A concept for a new playable-race, with lore and feasability considerations

[Risvertasashi]

Unless it had a terrible aesthetic, I'd probably play a synthetic race in a heartbeat.

I'm not really optimistic about the appearance of one in this game but I'd get a lot more excited about that than lizardpeople, personally.

[LineageRazor]

Actually, The Echo Its self is why a machine couldn't have it. A machine doesn't have a soul so the echo can not be granted as a soul is a fundamental requirement.

Now it IS possible for a Bio-Mechenical construct, like the reploids from Megaman X, to have souls, but androids are still just a souless robot that just happens to look like a living being. This why allag fought Primals with Robots, you can't temper a souless machine either.

More assumptions. Where is it ever stated that a soul is a requirement for the echo? And regardless of this, who says that a machine can't have a soul?

A human being is a machine made of meat and bone that happens to have a soul. An android is a machine made of plastic and metal - why can't it have a soul? The fact that Allagans used soulless robots to fight Primals proves nothing - they could have developed souled robots for other purposes.

Humans create souled machines by the millions every day. It's called giving birth. To insist that the way we do it now is the only way that it's possible for it to be done is terribly close-minded.

Personally, I think that a soul can find a home in any appropriate recepticle, regardless of what materials it is made from.

[Yaichiro]

I don't think we need anymore races as we have enough variety unless new races and old ones bring exclusive traits or skills.

[myahele]

Who knows what the future brings. Didn't they say that 4.0 won't require 2.00-3.xx in order to play? Perhaps 3.xx will bring the end of the Asciens and/or the echo.

Heck, we might end up fighting Hydaelyn for all we know

[Kaiser-Ace]

snip

Someone doesn't know much about the lore then.

The Echo is powered by the soul. This isn't just SE, The Echo is a supper power that allows one's soul to communicate with the world and it's people allowing one to see the past via a problem person or places memories and by extension sheild their soul from other influences. It also usually grants a type of Omni-Linguisum.

Tempering isn't just Brainwashing or it could be resisted and broken by strong willed people. Tempering is binding someone's soul and to a primal, that's logical since Echo usuers are 100℅ immune to tempering as are artificial mechines who don't have them at all.

And the reploids I mentioned are Bio;Mecnical SENTIENT Machines who achived self awareness.
Bio-Mechanical means they could potentially manipulate aether, and Sentience + Self Awareness is the foundation of a soul. So Clockworks can NOT have the Echo, they are programed Machines with no aetheric connection.

[WellFooled]

Someone doesn't know much about the lore then.

The Echo is powered by the soul.

I won't say you're wrong, but I will say

[Shirobi]

I was so disappointed that we ended up with Au'ra instead of the burmecians that were teased. I wouldnt care to see another race honestly.

[Kaiser-Ace]

I won't say you're wrong, but I will say

I do believe both Minfilia and Elidibus say as much directly and Lahabrea implies it multiple time as well.

You'd have to get Moose-Sensei's dialog transcripts for 2.1-2.3 in order to find the exact wording. I'm afraid I don't think to screenshot dialog till its too late.

[Enkidoh]

Yeah, it's mentioned repeatedly throughout the game's entire storyline from even 1.0 that the Echo is transcending the boundaries of the soul, both the user's own and the souls of others. This manifests in various ways, but specifically viewing another person's memories as if they themselves had lived them, understanding another language without actually having learned it, being immune to tempering by a Primal, and much more.

As this information is spread out throughout the game's story it would take me forever to track down the screenshots I took which I could quote from specifically, but I can steer you in the right direction - the very first meeting you have with Minfilia when you first joined the Scions she explained this specifically. So yeah, as Kaiser stated, it's made very clear the Echo is soul powered, and because the soul (as in, life itself) comes from Hydaelyn, the Echo can only be gifted to someone born from Hydaelyn - an artificial construct like an automaton simply would not have access to that, no matter how much you try to handwave it away.

[WellFooled]

I can steer you in the right direction - the very first meeting you have with Minfilia

There's the reference I was looking for. I looked up that cutscenes, her exact words are

Yours is the power to transcend the boundaries of the soul--a power known as the echo. The echo allows you to pass through the walls of a man's soul, and hear the resonations of his past. You will be in his memories, and see things as he saw them. You may even interact with that which you see, though you cannot change the outcome of events. For another blessing, the Echo will enable you to know a man's mind even if you cannot comprehend his words.

Now that I have this quote though, I want to play devil's advocate. It describes the echo as transcending the boundaries of the soul, but the context of that statement only ever speaks of other people's soul, not the echo user's. Nothing, at least from this quote, expressly says it does anything to our soul or even requires that we have one. It's a logical assumption, but not expressly laid out.

Also, does all life come from Hydaelyn? The Ascians appear to be alive, but (unless they were from Hydaelyn to begin with and were turned) their origin looks like it's from some other source. I also thought I read somewhere that Midgardsormr is not of Hydaelyn? So if Hydaelyn is only a source of life and not the source, can she only give the echo to life she is the origin of? How do we know this?