks at him like he's insane and this is when the healer replies that Raise, only exists in fairy tales"

I mean, if Raise would be an actual thing, people dying wouldn't be much of an issue (especially considering that it's a very low level skill assuming level means anything)

I like how you explaiend "real healing"