Light, Darkness, Balence, Gravitation

[Fenral]

I'd like to write something a bit less dry on the subject (or even just finish something I've already started), but here's what I have gleaned from the text itself on the fall of Allag:

The only thing that could happen to such a "perfect" society is stagnation and collapse, which is exactly what happened. I don't personally believe anyone ever said we should live like the Allagans, but their tech would make things a lot easier for everyone... but if we had it, we might fall for the same mistakes unless we learn from their example. If that's even possible, considering how "perfect" their society was.

Ramnbroes more or less does, in the final NOAH report, which is actually extremely out-of-character if you look at the description for the Onion Knight minion. Also, the whole "once more" implies restoring it to a prior state, but the two choices we have are Azys Lla lite and the aforementioned "stripped its people of the will to improve" Hope Hope Beacon MAX Extreme Supernova. Neither is a good option.

Further supporting this is the group from which "the Ancients' wish" was made. The Allagans who survived the Calamity were, of course, Allagans of the period in which that Calamity occurred; in other words, the very same Allagans who were too drunk on the light of the tower to do things for themselves, and had only heard of the "golden age" from their parents, who had likely only heard of it from theirs. At some point, this starts sounding eerily similar to the way primals are born...

As for the one facilitating the entrusting of their wish to the future, it was the last survivor of the imperial line, our dear Salina. Yes, that imperial line, the one that was no longer able to hold the empire together and keep its people striving towards new goals. The "weakened blood" that led chief scientists like Amon, Unei, and Doga to believe zombie!Xande would be more preferable as a ruler. As the last of that imperial line, she would no doubt hold the same completely idealistic view of the tower and the "golden age" without knowing anything of them firsthand, so to her, seeing that restored in the future would be the ideal way for Allag to atone for their mistakes. Even if nothing actually came of it, an effort to make such a thing possible would give her people hope, which may well have been her primary objective.

Problem being that it took 5000 years for the Crystal Tower to reappear, and the final cost was payed not by Salina, but by two clones who were given free will only to become extra lives for their originals to sacrifice after theirs were spent, and the last descendant of that aide's bloodline, who may as well have been chosen at random to become the new "living key" bound to the tower by every will but his own. So to give their hope to the future, she sacrifices numerous lives that aren't her own, in true Allagan fashion. Of course they are necessary, because they always are, or so the Allagans continued to tell themselves until they lay in ruin.

Curiously, though, what was translated as "Once more" in the English script was, in Japanese, "Kondo koso," or "next time for sure," which in light of the above could mean finding a new use that is radically different than either prior use (and thus without the drawbacks), but as Localization works using insider knowledge and went with "once more" anyway, not to mention the NOAH report outright stating that their purpose is to reopen it as a power plant and public facility like it was during Allag's golden age, this is highly unlikely. And possibly a terrible idea, if we can't cheat our way back into the tower (coughEurekacough) and give a certain catboy historian a chance to properly sort through his feelings versus the voices in his head instead of acting on impulse.

<editorial comment>And then there's the whole "Garlemald has Azys Lla and the Warring Triad now" thing that kind of makes sacrificing anything for the tower seem like a vain and thoroughly under-analyzed waste of life. At this rate, the world will be destroyed by misused Allagan tech long before anyone reopens the tower by "proper" means.</editorial comment>

The Cloud of Darkness we fight could very well be the same one from III and Dissidia...

I see this theory a lot, but that's a no. The Cloud of Darkness in FFIII was killed by the combined powers of the Warriors of Light and the Warriors of Darkness (Light/Dark fusion magic FTW), with the implications that another, new entity, could be born if either light or darkness got out of hand. The one in XIV was "defeated" offscreen by Allagan Force Lightning. And unless I really misread the secret reports in Duodecim, the one in Dissidia is just a really well-made manikin created from the idea of the Cloud of Darkness and made, like all Dissidia's roster, to believe it is the real thing.

I'll get around to the rest later maybe, this post is mostly a long-winded bump for people tracking it via thread subscriptions.