Quote Originally Posted by Lutefisk View Post
I thought it was pretty obvious that Thordan didn't have the Echo.

If the whole point of getting Thordan to summon a big nasty primal was to bleed the land dry and cause enough instability to potentially trigger another Rejoining, what purpose would giving him the ability to turn off the transformation at will even serve? The Ascians can't mind control people to do whatever they want so there's no guarantee Thordan wouldn't have just used his primal mode to occasionally blast some mean dragons and evildoers to smithereens and then dismissed it like Ysayle does with Shiva.

And if he's not going to be sucking up aether round the clock why even bother with this kind of elaborate plan instead of handing a few boxes of crystals to beastmen for another batch of the old primals?
Your bringing up Ysayle pretty much answers your own question. She undoubtedly learned to Summon from the Ascians, as well; even if her direct interactions with them were not shown on-screen, the Ascians taught everyone else how to summon, so it follows they taught her, too. Why bother teaching Ysayle, if she's only going to use it sparingly?

Because it's better than nothing. They'd PREFER folks to simply summon uncontrolled Primals like Ifrit or Leviathan, rather than have Echo users that summon into themselves and therefore are able to control them, but are also aware that some folks simply aren't going to go for it. The Beast Tribes jumped at the chance to call upon their beloved gods. The kids in Ala Mhigo were similarly enthused about Rhalgr, until we talked them down. Ilberd was perfectly content to have an uncontrollable Primal running amok.

Ysayle and Thordan, though, weren't so keen on the idea, and so the Ascians offered an alternative: a pet Primal under their explicit control. Ysayle, already possessing the Echo, was good to go. Thordan may or may not have had it; we have no real way of knowing. If he didn't, though, giving it to him was a requirement because, as Nabriales mentioned, only those with the Echo can contain a Primal.

Lahabrea: Yo, king! Wanna summon a Primal to rub out some lizards?
Thordan: HELL NAW. I don't wanna be some chump slave.
Lahabrea: Dang. Welp, you wanna BE a Primal instead?
Thordan: I'm listening...