The True Nature of The Echo

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Originally Posted by Melinia

Ordinary people appear to be able to use the aetherite as well.

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There's competing and complimentary information regarding this statement throughout Eorzea, so much so that it's not explicitly clear. If the average person could teleport anywhere any time, then it would negate a huge swath of practicality from our world. What's to stop ten thousand soldiers appearing out of nowhere onto frontlines of a battle or mass evacuation of a city in one go? You could never lock prisoners in cages and transportation firms would go broke etc.

I'm more inclined to believe it's Echo-only. But then you have Sundhimal and co. with their too-general explanations...

Fatigue from aethyrite use is one thing. from my understanding of 1.0 lore you had a limit to the amount of Aethyite use. probably why travel with it is not so well used.

There's clearly a substantial expense involved in setting up Aetherites. So much so, they've had to be invested in, and now fees are charged to use them. Which suggests that there is widespread use of them. But that does beg the question of why I'm running quests to rescue U-tribe hunters from Amalj'aa cages; couldn't those girls just "return" out of them, back to the Aetherite at Forgotten Springs?

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Originally Posted by JeniLinsky

But that does beg the question of why I'm running quests to rescue U-tribe hunters from Amalj'aa cages; couldn't those girls just "return" out of them, back to the Aetherite at Forgotten Springs?

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I think a similar thing can be said about a specific story quest...when you are captured by the Amalj'aa and given to Ifrit. Why couldn't you just Return out of there and not have to deal with the Primal, or leave and come back with greater forces?

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Originally Posted by Applesnap

There's competing and complimentary information regarding this statement throughout Eorzea, so much so that it's not explicitly clear. If the average person could teleport anywhere any time, then it would negate a huge swath of practicality from our world. What's to stop ten thousand soldiers appearing out of nowhere onto frontlines of a battle or mass evacuation of a city in one go? You could never lock prisoners in cages and transportation firms would go broke etc.

I'm more inclined to believe it's Echo-only. But then you have Sundhimal and co. with their too-general explanations...

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Aetherytes require you to be first attuned to the destination one before you can teleport to it though - you just can't teleport to it 'blindly' (this is why the Garleans don't just teleport directly into the citystates and take over). Incidentally Camate explained exactly how aetherytes function specifically in a thread not long after launch so I'm liable to take that as canon (given that comes from Ferne who is one of the lore creators for the game): http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...An-aether-what.

Ironically, you're actually not far from the truth - not everyone is capable of using the aetheryte network due to the high metaphysical cost on breaking the body down into aether (which adventurers are uniquely suited too, although the Echo has little to do with it). In 1.0 this was expressed with anima, but now due to using gil to use the aetheryte network instead, it's handwaved away that 'adventurers have more strength than regular people to teleport regularly'.

There are a lot of discussion about the nature of ascians here, but I think the most important thing is this :

ascian
from Ancient Greek ἄσκιος (askios, “without shadow”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + σκιά (skia, “shadow”)
person or thing without a shadow
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ascian)

1.0 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttrF76W8yNk#t=327
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9uXtdSkIQ#t=448

2.0 :
http://i.imgur.com/InpGdae.jpg

Any meaning in this, or is it just a proof that the devs didn't give a damn?

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Originally Posted by Nana_Balthazar

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the devs might, but lahabrea certainly does not. Elidibus even goes to state that he is reckless even by their own standards.

Remember that the image you've posted is of Lahabrea inhabiting the body of Thancred. Lahabrea might not cast a shadow, due to being a creature of void energy, but Thancred certainly does.

I was just reading up on the lore. The 1st umbral era brought the end of the gods. But what's truly interesting is that each umbral era took characteristics of each element. They believe that now that each element has been represented that the 6th (current?) Astral era will last forever.

However, it was prophesized by nazeyma that a 7th umbral era is possible and will last for eternity as well.

I am beginning to see why the asciens are doing what they are doing.

The Lore can be found here http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/pr/sp/world/story/

The info listed on the main site is actually a little misleading to a new player, as it's actually written with the time frame of the original FFXIV (version 1.0), which indeed was set in the year 1572 Sixth Astral Era. However, with the fall of Dalamud during the Battle of Carteneau and the resulting Calamity, the era changed from the 6th Astral Era, to the 7th Umbral Era - although it's a little unclear, it's believed the beginning of FFXIV ARR begins around the year 5, 7th Umbral Era.

And of course, if you've finished the main scenario, you'll know

that with the defeat of the XIVth Legion and Gaius's death, effectively ending the Garlean invasion of Eorzea, the leaders of the three citystates officially declare the 7th Umbral Era over, and the beginning of the 7th Astral Era - naturally some may consider that a little premature, what with the Ascians still plotting trouble and the beastmen continuing to summon, but the immediate threat to Eorzea, the Garleans, were eliminated effectively, so thus declaring the 7th Astral Era would at least serve a much needed morale boost for the public at large if nothing else.

But I digress.