"Throw wide the gates, that we may pass" [SHB speculation]

[Chewy2nd]

I've been thinking about this line that has been repeated to us. We know that from the few tidbits that we've been told, that being able to cross shards via Syrcus Tower is something to do with the echo. However, the Vagabond's much loved line seems to hint at something else, could it be that he want's us to literally "throw wide the gates" between the first shard and the source, so that the survivors of the first can cross to the source, and people from the source can aid those on the first? It'd be pretty mutually benifical to Eorzea to gain access to a land the size of Eorzea, far from the clutches of the Garlean Empire.

[Seraphor]

It makes sense.
Going into 6.0, we'll still need to have some use for the Norvrandt locations, like how Job quests use a variety of ARR, HW and SB locations at different stages, and it'd be pretty odd to keep them as two entirely separate worlds that don't interact at all.

[Fenral]

From 4.56, I got the impression he was actually talking about your gates, namely the walls around your soul. As we're resisting, there's that line, "Why won't they open?" which seems to imply that opening them temporarily is what allows our face-to-face conversation to finally take place.

[PogueX]

Maybe because some calamity is about to hit Eorzea like the Black Rose....that people need to flee to the first

[soliquidsnake]

I have a theory... What if when he says "we", he means himself AND the WoL. If it truly is G'raha, it could be that he is still in our Crystal Tower. He said he will stay inside to help open the gates one day.

[Destati]

From 4.56, I got the impression he was actually talking about your gates, namely the walls around your soul. As we're resisting, there's that line, "Why won't they open?" which seems to imply that opening them temporarily is what allows our face-to-face conversation to finally take place.

Ohohohoho, no. He's gonna have to take me out to dinner first.

[Nalien]

I have a theory... What if when he says "we", he means himself AND the WoL. If it truly is G'raha, it could be that he is still in our Crystal Tower. He said he will stay inside to help open the gates one day.

His exact words;


Not sure he is capable of helping anyone open it from inside stasis, though perhaps other localizations offer more clarity on that.

My current theory, given dimensional travel is confirmed, time travel is almost certainly hinted at, along with "History must be rewritten", is that the people of Crystarium are the ones to rival the Allagans in knowledge. Crystal Tower has been sent into the past of the First specifically to allow for that civilization to build up around it and throw wide the gates... G'raha then struts out and will probably be very confused as to why we're there waiting for him... Although given he may be Enigma, perhaps it opened awhile back and he is now trying to reach out to us...

I almost wonder if the Tower ever even sunk following Xandes Calamity, now... I mean, if history must be rewritten...

• Xandes Calamity happens; Send the Tower into the future so it appears shortly after Dalamud fell.
• We then open it up, clear that whole mess, and it's resealed. All under the misguided assumption that it merely slept beneath the earth all that time...
• Come 5.0, it's then sent back into the past, right after (or before?) it vanished following Xandes Calamity. Now, from there, taking advantage of the energy released from the Calamity, and weakening of the barriers between Shards that Calamities entail, it is warped to the First.
• It now no longer exists on Eorzea, as history recorded.
• With the Towers future now sitting in the past of the First, with an as yet unknown portion of that history now being in perpetual daylight due to the Flood of Light, it now has ample fuel supplies (recall that it originally collected solar energies to power the Allagans civilization).
• Fully powered, and with twice the expected output due to a never ending day on the First, the Tower can now fulfill it's original purpose; Opening a Voidgate.
• At some point (in 5.0 or the 5.x series), we use the Tower to open a "Void"gate between the First and Source, one so massive that the Tower itself appears back on the Source as if nothing ever happened.
• Free movement between First and Source is now possible. We already have confirmation this is possible, given the Voidgate allowed non-Echo users to travel between Source and Thirteenth.

[Fenral]

The original CT ending is actually a paradox on its own. G'raha is the only one who can open/operate the tower, so he puts it and himself into stasis to keep that power from becoming lost (thanks to a sudden and contrived time limit on his "transfusion" from Doga and Unei). However, in simply doing so, there's a tacit acknowledgement that some other way exists, which means he doesn't actually need to preserve himself to begin with for the Tower to function in the future.

Unless the actual goal all along was for himself to open the tower again somehow, which is what 5.0 appears to be working towards.

[Nalien]

I was going to mention that, however I figured it's probably easier to hack a door open, than to hack the myriad functions the Tower requires Royal Blood to control. Don't have to use any finesse with a door, either... Not going to cause some catastrophic event attempting to hot-wire a door, but a massive solar powered Voidgate machine? IDK, I eventually just took it as "If they can open the door without me, I can help guide them to using the rest without me".

[Fenral]

I'd have bought that if hacking hadn't been ruled out by Doga and Unei already. It's kind of a missed opportunity for setup, actually. They could have said "It's not that hard to open once you know the trick, but you'd never get there trying to do it like that, primates." But "the only way" is a much more impactful phrase.