Is Hydaelyn a primal?

[Naunet]

My money's on Hydaelyn being a primal. The Garleans are right.

[Chasely]

Each Primal has an aspect.
Ifrit is fire. Garuda is wind. Titan, earth. Etc.
Each of the Twelve also have an aspect, though most are abstract.
Halone is Fury. Menphina is Love. Althyk is Time. Etc.

So if Hydaelyn is a Primal, what would its aspect be? Freedom? Adventure? Creation itself?

Freedom fits with how our characters seem to be untempered. In actuality, our characters would belong to Hydaelyn, but are essentially doing as we see fit. However, Freedom and Adventure seem like they might step on Oschon's toes.

Hydaelyn's aspect is Light. The Ascians worship the dark crystal. This is a struggle between light and darkness, but not necessarily good vs. evil.

[OnyxStrife]

Yugiri is Hydaelyn spread the word

[Bladeglory]

Hydaelyn's aspect is Light. The Ascians worship the dark crystal. This is a struggle between light and darkness, but not necessarily good vs. evil.

...well, I suppose it is a Square Enix game. Light does mean more than brightness to them.

[EdwinLi]

My money's on Hydaelyn being a primal. The Garleans are right.

If that the case then one of my assumptions may be correct being that if the Gods and Goddess in FF14 world are Primals then all life in the world are created by Primals.

This would also mean the most powerful Primals have the ability to create life.

[RyuDragnier]

Hydaelyn is an Elder Primal, that's the only explanation. If you notice, the Elder Primals have no need for tempered, and don't seem to go out of their way to get them. We know Odin is an Elder Primal, as is Bahamut, neither of which actively get people to worship them, they merely exist. Though it could be possible that they represent specific wishes, desires, or legends like the other primals given form. Good King Mog taught us that Primals don't necessarily have to be real creatures (he was a legend to the moogles), so it's possible that Odin is merely a legend come to life, Bahamut is the desire to destroy that all living creatures have, and Hydaelyn is the thought that the world is inherently good and has a mind of its own.

[MercuryAcetylene]

T7 of coil would beg to differ.

[Ikeda]

Seems more like Hydaelyn is the planet itself or at least the light side of the planet. It's most likely just a equivalent of the goddess from FFXI (forgot her name) while the dark god the Ascians work for is the "Promathia" of FFXIV. Won't be surprised if we're dragged into this whole light vs dark war where both sides try to destroy the other just for it to turn out that due to some "balance" sort of issue if one destroys the other side they're destroyed too or something like as long as one exists the other will exist to balance it out.

[Enkidoh]

I wonder if people would be so quick to regard what is obviously the planet's consciousness as a 'Primal' if Ferne had written Ifrit and Garuda's dialogue differently so that they didn't ramble on about the player 'being already claimed by another' when they tried and failed to temper them.

Hydaelyn is not a Primal - Hydaelyn is a crystal, a giant sentient one at that which is the source of all life on the planet, aka, aether (hence why it's also called The Mothercrystal, - it's literally, the 'mother' of every living thing on the planet.) Primals on the other hand are aetheric entities that can only maintain a temporary foothold in the corporeal realm by summoning rites and worship, which is the whole reason they temper in the first place, it guarantees their existence by creating an inexhaustible supply of followers.

As Hydaelyn is already a physical entity it has no reason to temper - tempering is effectively a form of brainwashing, enslaving the affected person and stripping them of free will, leaving them nothing but a mindless zealot to that Primal. The Echo on the other hand leaves a person's free will intact, and only 'awakens' them to various psychic abilities (which tempering clearly does not give). This even more shows that the Mothercrystal is not tempering, but is simply awakening people randomly to the Echo without forcing Her will onto them, merely guiding those granted those abilities to protect the world from the Ascians - 1.0 showed numerous Echo users, many of them not adventurers but regular people, even small children, leaving it up to those so gifted as to how they made use of that power (some were even using it for selfish, personal means completely unconnected to saving the world).

It shows that Hydaelyn was simply granting the Echo haphazardly, hoping that sooner or later someone awoken to the Echo would accept the 'call' (ala, the player) - this is pretty much all but screamed in many of the ARR trailers: "Heed the Crystal's call!"

[Yukiko]

... beating EX primals explains a bit...

It has something to do with the flow of life itself, coming and going back to its source...
I have some theories about Hydaelyn beeing Zodiark, but with current information its a bit too far, we will see how Hydaelyn slowly corrupt in future patches...

Hint: watch carefully the names of the patches!