[Spoilers] Is Hydaelyn a primal?

[ObsidianFire]

The Echo and any form of tempering are very, very different.

We see what the most advanced "use" of the Echo is in the Singularity Reactor when Lahabrea and the Igeyorhm fully merge into one being. It should be noted this is what the Ascians think Zodiark wants of them. However, this still gives a good indication of what everyone with the Echo is doing in some form or another. Our souls are capable of leaving or bodies and seeing what happened with other people's souls regardless of time and language and we can even safely go to the aetherial realm where Hydaelyn is and come back to our bodies with no problems (and extend this to other people without the Echo sometimes).

It's just that we're still respecting our (and other people's) corporeal limits and not overriding other people's will which is what we see the Ascians and Zenos use the Echo for.

Our Echo has also changed as the game has gone on. In 1.0 the WoL can't even tell the past from the present (yes, this is about as confusing as it sounds). In 2.0 we now can tell the difference, but it knocks us out for the night and is really painful. By 3.0 and forward, we're getting a look at Hrasvelger's past (which must be very, very weird given how dragons view time...) and have a minor migrane for our troubles. Our Echo (any most other natural Echo users presumably) also spends most of it's time in "sleep mode" and only really kicks in when we need to know something important. It is very rarely, if ever, is an inconvenience to us.

Fordola's Resonance is always on and is constantly debilitating to her. And Zenos' Echo... well... who knows what individual's Echo his is based on... Personally, I'm thinking it's based on an Acians and given that one of the main uses the Ascians have for their Echo is keeping them from dying, well... guess what Echo effect I think Zenos can't turn off?

All that to say though... we've never seen any form of tempering that does anything like that.

[Kazrah]

All that to say though... we've never seen any form of tempering that does anything like that.

Comparing the two, the common link is some sort of being hailed as a deity bestowing power to a loyal subject. The only major key difference is that the primals empowering their subjects are doing so on an aetherial budget, so they grant power on a rudimentary level, leaving various side effects such as enthrallment and even transformations such as the captain in Sastasha. Hydaelyn or Zodiark, on the other hand, are running on effectively infinite supplies of aether, resulting in far greater displays of power with less undesirable side effects.

As for the original question of Hydaelyn being a primal or not, I'd say no just because primals aren't fully self-sustaining like Hydaelyn or Zodiark are.