What're the least and most lore-friendly jobs for an RP character to have?

[Veloran]

Actually, on a more serious note, I know some roleplayers who are obsessed with this question and keep this speculative document going to try to answer it. As a lore archivist, my answer is usually entwined with the nuance that Square Enix wants you have some excuse to sensibly see yourself as any job you want to be. They deliberately leave loopholes open, so even if we can Pirates vs. Ninjas a list of more vs. less accessible jobs together, at the end of the day the most difficult one to get a hold of is just as "likely" as the easiest, from a certain point of view.

Some of these are a little questionable. In particular Ninja is listed as tier 5, but in ARR Yugiri was openly teaching the Rogues of Limsa her arts and quite a large proportion of the Doman military appear to be Ninja. Sure to actually come from one of the real Ninja clans would be restricted by backstory, but with Oboro, Yugiri and Edelweiss being so interconnected and the art being so practiced in Doma it's hardly such a secretive path.

[Illmaeran]

DRK - "Do you truly think that Ser Ompagne Deepblack was the first person whose heart burnt out of time with righteous indignation for all those suffering under oppression or betrayal? The first person whose aether swirled and churned from a burning black heart? The only one ever moved to possess a technique allowing one to move their broken body in spite of any missing ligaments or sinew? Then you're a fool who's ignored history. I know not where my mentor learnt the arts, nor where he found these soul crystals, but he did and now I do, and neither of us are Ishgardian." - A large Hyur, all in deepest black, wielding a sword that's less a sword and more a giant slab of steel.

He learned it by reading/watching Berzerk.

I haven't dabbled much in most classes, so I can't say which class/job would be the hardest for an Eorzean-born adventurer to learn, but Ninja and Samurai would be at the top of the list for me. Now that Othard's been open for so long, it's not surprising that there'd be immigrants from those lands adventuring here, so the presence of a number of them isn't out of the realm of believability to me.

Who's to say that a Summoner character doesn't follow the canon storyline and learned the arts from someone who learned the arts from *the* canon character?

[Cygnia]

As Vyrerus thankfully points out, at some point a tradition was invented (and doubly thankful for once mention of Scholar's job was not prefaced by the disclaimer those fairy soulstones cannot be found outside Nym). There is unfortunately a lot of conflation between method and specific traditions still despite Square writing class/role quests showcasing strangers executing much the same skills as our White Mage/Black Mage etc.
The only restriction I'd bear in mind is acquiring the job exactly in the same manner as the Warrior of Light for some jobs might be a trifle difficult, but otherwise the sky is the limit. Adventurers by their nature tend to stumble across hidden knowledge on the regular.

P.S Illegality never stopped the criminals from multiplying, why would the forbidden nature of White/Black magic be cause for concern? Fairly certain 'twas an entire nation or two regularly using such magic which led to ruin, plus some Ascian meddling.

[Cleretic]

P.S Illegality never stopped the criminals from multiplying, why would the forbidden nature of White/Black magic be cause for concern? Fairly certain 'twas an entire nation or two regularly using such magic which led to ruin, plus some Ascian meddling.

I mean, White Magic is supernaturally illegal by decree of an oppressive theocracy in exactly the place where you'd try to learn about it.

With Black Magic I think the bigger problem is the part where you burn alive from the inside-out if you do it bad.

[KageTokage]

I'm really interested in getting to the Reaper story, because depending on the context we're given, it might be one of the least 'RP-friendly' jobs for entirely different reasons to stuff like Scholar.

With how seriously voidsent are taken as a danger in most of the game's story, Reaper might be one of the only jobs we have access to that's legitimately a pariah to most modern society. Especially given it's Garlean, which isn't exactly an ethnicity with positive connotations right now, either!

I'm assuming RPR starts in Ul'dah specifically so it can come into conflict with the Order of Nald'thal; what with them being Eorzea's resident voidsent researchers/regulators.

