Quote Originally Posted by Enkidoh View Post
1.0 gave a hint that in the 'calm' periods during Astral Eras it seemed to be very uncommon people for people to be awoken to the Echo, with a sudden 'rush' of new Echo users appearing being a strong indication a Calamity was approaching - Minfilia even stated this during 1.0's main scenario, that "after years of naught but rumours the past several moons have seen the hill of reports (of those awoken to the Echo) on my desk grow into a veritable mountain," so in between Calamities it was probably more "someone might inadvertently awaken to the Echo occassionally" without any influence from Hydaelyn.

Hydaelyn almost definetely knew when a Calamity was going to occur because of the aetherial flow suddenly occurring from a Shard back to the Source going from a trickle to a torrent as the Ascians schemed in the background to "upset the apple cart" so to speak and prime the two for a Rejoining, so the above "mass awakening to the Echo" was usually accurate that things were about to go very, very bad indeed.
Although remember that 1.0-only content isn't exactly reliable information and is prone to be retconned whenever convenient or appropriate. We do know of Echo-havers completely disconnected from any Calamities chronologically; Tiuna in the First, Tenzen in the Four Lords questline, although neither of them were noted as such at the time.

My feeling is that it's not just that the Echo is rarer outside of turbulent times (although it might be, given what we know is needed to awaken it), but that it's also much less likely to be recorded and documented appropriately. Again, Tiuna and Tenzen were just thought to be an oracle and great warrior respectively, maybe people among the original Knights Twelve or something had the Echo and it's just that nobody thought to check?