RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Brave · **08-25-2013, 03:26 PM**

(08-25-2013, 12:58 PM)FreelanceWizard Wrote:
(08-25-2013, 12:09 PM)Clover Wrote: Ah, I actually don't mind spoilers in this game, as I'm not really taking the main story into consideration ^^;

I'm going to assume that, whatever the Echo and being tampered by a primal are, they're not things my character is supposed to know ICly (?).

Allow me to toss out some spoilers, then.

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Level 21 spoilers!
Minfilia, leader of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn -- the group of disciples of Archon Louisoix, reformed after his death to try to address the Primals problem -- explains the Echo to you after you join the group. It's basically a mystical power granted by the mothercrystal of Hydaelyn (or so it's believed) that grants the ability to see into the pasts of others. Sometimes you can actually interact with the memories, but you can't change anything. The Echo triggers seemingly at random; you have no control over it.

Later in that story arc, you end up encountering Ifrit. He uses an ability called "Tempering" that binds the souls and Aether of those exposed to it to him, allowing him to control their minds and sustain himself using their life force. Those who are Tempered turn into slavish worshippers of the Primal. You, as an Echo-blessed character, are unaffected, which surprises Ifrit. He then indicates that some mysterious force indicated that there would be some, such as your character, who are "sworn to no god" and must be destroyed. That's how the Ifrit fight starts.

What you find out afterwards from Thancred is that Tempering is permanent, and as such, the Scions are going to execute those who were captured and Tempered by Ifrit to prevent him from drawing Aether from them. Additionally, he and Minfilia explain that the Echo protects you from being Tempered.

As a result, the only canonical, lore-supported way to fight Primals ICly is to have the Echo, which comes as a result of being chosen by the mothercrystal as one of its warriors (in the level 7ish cutscene). Of course, you can come up with other ways around it in RP (or simply not do that content IC), but there's only one lore-supported way thus far.

On the larger topic, you can "genericize" elements of the main scenario quest without getting rid of its key lore points, and actually, the XIV team's been pretty good about doing some of that for you. For instance, everyone can repeatedly fight Primals because they're being repeatedly summoned; the cutscene involving the mothercrystal clearly shows many other "chosen" characters; the group mentioned in the spoiler above looks for those with the Echo to recruit them; Grand Companies are always looking for new promising recruits; Ascians are one of the main "plot villains;" etc.

So, taking the example of Ascian and his golem, you can genericize that as a mysterious attacker assaulted you in (insert what you want your character to have been doing here) while you noticed someone mysteriously watching you from afar (a member of the spoiler-riffic group above ). You can take IC or not information that the game provides you via the Echo right after that scene without it having to have been the memories of the specific NPC depicted.

EDIT: Or, of course, you can elide the whole event, which is what I did with L'yhta. Yes, she has the Echo, and yes, she's aware of the key lore things and groups mentioned in the spoiler above, but she's not had any personal interaction with Ascians at all. The important thing, IMO, is to keep the essence of the story in terms of lore (lest you run into issues with your story colliding with lore). You can turn the "genericize" dial all the way from "I got this stuff, just in different ways" to "I basically had the event in the quest occur to me more or less as depicted, with just some small details changed."

I want to... "echo" this statement. Â (By the tweleve I'm so hilarious =P)

I absolutely agree that we don't want to say the main storyline is a verbatim version of our own. Â If that were the case we'd all be the same. Â The Echo however does seem to be an important factor to the world though. Â Does that mean everyone has to have it? Â Of course not. Â But if there are aspects that I'd want to do in game with my story that have a lore requirement "fighting primals means you need to have the Echo" than my hands are somewhat tied you know? Â (I'm not sure how Summoners are working in this game story wise but I imagine that if there are quest lines where you have to deal with capturing lesser primals like you did in XI than you might very well be forced into using the Echo too.)

Anyway I'm going to go read these spoilers left behind and see if they help me formulate more of my background. Â Thank you all for the contributions and input. Â This is really helpful.

So about this Echo... *possible spoilers*

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

So about this Echo... possible spoilers