What are the Pathwalkers

[Morningstar1337]

I wnat to know what the Pathwalkers are (besides being echo users and a 1.0 concept). I think they might have a connection to the Student's of Baldesion's disappearances.

Okay let me elaborate: I heard somewhere that some of the Pathwalkers sent on a journey and they won;t explain their experiences Where did they go and what do you know happened?

[Sholah]

They're just the members of Minfilia's previous organization, the Path of the Twelve.

[Enkidoh]

Yeah, it was just a term given to members of the Path of the Twelve ('path', 'walk', get it?), but it was also a term used by Minfilia in version 1.0 to describe the both metaphorical and physical journey undertaken by members of the Path to uncover the secrets of the Echo.

Minfilia actually remarked when a player first joined the Path that there were many Walkers (i.e. Echo users) who had set out to investigate the Echo, and that not only did many never return, every one who did had been changed by the experience, refusing steadfastly to reveal exactly what it was they had discovered, as mentioned here:

Minfilia: "Very good. I pray together that we can learn more of this gift... for though we have scoured the realm for nigh on ten years, I fear there is still little we understand."
Minfilia: "Scores of men and women have passed through our doors looking to find answers, and scores have embarked on quests to do just that... but their efforts have gained us little... and many have not returned."
Minfilia: "Of those few who have... not one is willing to speak of what they saw at the end of the Path. It is as if they all bore witness to a truth too terrible... or too shameful to be told."
Minfilia: "There are those here who would have me use the Echo to delve into the past of the returned. Yet it would be wrong of me to use my gift to tear that truth from them against their will. Were I to condone such an act of violation, we would be no different from the monsters people think us already."

In some respects the Path of the Twelve was run a little differently to how it's successor post-Calamity is operated - here the Path was very much a research Guild devoted simply to the study of the Echo and the subtle use of it to better the lives of the people of Eorzea. Minfilia adopted a strictly pacifistic approach when it came to interacting with the citystates - in fact, none of the citystates even knew it existed, other than the Ala Mhigan Resistance.

Additionally, a great deal of their members (the titiual 'Walkers') were ordinary people and not just adventurers, merchants, craftsmen, even young children), so Minfilia took great care to only assigning those who she thought could handle a certain situation to the most potentially dangerous tasks (which naturally ended up being the missions the player was sent). As a final safeguard, Minfilia would assign Walkers partners who would work together on missions given by the organization, whom were called 'Path Companions'.

In any event, this all became moot after the Calamity when a great deal of the Path's members were wiped out in the Battle of Carteneau, and thus Minfilia and the surviving members were sort out by the Circle of Knowing, who decided to pool their resources and amalgamate to form the Scions of the Seventh Dawn.

So yeah, the term 'Walker of the Path' was basically version 1.0's equivalent of 'Scion of the Seventh Dawn'.

[Morningstar1337]

Minfilia actually remarked when a player first joined the Path that there were many Walkers (i.e. Echo users) who had set out to investigate the Echo, and that not only did many never return, every one who did had been changed by the experience, refusing steadfastly to reveal exactly what it was they had discovered, as mentioned here:

Yeah That's what I want to know about, the echo users that tried to investigate the ability

[Enkidoh]

Well, I hate to say it, but you are out of luck sadly, as that quote from Fade to White was really all that was revealed on the subject. The Path of the Twelve storyline in 1.0 was sadly abandoned without being completed when Yoshi took over as producer as the storyline was repurposed for the Seventh Umbral Era.

I've heard that datamining of the 1.0 client however has apparently revealed dialogue glimpses of how the Path story was to continue after it's final completed mission Future's Perfect, where the player is sent to investigate the kobolds only to inadvertently stumble into Titan's very first summoning (and the resulting battle between Titan and the Company of Heroes), but nothing is known with certainty (and there was no further discussion about the 'shameful truth found at the end of the Path' either).

