Final Fantasy III is set in Hydaelyn's 4th Umbral Era

[Yrusama]

Ok. This one I might need to try and work out...

To your credit, the Crystal Tower in FFIII has a large fortress surrounding it: the "Ancients' Maze". It's possible he rose to power and his minions built this and the Crystal Tower for him, although I don't remember any inhabitants besides monsters and evil suits of armor. (Maybe a few others.) In this case, Xande was a very powerful Magus, but spontaneously building a maze around the Earth Crystal and a tower in the maze's center seems beyond him. Not to mention that door to Eureka.

This also begs the question (a little off-topic): If Doga was the one to inherit the most power, why didn't he just fly up there and kick Xande's ass himself? I haven't played FFIII in a while, but I remember thinking it back then. Maybe if they make Doga and Unei references in XIV we'll have clearer answers to these things.

Lastly, you can easily fall back on the "legends change over time" idea. Perhaps FFIII is the fairy tale version (Eternal Legend of the Wind!) of Hydaelin's history.

Edit (after looking more closely at Moose's last post): This is a little off-topic, but I sense that the plot with the Ascians and Primals will carry over beyond launch, maybe even into the first expansion. Maybe we'll settle things with Van Baelsar and his lackeys, but we'll never totally eradicate the empire, and we won't have a few of the primals right away. How are we supposed to fill the pretty circle without all the crystals? I just hope the plot comes to a satisfactory stopping point, unlike 1.0 with Futures' Perfect.

[HiirNoivl]

Your idea kinda fits though with the following ideas.

The Crystal Tower in FFIII was an attempt to manipulate time, in FFXIV we're not sure. The legends surrounding the area where it's located, Silvertear falls, are connected with Athlyk, the god of Time and Nymeia, the Goddess of Fate. The tomb of Xande was the location of Athlyk's symbol. FFIII says that Xande tried to manipulate time to avoid his fate (mortality) by creating an imbalance between light and dark, like what we saw during the Seventh Umbral era with the appearance of Atomos in the chaos.

The explosion of the Agrias at Silvertear Skies, let loose a powerful explosion that allowed, not only the primals to escape, but also, gave the ability of specific adventurers to also experience a type of time travel involuntarily. The "starshower" seen could be the rift occuring and the imbalance between light and dark beginning.

The whole story probably doesn't connect directly with FFIII of course, as we're in a different time/dimension. But I find it interesting that we have Xandes, and I wonder if Nymeia and Athlyk would correspond to Unei and Doga, both of whom seem to have been able to transcend different time and dimensions, and don't actually die. Nymeia the watcher of celestial bodies and the spinner of Fate and Althyk the space time surveyor appear in Eorzea before anyone else.

In FFIII it's Unei and Doga that cross dimensions to a land that is called Eureka, which is accessible through the Bottom of the Crystal Tower. If Eureka = Eorzea, it might explain the sudden access we have to the place after all this time.

[Catapult]

The tomb of Xande was the location of Athlyk's symbol.

Thaliak, actually. Other than that, I'm fascinated.

I've been spending the weekend playing FFIII again, currently just beat the golden twat.

[HiirNoivl]

In another news: Midgardsormr

From Erik:

There was the birth of Althyk, god of time among the Twelve, and in turn, His younger sister Nymeia, goddess of fate. And then there was water, and through it the Silvertear Falls came to be at the center of all that was. Here was the source not only of water, but the fount of all magic as well. Now, when water came into being, so too did the great dragon Midgardsormr. Brother Time and Sister Fate, fearing the Falls might fall into the hands of evil, ordered Midgardsormr their protector and warden. Much later, with the arrival of man, would Midgardsormr be worshipped as the guardian deity of Silvertear Falls.

In FFIII there is no dragon directly with that name, but with the alternate name The Yormungand. This enemy appears in the World of Darkness but there's another "clone" enemy in Eureka named Oceanus.

I believe Oceanus is actually Midgardsormr. If you look up the original legendary Titan by the name Oceanus is described as a world ocean-stream at the center of the world (equator). It is brought into being by Gaea and Uranus who also brought into being Clotho (the original Nymeia) and Saturn (the original Althyk).

