*Spoilers* Questions about Shadowbringers

[Iscah]

In the same way, the 'bad future' of the post Eighth Calamity here in FFXIV still exists as an alternate world, thus the Crystal Tower that ended up in the First, and G'raha Tia, is now not 'our' one, it's from an alternate timeline that now exists in parallel to our one.

To be exact, the bad future (or the part of it that G'raha came back from) will exist parallel to ours in 200 years' time - although the "bad alternate present" has apparently split away by this point.

The joys of time-travel terminology.


Also I'd still regard G'raha Exarch as "our one" because he is the same person we met at the Crystal Tower - there was no split timeline at that point. He knows us, not alternate-universe-us. If we were talking about longer-divided timelines where the split was prior to our first meeting, that would be different.

Both the Exarch and the young G'raha Tia currently sleeping in the tower trace back to being "our G'raha". It's not a different person, it's the same person at two points in their life - although of course after the timeline 'split point' the Exarch is not on the same side of the split that he took "the first time around".

Of course that means that the crapsack 'World of Ruin' Source where the Crystal Exarch came from still exists and will forever be a dying world that could never be saved is pretty depressing to think about, but that's quantum physics for you.

They're not any worse off than they already were, at least - and don't have the guilt of having sacrificed everyone on their world to recreate the timeline. (Not that they'd have the guilt once they ceased to exist, either...)

Maybe the Ironworks can figure out timeline-crossing tech in the next 200 years and then go help them out - after proto-Exarch-G'raha leaves of course, so it doesn't cause another contradiction and split.

(I'm sure this would potentially cause more time issues than it solves, but it could certainly work for that specific situation...)