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Originally Posted by
Bearstar
Sky has always been in sky. It didn't rise. Think of it as the nail and delkfutt's tower as the hammer.
It is true that Tu'lia has always been in the sky, but I should object to the second part. Delkfutt's Tower is a control station for the flow in the crystal line and it doesn't really have a "nail and hammer" relation to Tu'lia. Eald'narche reactivated the core of the system (aka Chrysalis Core) and consequently the access to Tu'lia was also reactivated. In one of the RoZ cutscenes, Eald'narche says: "Once Tu'Lia has been awakened, I can continue my preparations there. Just as I did ten thousand years ago." We can tell by his claim that Tu'lia was already active back in the day, at least until the sabotage. Simply put, he didn't need to press the "launch Tu'Lia" button or something like that. He only turned the power back on.
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The sea around qufim is from the giant sphere of land and air that was coverted and absorbed into the 5th crystal. The reason the 5th crystal is called the Emperial Paradox is because the crystal is in three places at once, one at the bottom of the ocean, two inside the city teleported into space, and three the city rests within the light of the crystal so the crystal is within itself.
The missing land mess around the Qufim Island was destroyed in the meltdown, not because of being absorbed into the crystal. You can tell by the charred cliffs from Batallia to Sauromugue that some sort of an exothermal reaction was the cause. What was absorbed into the 5th mother crystal is the city of Al'Taieu. I should also add that when you get on the ship in the Sealion's Den, you fly away from the mainland to reach the portal to Al'Taeiu.
This is pure speculation, but you see the light going up above the Grand Palace of Hu'Xzoi? That is probably what we see protruding from the sea when we get there from the Sealion's Den. In a cutscene Yve'noile says: "As thou already know, his plan began ten thousand years ago when he came into contact with the five crystals that rest beneath the surface of Vana'diel. The true crystals..." So possibly, Al'Taeiu was actually built at the bottom of the sea since it contained the 5th mother crystal which was supposed to be beneath the surface. Don't ask me how a dragon can possibly attack a city at the bottom of the sea though :P
Back on topic: The existence of the 5th mother crystal is in a paradox because the defense mechanism, which was manually activated when Bahamut attacked the city of Al'Taieu, relocated the city into the mother crystal which was located in the city, hence a paradox. This is also why Galkas don't return to the crystal when they die, so they just reincarnate. It appears that galkas are associated with the 5th mother crystal, but there is nothing left to return to. As we all know, while they look musculine, they are actually genderless and can't reproduce. I am not sure about this, but assume that if the 5th mother crystal wasn't in a paradox, they would have already become extinct.
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But beyond Sea, the Meltdown almost broke vanadiel into a ring of asteroids. It shattered Fei'yin and drove the Northlands into permenent winter. I think the Hall of the Gods is more of a combo of 10k of wear and tear with Meltdown damage than Meltdown alone.
A cookie if you've noticed are the petrified trees in Batallia Downs at the coastline. These were frozen in place during the Meltdown. There are also petrified trees in Xarc, but these point towards the ocean. My theory is that the cliff face protected them from the main blast but they face away from the light ramp up to the castle. Since this light comes from the 4th crystal, the Meltdown either shattered the ground or it was already exposed and these trees where exposed to the direct light of the explosion and frozen as well.
That part is a bit of an exaggeration :) The destruction it caused isn't really THAT big. Also, the main reason for the Northlands to be in permanent winter is the fact that the 4th mother crystal (Vhazl) is damaged. One hint for the existence of a mother crystal there is the Promyvion-Vhazl and it is apparently right below the Castle Zvahl, judging by the leakage from the cracks on the way to the castle.
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Concerning years. Every week is a year in gametime. But if you go by plot, you begin the game 20 years after the Crystal War, so storywise it has probably been 5 years max. I just ingore the weekly calander, beyond conquest tallies it has no purpose.
Crystal War ended in 864 and like you said, the original story starts 20 years later. We are in year 1223 now according to the in game timer, so actually 339 years have passed.