For !.0

[AraliaMerrith]

When it comes to the story.

Why is it that Ul' Dah's Story is the only one that is 10 years in the past compared to the Gridanian and Lominsan starting stories?

Also does that mean the WoL canonically has to be at least 31 Years Old to be an Adult Adventurer like the Twins are at 16 + 15 For the Events of Post Silvertear and the 7th Calamity from Dalamud.

Which makes us at minimum 1 year younger than Thancred and 4 Years older than Ascilia For the lowest canonical age of the WoL.

[Anonymoose]

In 1.x, all three of the starting stories feature you wandering around town in 1572 having headaches and seeing people's memories of 1562, Ul'dah is just the most obvious of the three.

If it helps give you some structure watching 1.x cutscenes...

• If you hear a whoosh sound, you just entered or exited an Echo of 1562.
• You never see the Circle of Knowing (Thancred, Y'shtola, Yda, Papalymo) in the present day until you encounter Gaius in Mor Dhona.
• In Gridania, Khrimm and the Hermit of the Wood are the same person.
• In Limsa Lominsa, Sthalmann and Rostnsthal are the same person; Emerick and Blackburn are the same person.

Or you can read the transcripts we archived at Gamer Escape, in which we clearly marked the Echo jumps.

Ul'dah

• Flowers For All
• Court in the Sands
• Golden Sacrifices
• Calamity Cometh

Gridania

• Sundered Skies
• Souls Gone Wild
• Whispers in the Wood
• Beckon of the Elementals

Limsa Lominsa

• Shapeless Melody
• Treasures of the Main
• Legends Adrift
• Never the Twain Shall Meet

The present-day FFXIV story is Schrodinger's Warrior of Light. If you played 1.x, it presumes you are the hero who aided Louisoix in his last days. If not, the hero who aided Louisoix is one of the people who vanished in the Calamity. You can choose for yourself which you believe your character to be, though "official" 1.x players get unique cutscenes and a tattoo.

If your character was in 1.x, their age can be anything you want. They are always their age as-of 1572. They weren't really there in 1562, just seeing it in an Echo from 1572. And then Louisoix threw them into a pocket of the rift for 5 years, but those 5 years appear to have lasted but an instant from the Warrior of Light's point of view and do not seem to have aged them at all.

[Cleretic]

In 1.x, all three of the starting stories feature you wandering around town in 1572 having headaches and seeing people's memories of 1562, Ul'dah is just the most obvious of the three.

Ul'dah's story is also the only one of the three that gets brought up in the live game to any extensive degree, which means more people look at it in general. After all, it's the one with Minfilia's origin story, which gives us in the present day a recognizable person present in the live game to judge the passage of time through.

Limsa's 1.0 story does get brought up, but only in weird and tangential ways by specifically Heavensward; Rostnnsthal turns back up in the Machinist's questline (with no indication that he was previously important), and the villain and macguffin resurface to cause Alexander. In those cases there's no explicit passage of time or even necessarily a 'These Things Are From Earlier" sign, so it's easy to miss.


...also, while Anonymoose can list out these signs of when echo visions start and end in 1.0, they were extremely subtle in practice and a lot of people did not (and still don't) pick up on them. It's an understandable mistake to make, and it's probably why the live game's Echo visions are so clearly signposted!

[AraliaMerrith]

Is there actually a confirmed "Whoosh" for the Ul'Dah Start vs the Gridania or Limsa beginnings?

[Cleretic]

Is there actually a confirmed "Whoosh" for the Ul'Dah Start vs the Gridania or Limsa beginnings?

In the intro cinematics it was the 'hear, feel, think' and the starshower that signified the start of an Echo flashback. Yes, the inconsistency is annoying, and I dont' think they should've started their storytelling that weirdly, but it's fairly clear that something happened in Ul'dah especially; that one takes place in a crowded space, so you can notice that suddenly there's a bunch of completely different people around.

[AraliaMerrith]

In the intro cinematics it was the 'hear, feel, think' and the starshower that signified the start of an Echo flashback. Yes, the inconsistency is annoying, and I dont' think they should've started their storytelling that weirdly, but it's fairly clear that something happened in Ul'dah especially; that one takes place in a crowded space, so you can notice that suddenly there's a bunch of completely different people around.

So that just makes the Echo way stronger in 1.0 than it is in 2.0 cause you're straight up changing time by existing as a fully fledged force ghost interacting with time-space way before Elidibus got involved.

[Anonymoose]

So that just makes the Echo way stronger in 1.0 than it is in 2.0 cause you're straight up changing time by existing as a fully fledged force ghost interacting with time-space way before Elidibus got involved.

It certainly looks like they were planning on doing something weird there, back in the original, abandoned story plan.

It mostly presents the Echo as working like we know it today on a lore level, but much more interactive on a mechanical level. The player was able to enter the memory and explore it as if they were there at the time. However, something was clearly amiss - as hinted at by, in each story arc, the player character inexplicably removing an item from the past and retaining it in the present (the flower in Ul'dah, the vine in Gridania, the jellyfish in Limsa Lominsa). What was meant by this is unknown. Where that was heading is unknown. The only person who could answer that question is no longer on the team (and might not even remember if you asked him today).

As far as the lore of today is concerned, for now, we're just supposed to ignore it and assume the Echo worked then like it works now.