The WOL and Mass Murder

[Cilia]

The Namazu thing was a joke - they changed everyone's avatars to some version of a Namazu for April Fool's.

Anyway, pertaining to the Echo, it's capable of doing much more than the Warrior of Light uses it for. The Ascians and Warriors of Darkness use it to cross dimensions and attain effective immortality, Fordola used it to achieve a combat state akin to Dragon Ball Super's Ultra Instinct, and Zenos used it to possess Shinryu. That said, the Warrior of Light has displayed none of these abilities or expressed the desire to obtain them. As it stands the Warrior of Light is just an exceptionally skilled and talented fighter who happens to be temper-proof - other than persistent superstitions about Echo users, the Eorzean city-states have no reason to fear the Warrior of Light or be jealous of their power. On the contrary, the Warrior of Light is repeatedly entrusted with the fate of nations and various characters (the Scions and GC leaders, f'ex) show guilt and remorse over asking them to shoulder such a heavy burden time and again.

[Biridan]

I thought the echo manifests itself different in each I dividual. I vaguely recall minfilia saying as much when she first explained the echo. I also know Krile manifests the echo differently from the WoL. I also though all the scions had the echo in some form but aparantly Lyse doesn't have it anymore?

All in all I kinda feel like the echo is the deus ex machina of the series. Its poorly explained and can do anything the story requires.

[RobinMalvin]

I thought the echo manifests itself different in each I dividual. I vaguely recall minfilia saying as much when she first explained the echo. I also know Krile manifests the echo differently from the WoL. I also though all the scions had the echo in some form but aparantly Lyse doesn't have it anymore?

All in all I kinda feel like the echo is the deus ex machina of the series. Its poorly explained and can do anything the story requires.

The Scions (originally members of Circle Of Knowing) never have Echo to begin with. WoL, Minfillia, and Arenvald are the only named members confirmed to have Echo. The Circle of Knowing members just seem to employ some kind of magick to halt their aging, but so far no Echo involved, not even Louisoix.

The Echo in WoL still gives us some advantage in fight. It's all implied that the reason we can see AOE markers is thanks to the Echo allowing us to tap into enemies' soul and read their intents, similar to what Fordola's Echo has displayed. The Ascians believe that the Echo allows us to achieve strength beyond mortal limits and Midgardsormr stripped us of our blessing when he thought we benefited too much from it. We may not be able to control it at will and at times it's proven that we're just as strong without it but various characters have pointed out that it's not a power to be taken lightly.

[Yuriane]

The Scions are comprised on the Circle of Knowing and the Path of the Twelve. The Path of the Twelve were originally a group of individuals with the Echo run by Minfillia, and when Louisoix died the Circle of Knowing joined the Path of the Twelve to add their own assets to them thus making the Scions. Possessing the Echo is no longer a prerequisite or majority of the group, but it's still desired in the Scion's agents (hence Arenvald)

I was redoing ARR's questline over the last few months and I noticed there are some people who swear they used to be in the Scions but don't remember their history so they may be other Echo touched individuals saved by Louisoix but that's just guesswork.

[Enkidoh]

I was redoing ARR's questline over the last few months and I noticed there are some people who swear they used to be in the Scions but don't remember their history so they may be other Echo touched individuals saved by Louisoix but that's just guesswork.

Those three adventurers were indeed former members of the Path of the Twelve - Una Tayunn (female Moonkeeper miqo'te CNJ in a indigo robe and mage hat and the 'leader' of the party); Percivans (elezen male PGL in an emerald shawl robe and gold face mask) and Satfzloh (male Seawolf roegadyn ARC in white and green ARC's garb), and yes, all three had the Echo.

They showed up a number of times in the Path of the Twelve story in 1.0 where they were... less than jovial towards the player (the player first encountered them when they first joined the Path and were able to explore the Waking Sands before deciding on their choice of Path Companion, and then later during a mission for the Path to Moonspore Grove in the East Shroud to rescue some sylvan podlings from Garlean soldiers, Una, Percivans and Satzfloh show up at the last second and forcibly take over the mission, telling the player and their Path Companion to get lost in no uncertain terms. They were a rather unruly and less than polite bunch.

