How strong is the Warrior of Light?

[Jandor]

Emet-Selch makes a very belabored point about how the WoL is different and better because they are seven-times-rejoined. (At that point). And to me it feels very reminiscent of the movie The One. Paraphrasing, he basically says let us finish our work and you'll become like a god.

Emet-Selch does think that more soul = better, I just don't think the evidence supports his view. Maybe if we get all 14 something will happen and we'll double in height and gain a bunch more magical powers, but as things stand it doesn't seem to make much difference.

The soul drives the body. Doesn't seem to matter how much soul you stuff in there, if the physical body remains the same then the physical limits of what it can do remain the same.

[RukoBoshi]

Emet-Selch does think that more soul = better, I just don't think the evidence supports his view. Maybe if we get all 14 something will happen and we'll double in height and gain a bunch more magical powers, but as things stand it doesn't seem to make much difference.

The soul drives the body. Doesn't seem to matter how much soul you stuff in there, if the physical body remains the same then the physical limits of what it can do remain the same.

Even if we got all 14 shards of us, i don't think it would change our physical appearance, when we summoned Hythlodaeus and Emet Selch, they were unsundered but the body they got was our sizes.
Maybe the body created by Hydaelyn's magic was different to accommodate for their souls, but it seems like it doesn't have to be as big as it used to be.

So there's even less reasons to think being rejoined change us much more than before.

[FireMage]

Yes but life that began after the sundering is not sundered. Only souls that existed at the point of sundering are split and can be rejoined.

Which is everyone. Re-in-car-na-tion

[RukoBoshi]

Which is everyone. Re-in-car-na-tion

Not everyone reincarnate, there's also new souls being born. This is why Scions didn't hear Hydaelyn's voice and get the blessing when Elidibus summoned the star shower.

Only people who have the echo could, and they have the echo because they are the reincarnated souls of the Ancients. If you don't have the echo and can't hear Hydaelyn's voice, you have a new soul.

[SentioftheHoukai]

Actually very little of that matters. Hundreds or thousands of other adventurers also have the Blessing of Light. Including the Warriors of Light from the First. Most characters with the Echo are not particularly powerful by comparison.

The player character is, even before starting the game, 7 times rejoined. Your character is over halfway to being fully unsundered. This isn't true of all denizens of the Source. By the end of Shadowbringers, you are 8 times rejoined. Somewhere in the Thirteenth there may lurk a 9th.

Then add to that, the Blessing of Light, the collected crystals of light, soul stones. By modern mortal standards, the WoL is deific.

I never quite understood the justification for WHY we seem to be the only soul on the Planet that is Rejoined like that. Aside from "plot convenience", was that ever explained?

The Ascians seemed to think it mattered.

We kicked their asses pretty soundly. If anything it seems like there's a negative correlation, the more fragmented-down souls seem to have an edge in at least the initial fights. (Or, more likely, it doesn't actually correlate to any meaningful level.)

I'm not even remotely convinced of this, to be perfectly honest. Seems to me the only thing "beyond" the Ancients is Dynamis, and even that is arguably a stretch. Take Dynamis out of the equation, and Unsundered Souls and Creation Magicks trump those without in nearly every instance. The narrative outlined it as near godlike power for a reason, so as far as pure power levels are concerned it's clear the Unsundered are the superior combatants and win that fight. We won against the Ascians Three because the power of plot demanded we do so. Even Emet-Selch says so, he could have just killed us as we remained blissfully unaware of his presence.

[SenshiDon]

As strong as the plot demands them to be or as strong as will make for an interesting story.

If you want "feats", there's no clear answer as almost every big thing that the WoL faces is done so with the help of the Scions, Adventurer buddies, or some other manner of boost (empowered by the eye of Hraesvelgr when fighting Nidhogg; suffused with the Light of all the lightwardens when facing Hades, only able to control it thanks to the rejoining of Ardbert and the WoL; pushed forward by the prayers and hopes of the Scions on the edge of existence; etc.).

The biggest, baddest, thing that the WoL has faced and defeated on their own is, well, Zenos and Shinryu, and even then it's unclear if the WoL was alone when fighting Shinryu. Certainly they were when fighting Zenos at the edge of existence but how much they were empowered at that point with the wishes of the Scions that they return is unclear (after all the edge of existence is more of a metaphor than a tangible place). And even in that situation they nearly died.

In the end, looking at things in a "feats" perspective is reductive, since it dismisses the realities of combat. The WoL, in the end, is still just a person, if you poison them or stab them, they'll crumple like any other, if they get distracted while engaged in combat, they'll take blows like any other. They're just unique in that their soul is more dense and have access to the Echo (and the Blessing of Light besides), and well in that they help people out which makes them liked and then they help out.

People can and will match them martially or mystically.

This is one of the better answers I've gotten! A few things, though.

