Crystal Tower theories

[KarstenS]

If Xande is opening a voidgate at the top of "our" Crystal Tower, what happens on the other worlds?

As the "void" is the 13th shard, I would call it more a gate to another world than a Void gate. So from this point of view it should be possible to open gates to all (still existing) shards within the Crystal Tower.

[myahele]

Looks like the WoL will be in something similar to what we see in the ShB trailer

[Yuyuka3]

Just wanted to add in some more support for G'raha Tia possibly being the figure ... a few weeks ago, during a community stream where they showed off new merchandise, they showed a pin/badge thing with pictures of minions on it, including one with a G'raha Tia minion it (we don't have it in-game yet). Why would they make a new minion for a character from a super old storyline if they were not going to be relevant in some way ...?

Dammit, you beat me to the punch! I can provide a picture of said badge, though:


Yeah. Definitely coming back.

[Fenral]

Rather than create a new thread for this just to have my name on it, and rather than wait until things have progressed to a point where I can no longer think rationally about certain things, I'm going to lay some cards on the table while I'm still capable.


So, ah, here goes... (and apologies for the tealdeer)

Final Fantasy III was the first game in the series to have anything resembling a thematic core. Unlike FFII, which was basically one giant Star Wars reference, FFIII kept most of its smaller stories going with reflections on life and destiny. Since proving that isn't my thesis, I'm going to stick to two relevant examples.


First, there's Desch. His name has come up in Encyclopedia Eorzea and the Heaven-on-High questline, but his actual arc in FFIII may sound familiar. The party first encounters him as they're trying to track down something they need to enter the Tower of Owen (in this case, the Toad spell), he has a bit of a memory problem he's trying to solve, to put it mildly, and he accompanies them as they make their way up the tower to stop the villain du jour. As they climb the tower together, Desch realizes he has a connection top the tower, and after reaching the top and beating the bad guy, his memories return, the tower's systems start going haywire, and he throws himself into the reactor core to stop it. The specifics are different, but the broad strokes are what matter.

English-speaking players still don't believe me on this (and I can't really blame them), but FFXIV's G'raha used Desch as a template, with concessions for naming conventions and overall appearance. He was written for it to be really obvious at the end of the CT quests (at least in Japanese), and his (semi-ish) final line in his last appearance is even a direct quote in the Japanese script, "This is my destiny! [dies]".

Desch's real claim to fame, though, isn't simply pulling a Spock, but actually what comes after. At the end of their journey, as the party is climbing Syrcus Tower, they trigger a trap that they can't break out of. Doga's ghost (long story) tries to gather their allies to save them, but as he gets to the Tower of Owen and thinks Desch is dead, Desch pops out of the reactor core, pleased with himself after a job well done (since fixing the tower took a while), and then accompanies Doga to Syrcus tower to save the Warriors of Light. He's the series' oldest fakeout death, and in the ending to FFIII, he goes back to the starting village to live with Salina, free to live a life beyond his destiny. This is one part of why I always felt that G'raha's arc was left incomplete.


And then we have Xande. He, along with Doga an Unei, was one of the apprentices of Archmagus Noah, who on his (apparently entirely planned) deathbed, gave gifts to each of his apprentices. Doga got magical knowledge, Unei got the world of dreams, and Xande got the greatest gift of all: mortality. What the actual frick, man? To the surprise of none whatsoever save Noah's other two apprentices, Xande wasn't exactly happy about having his immortality revoked, and couldn't stand the thought of the world continuing without him. The rest is pretty close to his FFXIV counterpart.

So sure, he's selfish for not immediately accepting his insignificance in the face of the larger world, and he's evil because he sorta tried to destroy it, but I ultimately can't help but see Xande as a tragic villain, who only turned to "evil" after Archmagus Noah tried to force his own idiosyncratic views on life and death on the one person he thought didn't truly understand them. What a guy.


Anyway, now that we've gotten a full view the "Enigmatic Figure" (minus the face), the first thing I noticed was that his staff was pretty much the same as FFXIV Xande's, in addition to his crazy armbands. Suddenly, it's looking like G'raha is evolving into a fusion of the polar opposites of FFIII's life-death spectrum.

