"Answers" mark 3.

[Morningstar1337]

I've considered this idea, that we are tempered by Hydaelyn. It would explain why the other primals can't temper us....

I had the same idea. Though my version og the theory keeps some fo the free will aspect. As for how the PCs were tempered, I think the Echo is a form of temepering.

[Felis]

What we know about the origin of the Echo is that it have something to do wih a starshower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2H2...tailpage#t=207

Maybe they saw the lightbeams of the battle over silvertear lake, thought it is a starshower?
There were also a starshower at the beginning of the openings to every city.

[Magis]

But that's the thing. If the Ascians really were the Warriors of Darkness, they wouldn't work against the Light. They'd instead cooperate with the light and ensure that the balance of light and darkness was kept. At least as far as Lahabrea was concerned, the Ascians (other than that one white-robed emissary) don't really seem all that interested in cooperation moreso than they are with reviving Zodiark to supplant Hydaelyn as the guardian force of the world, which is not at all what the Warriors of Darkness would do, unless they're just as ignorant as the Warriors of Light are.

Recall though that Lahabrea was seen as a radical. The White Ascian disproved of his methods. Like most "movements" there are those who try to go through diplomacy and others who try to go through force.

[Catapult]

Recall though that Lahabrea was seen as a radical. The White Ascian disproved of his methods. Like most "movements" there are those who try to go through diplomacy and others who try to go through force.

That being said, Elidibus was reprimanded by his colleague for acting on his own and outside The Plan™. To at least one other Ascian, Elidibus is the radical.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the Land is Hydaelyn, correct?

Not quite. From what we can tell She is the spirit of aether in the land rather than the land itself. The world would exist without Her, but would probably not be able to habour conventional life.
I say probably, because it's clear there are things we don't know about Her yet.

[Umbeliel]

Not quite. From what we can tell She is the spirit of aether in the land rather than the land itself. The world would exist without Her, but would probably not be able to habour conventional life.
I say probably, because it's clear there are things we don't know about Her yet.

No, I mean. The planet is Hydaelyn. As in that's it's name. "The Land is alive". Assuming she is basically the lifestream, it is a very safe assumption that "the Land" (Note that in the official lyrics it's capitalized- it's a proper noun. That is important.) and "Hydaelyn" as the floating space crystal are basically usable interchangably. Hydaelyn is alive- as the lifestream, she is basically the consciousness of the planet.

[Xine]

What we know about the origin of the Echo is that it have something to do wih a starshower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2H2...tailpage#t=207

Maybe they saw the lightbeams of the battle over silvertear lake, thought it is a starshower?
There were also a starshower at the beginning of the openings to every city.

Maybe the starshower we saw was actually a glimpse into the future of Dalamud falling, and our seeing it was the first indication of our characters having the Echo after being born with it. Granted this part of the story was around at the launch of 1.0 if I remember correctly, but it did look fairly similar to Bahamut more or less raining fire down all over everything as well as the debris falling off of Dalamud as it fell to the ground and released Bahamut.

But to go a bit further on this, anyone whose born with a special ability or even a disease isn't capable of using it right off. In a majority of games, anime and other random stories that are told, the main character is usually born with something (Sharingan in the Uchiha Clan as an example a lot of people love to hate) but the ability doesn't actually show itself until a certain point in their life. After which point, they begin to learn more about it and slowly begin to control it for themselves by their own free will (if it can be controlled and used at will that is, which according to Minfillia, our characters' version of the Echo is more powerful than even hers, so controlling it may be possible for some Echo users even if others are unable to control it at will) by way of training, practicing, and using it.

[Kicha]

Actually, to me the starshower looked closer to Atomos showing up than anything else. Sure in retrospect, it COULD look like the pieces of Dalamud, but that hardly makes much sense because the Echo allows us to view the past by penetrating through the walls of a person's soul. There has never (as far as I know) been any indication that the Echo would allow us to see the future.

[Felis]

I also don't think that the echo users was born with it. Everyone said that they have it since they saw a star shower.
It was also a bit out of control at the beginning of the 1.0 story for our character
present -> past -> present -> past -> present -> past -> present -> past -> headache -> unconsciousness -> first meeting with Minfilia

It was very confuss, especially if you didn't get informed about the echo not before you have meet Minfilia the first time with level 20.

[Xine]

Minfillia also explains to not actually being able to 100% understand what the Echo is or how exactly people end up with it. They could be born with it, or they could simply get it from the seeing the starshower. Since even the one who claims to know the most about it in-game isn't 100% sure on it, I'm not sure we can use her words 100% either. I mean....a good couple of centuries ago we thought the planet Earth was flat until it was proven that it was in fact round. This may be one of those things that we'll never truly know unless a Dev, or even Hydalaen tells us specifically.

[Kicha]

That's a little bit different. One group of people thought the earth was flat, that wasn't the consensus of the entire world. Ancient greeks knew that the earth was round way before the Europeans decided to test that theory. But yes, I do agree that we do not know 100% all the capabilities of the Echo, but just going off of how it has been behaving so far, we can say for certain it has not shown that it can show us the future.
Also, I'm not so sure about the starshower triggering the Echo anymore. I mean, yes, in the 1.0 story the hero saw the starshower, and so did all the others in the Path of the 12. But if you started in 2.0+, there is no starshower. You just have the power of the Echo. Maybe for 2.0 it was simply granted to us by Hydaelyn? /shrug