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

[Fenral]

But that's just it: G'raha's destiny isn't to seal himself inside the tower and bring "the light of hope" to the future. That's just his vague interpretation of Salina's wish, and probably brought on by his feelings of powerlessness after the World of Darkness, prompting him to invoke his own Heroic Sacrifice as the only way he thinks he can even the score.

Unlike Desch's destined sacrifice, the urgency is an entirely artificial construct. The "danger" of the tower is completely undefined, since the Calamity itself was caused by a glitch in the Dalamud uplink, and the value of the "light" it can provide is never weighed against G'raha's own value as a human being to the people of today. Pardon me for thinking that the Encyclopedia Allaganica in his head (not to mention his own skills and knowledge) can be worth far more than cheap, clean solar 1000 years from now. But, again, G'raha simply forced the situation for reasons unknown.

Now let's look at Desch. He thought he was destined to die repairing the Tower of Owen to keep the Floating Continent from crashing, and said his final farewells to the party before throwing himself in the reactor. In reality, not only did it not prove fatal, his willingness to sacrifice himself was proof that he bears a soul of light, and because of that he was still needed as one of the five who could save the Onion Kids from Xande's trap in the Crystal Tower, one which was "destined" to succeed. Sounds like a pretty big difference between his perceived destiny and his true destiny.

For the FFXIV edition: think Archons. Aside from the keyest-of-key MS NPCs, G'raha is the only character to bear the marks of the Scions; a fact that has yet to be touched upon in any NPC dialogue, but with what we know shouldn't be a complete accident. Shouldn't. We still have no idea what those marks really mean either way, so while G'raha seems like a simple red herring for now, the coin is still in the air.

But "destiny" is merely the name characters in a story give to the almighty will of the authors who shape their world. There's a certain amount of hubris to playing along with what you think your destiny is, versus simply following your own chosen path and letting the world sort itself out. Rebelling against destiny is also a way of following along with it, and that G'raha at present is a fairly apt double for Serah Farron is perhaps a sign that we're going to end up with more of the latter.


(Also, while I don't like bringing it up, the devs can, at any time, make CT into a requirement for future quests, not unlike what happened with the Sunken Temple of Qarn in 2.1. It would be a long content gate, but up until now they've shown a commitment to keeping "old" casual content from becoming "obsolete" content. It's possible for it to become a gate, and also just as possible, with timeline conceits in place, that we see a continuation in the Main Scenario that simply assumes you've done it before then (looking at you, Estinien). We have no way of knowing either way until it happens, so there's no point in using "optional" as the sole crutch of an argument.)

[Cilia]

Though G'raha doesn't give any specifics, I think his assessment that the tower was too dangerous to be left open was fair; aside from the Garleans who we know can and will abuse any advantage, the Monetarists could have easily used it as a clean power source for Omega if they were able to get the thing excavated and operational. Neither are pressing matters, but someone will always find a way to abuse power, whether that way is currently known and pertinent or otherwise. Sealing Syrcus Tower was a preemptive measure to prevent such abuse.

While this might just be G'raha's interpretation of Salina's vague wish, that vague wish was... vague. He did the best he could. He also states after receiving Doga and Unei's blood that he now "knows his purpose," or something to that effect... Allagan blood must be magic or something. Need to rewatch the cutscenes for the exact lines, too busy to do that right now.

Desch not being dead after his supposed Heroic Sacrifice in the Tower of Owen was a deus ex machina. Nothing said he wasn't dead until Doga's spirit found him to break the Curse of the Five Wyrms. I also don't recall Xande stating the curse was "destined" to succeed; only that breaking it was (supposedly) impossible. Been a while. Either way, Desch still met his "true" destiny by repairing the Tower of Owen - it just turns out doing so didn't involve dying and he had a little more to do he didn't know about. Destiny didn't change, he just didn't see the whole picture. It's possible this is true of G'raha as well, but we might never know.