Another enemy in The Forbidden land of Eureka is Abaia:

Wikipedia describes Abaia this way.

According to Melanesian mythology the Abaia is a type of large eel which dwells at the bottom of freshwater lakes in the Fiji, Solomon and Vanuatu Islands. The Abaia is said to consider all creatures in the lake its children and protects them furiously against anyone who would harm or disturb them. It is said that those who are foolish enough to try to catch the fish from a lake containing the Abaia are immediately overwhelmed by a large wave caused by the thrashing of the Abaia’s powerful tail.

So um.... Yeah...

[Beowolf]

i feel like the world of final fantasy III and Hydaelyn are two seperate worlds bridged by the "the world of darkness" and the "void" wich is the same place given different names based on the worlds culture.

[HiirNoivl]

Slepnir is also a resident of Eureka in FFIII but oddly is not paired with Odin.

In Final Fantasy Tactics, Eureka is mentioned as being a "Wonder" that is destroyed in The Cataclysm and was home to an ancient royal family called the Kashka dynasty. I've never heard of that before. Of course, it also says that the Crystal Tower had something to do with Baron from IV and has a labyrinth at its base. We find out later from IV that the King of Baron turns out to

Odin. Some relation to his appearance now?

.

In the video that briefly shows the tower, I don't see a labyrinth. But if it existed in FFIII universe it wouldn't make sense that it would exist in FFXIV's since well... since I believe that we're on the other side of the door. But if there as an Ancients maze that would throw a huge monkey wrench into my theory that Eorzea is actually the forbidden land of Eureka.

Or I could explain it by saying that Louisoux somehow brought the labyrinth to lock Bahamut in it.

Back to the Tactics mention of Eureka: Not much is known about the Cataclysm. It occurred in Ivalice at some point after the events in FFXII according to FF Wiki. But when the Cataclysm occured really isn't nearly as important as the fact that there was a possible link between Eorzea (IF it is Eureka) and Ivalice of XII and Tactics. According to the Wiki, The Cataclysm supposedly destroyed all Moogles. In FFXIV, the Moogle King was disturbed by a big war and decided to lower his subjects via a long rope to the promised land, but remained stuck himself. The Moogles, through this legend, admit that they are not natives of Eorzea but come from "the land of the gods". While I had always assumed that this was some fanciful Far Far Away, it is actually fitting for it to be Ivalice, since the "gods", the Occuria, were involved in a war that that threatened to destroy everything, and apparently eventually did.

What seems to me, to be honest, is that once the key of Eureka was used, it created a portal that apparently never shut, allowing people to travel freely and rather randomly (*cough*Lightning*cough*) into our universe. I don't think Eureka was destroyed in the Cataclysm of Ivalice but the portal to Eureka was.

So that's my current theory. I'm looking to figure out what is the actual reality in a few weeks. :3

[JGwinters]

It is fitting that an ascian hold a crystal of darkness. Their motives revealed so far seem well aligned to returning the world to a state of darkness, as if they were cooperating with the Cloud of Darkness in her goal to plunge the world into shadow, a goal that she was manipulating Xande into achieving.

I think up to here you were on pretty firm ground. However, Cloud of Darkness wanted to return everything to nothing (無), not darkness. Darkness is simply one of the two extremes of the state of the world, Cloud of Darkness comes forth when that balance is off-kilter and tries to return everything to a state of nothing, or void if you will.
Also, where does her/it manipulating Xande come from? Could even be true for all I remember, but Xande's personal goal was to bring darkness/stop the flow of time, not to make the world cease to exist.

The world created by Xande in III greatly resembles what we know of the fourth Astral Era. In XIV, Allag empire had fallen. In III we hear of a recently fallen empire that had sought to use the power of the crystals of light in its own advancement - this sounds a lot like using the power of aether to drive powerful magitek.

I wouldn't be so certain of that either. I've read and reread all hints of the Ancients (I presume you meant Ancients as there are no other fallen empires) in the game in order to try make sense of their timeline and their achievements, and there's nothing connecting them to Xande, nor to present times. Ancients were the reason for the light overflowing and the warriors of darkness coming forth, Xande is never mentioned in relation to these events, only for the current overflowing darkness. Ancients are more of a myth, kingdoms have had time to grow in their place. They did not fall recently, but before the overflowing light happened and other civilizations came to take their place.

