Echo VS Blessing Of Light

[Cleretic]

Doesn't really mangle anything IMO.

The Echo itself, and its artificial form, Resonant, both give the user access to power they would have had as an Ancient. In both cases, this means strengthening their Aether, and thus increasing the resilience against tempering, which is a form of Aether corruption. The only difference is that the Echo is obtained naturally, and the Resonant is unnaturally obtained.

Yes, you have completely described everything we knew about how the Echo and the Resonant worked up until Endwalker. The problem is Endwalker disagrees with you.

Endwalker declared the resistance against tempering/aether corruption to be a result of the Blessing of Light, not the Echo. Which ruins the Resonant, because all three of them use a resistance to tempering as a major element (in some cases an extremely strong resistance, it's not nothing that Zenos possessed a primal).

[RyuDragnier]

Yes, you have completely described everything we knew about how the Echo and the Resonant worked up until Endwalker. The problem is Endwalker disagrees with you.

Endwalker declared the resistance against tempering/aether corruption to be a result of the Blessing of Light, not the Echo. Which ruins the Resonant, because all three of them use a resistance to tempering as a major element (in some cases an extremely strong resistance, it's not nothing that Zenos possessed a primal).

You need to think in terms of buffs for part of this, and how previous encounters have gone for the rest.

The Echo/Resonance is a buff akin to SCH's Galvanize, shielding you. The Blessing of Light is akin to Catalyze, which is a STRONGER version stacking on top of it. The Echo/Resonant provides a shield to tempering on its own, but the Blessing of Light is a stronger layer of shield on top of that.

On the case of Zenos, we've already seen via Ysayle and Ryne's using of Shiva that you need a strong will to control a primal. Ysayle had this and had full control over Shiva. Ryne did not and was almost overtaken by Shiva. A Sahagin Priest in ARR attempted to join with Leviathan using the Echo, but was swallowed up by it because his will was not strong enough. Zenos took control of Shinryu simply because of how strong willed he is. He moves for nobody, and when his eyes are set on prey, he will focus entirely on it, and NOTHING will be able to stop him.

[Jandor]

The Blessing being a doubling up of primal protection power seems an utterly pointless expenditure of energy on Hydaelyns part, seeing as no primal summoned in the modern era is capable of overpowering even the basic echo level of protection.

Given that Venat used to hold the title of Azem, it would have made more sense if her protective ward was framed as a more proactive form of protection than a normal ward. i.e. it boosting attack power.

If I recall correctly, we needed the blessing to attack Ascians properly (they got very gloaty when they learned we'd lost it,) and the Ascians oppose her so it would be a sensible thing to hand out to potential WoLs. Also fits with Midgard sealing it to test our own strength. It all ties together neatly.

Could even have made a little joke about it in Elpis, Emet rolling his eyes and being all 'of course YOU would make a protection ward that boosts the wielders combat abilities.'

[waifugenerator]

I think I have an answer even to that, but they really do need to address it.

I don't think it is entirely contradictory. I think that the whole 'push energy into us' part of the blessing of light is granted only to her champions, but everyone else is, full stop, granted the protection from primals, because the whole 'prevent your aether from being disrupted' I'm willing to bet -also- protects you from dynamis shoving your aether out of your body and morphing you into a monster, since the whole point of the warding spell is to prevent your aether from being depleted or directly manipulated by outside forces.

It doesn't matter how evil you are if that's the -actual- purpose of the anti-primal defense of the blessing of light. Because Hydaelen doesn't -care- about you as a moral human being, she's gonna assume you're not interested in the world ending regardless of your moral stance and put it on autopilot along with the vision granted to everyone who activates their echo.

