I just realised... are we L'cie? [Possible 3.2 spoilers]

[Chewy2nd]

I'm not sure if this would be restricted to just the WoL or Echo users as a whole, basically, Hydaelyn has given us a focus and we are to carry it out...

Something that particularly made me think of this, was the artwork of Minfilia, in which she appears to be being crystalised, as if she has completed her focus.

[Nalien]

Finally gets a IX reference with Antitower being Ispen Castle/Memoria style dungeon.

Gets a XIII reference in the MSQ.

The Square giveth, and the Square taketh away...

Irrational hate of XIII aside, that would be a fairly logical way to bring Primal summoning into the mix. Granted XIII had the Espers be unique to the summoner, but still...

I'm also not convinced Minfilia is crystallizing exactly... If she is, only her hair is affected, and given how much it seems to have grown in a few short months that seems like an ineffective method of crystallizing someone... It looks more to me like she is being absorbed by something crystal, and its coiling around her (is it bad that I initially mistook that blue crystal around her leg to be... something else?). Given Antitower was a place to monitor Hydaelyn, and Krile clued us into Sharlayans studying the Echo, I wouldn't be surprised if something like "Feed it VirEcho users!" ended up being something that Sharlayan discovered to "save" Hydaelyn... Almost makes me wonder if the Isle of Val had it coming...

[Atoli]

Looks more as if the crystal is hugging her than she becoming a crystal herself.
But I'll be honest, I'd go to any length of imagination to NOT see any XIII links..

Yesterday an FC mate said he thinks we are very Primal-like ourselves (we have believers, crystals and as mages can draw pretty unlimited amounts of aether from the planet) and we also don't really know anything about Hydaelyn, so in the end we'll probably have to turn into Ragnarok and destroy her.
I was like...no. Go away with your XIII logic xD I refuse that kind of plot xD

[Dalvy]

Please... No more... FF13 is overexposed as it is. Let me enjoy my Ipsen's Castle reimagining.

[Atoli]

only her hair is affected, and given how much it seems to have grown in a few short months that seems like an ineffective method of crystallizing someone...

I laughed way too hard at this

[Fenral]

People tend to forget (or overlook, or deliberately erase the memory) that Fabula Nova Crystallis is a deconstruction of the I/III/V trifecta of: ragtag band stumbles on crystal, ragtag band gets assigned impossibly convoluted task by said crystal, ragtag band accepts and executes said assigned task with little to no hesitation, ragtag band saves world. Go destiny!

Me, I'm over here in the post-FNC fanbase wondering why we're merrily plodding along according to some giant rock's whims and questioning the validity of my own free will.

[Morningstar1337]

People tend to forget (or overlook, or deliberately erase the memory) that Fabula Nova Crystallis is a deconstruction of the I/III/V trifecta of: ragtag band stumbles on crystal, ragtag band gets assigned impossibly convoluted task by said crystal, ragtag band accepts and executes said assigned task with little to no hesitation, ragtag band saves world. Go destiny!

Me, I'm over here in the post-FNC fanbase wondering why we're merrily plodding along according to some giant rock's whims and questioning the validity of my own free will.

It's ether a back-to-basics kinda thing, an attempt at reconstruction or just Square trying just as hard as the players to forget that XIII was a thing and never attempt deconstructing their plots again

[Nalien]

People tend to forget (or overlook, or deliberately erase the memory) that Fabula Nova Crystallis is a deconstruction of the I/III/V trifecta of: ragtag band stumbles on crystal, ragtag band gets assigned impossibly convoluted task by said crystal, ragtag band accepts and executes said assigned task with little to no hesitation, ragtag band saves world. Go destiny!

To be fair, that isn't a I/III/V trifecta, that is pretty much all the Final Fantasy games.

Just replace "Crystal" with "Cause" and you're done. II/IV/VI/VII/VIII/IX all effectively have you joining the Rebel Alliance to stop the Empire (IV even had you playing the first black stormtroo I mean Dark Knight!). Heck, even X now that I think about it... And I always forget about XII, release the HD version already so I can remind myself SE!