While the tattoo exhibited by G'raha is also worn by many of the Scions, it's not worn by all of them, and there have been characters introduced from outside the Scions who bear it. Neither Minfilia nor Tataru are shown to have it, and in addition to G'raha there's another NPC from outside the Scions who exhibits it: Moenbryda. It's not explicitly stated, but from this information it can be inferred that the tattoo(s) are a mark of the Students of Baldesion; all of the Scions who bear the tattoos come from Sharlayan, as well as Moenbryda, and all of the Scions not from Sharlayan (you, Minfilia, Tataru, and Yugiri) don't have it. While I don't remember if G'raha ever stated where he was from, from the clues (the tattoo) and Rammbroes' words (that he's only supposed to be an "observer" in regards to Crystal Tower storyline) I assume he's one of the Students of Baldesion, and that's all the tattoos signify. Could be wrong.

Destiny is a fickle thing, especially in video games. Either way, some Final Fantasies paint following destiny as a good thing (III, VIII), while others suggest breaking fate's shackles and paving your own way is the "correct" option (I, IX, XIII for starters). Even some of the villains seem conflicted on the issue; Sephiroth starts his genocidal plan because it's his "destiny" as the "chosen one," while Ultimecia is doing everything in her power to change her fate but is doomed to fail. Neither way seems more prone to being "good" than the other.

CT would be a nearly-impassable content gate; 2.x is already going to be enough for new players. Something like Qarn is pretty small potatoes; go to this place, talk to this guy, and run this dungeon. CT requires a quest chain, 4 tough FATEs, and then doing 3 24-man instances, none of which (aside from the quest chain) can be done solo and most players probably won't care about once 3.0 hits. Running a half-hour dungeon, doing a long quest chain with FATEs and then corralling 24 players into working together for a few hours (already a chore in LoA, stop killing the Bone Dragon before all the Platinals are dead you idiots)... hmm...

[Belhi]

Actually not all the Scions whit the tattoo come from Sharlayan. Thancred we know comes originally from Limsa Lominsa. I suspect the mark is more a link to a particular training or group as all the Scions with the mark were members of the Circle of Knowing. Minfilia founded the Path of the Twelve and I don't think was actually part of the Circle of Knowing. The Scions of the Seventh Dawn was born out of the merging of the two groups after the calamity.

[Cilia]

While Thancred has been stated to be "from" Limsa, we don't know if he was actually born there, or if that was just where he was stationed as a member of the Circle before he went to Ul'dah and Y'shtola took his place in Limsa. It's also possible he was born in Limsa, moved to Sharlayan and became a member of the Circle, and then was stationed in Ul'dah.

What we do know however is that some Scions have the tattoos, some don't; some people outside the Scions (neé the Circle of Knowing) also have the tattoos, though most don't. The fact there are people outside the Scions with the tattoos suggests it's not emblematic of their organization, though.

The point is, the tattoos don't necessarily signify key Main Scenario NPCs. G'raha probably just had them because he was probably a Student of Baldesion like the former members of the Circle of Knowing; it doesn't mean he is, or ever will be, a key player in the Main Scenario.

[Fenral]

CT would be a nearly-impassable content gate;

Except that they've already announced plans to reduce the party-size requirement for CT down to 8-man, and confirmed that the CT raids will be be added to the Challenge Log in the expansion. That doesn't sound like something they'd do for content that was intended to become obsolete. If anything, it sounds to me like they have a specific reason to want to keep it relevant. I could even see them requiring it for 3.0's new relics, if they're connected to Eureka at all.

Anyway...

G'raha is from the Students of Baldesion, but pretty much anything we can say about these tattoos themselves for the moment is pure speculation, because all of the possible interpretations still leave contradictions. His very existence can either prove or disprove the significance of those marks, depending on what happens going forward. We could start running into a bunch of people with the same neck tats and emblem, writing him off ex post facto as actually never a big deal, or we could find out that there is an actual link between him and the others. Whatever happens to G'raha himself, there is more to his story than what we've seen, and the only question is exactly how much.

