The rift, the crystal tower, and the seat of sacrifice (Spoilers up to 6.0)

[Cleretic]

The Spectral Heroes in the Heroes' Gauntlet (I wouldn't call them 'Warriors of Light' just to avoid confusion, there's a few figures with that name running around at that point) come from nebulous elsewheres, but nothing suggests that those 'elsewheres' would be anywhere further afield than the shards. Thanks to Hildibrand we can confirm one of those elsewheres was the Source, but at the same time I would also put forward the Spectral Dragoons; Dragoons also only exist on the Source. And if Elidibus' ability lets him pull across shards, there's no reason he'd limit himself to one shard.

Beyond that, though, I think it's a mistake to assume that the Spectral Heroes are anything more than just a copied image of a hero. Hildibrand wasn't, sure, but we already know that Hildibrand is rarely a strict adherent to anything we'd call 'rules'. In fact, even with this example he seems unusual; he persisted on the First after all of the events surrounding Elidibus finished and all the other Spectral Heroes dissappeared, suggesting that the rest of them were rather more ephemeral than him. They also seemed to have a lot less autonomy and willfulness, so it seems to me they were just images, and Hildibrand was, as always, a weird exception.

With the fact the Spectral Summoners only summon a red Bahamut, I think it's also folly to assume that they're actually using the same school of magic that we are. Remember that when appearing in the Gauntlet they use the term 'Ink Mage', which is... well, not a Summoner. (Someone told me that Ink Mages appear in some Heavensturn quests, but that's a difficult thing to confirm.) It's likely this is just an entirely different combat style that happens to look similar, like how Aymeric isn't a Paladin but nonetheless uses similar skills. Despite actual dragons only being on the Source, there's draconic things elsewhere; there were dragon-like enemies across the First, there's the gwibers, and somehow there's the Five-Headed Dragon in the World of Darkness. Who's to say that the Fifth didn't coincidentally invent Red Bahamut?

I don't know why time travel is being admitted into evidence here, I think it's a red herring. Time travel is an infamous blind spot for the Ascians; most of them didn't know it existed, and Elidibus only learned the Crystal Tower could do that in Endwalker, while stuck in it. With the Spectral Heroes making their appearance before Elidibus even got to the point of controlling the tower, time travel isn't even remotely possible.


EDIT: And while completely unrelated to the core subject of the thread, FFXIV's time travel is actually really simple. You just have to remember two things:
A: It's possible to either make a stable time loop or a new timeline; if you do the latter, the original timeline is orphaned and can't be returned to (at least, with the technology we have).
And B: that the only figure who understood the actual rules of time travel sealed themselves in a time bubble. Everyone else is just crossing their fingers and hoping for the best.

[Iscah]

With the Spectral Heroes making their appearance before Elidibus even got to the point of controlling the tower, time travel isn't even remotely possible.

I think you're confusing the order of things – as I recall it, we first see the spectral heroes appear without precedent, but then we get an "earlier in the Ocular" flashback that reveals Elidibus has gotten hold of the Exarch's memory crystal, granting him control of the tower, which must be the point where we first get attacked by them.

[Cleretic]

I think you're confusing the order of things – as I recall it, we first see the spectral heroes appear without precedent, but then we get an "earlier in the Ocular" flashback that reveals Elidibus has gotten hold of the Exarch's memory crystal, granting him control of the tower, which must be the point where we first get attacked by them.

Probably true (can't exactly check right now), but he still didn't know dip about the tower's abilities despite this access--we know that for a fact, because he was ultimately defeated by a function of the tower that he didn't know existed despite all this control and ostensible knowledge. And even that function wasn't actually very obscure; he was defeated by the fact that a tower that's essentially a giant battery had aether intake capabilities.

There's pretty much no way that the Spectral Heroes could have come about via time travel, simply because for Elidibus to do that, he would've needed to come up with an unforeseen use of a function of the Tower that he never knew it had. And given we're talking about a man who walked into a trap while carrying a crystal that contained full details of that trap, I don't think he's that clever!

[Iscah]

...

I agree that the spectral heroes are being taken across space rather than time, as they are being drawn by the shard-crossing spell and not the time machine (assuming there is a distinction between the powers).

However, I think it is misleading to say that Elidibus "didn't know anything" about the tower's abilities. The memory crystal gave him the Exarch's knowledge of what the tower was capable of; he simply didn't assemble the ideas into the realisation (which the Exarch presumably thought of after placing his memories in the crystal) that the tower could be used like auracite.

There's also the question of exactly how Elidibus would experience those memories once he picked up the crystal. We simply don't think of all our memories at every moment, so perhaps he only learns things as he actively has reason to think about them. Say, if he thinks "now, how do I perform the summoning spell?" and that incantation comes to mind.