Some speculations about Ysale (possible spoilers if you haven't completed HW)

[Cilia]

Yeah, totes forgot about Snowcloak being an unnatural formation created by the Calamity... not sure if 3 people needed to correct me though. :> Makes sense, seeing as it's used as the Heretics' HQ with the Akh Afah Ampitheatre in there and such. We also went into the area though the Western Highlands in a relatively early 3.0 quest, so...

Anyway, the only people that could have explained the Echo to Ysayle is either Midgardsormr or the Ascians. She never met Hraesvelgr proper before Heavensward; I believe it was mentioned she just saw him flying overhead or something, got an Echo vision of his past with Shiva, and based her ideals on what she saw. (She may have even gone so far as to style herself after "Saint" Shiva.) We can be fairly certain it was the Ascians who taught her the summoning ritual, and she mentions Midgardsormr (as the "Keeper of the Lake") so it could have been either one of them. It's not of much consequence, but I lean towards the Ascians because I am +99% sure they are the ones who told her she couldn't be tempered thanks to it, since there is no other explanation for how she not only learned the primal summoning ritual but also how she got the idea for channeling a primal as a sort of super mode. (Then again, ol' Middy does try and temper us or something after the Keeper of the Lake...)

Can't say for sure if Echo awakening is related to a specific age or time of life. The Warrior of Light can be inferred to be in his/her early to mid twenties at the start of 2.0, so it's probably not something that first manifests during puberty, or at least has no specific stage of life it first manifests itself in. (I don't see why this is consequential anyway.)