The Aetherial Wheel

[Nalien]

Reused assets. Is that location even cannon anymore? They completely removed it and moved Thaliak... Has that ever actually been explained? They didn't even have to, I'm fairly sure you can still see the entrance to the cave as you go to the zone to N.Flanalan, wouldn't have been massively difficult to have kept it there and expanded the smallest zone in the game to accommodate it...

What interests me is how on earth(I know, Hydealyn) will it be used for crafting.

You're crafting Free Company Actions with it. So disappointing that you literally just leave the thing there and it gets done... Should have been like Gardening where you have to check up on it and maintain/nurture it.

[treuhavik]

Is that location even cannon anymore? They completely removed it and moved Thaliak... Has that ever actually been explained?

It was the Tomb of Xande (aka "Crystal Cave") in 1.0 but, and Moose will have to confirm this, it's actually a part of the Crystal Tower. So, I imagine it was completely destroyed when the tower rose.

[Nalien]

It was the Tomb of Xande (aka "Crystal Cave") in 1.0 but, and Moose will have to confirm this, it's actually a part of the Crystal Tower. So, I imagine it was completely destroyed when the tower rose.

The Tomb of Xande I was on the west side of Mor Dhona, though. Crystal Tower is on the east...

[Anonymoose]

Reused assets.

This currently tops my Occam's razor list.

Is that location even cannon anymore?

Ish? Very little isn't canon anymore, though isn't important anymore is all over the map. The only two "not canon anymore" things I can think of are the Ishgardian vigils, which are completely different, and possibly the 1.0 meeting with Ifrit. In ARR, you meet Ifrit in exactly the same way, but he acts like he doesn't have deja vu about it at all. He acts like he's never met "the godless blessed" before, and in the end actually comes to the exact opposite conclusion as he did before. In 1.0, he says the Paragons said not to harm you and he'll let you go if you agree never to summon another, and in ARR he says the Paragon said your kind can not be suffered to live. In the meantime I've just attributed it to Ifrit forgetting the Warriors of Light like everybody else did and somehow he forgot the whole of the exchange along with them, lol.

They completely removed it and moved Thaliak... Has that ever actually been explained?

Nope. Unless...(more on that below).

Moose will have to confirm this, it's actually a part of the Crystal Tower.

The cave itself was referred to as the Crypt of Xandes I in 1.0, and then Erik said that Xandes was entombed in a tower of Crystal, and then Xandes shows up in Crystal Tower, so I think that was the implication, yes.

BUUUUUT

The Tomb of Xande I was on the west side of Mor Dhona, though. Crystal Tower is on the east...

Bingo! Even in the 1.0 transcripts, the English, German, French, and Japanese dialogue didn't agree on where the "tower of crystal" Erik was talking about was. My theory was that Square Enix decided to move it between versions so that CT wasn't right next to Castrum Centri (then Castrum Novum) anymore, and then two languages referred to it's 1.0 location, two referred to its planned 2.0 location. So that's a huge retcon, right? Kind of... Think about it this way...

FINAL COIL SPOILERS

A good chunk of the realm was destroyed by Dalamud's fall, and was then reborn due to the interference of the newborn primal Phoenix, whose power rivaled Bahamut enough that he was able to tear him apart in midair. Phoenix attempted to sacrifice himself and return all that aether to the planet, but the process was warped when Bahamut consumed what was left of Louisoix's essence, including bits of the Phoenix transition.

Because of that, Square Enix can write off pretty much any map discrepancy as the "imperfect" rebirth of the realm. They can say it's why Gwyr Aen and the Fury's Gaze are both near Ishgard now. They can say it's why the Gelmorran Ruins came so far south. They can say it's... why Crystal Tower isn't where it should be... if they wanted to. But I can't answer for sure.

Still, it's an interesting place to re-use such a small resource. They even to it in a that was way more complicated than the small, simple part they reused, which makes me think perhaps there's a chance that they used that particular shape because there's some connection to the old Crypt of Xandes... though, beats me what that might be...

[Nalien]

I always assumed the translation that had Erik putting the tower west was wrong, because if it was in east Mor Dhona then it lines up very nicely with one of the original main scenario quests; I believe it had us laying crystals around the area to the West Shroud zone (where Crystal Tower now is) and having them returned to us unaspected, with the conclusion that something underground was draining them of their aether. The quest was probably going for explaining how messed up all of Mor Dhona is, but damned if it didn't end up acting as a nice allusion to Crystal Tower.

As for the Aetherial Wheel, given how we obtain them I can't see them having any important connection. They're crafted furniture, if there was any connection I'd expect a quest or something... I suppose we might get a passing reference and a Throne Gem might be required to craft them. They could always have just reused the same assets because the ones around the Tomb of Xandes I were "Aetheric Conductors" or some such thing, and given what the Aetherial Wheel is and does, they felt it fitting to reuse them for it.

[Grayve]

It was the Tomb of Xande (aka "Crystal Cave") in 1.0 but, and Moose will have to confirm this, it's actually a part of the Crystal Tower. So, I imagine it was completely destroyed when the tower rose.

Once again, I must curse the fact I didn't play 1.0.

[VoltaAsura]

Once again, I must curse the fact I didn't play 1.0.

It's still up http://seventhumbral.org/

[Balipu]

It's still up http://seventhumbral.org/

I will definitely check it when It will be opearble. At its current state it sounds pretty broken.