The connection between the Echo and the Asceans

[Enkidoh]

As Annonymoose and I discussed in a past thread which I'm still trying to find a link for, it seems the reason Hydaelyn has 'gone silent' is that She probably feels that we can basically be left now to manage on our own without Her having to hold our hand every few steps, as the 2.0 story was pretty much the

Mothercrystal carefully preparing us to become a Warrior of Light, to face down the Ascians who were the real power behind Gaius's throne and thus foil their plan to rebirth Zodiark - giving us the tools and the knowledge to do so (ala, the Echo).

With Gaius defeated, Lahabrea's hold on Thancred broken and the Garlean advance into Eorzea effectively ended, if not for good, we've attained the necessary level of power needed, and thus she gives her 'goodbye and goodluck' speech in the ending, leaving the future of Eorzea solely in our hands.

She's still there, but like a mother whose children have grown up and left home, She trusts in us to make the right decisions on Her behalf, without Her taking any active role in our Path.

As for the vision of the

'dark Mothercrystal' seen in the ending, the 2.3 story pretty much shows that Crystal is not Zodiark. Zodiark is shown to be an actual physical god, vaguely in the same shape as his FFXII namesake, in stasis and not a crystal, so what exactly that 'evil Hydaelyn' vision was of is anyone's guess. Considering the Echo cannot actually view the future but only past events from a person's memories, suggests that it might have been a glimpse of things before the First Umbral Era. Which then raises the question, 'whose memories did that come from then'?

Damnit, where's my darksteel foil hat again?

[Morningstar1337]

...Damnit, where's my darksteel foil hat again?

I see, but that still doesn't explain the relationship between the Asceans, Zodiark and the echo. Though I have a feeling the memory question might hold at least part of the answer

[Alberel]

As Annonymoose and I discussed in a past thread which I'm still trying to find a link for, it seems the reason Hydaelyn has 'gone silent' is that She probably feels that we can basically be left now to manage on our own without Her having to hold our hand every few steps, as the 2.0 story was pretty much the [HB]Mothercrystal carefully preparing us to become a Warrior of Light, to face down the Ascians who were the real power behind Gaius's throne and thus foil their plan to rebirth Zodiark - giving us the tools and the knowledge to do so (ala, the Echo).

That's all based on assumption though.

The battle with Ultima Weapon sees Hydaelyn directly intervene in a way that we'd never seen before. First we cannot even scratch Ultima Weapon so she gives us the strength to do so, then she extracts each of the primals from the Weapon in order to weaken it for us, and THEN she shields us from a ground zero Ultima detonation. Immediately following this even Lahabrea notes that she no longer has the power to intervene any further.

Based on all the events we see up to that point it's very possible that the dark crystal we see is Hydaelyn drained of aether, which is possibly what Lahabrea was trying to accomplish all along. Remember that the Echo allows us to see the past AND to see the aetherial realm.

In 2.3 Minfillia even mentions that Hydaelyn has been strangely silent and directly implies that something is seriously wrong. That would not be written into the narrative if it were not the case. It is simply bad story telling to foreshadow events that will never take place. I'm quite sure that Hydaelyn is weakened in some way.

As for the statue in the Ascian 'world', we have no idea at all what that is yet. It might just be a statue.

With regards to the OP: The implication so far is that the Sahagin's 'ascendance' was an advanced form of the Echo which was not at all subtly similar to the Ascians' own incorporeal form. Given Elidibus' teases that we do not fully comprehend what the Echo actually is yet, and that we apparently might see eye to eye if we did understand, I don't think it would be too far fetched to say that the Ascians themselves are Echo users.

Where they got the Echo and how they are able to give it to others remains unexplained though.