Given that they already participate in sanctioned voidsent summonings for bloodsports and other activities of questionable merit, I think some of them would be more fascinated with then appalled by the profession.

[kaynide]

I would add, in role play, you can largely ignore jobs. A character equipped in White Mage gear could simply say they are a healer, or just a traveler. Even if they specifically wanted to be a white mage, they could easily claim to have learned the art outside of Gridania/shroud entirely. It’s not like the knowledge must be exclusive, especially when you could easily have convergent evolution (eg, Geomancy in Hingashi is essentially Whm if you follow the story).

In addition, the ancient Amdapor and Mhachi were not restricted to specific places- it is entirely possible their knowledge of white/black magic has survived in other lands with other traditions. Doors are wide open!

[Lauront]

Regarding Garlemald, we'll see how stigmatised Garleans are by the conclusion of 6.0, particularly since the idea will probably be to set aside differences to join against a common threat (plus Yoshi is explicitly saying the aim through the Garlemald zone is to render them sympathetic, much as Emet-Selch did with the Ascians.) That aside, I get the strong impression the story behind the job will involve restoring an ancient art, so associations to Garlemald may end up being historic mostly. Obviously showing up with a scythe and voidsent in tow may get you in trouble in some places, but as with most things in RP, common sense is king.

>>Link to thing someone else wrote<<

aka If you wanna get into stupid fights, pick WHM/BLM
and then spend your time wondeing: but how can I make even my retainer into WHM/BLM, just by filling up some... paperwork?

Far more weighted between those two to WHM I'd say, especially given the content of the level 80 BLM job quest. WHM requires the Padjals' approval, BLM is/was mostly just outlawed and very risky to practise without a soulstone. Although as was pointed out by others, there are NPCs who, while not necessarily a WHM or BLM, use similar powers, and my guess is there's more than one way to come across these powers, including stray soulstones.

[Cygnia]

I mean, White Magic is supernaturally illegal by decree of an oppressive theocracy in exactly the place where you'd try to learn about it.

With Black Magic I think the bigger problem is the part where you burn alive from the inside-out if you do it bad.

To clarify, my not (at all) pithy remark had Necromancy in mind; in many settings, the art of raising undead is zealously hunted down by the divine and their followers and its knowledge eradicated - yet such places still crop up many a necromancer ready to defy the gods themselves. Also a thoughtless reaction to the reasoning for white/black magic existing as tier 5 being 'illegality' as if that'd stop the most reckless creature in Eorzea, the Adventurer.

Pardon for the late response by the way. Probably wasn't really needed, eh.

[Brandedblade]

Personallly I tend to go with the concept of "if you have a coherent reason to have a soul crystal then you can be the job." Not only that but although we don't know *how* explicitly to make new soul crystals, the fact is going by the tooltip of Machinist's soul crystal alone means that these things can be created. They may be weaker then the ones that appear in the quest storylines but it could be possible.

WHM is likely the hardest one to justify in my opinion due to the fact the elementals would heavily regulate who had access to white magic. Although with their power overall weakened in the wake of the calamity, and people scouring the ruins of Amdapor. I do believe it is still reasonably possible for someone to be a White Mage.

BLM is in a similar position. However the knowledge of the art does exist in tomes and such now. And with my statement earlier about the possibility of new soul crystals being able to be made, it could reasonably stand that the research notes on black magic that exist could infact have a "How to cook your own Soul of the Black Mage" somewhere.

SMN and SCH used to be in a similar position to WHM and BLM, however both of their storylines both implicate that people are going reviving and training others in these arts. This point is actually a core element to the SMN SB storyline.

Beyond these 4, alot of the rest seems to just be a matter of getting yourself the correct training and finding or making the special plot power rock.

[Jandor]

I think most jobs theoretically don't need a soul crystal, they're mostly a tool to help learn a particular skill set quickly.

If the job you want is pretty short on spare crystals you could always have whatever backstory you come up with have you spending years learning the job the old fashioned way.