Elements

[MikkoAkure]

So the war of the magi sucked all the lands aether but left water, I physically don’t know how that can be interpreted any other way than the magical societies didn’t use as much water otherwise they would have sucked out all the lands aether and caused a blight/empty style situation that may have induced an umbral aspected calamity but not a water one

The land was tipped to a very specific element, one that aligned with the 10th, and it was caused by the war of the magi, what other answer is there in this situation

During the War of the Magi both sides used ambient aether to power their spells. The encyclopedia says "when [ambient aether] is leeched dry, the surrounding land is stripped of its capacity to bear forth life. For most arcane arts, a mage's own reserves of mana suffice to fuel even the most powerful incantations, but certain formidable spells from the school of black magic drink deep of the wells of life energy". From what I can gather, most disciplines of magic generally just use neutral aether when casting spells and aspect it themselves towards an element. All descriptions just refer to "aether" rather than that of a specific type, except for conjurers who tend to run on geomancer rules anyway. If spells required and used up very specific elements then I feel like we'd need multiple MP bars based on element and spells like Freeze that use ambient aether wouldn't work or would be very difficult to use in Thanalan.

If there was an actual official source that said "white mages in the 5th Astral Era did not use water magic and that's why there was an imbalance" then I'd eat my words and accept that. But I can't find anything that says that and I'm not going to let fan speculation based on gameplay mechanics of all things guide my own understanding of the game's story. If this were an actual thing then I feel like it would've been explicitly stated a long time ago.

[Supersnow845]

During the War of the Magi both sides used ambient aether to power their spells. The encyclopedia says "when [ambient aether] is leeched dry, the surrounding land is stripped of its capacity to bear forth life. For most arcane arts, a mage's own reserves of mana suffice to fuel even the most powerful incantations, but certain formidable spells from the school of black magic drink deep of the wells of life energy". From what I can gather, most disciplines of magic generally just use neutral aether when casting spells and aspect it themselves towards an element. All descriptions just refer to "aether" rather than that of a specific type, except for conjurers who tend to run on geomancer rules anyway. If spells required and used up very specific elements then I feel like we'd need multiple MP bars based on element and spells like Freeze that use ambient aether wouldn't work or would be very difficult to use in Thanalan.

If there was an actual official source that said "white mages in the 5th Astral Era did not use water magic and that's why there was an imbalance" then I'd eat my words and accept that. But I can't find anything that says that and I'm not going to let fan speculation based on gameplay mechanics of all things guide my own understanding of the game's story. If this were an actual thing then I feel like it would've been explicitly stated a long time ago.

Okay so why was water specifically left behind given we know the war of the magi was orchestrated by the ascians

If aether was drawn equally across all sources and aspected by the mage leaving behind a blight of sorts (like 16’s blight or the empty in 14) why was there was overabundance of water aether left in the source especially when the we know the ascians were trying to tip tje balance towards water and rejoin the 10th

A blight/empty situation may align with an umbral umbral calamity (like the 8th) but not a water aspected calamity, the magical arts draw deep from the lands aether and it left us with water aether, I still don’t see how that’s up for debate