The Black Towers

[Jirah]

Reminds me when everyone was speculating on why Dalamud was getting closer.


Coincidence?

[TheMightyMollusk]

Worth noting, there isn't one in the Leap of Faith version of the Floating City. Not sure if it's an oversight or they just didn't bother with phasing it for a Gold Saucer instance.

[GrizzlyTank]

What if the towers are used to link the source and the 13th, seeing how they got a certain mhachi design even if they are garlean made.

And what better place to get hold of beings of unspeakable horrors equivalent to those of the calamity than from the void.

[Vyrerus]

I'm wondering if towers have also appeared in places we haven't yet visited. Places like Garlemald proper, Sharlayan, Meracydia, and the like. We know there's essentially one in every major region, with Eorzea having a lot more, though that makes sense, given it's the aetheric heart of the world or whatever.

Imagine, 6.0, we go to Sharlayan, and half of them are tempered and sided with Fandaniel's Garlemald. Hahaha oh boy

[Riastrad]

Fandaniel notes something a the end of the patch that just sticks out to me. Apologies in advance for what I'm about to do.

"The piles have been driven as planned, and the first of the beasts has roared to life..."

Now it could just be Lunar Bahamut. But something just feels off about that being the case. He made that the same way Emet made Aumarot: creation magick. To me the towers are reminiscent of Aether siphons. Drawing the ambient energy to a certain point to awaken something buried out of the ground in those specific points. However, it could also be that it is also acting as a beacon seeing as the aether moves away from it as though it were calling out to something from beyond the stars. Aliens exist within this world. The dragons are proof of that, as is Omega.

I've said it once so I'll say it again. This is eerily similar to Chrono Trigger territory to me.

Easy, Chrono Cross deals almost exclusively with alternate realities. Considering we supposedly (I almost doubt it) just altered our own timeline, and it was hand waived that the old timeline in which we died was simply cut off and set adrift, an entity like Lavos being the reason the fracture happened (which let us directly affect time) kind of fits a little too well. The best ending in Trigger leads directly into Cross. Lavos itself latched onto Schala in the Darkness beyond Time and began creating split realities to keep itself alive. Becoming the Dream/Time Devourer, a crystalline monster that had a young blonde woman in a white dress bound to it no less. Big hmm moment for me there when I saw the 3.2 patch art.



I don't trust Hydaelyn or the narrative that the Ascians are pushing. I think a parasite has literally wrapped its claws around the very weapons used to stop it. It's just a matter of time till we need to address that issue.





Forgive me the pictures. I don't like having to add so many, but I really needed the visual aids.

Fandaniel wants to bring about the Final Days, meteors and all. He is trying to awaken a beast from slumber to do so. One that rains death and destroys worlds. I would say this fits the bill a bit too well.

"Behold, my pretties, destiny, in its most brutal form! All the dreams that might have been. All the happiness, and sorrow, you might have experienced, gone forever! For you there will be no tomorrow!"
— Queen Zeal

This also ties into another theory I have about an imminent reboot. Don't think for a moment I didn't catch Nero salivating over the prospect (fact) of time travel being possible...

[Iscah]

Worth noting, there isn't one in the Leap of Faith version of the Floating City. Not sure if it's an oversight or they just didn't bother with phasing it for a Gold Saucer instance.

I guess you can assume the same "time bubble" logic as when you go back and play the Binding Coil midway through Shadowbringers, or whatever - the Gold Saucer is ARR content and the tower hasn't appeared yet.

(Assuming the Leap of Faith course is actually teleporting you to La Noscea anyway - it could be some kind of Allagan VR device. It's probably not in their best interests to actually be sending their patrons to a death-trap course hundreds of yalms above the earth.)

[Vyrerus]

Chrono Trigger

I do love the idea that they'd reference Chrono Trigger, as I've said when you've brought this up in the past. Only thing is, at least in the picture comparison is, how would the mural artists know to draw him as the secret background sleuth. That and, wouldn't that put a Lavos-like entity on every reflection? Meaning the Ascians would have found its presence prior to each successful Rejoining? I don't hate the idea, I just don't think it fits into the narratively neatly.

[KageTokage]

Considering that we're dealing with Lunar Bahamut, I have no doubts that Zodiark is somehow being used as a battery to fuel the creation of new primals; though considering the former was stated to be a product of creation magick rather then a summoning, the towers are likely for summoning something else and it's just a means to an end created as a byproduct.

The fact that the fellow who was seemingly tempered by one of the towers mentioned Garlemald makes me have a hunch that we might be treading back to that little tidbit where it was mentioned that the emperors of Garlemald were revered in a nigh-god-like capacity.

The trying circumstances with the civil war raging in the capital could very well have enough faith and prayer being stirred up in the populace to fuel a primal's creation given the right catalysts...which could easily be put into place by a trouble-making Ascian or several. We also already know from Bahamut that a primal can temper people over very long distances as long their aether is reaching them in sufficient quantities, so it could be that the primal already exists in some capacity and the towers are broadcasting its influence somehow in order to provide it with more followers and more strength by extension.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I guess you can assume the same "time bubble" logic as when you go back and play the Binding Coil midway through Shadowbringers, or whatever - the Gold Saucer is ARR content and the tower hasn't appeared yet.

(Assuming the Leap of Faith course is actually teleporting you to La Noscea anyway - it could be some kind of Allagan VR device. It's probably not in their best interests to actually be sending their patrons to a death-trap course hundreds of yalms above the earth.)

Non-instanced events inside the Gold Saucer involve throwing bombs at patrons to knock us off elevated platforms, having a voidsent blast us across the room with snorts, and a samurai dropping gigantic bamboo on us to bash us around. It's probably safe to say that either magic is involved to ensure safety, or that the games aren't entirely to be taken at face value.

But yeah, I'm just gonna assume time bubble shenanigans.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Assuming the Final Days were indeed caused by the Ancient straining the planet too much with their Creation magic - which I have always felt was a very safe bet - then I agree the towers are probably draining the world's aether somehow. Maybe they'll mass-produce these Lunar primals, since Fandaniel implied there are going to be more than just Lunar Bahamut.