GRYFFINDOR: “I am beginning to rub my eyes at the prospect of peace. I think it will require more courage than anything that has gone before … One will have to look at long vistas again, instead of short ones, and one will at last fully recognise that the dead are not only dead for the duration of the war.” –Cynthia Asquith
Encyclopedia Eorzea II – Red Mage: “The War of the Magi was a cataclysmic battle fought between the black mages of Mhach and the white mages of Amdapor. When calamity struck, members of both orders joined hands to weave a new kind of sorcery with which to resist their encroaching doom. The practitioners of this art became known as ‘red mages.’”
History
Encyclopedia Eorzea – A Litany for Survival:“As the Fifth Astral Era drew to its calamitous close, many and more fled their homes, forced into wandering with no clear destination in mind beyond higher ground to escape the ever-rising waters. It was then a burning comet in the night sky led a number of the errant souls unto Gyr Abania in the eastern reaches of Abalathia’s Spine. There, they found salvation from the floods, though life among the high peaks proved unforgiving. The survivors were of different races and nations, and soon, they fractured into factions, fighting bitterly over what little resources there were to be had.”
Encyclopedia Eorzea – Chronology of the Sixth Astral Era:
Year c.10 – “Survivors of the Sixth Umbral Calamity form small communities in Gyr Abania, descending into conflict over the area’s limited resources. Many flee Abalathia entirely as the floodwaters recede.”
Encyclopedia Eorzea – A Litany for Survival:“The feuds continued for many long years. On occasion, one clan would win a string of victories, and grow larger by absorbing their defeated foes into their ranks – only to be encircled by a coalition of the remaining tribes, and hammered back down. Following its victory, the loose alliance would then dissolve for lack of a common enemy. This pattern repeated time and again, and the fray showed no signs of abetting.”
Encyclopedia Eorzea II – Red Mage History:“At the end of the Fifth Astral Era, a streaking comet guided disparate bands of refugees into the mountains of Gyr Abania to escape the floods of the Sixth Umbral Calamity. Amongst these bedraggled survivors were mages of both Mhach and Amdapor. A sorcerous battle would soon have ensued had the war still raged, but the needs of survival outweighed their enmity, and nurtured the spirit of cooperation. Black and white magicks were abhorred for their role in leeching the land’s aether and bringing about realm-wide disaster, yet it was agreed that the power of the arcane could help rebuild what was lost. Thus did the refugee mages seek to make amends for their mistakes by establishing a new school of spellcraft – an aether-efficient discipline which drew only upon the wielder’s own mana. What they created was an art to overcome adversity, otherwise known as ‘red magic.’”
X’rhun Tia:“Welcome to the ranks of the red mages. The art we practice is born of noble origin. Its balanced and controlled energies were once used to stem the tide of destruction, and reclaim a future for the dispossessed. I speak of the age, some fifteen hundred years past, when the clash of two sorcerous civilizations brought about the Sixth Umbral Calamity.
Ere the great floods rose, people fled from their homes and into the mountains of Gyr Abania. Even mages of Mhach and Amdapor were to be found amongst the refugees. These wizardly practitioners became targets of retribution for the part they played in upsetting the natural balance, and soon did they shed their robes of black and vestments of white. If people were to survive and rebuild following the disaster, however, they would need the power of the arcane. Thus were the principles of black and white magery reinvented, and upon their combined foundation an entirely new discipline was built: red magic.”
X’rhun Tia:“Red magic was conceived to stem such tides of destruction, in an age when the abuse of sorcery flooded the world with death. Its distinction from earlier disciplines is key: whilst practitioners of black and white magic draw upon ambient aether, a red mage weaves her spells using only the reserves of mana with which she was born. In the era in which red magic was created, to do otherwise was forbidden.”
Encyclopedia Eorzea – The Age of Restoration (Years 1-400): “Scars left by the Sixth Umbral Calamity ran deep, instilling much despair into the hearts of the realm’s few survivors. Fearing that its continued use might further their woes, the art of magic was widely forbidden. Libraries housing ancient tomes were put to flame, while those who practiced – or were rumored to practice – the art of spellcraft were hunted down and tried as criminals. Many a learned man met the same demise, as the masses had become so incensed they could no longer distinguish the difference between science and sorcery. With the majority of their greatest minds lost, the few remaining nations of the Fifth Astral Era crumbled and vanished, their peoples scattering about the realm to lay claim to what little resources remained. Driven by the primal urge to survive, tribes and clans banded together into small communities and began a centuries-long journey to rebuild their broken lives.
Between the destruction wrought by the War of the Magi and that by the Calamity of Water, little remained of the Fifth Astral Era’s city-states. Those who survived the chaos abandoned the shells of their once-magnificent nations, choosing instead to establish small hamlets.”
Encyclopedia Eorzea II – The Ziggurat: “The Sixth Umbral Calamity wreaked havoc upon the realm’s aetherial flow, giving rise to unstable weather patterns. Desiring to correct the disturbance, descendants of the Amdapori and the Mhachi set aside past differences and came together to build the Ziggurat, which served as a weight to still the land’s writhing currents of aether.”
X’rhun Tia:“The journey I have in mind will take us into the mountains of Gyr Abania, where we will visit the Ziggurat built by the red mages of eld.
Be on the lookout for stone tablets bearing the histories of the red.
In time, however, the Ziggurat also became a library, where successive generations of red mages enshrined their stories and their secrets. ‘Tis a shame that so many of these precious slates have since been lost to plunderers, or simply worn down by the ravages of time…”
Encyclopedia Eorzea II – Red Mage History:“In the desperate years following the Calamity, its practitioners devoted themselves to protecting the survivors, and saved many lives in the process. But as prosperity returned along with the dawning of a new Astral Era, fewer and fewer students took up the red, and the memory of red mages slowly faded from the world.”
Because I’m determined to not let this Tumblr Shit get in the way of my blog and lore posting, I decided to spend today putting together a post that has been asked about a lot and I’ve been putting off for some time.
More lore on the Crimson Duelists, Red Magic, Red Mage Attire and Weaponry, and lore on the Nightkin and the voidsent queen Lilith can be found below the Read More cut below!
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