Bravely Default is probably the only game to successfully break this down, even if the writing was so-so (the puns! Mrgrgr!) and the second half makes my soul weep. Maybe XIII had a valiant attempt at it, but I'll be honest, I never got far into it and everything to come after has given me no reason to look back at it. Still, if we bump into a friendly fairy at the end of Ispen Castl Antitower who gives us a task to save Minfilia and Hydaelyn... If you're now imagining Elidibus cosplaying Airy, you're welcome.

[Februs]

Finally gets a IX reference with Antitower being Ispen Castle/Memoria style dungeon.

Gets a XIII reference in the MSQ.

The Square giveth, and the Square taketh away...

Irrational hate of XIII aside, that would be a fairly logical way to bring Primal summoning into the mix. Granted XIII had the Espers be unique to the summoner, but still...

This gave me a good laugh, because it was pretty much exactly what I was thinking before I scrolled down and read your comment. (Ps, I totally thought that the blue thing around her leg was a garter until you said otherwise ...)

As much as it makes me cringe to admit it, there are similarities to the L'cie found in the FFXIV universe. The tempered, for one, are similar, since they are touched by their god and given a purpose. In the case of Leviathan, we even see an example of a Cie'th in Captain Morgan, err.... Madison. He wasn't crystalized or mindless, mind you, but he was definitely mutated into a monster for failing his god.

There is an important distinction between Primals and Fal'Cie, though. That is, Fal'Cie are not dependent on the faith of their followers. Further, Fal'Cie were also servants to a higher god, whereas Primals are self-serving (sort of. They do, technically, look after / serve their believers/summoners in most cases). Primals also don't follow the same hierarchy that the Fal'Cie, in that they are not created by a stronger Fal'Cie or proper god of some kind (though, technically, if you count the aether they are made of as part of Hydaelyn, the case could be made that they are ... but that's a BIG stretch).

Hydaelyn and her followers are a different can of worms. We are given her blessing and have a direct line to her through the echo, but we don't strictly use her power and are not ruled by it. Our adventure with Midgarsormr proved that we had the strength to stand alone and are not dependent on Hydaelyn. We were also cut off from Hydaelyn's blessing for a brief time, meaning her hold on us is not as absolute as the Fal'Cie's hold on the L'Cie who were basically given 2 options: fail their focus and turn into a monster, or complete their focus and turn into a big shiny rock. Hydaelyn doesn't seem to possess that kind of iron fist.

We also don't know the origin of Hydaelyn. In FFXIII, there was a hierarchy of godliness. The L'Cie were made by the Fal'Cie. The Fal'Cie were made by stronger Fal'Cie who wanted to take a vacation, and those original Fal'Cie were made by a proper god. They Mother Crystals were actually separate entities entirely which served as the "core" of the Fal'Cie. Hydaelyn is a World Mother Crystal with more in common to those found in FFIX, than those of FFXIII, and is more than just a source of energy for a god-shell. So, it's difficult to fit her into this kind of lore structure (not impossible, mind you, but it's not clean).

[Fenral]

To be fair, that isn't a I/III/V trifecta, that is pretty much all the Final Fantasy games.

Well, what distinguishes those three in particular (and Bravely Default, boy howdy) is the decidedly otherworldly nature of their task-giver. The only one where the conflict is both entirely human and your party are the chosen ones is VIII. VII and IX put the spin on it where the PC is the un-chosen one, and X had a number of similar parties going through an elimination process. XII sort of teased the possibility of divine manipulation on top of the human conflict, but never really went anywhere with it. XIII was about the illusion of free will when divine will has an agenda, but it mostly failed in its attempts to redirect player frustration at the linearity onto the in-universe architect of that linearity. Should have kept Nabaat.

XIV will end up somewhere, eventually, but right now surrendering yourself to a higher will is shown as always the correct "choice", so it hasn't actually chosen anything yet. I tell myself "soon" every patch. Also, thanks for that mental image.