On the current state of the ending, though, the idea that sealing the tower and simply waiting for mankind to be ready would already have been patronizing and dogmatic enough without the Christ-like symbolism, but the fact that our technological worthiness is the key to bringing about the Second Coming of G'raha and his beacon of hope for all mankind is more than a little ridiculous (and ironic, not to mention offensive) as a stand-alone ending. Before 2.5 hit, Yoshida himself was very noncommittal in how he described the ending to CT. They've basically thrown a bunch of really complex issues and potential plot points into the air and stopped the entire thing in time without allowing any sort conclusion to be reached. It's a decent season finale, but not a proper ending.

If anything, leaving him confirmed as alive, but with a specific way to release him, is a way of not making his eventual return a deus ex machina, by leaving an established possibility that he could. There are plenty of people out there who already believe it's pretty much guaranteed to happen, sooner or later. If a key NPC from a Job quest can become an important character in an expansion storyline, why not the last prince of Allag?

[lilirulu]

Thancred was a member of the Rogue's guild prior to him being recruited by Louisoix. So, if he was born in Limsa Lominsa or not doesn't matter because we know he was in Limsa before he joined the Scions/Sharlayans.

Y'sholta is also most likely Gridania born considering she's a conjurer and their are three other Y clan Miqo'te located in Gridania (maybe more I never checked). Papalymo having connections in the Thamuturges (as well as being a THM) imply he's Ul'dahn, and I'd wager that Yda is too. Though I do admit we don't have any basis in Yda's case to believe she's from anywhere in Eorzea.

Also, it doesn't make sense for Louisoix to recruit non-eorzeans to save eorzea especially when factoring in Alphinaud's father's reluctance to help out Eorzea in Tales from the Calamity.

[Cilia]

Reducing the size to 8-man and adding it to the Challenge Log is probably just their way to provide incentive for still running the Crystal Tower instances, as well as a way to make sure people who do want to run them (for novelty's sake, to gear up a new class, to get Crystal Tower gear for glamours, or for nostalgia) don't have to wait an eternity to do it. Assuming they add Eureka or make the 3.x 24-man a sequel to the Crystal Tower this also helps new players get through it...

Either way you're right, there isn't enough information to definitively say what G'raha's tattoos mean. He clearly has connections to the Students of Baldesion, but beyond that we can't say much. We do know that there are people outside the former Circle of Knowing that have them, though, so stating his tattoos mark him as an important Main Scenario NPC is jumping to a conclusion.

While some people might be dissatisfied with the CT ending's vagaries, leaving things up to the players is not uncommon in JRPGs. Remember the ending to VII where people had no idea what the final outcome was until Advent Children cleared things up? Besides, I'm rather fine with them leaving a window for him to maybe come back instead of definitely saying he will; if he does, well, you get to see your friend again. If he doesn't, they've subverted an incredibly common cliché. I don't see what's offensive about the ending, either.

Is it possible G'raha will come back into the picture, maybe as a key player in the Main Scenario? Yes it is. However what allowed Estinen to become important was that Dragoons have a heavy importance in Ishgardian culture; if G'raha ever were to become important in the Main Scenario we'd probably be dealing heavily with Allag, which is something we do almost daily.

Eorzea is a much larger region than we currently have access to. The region is a peninsular subcontinent, and while we can access some of it we can't access Ishgard, Dravania, Sharlayan, Ala Mhigo, or most of the surrounding islands. Anyone from any of those places in addition to Ul'dah, Limsa Lominsa, and Gridania is also an Eorzean.

[Fenral]

Well, aside from G'raha himself, the two links every other person with those brands definitively shares are Archon Louisoix and an active role in the Main Scenario. That the outlier just so happens (er, "happened," past tense) to represent the single playable race/gender option to not have a recurring, voiced representative in the entire 2.X Main Scenario cast (Au Ra isn't playable until 3.X) is something that would have been apparent to the devs from the start, as well as an exceedingly cruel and manipulative expectation to subvert. Naturally, this doesn't stop them from simply discarding him here as a way to be subversive, or perhaps he was only ever introduced for a temporary sense of inclusiveness, but either way one can't help but wonder what exactly they were thinking.

