Class Lore Questions

[Marxel]

Hello! Relatively new player here (just got in between Heavensward and Stormblood) with some questions on class lore. Particularly BLM and AST. I started off as a WHM and understood that easily enough. A classic healer I'd imagine would use the powers of nature and at a higher extent, Holy magic. This game though has a *unique* view to me about Black magic. If it is supposed to kind of counteract White magic, you'd think it'd be more unholy and dark like the DRK abilities. When I imagine forbidden arts, I think of summoning demons and hexes. Shadows and skulls kind of thing. Then again I'm coming from other big title MMOs where that's the norm. I guess I don't understand how, for example, Fire is seen as Black magic - as fire could be used to cauterize a wound and is a naturally occurring element. Why don't Black Mages cast flames of Shadow or pitch black Ice instead?

The same goes for AST. I'm currently levelling that job and I don't think the in-game quests explained 100% how we're actually using our magic to heal and do damage. I can imagine calling down a falling star would hurt, but I don't know enough about astrology and space to explain how we're healing either.

Just some ponderings I've had playing the game. Any thoughts? Comments? Any tidbit is appreciated from a newbie Sprout.

[Vyrerus]

As far as BLM goes, it branches up from Thaumaturge. Using the elements of Ice and Fire, the elements draw directly on the land's aether. Ice draws on it and gives it to the BLM for the BLM to then channel through fire, fire aspect using the aether of the land to make hotter, more destructive fire. It's supposed to be bad for the land, iirc. The techniques within the BLM soul crystal are only to use the elements for purely destructive ends.

In FFXIV we're a goody two shoes, so we're just really powerful at magic. In the quests you do sometimes close void portals that other, nefarious BLMs open... usually by blowing them up.

The three elements that BLM wields are a direct nod to BLM from Final Fantasy(1987). In that game the three offensive elements that didn't involve instant death were Fire, Ice, and Lightning.

AST draws aether from heavenly bodies, and then manipulates it to restorative magic as well as to empower their cards. Basically it only differs from conjury or white magic by the fact that those draw exclusively from nature/the mage, whereas AST draws exclusively from other planets, with a few exceptions, like Earthly Star and drawing from the planet beneath your feet.

That's like, the cliff notes versions. I'm sure they're not 100% spot on, but I'd have to go rewatch AST cutscenes to remember properly.

[WhiteArchmage]

You're not completely off the mark with BLM, either. But it's more in their Lore rather than their gameplay. Basically from the BLM quests the Mhachi were indeed big on voidsents, but the remnants of the art of Black Magic focus more on using ambient aether to power destructive spells, in lore this even meant summoning frigging meteors on the land (which Shattotto did, and which BLM does in their LB3). Modern "Black Magic" is mixed with Thaumaturgy, which was created for ritualistic purposes in Ul'dah to preserve and purify bodies in funeral rites.

In gameplay, it also comes from (as Vyrerus said) traditional FF Black Magic, which is focused on elemental magic with only SOME unaspected but "dark" spells (like Meteor, or Death). WHAT elements are available varies from FF to FF, with Aero sometimes being Black Magic and sometimes being White Magic; or Water being available in some FFs and unavailable in others. But the standard BLM spell list will feature Fire, Ice, and Lightning.

In broad strokes, everything every class does is a manipulation of aether, and the only difference is HOW they manipulate said aether: even MNK is stated that their chakra techniques are basically aether manipulation using their own bodies. PLD/GLD USED to let out a burst of aether as a bright light with Flash, but that's been removed...

[RyuDragnier]

Keep in mind that the world sees magic charged (ie, how it's used) in one of 2 ways, Umbral, or Astral. One is destructive and hard to control, the other is passive and controlled. The charge of a magic can completely change how it works. Example, charge a fire spell one way, it's just a flame in your hand can be moved around and controlled easily with little destructive tendencies, but charge it the other, and it's a destructive fire that is hard to control to where it could even damage the caster. The ancient BLMs seemed more attuned to the destructive type, while the modern day BLMs use THM as a base to help control the charges of the elements. Note that the fire spells we use are actually the controlled type, and the ice we use is the more destructive type, while our lightning spells change on whether they're single target (controlled) or AoE (destructive).

[cheolsu]

yes, black magic is destruction, not necessarily evil (but i mean, c'mon, look at the people in the thaumaturge guild). summoners btw are the "evil" ones. or umm, the type that harnesses the powers of hell for good. yeah, that. because they summon primals (like summoning demons)

as for astrologian, they deal with fate. malefic is kind of like placing a hex on someone. and benefic is making sure things go well for them. as for the actual wound healing... this requires a little reading into (though i think there is a quest out around falcon's nest that hints at this), they reverse time locally to undo the wound. many of the other spells are time based too. at inception astrologian was half a time mage (gravity is a time mage spell). arrow used to speed people up. celestial opposition stunned (stopped time) and extended the duration of buffs. however they've stripped most of the time mage stuff from astrologian (i'm hoping because they plan to someday actually introduce time mage)

[MoofiaBossVal]

Black Magic in the Final Fantasy franchise usually refers to offensive, damaging spells. It rarely has anything to do with "evil" spells like in Western fantasy tradition. So far there is no "evil magic" class in FFXIV. FFXIV Dark Knights use "darkness" but it's just elemental darkness; not evil magic. In FF4, Dark Knight's abilities were explicitly "evil" magic, but that isn't the case in FF14.

The next expansion is adding the Reaper job, which will let you summon a demon. That's the closest to an "evil magic" user you're going to get in FFXIV, and even then you can't perform any acts of evil in FFXIV (unlike in WoW).