Echo (Final Fantasy XIV)

The Echo is a special ability that some rare individuals possess in Final Fantasy XIV. The Students of Baldesion is a Sharlayan institute devoted to studying the Echo and its connection to the "Umbral Calamity" phenomena.
Those who have been "gifted", as the members of the Path of the Twelve call it, can resonate with other people's souls—and see their past, albeit not able to interfere or change it—as well as being able to speak every language in the world. Advanced users of the Echo can transcend their mortal forms.
==Nature==
The Echo is a fraction of the power of an ancient, a residual power that normally rests within all life in the Source and its reflections. Those who awaken to the Echo often experience a vision of a star-shower falling from a burning sky. They hear Hydaelyn's voice, assuming the Echo was bestowed on them by the goddess, rather than her stirring the memory of a past life. As a result, many assume that those who possess the Echo appear whenever a Calamity draws near, such as with the fall of Dalamud in the Seventh Umbral Era.
The Echo's most profound ability is viewing memories of another being. This occurs often without the user's control, but people can train themselves to trigger it at will, and can yield information they would not obtain otherwise. These visions can even be from millennia ago, as the Warrior of Light once witnesses an event from Emperor Xande's life in the Third Astral Era.
A more subtle effect is the implicit understanding of languages. The Warrior of Light understands foreign languages, shown to the player with altered dialogue boxes. The most obvious instance of this is whenever Ascians speak. The person the Warrior talks to presumably needs to have a soul for this ability to work, however. The Warrior of Light initially could not understand Alpha, but after Omega's defeat, was able to interpret his speech, while Cid speculated that this could be because Alpha finally has a soul. Another effect of the Echo is the ability to see otherwise invisible entities. Ascians, for example, are normally invisible and undetectable without possessing a host, but people who have an awakened an Echo are able to see them.
The exact powers granted by the Echo vary in utility and potency; Krile can sense the traces of a person's soul, and even track it through the Lifestream through a potent enough focus. Fordola rem Lupis's use of the Echo—through the adaptation of the Resonant abilities—seems to give her limited clairvoyance via detecting minor shifts in the aether of others that allows her to perfectly predict and avoid enemy attacks. Mikoto Jinba can see into the future with her version of the Echo. The Crystal Exarch in the First believed the Warrior's Echo would help them resist the corrupting influence of the Light from multiple Lightwardens, though this enhanced resistance was not without limits.
Some users have exhibited the power of metempsychosis; a Sahagin Priest restructured himself by entering the bodies of fellow Sahagin despite being mortally wounded by Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn. It is implied this is the principle by which Ascians manifest in the Source. Lahabrea and Igeyorhm also use the Echo to fuse into a more powerful form, called Ascian Prime.
The Echo is implied to be able to preserve the person's soul after a physical death. The Ascians use this ability to cheat death and find another host vessel. Elidibus compliments Zenos on using a "borrowed Echo" to jump from body to body after his apparent suicide.
==History==
===Final Fantasy XIV Version 1.0===
The Warrior of Light awakened their ability to use Echo upon seeing a Starshower Hydaelyn conjured prior to being invited to the Merchant Wards of Ul'dah to join the Path of the Twelve. The true nature and origins of the Echo were unknown, but according to Ifrit, there was a deity who had given the power of Echo to everyone who currently had it, but not even he knew who the deity was.
The Garlean Empire branded anyone who possessed the Echo a beastman, and therefore was considered an enemy of the Empire.
===Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn===
The Warrior of Light discovered an affinity with the Echo after finding the first Crystal of Light complete with a vision of the starshower. They soon witnessed visions of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn they had encountered.
During their quest, the Warrior of Light had various visions depicting the past, such as the leaders of Eorzea at the Battle of Carteneau, or the steps that led to an altercation in Ul'dah. This trait led to them being invited to the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, the successor organization to the Path of the Twelve. Minfilia Warde, and later the Warrior of Light, were approached by a white-robed Ascian named Elidibus, who claimed the Echo was a gift that the Warrior had yet to master, and in time it may allow them to see the Ascians for who they really were. He further implored them to understand the true nature of the Echo.
Taking Elidibus's words into consideration about "the true nature of the Echo", Minfilia accompanied Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn and the other Scions to the Sahagin's spawning grounds after learning they meant to summon Leviathan. During the ritual to summon the Lord of the Whorls, they witnessed the Sahagin Priest had achieved an advanced stage of the Echo that enabled him to enter the bodies of his fellow Sahagin upon death, only to be absorbed by the newly awakened primal. Later, Ysayle Dangoulain, another bearer of the Echo, channeled the primal Shiva into her body and transformed into the Lady of Frost.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward===
The Ascians could use the Echo to combine into Ascian Primes. Lahabrea referred to Echo as the "power to break the barriers of existence". Similar to the Sahagin Priest, he ended up being absorbed by the primal King Thordan once he was struck down.
Krile revealed she possessed the Echo, and could trace aetheric signatures. When confronting the Warriors of Darkness at Lost ast Gnath, Krile and the Warrior of Light had a simultaneous Echo vision of the mysterious party confronting an Ascian. It was implied the group conversely had an Echo vision of the Warrior of Light. Unukalhai later confided to the Warrior of Light of possessing an ability similar to the Echo.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood===
After the attack on Rhalgr's Reach, the Empire captured Krile and used her in several experiments meant to artificially give regular humans the powers of the Echo, giving the means for pure-blooded Garleans to manipulate aether. Aulus mal Asina chose Fordola rem Lupis as a guinea pig, both to test the procedure and to see its effect on a non-Garlean; the experiment turned Fordola into a so called "Resonant", able to use the powers of the Echo via artificial means.
