Realization: Is the WoL a primal?!

[Kallera]

While I'm not sure if we are a primal, there is something that seems off about our character and their abilities. One man's savior is another's demon.

[Urthdigger]

Of course we're not primals, I mean it's not as if we consume vast amounts of crys--

*thinks back to all his time spent crafting*

...hold the phone, I think you may be on to something here.

[Malzian]

This question was asked of the dev team during one of the Live Q&As and the definitive answer from them was, "No, they are not a primal."

[Berethos]

Its just when you manifest something, it can't be 'cloned'. Like say the beastmen summon ifrit. Another tribe can't summon their copy of them.

That's sort of how it works, and was explained in an interview in the last year or so.

Basically the summoning of a specific primal based on a specific belief set uses a specific essence/aether to create that primal (though how the initial essence is chosen is, afaik, still a matter of theory). Once it has manifested as a primal, future summonings based on that belief will use that same essence (which is why Ramuh has memory of older days, for example), and thus a second identical version can't be summoned while the first remains.

[Jandor]

That's sort of how it works, and was explained in an interview in the last year or so.

Basically the summoning of a specific primal based on a specific belief set uses a specific essence/aether to create that primal (though how the initial essence is chosen is, afaik, still a matter of theory). Once it has manifested as a primal, future summonings based on that belief will use that same essence (which is why Ramuh has memory of older days, for example), and thus a second identical version can't be summoned while the first remains.

Have you got a link? I think I must have missed that one and it sounds interesting.

[caponesavage]

Ive always just read Thordans expression of "what are you" as just utter disbelief considering he fancied himself at that point a god.. How could a mere mortal defeat a god

[Kiyouma]

You all bring up some really good points that the WoL is not a primal! Thanks!

One thing I noticed that was said was we don't drain the land of aether? Don't we drain some of the essence of every primal we vanquish, and in doing so make ourselves stronger?

What originally made me think about this topic was the fact that we are the most powerful single individual in the realm. What makes us so different than more seasoned characters that also possess the echo such as Yda or Y'shtola?

However I do now think that we aren't primal (darn...).

[myahele]

I don't think we're Primals.

But if the WoL manages to master or control the echo in some capacity they could be nearly immortal in the same vein as the WoD and the Sahagin priest (and Asciens) were able to do with their echo.

Who knows, maybe the twist is that the WoL is already "dead"

[Berethos]

We are killing Hydaelyn. She's grown weaker because of the blessing she gave us, to the point that Midgardsormir had to bear the load for a little while.

He blocked off our access to the Blessing to test us, rather than taking her place.

Her being weakened due to the Blessing is more from things like protecting us against the Ultima attack, rather than us being a constant drain just existing (which is the case with primals).

[Shougun]

SE does have a long history of messing with a character origin story severely lol, I mean it could be helpful if our story was a bit weird (for random pointless lore reasons haha).

Issue with so much of "rare" miqote males? Not anymore~! Why can't we die? Got an answer for that! Can see the past, is that time travel? Nope, just someone's memory who's been there (mother)! Understand languages? Wow, she's so knowledgeable~ Who in the world was my character before I started playing them? Crystal powder, right before mother lined you up into a beautiful dear Hydaelyn Egi :3. Not a primal, but a crystal's prayer - WoL. Why do we seem to have limitless growth potential? No wonder, we slowly gain faith as we travel the land, our power building less due to physical limitations and powered through our spirit (literally). This is why MSQ offer so much exp, or quests in general, experience roughly equating to faith in your character (killing monsters works too but less people may hear of it). Our test where we lost our blessing was to see if we had enough strength to stand on our own (properly exist, and be more than a meek shade), something that he wasn't sure we could do. Hear, feel, think! Things a normal person doesn't need to be told to do, cause.. that's pretty basic commands actually and while someone may make a snarky comment on real life and "common sense gone", its clear in the game plenty of people hear, feel, and think - however we /need/ to be told to do it, a sort of guiding command for autonomous function, helping us to manage our nature beyond being a lifeless aether bound to flesh golem.

With interesting suggestions about unlocked Echo users like the Sahagin, something similar enough that a primal could eat it like a buu cookie - or that an echo user had the potential to house and use a primal's power.

I still wouldn't say we're a primal specifically as that'd make us our own enemy and our /current/ existence a bit questionable, but to say "we're just blessed" I don't think that is necessary or really sterotypically SE's style lol. Which is why I brought up FFX specifically (Dream Zanarkand, Fayth, and all that fun stuff), Chaos in FFVII, and then many other variations some due to planet some just due to weird circumstance (Genomes) - but "simple origin" isn't really a SE thing lol.

Just for fun could talk about the blessing in terms of L'Cie with a shift, maybe Like Louisoix, that with extraordinary success instead of being rewarded for your victories its actually leading you down a doomed path to primalhood. Would suggest all primals were really beings blessed and were beyond exemplary with their blessing, each now being the consequence of utilizing weapons of mass destruction - the good they did coming back around to seriously bite you in the kupo nut: which would be a pretty common theme in FF games (also explaining why every important and loved person ever does not become a primal, only the blessed may).