I could speculate of what it was exactly the 'shameful' truth that members of the Path of the Twelve inadvertently uncovered, but as I'm usually wrong when it comes to speculating on how the storyline turns out I'm going to keep silent for now.

[TinyRedLeaf]

I could speculate of what it was exactly the 'shameful' truth that members of the Path of the Twelve inadvertently uncovered, but as I'm usually wrong when it comes to speculating on how the storyline turns out I'm going to keep silent for now.

Well, whatever Iceheart discovered through the Echo was evidently shameful enough for her to believe in the need to become a primal to save Eorzea. And, more importantly, she believed that this is what Hydaelyn herself wants.

How Iceheart came to have the Echo is anybody's guess. The Ascians are involved, but I don't think it was them who gave her the power, but rather that they knew she had the gift and somehow manipulated her to where she is today.

Which leads me to wonder: What of the missing Pathwalkers, those who never returned from their journeys? Some of them are probably dead, but what of those who remain alive? Where are they now, and do they still have the Echo?

Iceheart is probably not one of the lost Pathwalkers, as Minfilia would probably remember her otherwise.

It also brings up another question: Has it ever been confirmed that the Scions also comprise members who possess the Echo, besides Minfilia and you, the main character? It seems to me that there are no longer any other known Echo-users, other than these "two" people.

[Sholah]

It also brings up another question: Has it ever been confirmed that the Scions also comprise members who possess the Echo, besides Minfilia and you, the main character? It seems to me that there are no longer any other known Echo-users, other than these "two" people.

It hasn't been confirmed that any members of the Scions have the Echo, but it's very likely. The Echo isn't as rare an ability as ARR implies. The Path of the Twelve was formed because there were suddenly so many people coming into the power in the years leading up to the Calamity. Iceheart is likely just one of those people who saw a meteor shower one day and started having Echo visions like so many others.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Iceheart is likely just one of those people who saw a meteor shower one day and started having Echo visions like so many others.

Exactly. It has been heavily implied that Hydaelyn is "dead". Or, at the very least, she has gone silent and no longer speaks to her "children". The meteor shower may have been a "birth" event of sorts, with Hydaelyn seeding the land with as many possible Echo-users as possible.

Over time, some have gone astray. Others have died. And today, only two are officially known to remain.

Three, if we count Iceheart as well.


P/S: For some reason, I'm suddenly reminded of salmon. The fries that became the users of the Echo fought the circumstances of their time, seeking eventually to return "home". And now, only the two strongest remain.

[Sholah]

Exactly. It has been heavily implied that Hydaelyn is "dead". Or, at the very least, she has gone silent and no longer speaks to her "children". The meteor shower may have been a "birth" event of sorts, with Hydaelyn seeding the land with as many possible Echo-users as possible.

Over time, some have gone astray. Others have died. And today, only two are officially known to remain.

Three, if we count Iceheart as well.


P/S: For some reason, I'm suddenly reminded of salmon. The fries that became the users of the Echo fought the circumstances of their time, seeking eventually to return "home". And now, only the two strongest remain.

True, but Hydaelyn has only gone silent very recently. Iceheart most likely had the Echo long before the battle with Ultima. There are also officially at least a few more Echo users. Early on when we have the vision of the mothercrystal, there are other adventurers there too.

Also, I just remembered. Louisoix saved a lot of people that were at Carteneau. We know at least one Echo-user (Derplander) was saved, so it's possible many others were too.

[Grayve]

It hasn't been confirmed that any members of the Scions have the Echo, but it's very likely. The Echo isn't as rare an ability as ARR implies. The Path of the Twelve was formed because there were suddenly so many people coming into the power in the years leading up to the Calamity. Iceheart is likely just one of those people who saw a meteor shower one day and started having Echo visions like so many others.

Actually, it's the opposite, at fan fest Ferne confirmmed that the other scions do not have the echo, they have other useful skills. I can't recall if it was the stream only lore chat or the lore cast from gamer escape.