Granted, I've never made sense of the parts that imply Noah died ages ago, maybe I'm misinterpreting something in that. After all, if Xande only had a human lifespan at that point, he wouldn't have been able to wait from who knows how ancient times to the present in order to raise the darkness and stop the time. There's quite a few contradictions like that in FF3 if you delve into it.
In any case, as proven by his gift of mortality, he could not have been an emperor of the Ancients and still be alive in the present day.

[KaMuiSouZou]

Is the world map of III confirmed to be the entire world at it's time? The only way I can see it working is if all of Eorzea and the Garlean continent are completely separate from the FFIII map, and all of the III content in XIV got... teleported into Eorzea or something. Otherwise historically it won't make sense.

Eorzea seems to be our continent's name from the beginning and if so, why is no continent in III named Eorzea? Shape-wise, you could say the land masses of III moved around over time, but it's still very hard to explain where the other races are living in the world...

"The Elezen once claimed sole dominion over Eorzea, their presence predating that of the other races, and, as such, developed a heightened sense of honor and pride. In years past, the Hyur migration into Elezen lands sparked bitter conflict."

If the crystal tower resided in what's now known as Eorzea, it would mean the Elezen would've been walking around everywhere at the time. Where are the Miqo'te, Lalafell and Roegadyn? They moved to Eorzea later, but this implies they were somewhere else in the world at the time, not evident anywhere in III. Not to mention no one in III ever said the planet is called Hydaelyn.

It's possible they're trying to connect III and XIV, but it's obviously not originally intended at least. I dunno, a lot of holes to stitch up to make this work, I think all the FFIII content is just using the names as a throwback.

[Catapult]

Thank you everyone for helping pick apart this hypothesis. Just about everyone has had something good to contribute. However, to me the final nail in the coffin was this gem that came up via Sounssy in the padjal thread:

The Fifth Astral Era is said to have begun approximately three millennia ago. The ice age that ushered in the Fifth Umbral Era made the land a barren and merciless place, and man was pushed to the limits of his resourcefulness in the struggle to survive. Yet survive he did, through the discovery of magic as we know it - an event which marked the dawning of the Fifth Astral Era.

At first, man was well pleased just to keep the cold at bay and compete with the other races. But man is nothing if not an ambitious beast. It was not long before he sought mightier magicks, hoping to win greater glory. It was this desire that brought forth Black Magic, the arcane art of destruction, into the world. In order that this force of chaos be kept in check and balance preserved, at roughly the same point in history, white magic, the arcane art of succor, came into existence.

Simply put, the magic system was not invented until the fifth astral era, meaning the existence of the great magus, Noah, must post-date this.

/paradoxical blast
(Noel would be proud.)

But this brings us back to wondering how the tower got to Eorzea. I definitely want to go digging in on the Eureka subject, and hopefully we can then cry "eureka!" at some point.

One last thought...
Xande vs Xandes
Shantotto vs Shatotto
Hrmmmm...

[HiirNoivl]

Unfortunately, Regarding Eureka, we don't have much to go on.

Eureka is an optional dungeon. You can only get there after "killing" Doga and Unei and receiving the key. The Eureka Key is activated from within the Crystal Tower and you enter. You get the most powerful weapons in Eureka by fighting some enemies. Some were mentioned above. Many of them have parallels with the World of Darkness.

You can see the complete list here.

If the rules of lingual shifts can apply, Kashka could be referring to Kashuan. I don't see any other mentions of Kashka dynasty anywhere. But Kashuan is in the universe of FFII

FFII also has the whole Light / Darkness theme.

Notable places are:

Semitt Falls

Which looks a lot like this from a different angle

But to be honest, Eorzea's history and story seem pretty independent. They can add cute references to other installments ("Wild Rose" password... lol) But to be honest I don't think Eorzea takes place in the exact same dimension/universe as III or II or any other FF in the series.