What is the extent of the WoL's powers?

[Anonymoose]

I was just wondering if there was ever any in-universe explanation for our OP abilities.

Layers of excuses.

To summarize them (and the contents of this thread) in a more digestible form:

1. You are a prime candidate for this job to begin with.

Every time the game thinks you might be on the verge of forgetting this, it issues a reminder: you are strong all on your own; that's why you were chosen. You're just the right kind of person with the right kind of mental and physical constitution born at the right time in the right place with the right experiences for greatness. You have the means, motive, and opportunity to be the hero that Hydaelyn needs.

2. The Echo

As far as we've been told, sometimes Hydaelyn sees someone with the potential to serve for this world's defense and she's just like, "Yeah, that one. You will have The Power!" and She awakens them to the Echo, some kind of fundamental jailbraeking of the soul. This allows the wielder of the Echo to transcend a few inherent mortal limitations by resonating with the souls of others. We can understand their words and intentions without knowing their language, we can relive their strongest memories alongside them from a more malleable "instant replay" point of view, and our soul itself is capable of transcending the body to be either called to the aetherial sea to speak with Hydaelyn, or to - if the ability is mastered - transcend the flesh entirely and live as an immortal wraith, apparently. Also we can continue to break down the barriers of our souls to merge with other souls, including primal essences. We've yet to find an ethical, moral, and helpful reason to make use of those last few. Seems to be a "Dark Side of the Force" kind of thing so far - just don't.

3. The Blessing of Light

The Echo is a call to arms, but not everyone who hears it understands or heeds that call. Those who knowingly accept Hydaelyn's mission are often gifted a Crystal of Light, a small shard of Her power which allows them to transcend mortal limits and gain extraordinary power. Such heroes are often remembered as incarnations of the gods, or Zodiac Braves, or Warriors of Light, or something of the like. It varies by time and telling. On rare and desperate occasions, Hydaelyn may even defend one of the crystal bearers by projecting Her power through that crystal and into the physical world, a sort of divine intervention that costs Her dearly.

4. The Champion Factor

Echo-blessed, Crystal-blessed bearers of the Light are rare enough, but occasionally Hydaelyn will choose a Champion. These are Her strongest and staunchest defenders, the ones She most trusts. They can interfere with the aetherial realm itself and the draw crystals of Light are drawn to them. This champion even seems capable of re-awakening the crystals when they grow empty and dim. These six-crystal heroes are extraordinarily rare, the truest Warriors of Light. The powers to this tier in combination give such heroes a nigh-unfathomable potential, though they must rise to the occasion of meeting it on their own.

5. The Unknown

There is more to the Warrior of Light than meets the eye. Their true nature is yet unknown. Please look forward to it.

Understanding this hierarchy of power is required to understand some of the finer nuances of the story, such as why Midgardsormr so hates you when you first meet him. He figures you for one of Hydaelyn's basic chosen - some insolent insect that climbed the corpse of the Keeper of the Lake himself demanding Nidhogg stand down with no knowledge of Ishgard's transgressions. So Midgardsormr moves to kill you - flick you off his bones and across the horizon, and Hydaelyn blocks the blow, declaring you Her champion (a status which means Midgardsormr is honor bound to be your ally by way of his covenant with the Mothercrystal). For the first few moons Midgardsormr is stuck with you, he thinks you're a pretender leaning on the Blessing of Light like a crutch, draining Hydaelyn dry for the sake of raising yourself up as something greater than you are. (Hence why he blocks your access to the crystals for a time, assuming you'll just get ganked without your crutch.) It takes him most of Heavensward to realize just how bad things have gotten and how much you're capable of.

[Mixt]

Well, if we wanna go into the pure speculation field i have my own hypothesis, though it lacks conclusive evidence in either direction.

I call it the "Spirit Bomb On Legs" hypothesis

The things that led me to come up with the idea being as follows.

1: I seem to recall something about the official explanation for how Limit Breaks function is by having a group pooling their strenght into one guy, though some individuals can pull them off solo (I'm looking at you Godbert) correct me if i'm wrong here.

2: Emotions and beliefs of intelligent beings can do funny things with Aether, with Primals being by far the biggest and most obvious example, and as Shinryu proved worship is not a needed component there, the dying hatred of a large number of people worked just as well. Other emotions should also be able to have effects.

3: The Echo has this whole thing about tearing down the barriers of the soul and enabling interaction between the spirits of distinct individuals

Question: What happens if a large quantity of positive emotion like Hope, Gratitude, ETC (Like say, entire nations worth?) is directed at a meatbag/Not A Primal being with The Echo/An Open Soul?
Does anything happen?

