This may well have already been discussed in this thread (on this very page, even) but I want to take an opportunity to clarify some thoughts after finishing the 2.2 storyline:

Elidibus claimed that Ascians / people with his version of the 'Echo' can't be killed, only recycled (a la Lahabrea) and the Sahagin priest did transcend to an aetheric being, allowing for Ascian-style(?) bodysurfing, but being aether Leviathan used him as fuel, just as Garuda would have loved to. Then Minfilia disclosed that mankind had a similar legend of people being 'recycled' at times of crisis (Who? The Scions? All echo people? The Warriors of Light?) This then had me wondering about the PC. Do the Teleport/Return spells work similarly? Ascians can teleport too, but where their animation is more going into/out of the Void, for the Player Character is it more like transcending to an aetheric existence in the lifestream, then manifesting Summon-style(?) at a honking great crystal (Aetheryte) of your choosing?. As for the carriage scene at the start of the game... I had assumed that Hydaelyn worked similarly to tempering, but then I was thinking 'what if your character got 'bodysurfed' in order to manifest the Echo?'

That's all just wild speculation on my part, I was wondering what the learned scholars of the Lore section thought.