It doesn't protect you from burning out into a Terminus beast though [Healer role quests spoilers below]

Fordola nearly turns and you can see the black and white rotting aether surrounding her

[Red_Imp]

I don't know if this will help in the discussion but here is what I can say about it

The echo is an inherent quality of having an ancient soul. It's purpose is not specifically for warding against tempering, but offers resistance by virtue of sheer power/strength. In ShB Emet mentions that Zodiark tempered them while implying that even the strongest can be tempered if the primal is strong enough. This clearly means, the ancients has some level of resistance based on their power. Echo-bearing-sundered people or resonant-bearing people could also have that kind of resistance, albeit weaker and the strength of it could entirely be dependent on how strong the person is wielding that echo/resonant. Zenos and Fordola are quite strong enough, I think to resist some primals. Same with WoL, as seen during the HW. We know that echo is manifested differently to differently people based on the power/personality of their unsundered soul, but common to all is the side-effect of being resistant to tempering.

The Blessing of light is entirely from Venat/Hydelyn. Venat mentions that a traveler's ward was placed on the WoL which is a magick specifically made to "Prevent" tempering. So in contrast to echo which provides resistance, traveler's ward provides protection. I hope the distinction is clear. As to the Blessing of Light, it is not clear whether it only means traveler's ward. Venat mentions that there are other protective magicks, but the traveler's ward is one specifically made to prevent tempering. This could mean that the blessing could be collection of all magicks that Hydelyn/Venat imparts to the WoL, one of which is the traveler's ward.

We also know that when someone awakens the echo, an "automated" message is sent directly to that person which enables them to see the meteor shower and the 'hear, feel, think'. This, I believe is way of making sure Hydelyn initiates the first connection with the echo-bearer and which they are given a test of character to become WoL. A test in which if they pass, they will be granted the full power of the Blessing of Light. In our WoL case, the test is represented by all the crystals that we lit during the ARR story. This could be a way for Venat to get as many WoL as possible to serve her battle calamities or the final days.

[Theozilla]

I don't know if this will help in the discussion but here is what I can say about it

The echo is an inherent quality of having an ancient soul. It's purpose is not specifically for warding against tempering, but offers resistance by virtue of sheer power/strength. In ShB Emet mentions that Zodiark tempered them while implying that even the strongest can be tempered if the primal is strong enough. This clearly means, the ancients has some level of resistance based on their power. Echo-bearing-sundered people or resonant-bearing people could also have that kind of resistance, albeit weaker and the strength of it could entirely be dependent on how strong the person is wielding that echo/resonant. Zenos and Fordola are quite strong enough, I think to resist some primals. Same with WoL, as seen during the HW. We know that echo is manifested differently to differently people based on the power/personality of their unsundered soul, but common to all is the side-effect of being resistant to tempering.

The Blessing of light is entirely from Venat/Hydelyn. Venat mentions that a traveler's ward was placed on the WoL which is a magick specifically made to "Prevent" tempering. So in contrast to echo which provides resistance, traveler's ward provides protection. I hope the distinction is clear. As to the Blessing of Light, it is not clear whether it only means traveler's ward. Venat mentions that there are other protective magicks, but the traveler's ward is one specifically made to prevent tempering. This could mean that the blessing could be collection of all magicks that Hydelyn/Venat imparts to the WoL, one of which is the traveler's ward.

We also know that when someone awakens the echo, an "automated" message is sent directly to that person which enables them to see the meteor shower and the 'hear, feel, think'. This, I believe is way of making sure Hydelyn initiates the first connection with the echo-bearer and which they are given a test of character to become WoL. A test in which if they past, they will be granted the full power of the Blessing of Light. In our WoL case, the test is represented by all the crystals that we lit during the ARR story. This could be a way for Venat to get as many WoL as possible to serve her battle calamities or the final days.

Yeah, that’s how I basically understood too. That everyone who awakens to the Echo naturally (basically not Ascians and the artificial Echo/“The Resonant”) receives the base version of the Blessing of Light (as Krile stated in 3.1 she has the Blessing of Light in addition to the Echo), which includes Venat’s Traveler’s Ward magick. But then the Blessing of Light can be empowered further by individuals earning Crystals of Light.