As you know by ARR they have been affected by the aetheric amnesia due to the Calamity where not only are their identities of their former membership of the Path apparently forgotten (although presumably Minfilia would know the truth about them through the Echo, which is probably how they managed to rejoin as members of the Scions), Una at least seems to have even forgotten her own past. And tragically, she never regains those memories - she along with Percivans and Satzfloh are among those who lost their lives when Livia raided the Waking Sands (the player actually has to help recover their remains for burial at the graveyard in Eastern Thanalan, which was a very sad end to these characters I had known since 1.0. It was somewhat karmic in a mean-spirited way, given their surly treatment towards the player in 1.0, but it was still tragic all the same).

But yes, they were indeed former members of the Path of the Twelve.

[Sinh119]

I don't think that we'll ever be reprimanded for our actions, at least not by anyone in Eorzea or Doma. This is due to how people in Eorzea and Doma view our character. When the people of Eorzea think of us, they see don't see a murderhobo. They see the Warrior of Light, hope incarnate, a savior who has devoted their life in Eorzea to protecting and helping its people. If the WoL were to wipe out everyone in Gridania, the chances that anyone would turn against us would be very low. The first assumption would be that it either wasn't us (an imposter), that we did that due valid reasons others aren't aware of, or that something happened to us that caused us to act that way.

That doesn't mean that the people or leaders of Eorzea would never turn against us. In the Dark Knight questline, they established that different parts of the WoL's subconscious could physically manifest. As an example, let's say that the Warrior of Light subconsciously has the thought that they should take over the world and create peace by force (think Thordan). If this manifestation were significantly more powerful than the ones shown in the 60-70/30-50 quests, and we couldn't control whether it appeared or not, then it wouldn't matter whether we were virtuous. As another example, the WoL's echo could begin to become more powerful and involuntarily temper people around them.

Essentially, for this storyline to work, the Warrior of Light would need to be a constant danger to everyone around them. Would this be a good route to go down? Depends. Could be pretty entertaining to play through.

[Ilenya]

If the WoL were to wipe out everyone in Gridania, the chances that anyone would turn against us would be very low. The first assumption would be that it either wasn't us (an imposter), that we did that due valid reasons others aren't aware of, or that something happened to us that caused us to act that way.

I imagine the proper response to this would be to see what the Elementals do, because that would certainly trigger *something*

[Iscah]

As another example, the WoL's echo could begin to become more powerful and involuntarily temper people around them.

Unless there's some sort of hypothetical long-term exposure effects, I don't think it works that way. Even a full-powered primal has to deliberately unleash an aether attack to temper someone standing right in front of them - I can't see it being something you could do by accident.

That said, it could be an interesting business if someone else with the Echo works out how to temper people... but it could also require far too much concentrated power (as a primal naturally possesses) for a human to replicate it, at least on the scale that a primal can.

[Sinh119]

Unless there's some sort of hypothetical long-term exposure effects, I don't think it works that way. Even a full-powered primal has to deliberately unleash an aether attack to temper someone standing right in front of them - I can't see it being something you could do by accident.

That said, it could be an interesting business if someone else with the Echo works out how to temper people... but it could also require far too much concentrated power (as a primal naturally possesses) for a human to replicate it, at least on the scale that a primal can.

Well it was more like a general concept than a concrete idea, but it's not unfathomable. We have no idea if the effects of the Echo could be modified or increased artificially, nor what the effects of doing so might be. There's a lot they could do with the Echo, especially our Echo, as we really have no idea precisely how it works.

[Rayo]

considering the way the game is written, It would be more likely that people take notice of how Powerful we are and start worshiping us to the point they create a Primal Doppelganger, something that's an exaggeration of how powerful we are, yet even more complacent to follow the whims of its followers