Fordola became able to feel minor changes in the aether of others, allowing her to predict and avoid any attack, making her practically invincible in combat, easily defeating Lyse Hext and Alisaie Leveilleur despite never having fought a Red Mage before. Urianger Augurelt made a device that allowed the Warrior of Light to temporarily disrupt Fordola's aether, allowing her to be defeated and captured.
After being defeated at Ala Mhigo, Zenos yae Galvus revealed he also had the power of the Echo. He told the Warrior of Light the Scions had no idea about the full extent of its power, and used his Echo to fuse with Shinryu, taking control of the primal dragon and attacking the Warrior of Light's party. Despite committing suicide following his defeat, Zenos transcended his being and took possession of an Ala Mhigan Resistance member and a Centurion to reclaim his body from Elidibus and to prevent his father from using Black Rose to eliminate the Warrior of Light.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers===
Zenos made his way to Garlemald to reclaim his body from Elidibus. Following Emet-Selch's defeat in the First, Zenos retrieved his body and murdered Varis. He easily fended off Estinien Wyrmblood and Gaius Baelsar and demonstrated Ascian-like powers in the confrontation.
On the First, Elidibus revealed the true nature of the Echo to the Warrior of Light and their companions. The Echo awakened in those who witnessed a Calamity that bore a likeness to their innate ancient memories of the Final Days many millennia ago. After creating a star shower in the sky above Crystarium, the Echo was awakened in a small number of individuals in the crowd below. Using the form of Ardbert he convinced the now awakened crowd members to become Warriors of Light themselves.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker===
After capturing the Warrior of Light and extracting their soul from their body, Zenos uses his artificial Echo, the Resonant, to take over the now-empty vessel, albeit temporarily.
When the Warrior of Light travels to Elpis, the ancient Venat explains the Echo can also grant visions via residual aether in a given area, though this method of viewing the past becomes less reliable as time passes from the event.
==List of known characters with the Echo==
*The Warrior of Light
*The Warriors of Darkness
*The Ascians
*Minfilia Warde
*Ysayle Dangoulain
*Krile Maya Baldesion
*Ryne
*Unukalhai
*Arenvald Lentinus
*Tenzen
*Sahagin Priest
*Fordola rem Lupis (artificial)
*Zenos Galvus (artificial)
*Mikoto Jinba
*Tiuna
*Gunnhildr
*Misija Votyasch (artificial)
==Gameplay==
In addition to its plot significance, the Echo is a status effect that appears in certain duties. It is applied to the entire party, increasing their HP, healing, and damage, though the strength of the boost and when it is applied varies.
The Echo status may appear with the following conditions:
*For quest battles the Echo is applied when attempting them on Easy or Very Easy difficulties, applying a 50% and 100% buff respectively.
*In older trial content the Echo is applied in the event of a wipe after a certain amount of time has passed. It applies a stacking 10% boost in normal trials or a 5% boost in Extreme trials, each boost stacking up to 5 times.
*In older raid content the Echo is a fixed bonus automatically applied at the start of the duty. Its strength varies between 10%, 15%, and 20% based on duty, and may be increased in subsequent patches. This bonus is only applied to Savage raids, the A Realm Reborn 8-man raids which existed before Savage difficulty was fully established, and .
*The Forbidden Land, Eureka, will apply a 150% Echo to players upon entering any of its regions. This Echo is disabled in .
*In Save the Queen: Blades of Gunnhildr areas the Echo will apply during critical engagements and in the event of a small amount of participants. The strength of the Echo increases the lower the number of participants.
The Echo is typically only applied to content in subsequent version updates to allow more casual players to experience the content after competitive players have beaten it at the original difficulty. The Echo only affects the players' attributes; it has no effect on fight mechanics. The player can turn it off like any other buff to take on the duty without the extra help, and the "Silence Echo" option in the duty finder will prevent it from applying at all.
In Endwalker, a form of the Echo status effect called the Epic Echo is also granted when commencing as an unrestricted party in A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers duties. The increase to HP, healing and damage varies between 300%, 200%, 100%, 60%, and 30%; the specific boost given appears to vary based on the player's progress through the Main Scenario and their level relative to the level cap of the expansion the duty originates from.
This buff stacks with the regular Echo buff, and can similarly be prevented from occurring by use of the "Silence Echo" option.
In the original release, the Echo plays a role in most class quests. As such, even if the player were to reach rank 20, they would be unable to begin any class quest before finishing the fourth main storyline quest, wherein the Echo is awoken in the player character.
==Musical themes==
The theme "The Echo" will play during most Echo visions. The theme is used exclusively in Echo visions, and some scenes where it may not be immediately apparent that a vision is happening this theme can be a giveaway.
==Other appearances==
===Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade===
FFAB The Echo - Minfilia UR+.png|UR+.
FFAB The Echo - Minfilia Legend UR.png|UR Legend.
FFAB The Echo - Minfilia Legend UR+.png|UR+ Legend.
==Behind the scenes==
In the original release, the memory viewing aspect of the Echo was presented as the user being physically present for and interacting with the memory, with the memory adapting to accommodate their presence as though they were meant to be there. Despite this, they could not actually change the events that occurred in the memory. In the introductory scenarios, the player character was presented as being unaware of the Echo, and when the visions occurred the scene would transition seamlessly from the present day to the vision. To the player, the only indication of an Echo was a minor warping sound effect when they began and ended, and the presence of the musical theme "The Echo". After learning of the nature of the Echo from Minfilia, the warping sound effects became more prominent and began being accompanied by visual effects to make it obvious when a vision was occurring.
es:Eco (Final Fantasy XIV)
pt-br:Echo
Category:Final Fantasy XIV