I think there are a few feats that can be pointed to, such as when we fought Eden Prime. Eden created an alternate reality exactly like Sephiroth's Supernova (which is confirmed to be an alternate reality, not just an illusion. I'm new to the forums and can't figure out how to post scans, otherwise I'd back up this claim), blasted the WoL through the vacuum of space into a galaxy which then exploded in their face... and they were fine. I don't recall them surviving this under any sort of outside help, either. There are a plethora of other examples, but that one immediately comes to mind. And of course, the WoL has become much stronger since then, evidenced when they 1v1'ed Zenos who was empowered by enough of the mother crystal to assume his Shinryu form along with all of its abilities, and I don't think the hopes and prayers of the Scions were empowering the WoL at this point either. With this in mind, I doubt that something as simple as stabbing the WoL is going to stop them.

[SannaR]

As some have said we are as strong as the writers need the WoL to be. Yet as another said think of the WoL's strength and how much of a beating they can take as how strong or powerful any of the regular human super heros of DC and Marvel. So we're your Nightwings and even Captain America as you could see the Blessing of Light as the super solider serum. The WoL might look like they can defeat anything or anyone and take a hit from whatever but that's because we get lucky with rolling those natural 20s. On the other hand I don't think we're as strong as Gotestu. That dude is a beast.

[FireMage]

Not everyone reincarnate, there's also new souls being born. This is why Scions didn't hear Hydaelyn's voice and get the blessing when Elidibus summoned the star shower.

Only people who have the echo could, and they have the echo because they are the reincarnated souls of the Ancients. If you don't have the echo and can't hear Hydaelyn's voice, you have a new soul.

But still Sundered. Again, new souls sprung up AFTER Zodiark brought order to Etheryis but BEFORE the Sundering

[Dikatis]

In superhero comparisons, we're not Superman, but we're probably Green Arrow.

If I were to make a comparison, WoL would be about the same as Lu Bu is in fiction. An immensely powerful fighter who can turn the tide of a fight almost single-handedly, but still mortal enough to be brought down through strategy, attrition, sheer numbers, or immense amounts of firepower.

WoL demonstrates blatantly superhuman ability even by the standards of the setting. They're able to catch a sword the size of an office building and deflect the blow off to the side. In the Monk questline their daily training regimen includes more than ten hours of continuous practice, including fighting forms, calisthenics, and shadow boxing that has the Fist of Rhalgr collapsed in a heap on the ground from exertion. They then proceed to sprint through the craggy Gyr Abanian wilderness and proceed to single-handedly beat the Corpse Brigade into submission and don't even look winded at the end of it all. Widargelt considers them the first of all living monks of the order and they unlocked all fourteen chakra when seven alone is supposed to grant you godly strength compared to a normal man. A sidequest in Garlemald has them move rubble heavy enough to require a team of men to lift to save a girl's mother according to a nearby Maelstrom officer. The end of the Warrior questline has them crowned the greatest practitioner of the warrior art alive, a title they keep even after Dorgono proceeds to knock grown Roegadyn men clear across the Wolves' Den with a single blow. Estinien also considers WoL his superior as a combatant. Estinien is fully capable of acts of enormous destruction like destroying the cannon of Castrum Abania with a single strike or disabling a prototype version of the new series of reverse-engineered Ultima Weapons that nearly brought Eorzea to its knees.

I'm not trying to say WoL is unstoppable or invincible or whatever, but they're very clearly exemplary among mortals and only a handful of characters can take WoL in a single fight that they're completely and utterly devoted to winning. That said, even WoL is wise enough to fear the wrath of an angry Manderville. Godbert and Julyan are clearly above every other character in the setting without question.

[SentioftheHoukai]

If I were to make a comparison, WoL would be about the same as Lu Bu is in fiction. An immensely powerful fighter who can turn the tide of a fight almost single-handedly, but still mortal enough to be brought down through strategy, attrition, sheer numbers, or immense amounts of firepower.

WoL demonstrates blatantly superhuman ability even by the standards of the setting. They're able to catch a sword the size of an office building and deflect the blow off to the side. In the Monk questline their daily training regimen includes more than ten hours of continuous practice, including fighting forms, calisthenics, and shadow boxing that has the Fist of Rhalgr collapsed in a heap on the ground from exertion. They then proceed to sprint through the craggy Gyr Abanian wilderness and proceed to single-handedly beat the Corpse Brigade into submission and don't even look winded at the end of it all. Widargelt considers them the first of all living monks of the order and they unlocked all fourteen chakra when seven alone is supposed to grant you godly strength compared to a normal man. A sidequest in Garlemald has them move rubble heavy enough to require a team of men to lift to save a girl's mother according to a nearby Maelstrom officer. The end of the Warrior questline has them crowned the greatest practitioner of the warrior art alive, a title they keep even after Dorgono proceeds to knock grown Roegadyn men clear across the Wolves' Den with a single blow. Estinien also considers WoL his superior as a combatant. Estinien is fully capable of acts of enormous destruction like destroying the cannon of Castrum Abania with a single strike or disabling a prototype version of the new series of reverse-engineered Ultima Weapons that nearly brought Eorzea to its knees.

I'm not trying to say WoL is unstoppable or invincible or whatever, but they're very clearly exemplary among mortals and only a handful of characters can take WoL in a single fight that they're completely and utterly devoted to winning. That said, even WoL is wise enough to fear the wrath of an angry Manderville. Godbert and Julyan are clearly above every other character in the setting without question.

DO NOT PURSUE THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT