ShB story did not go the way I thought it would. (Spoilers)

[Abomination713]

So before the game came out, all I knew was that light was taking over the first and it was the enemy. The Warriors of Darkness defeated the dark and now only light remained which almost destroyed their whole world. So I thought in this expansion the main enemy was going to be Hydaelyn. The trailer even said she was a primal. I was sure she was trying to absorb the first for her own power. We would have to fight her and in doing so she would take away the echo she had given us for protection so we would be defenseless. How would we fight against her and her forces without the echo? An artificial echo. That's how. It's been twice before with Zenos and the Bandit woman who's name I forget. Getting that and teaming up with the Ascians would be how we push back Hydaelyn and saved the first. We learn that from the beginning we have been a pawn for a god that is nothing more than a superior elder primal and their goal has always been to completely wipe out Zodiark so that she could take everything. After everything is done we learn that the light can not live without the dark. It's a balancing act and if one side gets too much of a hold, they will take everything.

Obviously none of this happened but it was fun thinking up how the story would go before the expansion came out. The story was great, but I'm still a sad it didn't have anything that I thought it would.

EDIT: I may not have all the lore correct, but you kinda get what I'm trying to say.

[Yshnal]

Hydaelyn was never intended to be evil. Primals are not evil per se (see Shiva, Ramuh, or that certain one in the kojin tribe quests), and both Zodiark and Hydaelyn are special cases at that, too, in the sense that -unlike other primals- they don't actually seem to be negative (drain) to the flow of aether just by themselves. Or at least Hydaelyn doesn't do it, as we don't know what would Zodiark do. Would he keep trying to get more powerful and, in the absence of sacrifices, drain aether like most of the other primals?

On the other hand, the Echo is not given by Her to the WoL. What Hydaelyn offers is the Blessing of Light, which is like a super power that she gives us, AKA the power of the crystal. The Echo is independent of it, and it's a remnant of power from our unsundered selves (Echo users are parts of the split souls of the Ancients) that protects us against tempering, allows us to see other people's past/aether, and other unknown perks, if we believe the Ascians. Also, it will be interesting to see if it has gotten more powerful now that we have absorbed another piece of our original soul, meaning Arbert.

Now, about what was happening with the First. We know from very long ago that Rejoinings are not for Hydaelyn to get more power, but quite the opposite. The Ascians were the ones behind the massive light surge in that shard, as it was what working well for their objectives. In other words, if we hadn't done anything, a Rejoining would've happened, followed by a new Calamity in the Source (our world) after it would've absorved the First. The objective is to get the world to what it was pre-Hydaelyn, bringing back Zodiark and getting rid of her. Emet and the Scions explained it way better than me, so you could revisit the cutscenes at the inn if you don't fully understand what I said ^^'

Moreover, the story kinda implies that we aren't actually a pawn of Her, but that we (the former 14th member of the Council) might have been the ones that originally summoned her to defeat Zodiark and sunder the world. Probably to avoid another End of Time happening due to the raw power that the Ancients had, unless there's more that we don't know yet (which might be where the MSQ will go once we're done with the Ascians, but we'll see). I think that that was an actually cool turn of the story, and a surprise for most people.

[Theodric]

Hydaelyn may very well still be an antagonist.

[Alucard135]

...

How do we know we're not actually tempered by Hydaelyn though? The ascians are tempered by Zodiark, which as Emet Selch said was natural to happen.

Hydaelyn may very well still be an antagonist.

This reminded me of what Elidibus said at the end of the story. About us being warriors of Darkness.

[Vahlnir]

How do we know we're not actually tempered by Hydaelyn though? The ascians are tempered by Zodiark, which as Emet Selch said was natural to happen.





This reminded me of what Elidibus said at the end of the story. About us being warriors of Darkness.

If the Ascians were tempered by Zodiark we are most likely tempered by Hydaelyn. The main difference is, the Ascians were aware of it (Zodiark's tempering) from the start and accepted it. Meanwhile we don't know if Hydaelyn tempered us or not. But considering we have her "blessing" it's probably safe to say that we are. Even Ifrit commented on it saying that we belonged to another, and because of this couldn't temper us. Even if we were to resist, what would happen? No one knows, because no one ever has...that we are aware of. She would probably be much less than thrilled. I think it would be an interesting story arc though if the WoL decided to or needed to rebel.

