Thaumaturgy is the same manner of casting of magic as conjury, but drawn from surrounding aether instead of granted by the elements.When a thaumaturge casts, they aspect their personal aether + the drawn aether to both an element and a phase (astral or umbral) - this naturally produces some effect in the same way that wild elementals exist and do things (like setting something on fire or blowing wind). Thaumaturges have to balance back and forth between astral and umbral phases, because over-aspecting their personal aether would cause them to die (hence fire/ice cycle).Arcanima is completely different: an arcanist uses geometric symbols and mathematical patterns to effectively 'program' raw aether. Arcanists use UNaspected aether and shove through complicated patterns (seen in their books) that causes it to structure itself into some effect. Compare arcanima to protein-folding: the SHAPE alone is a critical part of the protein's function; your Carbuncle is an aether protein.tl;dr Thaumaturgy is about the composition of the aether, arcanima is about the shape of the aether. This is all on point except the first part: thaumaturges don't draw from environmental aether the way conjurers do. Black mages do draw on environmental aether, and this is a large part of what sets the schools of thaumaturgy and black magic apart, and makes large-scale practice of black magic a risk to the aetherial balance of the realm.For most arcane arts, a mage's own reserves of mana suffice to fuel even the most potent incantations, but certain formidable spells from the school of black magic drink deep of the world's wells of life energy.-Encyclopaedia Eorzea p233, 'Ambient Aether'. That's true, except that conjurers don't draw directly from the environment either.

Plural of arcanist. Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Plural of arcanist. Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Or at the very least, the conjurers in the Gridanian tradition don't. Their magic is drawn from the elementals of the Twelveswood. I don't recall it ever being explained how conjurers from other parts of the world power their spells.White and black magic were weapons of mass destruction in their heyday during the War of the Magi in the Fifth Astral Era. Both forms of magic were not only directly capable of great destruction, but were also literally draining the environment of aether. In comparison conjury and thaumaturgy are on a much lower magnitude of potential destruction altogether.

Just to add on this. If Conjurers (and White Mages to an extent) all drew from the elementals themselves, most of the elementals would've been long dissipated during the War of the Magi, and the remaining elementals wouldn't even have enough power to cause the great floods.During the quests, I always got the impression that it's more about asking permission from the elementals to use the aether from the environment.

Something along the lines of 'Hey can I use some aether to heal this poor chap?' , 'Only take enough. Take more, and I'll shove so much aether up your arse that you'd be begging for death by drowning.' This is the same impression I have from CNJ questline. The white mage job change quest made such a big deal about there being only 3 at a time because they can forcefully move nature's aether, so the elementals only permit specific people to have it at a given time or else they'd attack Gridania again. Gridania wants white mages around so as to preserve agency of the Eorzean races without upsetting the elementals (balance with nature blah blah).I think conjury is like DnD clerics - they beg the elementals for aether for every spell, and they're usually always granted it because basic conjury only needs a pittance from the environment, unlike white magic. The heal-from-stupid girl only used her OWN aether and it was killing her, presumably from build-up of an aspect + depletion of her reserves.Disconnect of gameplay and lore: I guess we have to assume that if you're a CNJ and cast Stone at wild elementals, you must be using personal aether?.

Elementals aren't indicated as being truly intelligent/ sentient, but something akin to the 'will of nature' (to preserve the aetherial flow of life). There's no particular reason to think elementals HAVE differing opinions from each other, or that they're even separate. Beings or whatever. It's like a hivemind that's not even a full mind.Disagreements with intelligent races come from elementals' indifference toward any particular forms of life - if all Elezen went extinct but were replaced ecologically by a similar species, that's probably fine for elementals. Also, intelligent races have motives that are not merely survival/perpetuating aether, so there's a source of friction.Gridanian conjurers have a quid pro quo with the elementals - they get the aether they need to do stupid human things, and in return they have to play park rangers in the Black Shroud.

Just to add on this. If Conjurers (and White Mages to an extent) all drew from the elementals themselves, most of the elementals would've been long dissipated during the War of the Magi, and the remaining elementals wouldn't even have enough power to cause the great floods.This is mostly an aside to your main point, but the elementals didn't cause the 6th Calamity. That was just a natural consequence of the massive imbalance of water aether as a result of the war.

The umbral water eventually reached a sufficient mass that it just manifested astrally. Oha Sok just took the credit for it. The Elementals do not seem to really be individual, properly, fully, conscious beings, but shards of consciousness in the aetherial soup.From version 1.0:Oha-Sok: I am wrath incarnate.

By my kindred's rage I am given life, by their keening roused to wakefulness. Even as I mourn the departure of light, I grieve the arrival of shadow.Oha-Sok: When the fifth sun gave way to the sixth moon, my kind was set free from the shackles of men.Yet our freedom was not to last.

Like their forebears before them, the men of this age seek to gain by our torment, and we are made to suffer once more.Oha-Sok: Gentle child of man. Thy heart knoweth no vice, thine intentions righteous. Yet thy strength knoweth no purpose but conflict. In conflict, there is naught but suffering.Oha-Sok: Hark!

The keening of my kind riseth to a crescendo! The new moon loometh nigh, and when it cometh, woods shall wither and seas shall roil.Raya-O-Senna: Oha-Sok is the collective fury of the elementals given form. Their suffering summoned her forth, and in her turn she stokes the fire of their rage with her keening.Raya-O-Senna: Can you hear it,? The elementals' keening has begun to rise in crescendo, a sound that sends a chill down my spine.Raya-O-Senna: Oha-Sok has returned to the Twelveswood, I am certain of it. Her presence stirs the rage of her kindred.Raya-O-Senna: Having observed the deeds of men through your eyes, Oha-Sok forbears passing her final judgement.Raya-O-Senna: However, being the collective wrath of the elementals given form, she cannot help but be swayed by the humours of her kind. It is only a matter of time before her hand is forced.Raya-O-Senna: In his pride and avarice, man brought down the wrath of the elementals upon himself.Raya-O-Senna: Beyond the bounds of the forest, rogue elementals remain rampant as ever.Raya-O-Senna: If the elementals are left to their rage, another calamity will surely befall Eorzea.

We must do all in our power to ensure that it does not come to pass.What I'm saying is that Oha-Sok honestly seems like a personification of the aetherial imbalance from the War of the Magi. So yes, it was aetherial imbalance, but the elementals are basically environmental aether personified with a sort of semi-consciousness, so the difference seems a bit moot. Am I not explaining myself properly?The non-moot point is that Oha Sok lied to the Gridanians in order to subjugate them. It's an extremely important distinction. In your sources, Kan-E-Senna says that if they aren't quelled, they will cause another Calamity. That's not within the elemental's power.

The elementals are somewhat entwined with the planet, but they are distinctive enough to have their own agency. When people in Gridania are left to die, it isn't because it's good for the environment, it's because the elementals want it.Oha Sok was a side effect of the sixth calamity, not the cause.Keep in mind that this is not common knowledge, and might not be known at all in universe. The seed seers talk about the elementals having the ability to cause a calamity because that's what they've been told.

Their accounts are not reliable. The main difference is probably, that every living being is of course in contact with it's surrounding and by that the aether. Like people eat, drink, breath, aether is also 'exchanged' (else everyone who would use their own aether to do things - and that's not only mages, but also all other jobs, just in different ways - would just run out of it and die pretty soon).By learning conjuring, you probably just learn how to speed this up a little with specific aether from nature and let it directly flow into your spell - while White Magic (just as Black Magic) can just grab and move all the aether around way more forcefully and use it directly for way more powerful spells.It's something you see in quite some setting.

Shadowrun and Earthdawn magic also works a lot like this. In Shadowrun you got no MP or alike. Using magic got one single problem: since you use your own body to 'filter' mana and press it in desired form (no matter how exactly you do it) your body gets exhausted by the process - or even hurt or destroyed, if you use too much mana or just are not good enough to control it (= when you casts spells beyond your ability to control, you get real damage, that can kill you, while normally you only get 'fatigue' 'damage' and lose consciousness if you overdo it). If the Elantris glyph magic worked the way Arcanima worked, it would be terrifyingly powerful, and one would doubt just anyone would be allowed to draw them. Sanderson describes earth breaking and city altering (and disease producing) levels of power, provided the investiture of the glyph strong enough and the glyph and its association large enough.Fortunately, Arcanima can only be manipulated from the arcanist theirselves, and any concerted effort at larger scale magics seems more limited. Unlike Amdapor or Mhach, Nym lacked the ability to create fields of large scale magics to affect their war, and could not it seems defend themselves readily against Ozma, and so. Ceased to be - save for those trapped in the Wanderer's Palace as Tonberries.