Echo and Blessing of light, post endwalker retcon

[Anonymoose]

I think, to most people, retcon means "remove it and pretend it didn't happen" (which everyone hates and FFXIV almost never does). I call those "subtraction retcons" because there are other ways to retroactively alter continuity.

FFXIV follows what I call the "addition retcon" template. This is when the story goes back and re-frames what we "knew" so that we understand it a different way that wasn't intended back then but doesn't contradict anything. Additive retcons make changes to the setting in "season 5" feel natural even if they weren't intended in "season 1".

It does feel like there's a bit of that in play with the Echo/Blessing.


During the early game, it looked like "The Echo" was a mysterious power that (A) blocked primal tempering, (B) facilitated communication with Hydaelyn, and (C) allowed one to transcend the limits of the soul, being able to read salient memories and understand what people intended to communicate even without knowing their language. Meanwhile, there was also "The Blessing of Light" which was akin to divine intervention projected through Hydaelyn's gifts, the crystals of Light.

It looks like Endwalker is "clarifying a mistaken assumption".

The Ancients all possessed abilities we associate with the Echo, but it wasn't what provided protection from tempering. Instead, that was a "Traveler's Ward" woven by Venat for when she acted as the Azem and left Amaurot. It looks like the Travelers' Ward also went along for the ride when copied from Krile to Zenos, lol.