When did the WoL become the WoL?

[Aurelius2625]

Specifically, were we always born destined to become the WoL, or, was that something that later happened, like we were some rando adventurer and Hydalyn saw fit to make us into the WoL?

Is the WoL like the Avatar Spirit in the Avatar: the last airbender series, where it's an immortal soul that transfers to mortal bodies for a time, or is each WoL unique?

Is the WoL ONLY good versus Primals, and therefore, pretty weak, or is the WoL a force of their own? For example, the WoL happens to get beat up sometimes by human opponents, but let's be real here... Omega and Shinryu are insanely powerful god beings... shouldn't the WoL be curb stomping everyone, if they can take down beings of that magnitude? I mean, isn't the WoL a god, essentially? I mean, primal beings of fire, water, earth, light, and so forth... those opponents all supercede ANY kind of human or beast, right?

What gives the WoL their strength and power? Hydalyn gave you crystals of light, is that it? So is the WoL just a regular human, but, has juiced up crystal powers because of the Crystal of Light that you had? Or, does the WoL have innate special power that is simply augmented by the Crystal of light?

[gumas]

i forgot but i think somewhere when we make the first contact with that huge light crystal, the real contact, not in dream or anything like that.

i think it was ifrit scene? i forgot though, but i remember the rumor about you being WOL start appearing after that.

[Anonymoose]

As far as we know so far, the Warrior of Light (Echo + "Champion Blessing") is just a regular ol' person who happened to have all the qualities that made Hydaelyn decide, "I want the help of this one." and thereby extend that offer. If the character was created in A Realm Reborn, this happened in the introduction. It's implied that the Warrior of Light, whatever their reasons were, were chosen out of the blue but assented to play the role.

However, Yoshida has implied in the past that we don't know everything about "the nature of the Warrior of Light."

So, some of what you've listed might be true, who knows! Maybe the Eorzean theological belief that the souls of great heroes are reborn on occasion is true.

As far as abilities go, the Warrior of Light has the Echo, which includes the protection from primals and "thinner walls of the soul" and all that jazz, and then some kind of vague additional factor I've been calling the "champion" blessing, which Lahabrea once said (in some languages) allows the WoL to "interfere with the aetherial realm," causing the remaining Crystals of Light to manifest, whereas Hydaelyn would normally just gift Her chosen the one.

In conjunction, these two powers offer immunity from tempering, memory-reading, removal of language barriers, ability to speak to Hydaelyn in the sea, and an immeasurably deep aetherial potential that they meet more of as they grow stronger. But it's important to remember that it goes both ways; we were chosen because we were strong, we are stronger because we were chosen.

[Kalise]

WoL became the WoL when we received Hydaelyn's Blessing after beating all the Primals and getting the crystals of light.

That is it. That is the point where we went from rando-adventurer (Blessed with the Echo) to the Warrior of Light (Or "Hydaelyn's Chosen")

Though, one could argue that after Ifrit we started on the path of being the WoL, due to us being tasked by Hydaelyn to go beat the other Primals in order to gain the crystals.

So is the WoL just a regular human, but, has juiced up crystal powers because of the Crystal of Light that you had? Or, does the WoL have innate special power that is simply augmented by the Crystal of light?

The WoL is something more than just a regular human (With the Echo)

Since, this is what Midgardsormr was testing for when he removed Hydaelyn's Blessing from us. He wanted to see whether we were worthy of the power. Thus, our strength of will and well physical capabilities were put to the test. Then we kicked the butt of an Ascian and were deemed worthy.

Thus we then regained the Blessing and were once again amp'd by the crystals.

It's also noted that during the final scene with the Warriors of Darkness, they all had crystals too (Including Urianger...) which were all used to go speak with Hydaelyn/Minfilia.

[Kusanagi7]

so what will happen after shb will we go back to being wol or will we be something else?

[Kalise]

so what will happen after shb will we go back to being wol or will we be something else?

Technically, we don't actually stop being WoL.

Like, I know it's mentioned that in ShB we'll become "Warriors of Darkness" but its a bit of a misnomer.

We won't renounce Hydaelyn. We won't be serving Zodiark and the Ascians. We won't be giving up Hydaelyn's Blessing.

We simply will be tackling a threat that is based around there being too much light and thus have to create darkness to re-establish the natural balance.

The fact that Minfilia will be there, who is chosen to be the extension of Hydaelyn due to her innate connection with her (Also, that whole "Dying" thing) suggests that Hydaelyn herself will be endorsing the trip to save the First from the Flood of Light. Given how she promised Arbert that she would do what she could to save their world.