Supposing he's been living a long time (on the First) using some combination of Allagan longevity tech and direct self-cloning, it's possible he's getting to be really through with life, seeking only to accomplish his destiny and die trying, because death is really not that bad compared to unending life. Given he's an Ishikawa-created character, he's probably going to die in the vicinity of a level 10x+7 dungeon, in which case he'd wrap up nice and tidy as a reconstruction of Xande. And the worst Desch EVER. (Which he already kinda was.)

Assuming he survives, then what? He could settle down somewhere quietly or go on a journey with Alpha. He could even join the party as we take on Garlemald and the rest of Allag's legacy (like all that unused space in Azys Lla). If any one person could put an end to Rowena's avarice and the endless tomestone grind, it's him. Discovering a new purpose after fulfilling his destiny would make him a good Desch, maybe, but a terrible Xande.


So I really don't know what they're planning to do at this point, but I thought I'd put this out there while I'm thinking about it.

The former would tie up the expansion with a bow and solve all of the potential world-altering complications that come with the Crystal Tower for good. I can definitely see it happening and will mentally regulate myself from assuming anything else will happen.

However, as a fan of the "victory for life" end of the Final Fantasy tonal spectrum, of course I want the latter. Gosetsu's arc convinced me they could do it well, and depending on how and where things play out, he could even wandering samurai his way back to show how even when you feel like you've lived too long, you can always find new meaning if you keep going.

But who knows? (It's all moot anyway if the writers have somehow have been playing us all along on his identity.)

[EdwinLi]

When the item to enter the First was mentioned I instant flashed back to the ending of Crystal tower when Nero's device was still beeping after he threw it to the lower areas of the Crystal Tower.

Guess we know where that item is since 2.5

I will be amazed if they actually been planning Shadowbringer since 2.X Crystal Tower storyline due to how it ended and now we are finally going full circle to that moment in the ending of CT storyline.

[Nalien]

When the item to enter the First was mentioned I instant flashed back to the ending of Crystal tower when Nero's device was still beeping after he threw it to the lower areas of the Crystal Tower.

"I left a beacon for you at Crystal Tower", obviously the robed figure is Nero!

[Xellos2099]

My brain genius theory is that Crystal Tower itself is one single structure existing in every (possible) shard at once.

So something like a stargate with ZPM build it. Albert don;t have the zpm so they have to kill themselves to get to the source.

[Aeternal]

My brain genius theory is that Crystal Tower itself is one single structure existing in every (possible) shard at once.

This is EXACTLY my theory as well. Imagine a venn diagram with 14 circles. Each circle is a shard, and the center where they overlap is the Crystal Tower.

[Rosa_Frandlia]

I rewatched the final cut scene with quest progression and the scene where Crystal Tower is closed and it just brought up more questions. First, if you haven't done the Crystal Tower it says it is blocked off instead of the doors closed which makes total sense. The second though is that G'raha Tia mentions only someone with the blood of the Allag Royal Family can control the tower and he needs to go to sleep with it to preserve the chance to control it. That leads to my question, is that Xande or G'raha depending on progress seen in the tower or is it maybe on the 1st and someone else altogether? I can see G'raha helping us, but not Xande and if a player hasn't entered the Crystal Tower his clone is still in control of it.

[Nalien]

I could see them making Crystal Tower quests a requirement for Shadowbringers, although oddly that haven't already which makes that somewhat doubtful I guess... Making it a requirement now would work and give people plenty of time, making it one at launch would no doubt ruffle a few feathers... Still they've done something similar in the past by locking the Nabriales sections of MSQ behind the previously optional Garuda/Ifrit/Titan (Hard) quests.

My money is still on G'raha being a bluff though, in fact I'll even name who I genuinely think it is; Halmarut. I really like the idea of "throw wide the gates" referring to the gates of the tower, and so far the only way we know of doing that is for civilization to reach a point where they rival the Allag; Sending the tower back in time (and to the First for reasons) gives civilization (specifically Crystarium) the time to achieve that, they certainly do seem very advanced (were those crystal ion cannons in the preview?). Then we get to arrive in the First for its grand opening to greet G'raha as an old friend, with him joining us as the first Scion we reclaim on our new adventure. Plenty of other reasons for me to suspect Halmarut, but I'm aware I'm building a house of cards in a tornado right now... It's probably just G'raha...