"Eureka, the Forbidden Land" thories [Crystal Tower SPOILERS]

[Cilia]

I don't know if the writers ever planned to use Eureka as a part of the Crystal Tower storyline. The Forbidden Land was never even mentioned as a part of the quest chain. I'm kind of sad they didn't, but it's not a huge deal.

I earnestly don't know what you're referencing, otherwise I might be more inclined to debate this with you.

As for finding "another way" to use the Crystal Tower, I don't know if there is one. It's stated it was used to gather solar energy (from Dalamud), but to what end? It's basically a highly advanced solar power station, nothing more as far as we know. G'raha sealed himself inside it so it would still be useful when people were able to harness its power without abuse as the Allagans did... but we know that's more than likely not going to happen during the course of our Warrior of Light's story.

On the other hand, the history of Eorzea (and greater Hydaelyn) is cyclical, going through Astral and Umbral eras. Someone is always going to get power-hungry and some calamity is going to cause an Umbral Era eventually. Just like the ending of both Dark Souls games, the choice (or rather, thinking you can break the cycle) is an illusion - what you do doesn't really matter, because the cycle of history and Astral and Umbral Eras will continue to spin regardless. You might be able to forestall it, but there's no preventing an Umbral Era from coming.

As far as I can tell as well, the Crystal Tower was meant to be a mostly self-contained storyline. Nothing has lasting implications for the main storyline except Nero casting aside his obsession with outshining Cid and possibly becoming more heroic.

[Duuude007]

The Forbidden Land was never even mentioned as a part of the quest chain.

Not by name, but if you follow what Nero's scanner was meant to find.... Its pretty obvious.

[Cilia]

Not by name, but if you follow what Nero's scanner was meant to find.... Its pretty obvious.

I don't know... the spatial relationship between Syrcus Tower and Eureka was never given in FF III. Not that I remember, but it's been a few years since I played it. Either way we'd need access to the foyer of Syrcus Tower to get to Eureka, and we don't have that... because G'raha sealed it up.

That's all assuming XIV's Syrcus Tower is identical to III's... which it mostly is aside from lore bits (which are adaptations from III to fit XIV's world), so I'm assuming this holds true as well.

[Duuude007]

I don't know... the spatial relationship between Syrcus Tower and Eureka was never given in FF III. Not that I remember, but it's been a few years since I played it. Either way we'd need access to the foyer of Syrcus Tower to get to Eureka, and we don't have that... because G'raha sealed it up.

That's all assuming XIV's Syrcus Tower is identical to III's... which it mostly is aside from lore bits (which are adaptations from III to fit XIV's world), so I'm assuming this holds true as well.

FF3 Spatial relationship: you go to the door adjacent to the main entrance, go downstairs, BAM, Eureka.

[Cilia]

FF3 Spatial relationship: you go to the door adjacent to the main entrance, go downstairs, BAM, Eureka.

Ah. It was a teleporter in the DS version if I remember right, which is the only version I played. My bad.

Either way we'd still need access to the interior of Syrcus Tower, which is sealed off. Still, something to maybe look forward to(?).

[Fenral]

Either way we'd still need access to the interior of Syrcus Tower, which is sealed off. Still, something to maybe look forward to(?).

As an additional point of reference, pulling a stinger like they did after a "we may never meet again" ending, only to end up ignoring that person, is appallingly bad form. Rather, I don't think it's ever been done. Even if they ultimately subvert it (looking at you, Digimon Tamers), it's still a possibility that needs to be addressed.

Again, for the entire run of FFXIV it will be impossible to prove that CT is an isolated story, but all-too-easy to disprove. I personally would like to believe that the last prince of Allag is too important a character to be simply written off for a message about hope (especially one that contradicts XIV's other messages on hope rather spectacularly), seeing as there's still so much Allag left to deal with.

It's also a point worth mentioning that Desch, the character G'raha was loosely modeled after, did seal himself in a tower because of his destiny (and presumably died), but was later let out by the ghosts of Doga and Unei so he could continue to help the Warriors of Light. So completely cheapening that sacrifice would actually be entirely appropriate FFIII fanservice, and could even be the real way for the tower to be a "beacon of hope."

I'm not expecting any sort of continuation any time soon, just felt like sharing my (completely batshit) findings while they were still relatively fresh.

[Fenral]

I realized I never properly answered you on this:

As for finding "another way" to use the Crystal Tower, I don't know if there is one. It's stated it was used to gather solar energy (from Dalamud), but to what end? It's basically a highly advanced solar power station, nothing more as far as we know.

The energy channeled by the Crystal Tower is, at least in part, aetheric in nature (not unlike Ceruleum), as evidenced by multiple references of it being used to power "magic". Dalamud itself was an add-on built generations after the main tower was completed, in order to expand its generative capacity.

Using it as a green-energy alternative in the distant future is certainly possible, but we also need to remember that G'raha is not only the last living person capable of controlling the tower, but his ability to do so is on a very short timer. Whatever he does with it, he won't have control for very long. The "magic" G'raha used to freeze the tower in time was powered by the tower itself, so that's already evidence of a broader spectrum of uses than as a simple oversize battery. Anything past those established facts is ultimately guesswork, but long-term use doesn't sound too viable to me under those conditions, not to mention what I've brought up before about its consequences.

As for being a "beacon of hope"? The solar power station near my house is certainly neat, but it's not exactly a universal symbol of hope for all mankind. Also, every single other use of the phrase "beacon of hope" in the entire game has been to describe a person, not a thing. G'raha himself was called the "light of hope" a scant few minutes before he decided that the "light of hope" was the tower itself, but memories are funny things.

It is also certainly possible that we've left the tower in a state where it can be used in some future era as a light to combat some future great tide of darkness, ensuring that our actions in the present have a profound effect on the course of eras to come, but for all the pretensions in this game's lore about the cycle of eras, this is still a Final Fantasy game. Breaking cycles is kind of how Final Fantasy operates (as far back as FF1).

If a point comes where the choice is between "use this artifact that could maybe ambiguously be dangerous if misused" and "let the world be consumed by darkness," the choice is pretty obvious to me. It would be breaking tradition to try and avoid it.