[Spoilers] Is Hydaelyn a primal?

[Enkidoh]

ObsidianFire is correct - not only should this be in the Lore Forum, this very topic has in fact been discussed there in the past and the conclusion reached was, no, Hydaelyn is most definitely not a Primal. Hydaelyn is the planet's consciousness, a literal goddess. Why She takes the form of a giant, sentient crystal though is hard to say, although these tropes may definitely be at play here.

Primals on the other hand, are ideas made physical through enormous quantities of aether (usually in the form of consuming crystals) and a powerful enough will (which the Ascians help manipulate people into the perfect situations for creating them).

Because a Primal exists only if the will giving it flesh is strong enough, hence it requires prayer and devotion, and this is why they temper - it creates a feedback loop where in more followers means more aether and prayer fed to them and the conclusion is the Primal only becomes stronger. Yes some Primals on the surface do not seem malign like Ramuh, but they are still extremely dangerous and must be destroyed.

This also leads the situation where the intelligence and mental power of the one summoning the Primal influences that Primal's own personality and intelligence - this was shown when Titan was inadvertently summoned by a koboldling who was grieving for his killed parents, the resulting Titan was more bestial than he normally was, and was simply a mindless monster channeling the kobold child's grief and heartache. This makes sense, a Primal is a thoughtform and so it's natural then that the being created from that will reflects that.

The Echo is a complex topic, but it's not the same as tempering, where as tempering strips a person's free will, the Echo actually increases the user's own will, it allows them to break down the '"barriers of the soul", allowing them extraordinary abilities such as viewing another's memories as if they had lived them, having mastery of any language without having learned it naturally, and, it's eventual extreme, becoming an incorporeal being like the Ascians. Hydaelyn randomly grants the Echo to mortals, but leaves it completely up to them as to how they make use of it. She doesn't sit there pulling us on a chain, She gives us the Echo, hints that bad things are happening and please can you stop them, but then leaves us on our own.

This is why She awakens so many to the Echo, it is because of our free will not in spite of it, She hopes that at least someone will be altruistic and noble enough to take up Her fight and stop Zodiark and His agents, so She does a mass 'mail-out' of the Echo, hoping one at least will hit the mark. Which She succeeds of course, with the player's character, another mere adventurer who just happens to keep finding themself in the right place at the right time and ends up becoming Hydaelyn's Champion almost by accident.

Also on the note of Hydaelyn's divinity, Michael Christopher Koji-Fox has also confirmed that the Twelve do also exist as literal gods and goddess, but their actual form may not be what you may at first expect, although sadly he has not clarified exactly what that means.