4: Sudden large jumps in combat ability coinciding with meeting, helping and gaining the goodwill of large numbers of people, like say, going from getting stomped flat by Zenos to standing on even footing with him in a very short amount of time. Doesn't say much on it's own, but combined with the above points it makes me somewhat suspicious.

Hypothesis: Blame The Echo for giving the WOL a Spirit Bomb type boost drawn from the collective wellspring of all those who look up to them.

Conclusion: Untestable, requires additional data points.

[Kalise]

Well, if we wanna go into the pure speculation field i have my own hypothesis, though it lacks conclusive evidence in either direction.

I call it the "Spirit Bomb On Legs" hypothesis

Well, I think one flaw in this particular hypothesis is that for the most part, the WoL isn't the one getting all the praise.

Like, for ARR, it's the Scions as a group that are thanked, with people acknowledging the role the WoL had in things, but it's mostly hope and gratitude towards the Scions (Give or take a few points in the story where the Scions were not particularly well liked)

For HW, it's Aymeric who's the shining beacon of hope for the nation.

For Gyr Abiania it's Lyse, the Resistance as a whole and to an extent Raubahn (The Iron Bull of Ala Mhigo).

For Doma it's Lord Hien.

Those in the know, are thankful to the WoL for all they've done (Aymeric really wants to be your husbando for example) but generally the WoL doesn't champion themselves as a beacon for the nations they save, they're content to just be part of the Scions and do what they need to in order to save the world. Meanwhile the leaders are the ones to rally the hope within the nations and are who everyone directs the majority of their gratitude to.

[Mixt]

That is true yes.

Though if such an effect is something that can happen i imagine even the relatively small number of people in the know would still be worth something.

...And i just thought of something potentially nasty.

Between The Resonance and the whole thing Garlean culture has going with the pseudo-worship towards the Imperial Family, if something like this is possible that could get very very scary real quick.

That's a lot of If's though.

[Kallera]

That is true yes.

Though if such an effect is something that can happen i imagine even the relatively small number of people in the know would still be worth something.

...And i just thought of something potentially nasty.

Between The Resonance and the whole thing Garlean culture has going with the pseudo-worship towards the Imperial Family, if something like this is possible that could get very very scary real quick.

That's a lot of If's though.

You mean by the whole "His Radiance" thing? I do wonder why the Ascians would opt for such a title among many others. It is pretty clear Varis wouldn't be the beneficiary of this, but perhaps either Solus or the main character....

[Lium]

Those in the know, are thankful to the WoL for all they've done (Aymeric really wants to be your husbando for example)...

Off-topic, but I wondered about that. Is Aymeric's reaction to you the same regardless of gender? Does he still invite you to a somewhat romantic dinner, and do other NPCs wonder if he's in love with you if you're playing a male character?

I sort of had the same questions about Lyse in SB. Because there was heavy insinuation that Lyse liked the WoL. I mean liked liked. Are these interactions the same regardless of gender?

[ObsidianFire]

Yep, it doesn't matter what gender you are. Harchfaunt, Aymeric, Lyse and even the twins (and plenty of other non-MSQ characters for that matter) can be seen as having romantic crushes on the WoL quite easily. Which can get super awkward when you are RPing as a character who's already got a romantic partner or who isn't interested in people that way.

[Iscah]

I sort of had the same questions about Lyse in SB. Because there was heavy insinuation that Lyse liked the WoL. I mean liked liked. Are these interactions the same regardless of gender?

For a female character, I think it can more easily be read as a close friendship without needing to be romantic. At least I don't remember getting the impression that it was meant to be romantic.

[Lium]

For a female character, I think it can more easily be read as a close friendship without needing to be romantic. At least I don't remember getting the impression that it was meant to be romantic.

Her body language with you and especially that scene where the two of you spar on top of that hill heavily suggest she likes the WoL.

The camera even switches to a profile shot of you and Lyse getting closer and closer in slow motion, with closeups of your faces as they approach each other. Then it dissolves to white.

I honestly thought they were gonna kiss.

[Kalise]

Yep, it doesn't matter what gender you are. Harchfaunt, Aymeric, Lyse and even the twins (and plenty of other non-MSQ characters for that matter) can be seen as having romantic crushes on the WoL quite easily. Which can get super awkward when you are RPing as a character who's already got a romantic partner or who isn't interested in people that way.

And yet none of my waifu's notice me... #feelsbadman