I'm really trying not to directly attack issues I had, and instead pointing out lingering doubts raised by the overall story, but if you must know, my issue is that, as an episode in the larger series that is FFXIV, the one thing currently not left entirely up to the imagination is the one thing I wanted most out of his story: seeing him again before the end of my own. For now I'm forced to content myself with the open possibility of Biggs and Wedge's promise to come back in a few years to mean we'll be opening the tower in Year 2 or Year 3 of the new calendar, but that, with current time constraints, means 2 to 3 years after the final resolution of XIV's main scenario (which takes place entirely in year 0). Better than nothing I suppose, but still a kick to the emotional nads.

[Cilia]

While the only other people with G'raha's tattoos are linked together by the Main Scenario and Louisoix, we still don't know what exactly the tattoos mean. Clearly they mean something, but exactly what that is isn't defined. The most likely case is that it's simply a mark of Students of Baldesion who reach a certain rank, but none can say for sure.

Male miqo'te are rare NPCs, so having him show up at all was actually kind of surprising. Anyway, male miqo'te aren't the only race / sex combination underrepresented in the story; there are no major female elezen, much less one in the Scions and/or voiced (unless you count Alisae, and the Binding Coil is for most intents and purposes optional)... oh, wait, Iceheart is a female elezen. There is exactly one voiced Roegadyn male: Merlwyb's aide what's-his-name, implied to have been Mistbeard. He showed up in and hasn't been seen since 2.2. The only other recurring non-Merlwyb Roegadyn NPCs are comic relief (Hoary Boulder, Trachtoum), Rammbroes, or Slafborn; none of them are voiced or play a significant role.

So one antagonistic voiced female Elezen who showed up in 2.4 and 2.5, and one benevolent voiced male Roegadyn who showed up in 2.2.

If you want to get into clans it's even worse... forget their sex, there are zero Hellsguard, Keepers of the Moon, or Duskwight in the Main Scenario PERIOD. There are also no important female Highlanders or Plainsfolk, at all, and the only recurring Plainsfolk male (Teledji) was an utter douchebag... well, OK, Wedge is a male Plainsfolk, but he's mostly fallen by the wayside and never was voiced, and the same could be said to be true of Rammbroes (I forget if we ever visited St. Coinach's Find during the Main Scenario).

Maybe Pipin will do better.

... so male miqo'te aren't the only ones who got the short end of the stick as far as Main Scenario representation goes.

While most people can agree seeing G'raha seal himself inside Syrcus Tower was pretty sad... don't succumb to despair. Lament not losing him, but instead fight for a future he would be proud of... isn't that what he wanted to you do? If you can't accept your sorrow, how can you build a better future and honor G'raha's memory and wishes? It's not easy... but we all have our part to play.

Unless you want to reject your part, but we've already gone over that...

[Fenral]

There are feels from good, well-plotted storytelling, and then there are feels that someone tries to force on you at the last second to give their story more "meaning." It's more that he was written off before we understood him at all that gets me, like we were led to believe he was one thing, just so they could pull the rug out from under us. There's really no point in you trying to cheer me up over it, but thanks anyway. I have a basic understanding of what I was meant to feel (rather, what emotions I was being force-fed), but what got most people about G'raha, myself included, was the unfortunate timing of the World of Darkness storyline happening in the same patch as The Chrysalis. There's no unseeing him as just another cheap plant for a manipulative emotional payoff after that, especially since most players were expecting him to, at worst, take Alisaie's "I'll come back to you" route.

To tell the truth, I'm usually a huge fan of stories where the main character literally exits the narrative at the end, but the difference is: those stories always end like that, final credits roll and all, and you're meant to fill in whatever happens after yourself. Seeing a (relatively) newly-introduced supporting character do that, at what amounts to the very beginning of the story, is just self-defeating, because you're left to deal with the rest of the story knowing you have no actual agency to influence the outcome towards the goal you've been given, and also knowing that you would be doing the exact same thing even if he hadn't. That's usually where you start cursing destiny, right?

(Not to mention that I went into it with too much literary baggage to ever be able to appreciate the message at the end, but I explained that in my first post.)

It's a different perspective than I was expected to have, but how did we end up on this subject, anyway?


Eureka! It's a real thing! Maybe. And what exactly about it makes it a "Forbidden Land," when we know the Allagans were already into some creepy stuff?