Moose, I love you for making this thread! Ferne, I'm glad you can tell we're itching here. <3

Anyway, my turn to throw a few concepts into the mix. I would argue that it is indeed an echo of the past. But I'll get back to that.

As shown to us by Blackburn, Minfilla and the Hermit of the Wood, members of the path of the Twelve have a few thing they do/are.
- Never travel alone. Our friends in the Tavern are clearly also on the Path and possess the echo as well. It explains why they are not in a panic while our midlander has his vision. "Look who has returned from his reverie. How nice of you to join us again. Well? Don't keep us in suspense." I translate this as "Looks like you're done echoing. What did you see?"
- They are sensitive to other users of the echo and can tell when someone has entered their own past. This is how Minfilla and Tataru test your capability with the echo when you arrive at the Hall of the First Step.

So when our midlander drops into Silvertear Falls, and the party TAKES NOTICE, he's probably going to want to track down these guys when he has a chance, irrespective of whether they are already aquainted or not. So come our 2.0 trailer, they've clearly met up, refined their skills, got used to the jobs they have finally decided they prefer and are returning to Silvertear Falls in the reborn realm to see what has changed. Heck, these guys probably beat Nael together.

Backtracking a little again... the echo is something you normally use on people, not inanimate objects. So if a piece of stained glass has done it to you, you're going want to want to know where that bugger leads!

So in short my theory is:
- Midlander echos.
- All parties go "WTF? You're echoing? We need to talk!"
- They track each other down and get coordinated as a more cohesive party, killing the Raven and being part of rebirthing the realm.


Oh, and I think that is meant to be Limsa, not Ishgard. The leve plate is at least a Lominsan one. Limsa was also flagged as the "lead" city when xiv was first released, hosting a lot of the initial content and demos, including the alpha test.