[Daralii]

Technically, we don't actually stop being WoL.

Like, I know it's mentioned that in ShB we'll become "Warriors of Darkness" but its a bit of a misnomer.

We won't renounce Hydaelyn. We won't be serving Zodiark and the Ascians. We won't be giving up Hydaelyn's Blessing.

We simply will be tackling a threat that is based around there being too much light and thus have to create darkness to re-establish the natural balance.

The fact that Minfilia will be there, who is chosen to be the extension of Hydaelyn due to her innate connection with her (Also, that whole "Dying" thing) suggests that Hydaelyn herself will be endorsing the trip to save the First from the Flood of Light. Given how she promised Arbert that she would do what she could to save their world.

We also know from the promo site that she successfully stalled the Flood itself in Ahm Arang, and Koji said that the scene with her in the cinematic was in caverns under Eulmore. If anything, the information we have makes it seem like we'll be saving Hydaelyn Herself through the Word of the Mother.

[Iscah]

It's also noted that during the final scene with the Warriors of Darkness, they all had crystals too (Including Urianger...) which were all used to go speak with Hydaelyn/Minfilia.

You're misremembering that. It's only our character and the five Warriors of Darkness that have crystals - conveniently making a complete elemental set, whether that had anything to do with triggering our trip to the aetherial sea or not. (It seems that Urianger only started engineering that particular encounter after realising Arbert still had his Crystal of Light, but the elemental matchup seems beyond anyone's control. Fate, perhaps.)

Urianger does tell us to use the crystal, though.

Technically, we don't actually stop being WoL.

Like, I know it's mentioned that in ShB we'll become "Warriors of Darkness" but its a bit of a misnomer.

We won't renounce Hydaelyn. We won't be serving Zodiark and the Ascians. We won't be giving up Hydaelyn's Blessing.

We simply will be tackling a threat that is based around there being too much light and thus have to create darkness to re-establish the natural balance.

The fact that Minfilia will be there, who is chosen to be the extension of Hydaelyn due to her innate connection with her (Also, that whole "Dying" thing) suggests that Hydaelyn herself will be endorsing the trip to save the First from the Flood of Light. Given how she promised Arbert that she would do what she could to save their world.

Technically, we don't know that at this point. We can guess that it's likely, but we don't know.

We could have to work with Zodiark and/or the Ascians. We could be opposed to Minfilia for some reason.

I don't think we're going to, and I don't want to see the story go that way, but we can't say with absolute certainty that it won't.

Even if we're not actually opposed to Hydaelyn, we could have to voluntarily give up the Blessing with Her agreement so we can wield Darkness properly. Or something.

Maybe She's out of battery and we can't keep draining what little power She has left right now, so we're disconnecting until we can get things sorted.

[Anonymoose]

The 5 Warriors of Darkness raised Lightning, Fire, Earth, Ice, and Wind. Urianger called out to us to raise our Water Crystal and use it to channel Hydaelyn.

Why Water? Don't think too hard about it. We raised Water for the same reason we began our journey receiving the Water Crystal of Light as a gift from Hydaelyn regardless of which city we started in: because it's just that right shade of Final Fantasy blue. (<whispers> ...Limsa Lominsa is canon...).

Urianger had Hydaelyn drain those six crystals as an "offering" or "boon" to give Her the power required to set Minfilia free.

Why is the Warrior of Light's Water Crystal of Light just fine, again? </shurg> Long ago, Lahabrea once hinted (not in English; they kinda cut a few of his Bond Villain "Why would he even tell us that?" lines) that the "Warrior of Light" factor - as in the Champion blessing beyond the Echo (not the nickname Warrior of Light given by Eorzeans to all Hydaelyn gifts with a Crystal) - allowed us to "interfere with the aetherial sea and manifest Crystals of Light" - that after we received the first as a gift, the rest were drawn to us, created unconsciously by us somehow. (Except Lightning, obviously; a plot point we're still waiting on.) The Warrior of Light lit them back up after Midgardsormr darkened them. They probably just lit Water back up again after.

OP AF

[Enkidoh]

Maybe the fact the Water Crystal is the 'important' one for us is because not only does it best reflect (heh) our aetherial aura (Stormblood's opening showed the WoL's aura as blue compared to Lyse's red), Urianger insinuated that the "Azure lost amidst the squall" line in that "Far Eastern proverb" was us, again a reflection of our aura. But yeah, I'm overthinking this again...