[Lauront]

Yes, I very much doubt the tempering aspect can be avoided, and there’s plenty of indications that the WoL’s strong aspect of light is the result of tempering, IMO. We just need to be cautious to separate this from the more thrall like tempering we see in the Primal summoning to which we’re accustomed.

This reminded me of what Elidibus said at the end of the story. About us being warriors of Darkness.

I’m eager to see what he has planned. Hopefully something a bit better than throwing someone like Arbert against us... he just wasn’t able to fulfil such a task and I would think Elidibus would know as much now. He would also know from Emet-Selch that the Blessing of Light proved pivotal in driving back the Lightwardens and of course can sense the light aspecting of the WoL’s aether. So I doubt he’s being entirely literal, which makes me even more curious as to what he intends to do.

I’m also eager to see if we’re really dealing with the Oracle of Darkness and what her role will be, since if Urianger is correct she’s also on the First. You’d think the Ascians would be aware of and working with such a person.

[Yshnal]

How do we know we're not actually tempered by Hydaelyn though? The ascians are tempered by Zodiark, which as Emet Selch said was natural to happen.

Primals don't temper passively. They temper when they actually want to do it. We have to take into account the circumstances surrounding Hydaelyn's summoning to see that it's actually feasible that she hasn't felt the need to temper anyone, or that doing it might be against her nature. Regardless, while most of the primals that we know use tempering to control their subjects, it's perfectly possible that tempering someone doesn't involve a will to control.

About the Blessing of Light, what we know for sure is that it can be blocked, as uncle Middy was able to do it in the past. Knowing that, we could discard that having such blessing is part of any tempering process, unless we assume that Midgardsormr can "untemper" people at will.

That being said, so far -and besides the fact that other people have been throwing us around like a tool more than once- we've shown that we regain our free will. Hydaelyn has never been involved in any of the decisions that we've taken part of, including the prevention or causing of Calamities that would obviously be in her best interest to prevent. At most what she has done is protect us and guide us with her word sometimes (like showing us how to defeat Ascians by making a blade of light), but in the end it was us (or the aforementioned people) the ones that decided to walk that path. In fact, if what we did was part of any tempering, we wouldn't have had the internal conflict that we have seen in the DRK quests. The fact that we can think, doubt, decide, and do as we see fit, unlike the zealous Ascians and other tempered, really shows that even if we're actually tempered Hydaelyn has allowed us to act and think free of her influence.

[Lunalepsy]

It will happen sooner or later.

[Theodric]

Whether the Warrior of Darkness is Tempered or not there's enough signs at this point to suggest that blind faith in Hydaelyn is a rather bad thing. Hopefully we put both Zodiark and Hydaelyn to the sword so that the reins of history can be placed firmly into the hands of man. They're not deities - they're Primals.

I am, however, open to the idea of both of them being kept around provided the story told is a good one. With so much focus on the balance between 'Light' and 'Dark' it'd be very odd if only one of them were to be eliminated from the playing field.

[Dualblade]

Primals don't temper passively. They temper when they actually want to do it. We have to take into account the circumstances surrounding Hydaelyn's summoning to see that it's actually feasible that she hasn't felt the need to temper anyone, or that doing it might be against her nature. Regardless, while most of the primals that we know use tempering to control their subjects, it's perfectly possible that tempering someone doesn't involve a will to control.

About the Blessing of Light, what we know for sure is that it can be blocked, as uncle Middy was able to do it in the past. Knowing that, we could discard that having such blessing is part of any tempering process, unless we assume that Midgardsormr can "untemper" people at will.

That being said, so far -and besides the fact that other people have been throwing us around like a tool more than once- we've shown that we regain our free will. Hydaelyn has never been involved in any of the decisions that we've taken part of, including the prevention or causing of Calamities that would obviously be in her best interest to prevent. At most what she has done is protect us and guide us with her word sometimes (like showing us how to defeat Ascians by making a blade of light), but in the end it was us (or the aforementioned people) the ones that decided to walk that path. In fact, if what we did was part of any tempering, we wouldn't have had the internal conflict that we have seen in the DRK quests. The fact that we can think, doubt, decide, and do as we see fit, unlike the zealous Ascians and other tempered, really shows that even if we're actually tempered Hydaelyn has allowed us to act and think free of her influence.

Actually Primals can temper passively. Pretty sure the Slyphs just summoning Ramuh auto-tempers them and one of the Sahagin beast tribe quests is about trying to save some captives before they are turned by being in Leviathan's aether-coated lands for too long with it being possible they all were turned.