AntiTower Speculation

[Nalien]

When i 1st saw it the title i thought it was something Allagan-related, especially since Sephirot is going to be a trial in the same patch. There are alot of Towers in Azys Lla, afterall.

I'd like to think it it might be an a MSQ dungeon which will lead into the Sephirot trial.

It's probably worth remembering that they've said they intend to remove Trials from the MSQ and have Primals as their own separate side story, so it is entirely possible the MSQ wont touch on Azys Lla at all and Sephirot will just continue on from the Extremes questline, rather than being central to the MSQ.

If I had to guess, Antitower would be this games version of Eureka, I seem to remember Yoshi saying it was planned and "not quite what we'd expect"... I'd like to think the MSQ would follow through and mimic Crystal Tower in that case, just in reverse... Not just going down instead of up, but what was at the top of Crystal Tower? A Void Gate. One which threatened to flood the world with Darkness. What would be at the "top" of a hypothetical AntiTower? A Light Gate? A direct link to Hydaelyn? I'd like to think the whole "Silvertear Falls is the source of all aether and Middy guards it" originated somewhere, but perhaps that wellspring has been blocked, and that we go down there to bust the doors open and power up Hydaelyn (followed by "Now I have plenty of aether to spare! Please feel free to summon Primals to help you in your quests!", hey I can dream right? It's Christmas after all!).

Granted, we still have the whole "truth" Elidibus alludes to, which hints that Hydaelyn is teh big bad, but I fully expect that to be something like "Hydaelyn perpetuates a cycle of death and conflict! She wants us to suffer!", given the general theme in songs like Answers, and the fact that apparently the future has been written already... I fully expect the Ascians to want to end that, burn the book and live forever (would now be a good time to remind everyone of the faux-immortality?), while our heroes will accept death as a necessary part of life. We've already had one Scion accept their fate and die, actually two kinda, then we had another ally thank us for showing her the way as she died. Accepting death seems to be a thing in this story, and I'm starting to get an idea what Hydaelyn told Minfilia that shocked her so much as we fled Ul'dah...

As for Nidhogg... I'm not entirely convinced he is himself right now... Still holding on to Lahabrea surviving in that eye and influencing him in some way... What can I say, I really want another "I am become you!" fusion dance from the Ascians, but Nidhogg + Ascian this time giving us Shinryu and fulfilling the franchise canon of having Omega pop up to kill the dragon... What? How would you end the Dragonsong War? End of an Era would have nothing on the Omega/Shinryu cutscene my headcanon has created...

But yeah, before we close the book on the Dragonsong War, I think it would be important that we know what exactly is going on in the grand scheme of things, and Midgardsormr would be our best bet for that. AntiTower as part of the main scenario? Well it just so happens some of the biggest answers are hidden beneath Mor Dhona, where we have a famous Tower... One which famously had an underground... I'm just putting two and two together here, plus I really want the message this game is sending to be one of "Let it go", not for a cheap Disney reference, but because it is delightfully ironic, given this games history... Heck, the franchises history...

[Fenral]

I agree, but counter with perhaps there's a possibility of accepting death too readily, and Hydaelin's master plan may involve giving all life as we know it the meaningful death we long for with the very fiber of our being. Just because this game's handling of death and fate is pretty Glurge-y, and I want my discomfort to be a sign that things are going to get shaken up, not that the director is an out-of-his-gourd nihilist.

Also, everything that's going on seems to indicate that Hydaelin's aiming for a decisive victory for the Light, meaning an end to suffering and death. If acknowledging suffering and death as a part of life is the end goal, we are doing a terrible job at it. My guess (hope?) is that Gerun's apocrypha predicts a victory for the light, but that it will in turn lead to the end of everything. I suspect our choices are to embrace the oncoming end of everything as inevitable (all things end, and it sucks, but our world's time is up), or somehow reboot the conflict of light and dark so that life as we know it can continue.

[Under-Archon]

A possible location for the Antitower is in the Sea of Clouds. You know how when you log in to a region, you see beautiful artwork? When you log in to any zone in Abalathia's Spine, You see a picture of a large upside down castle on the underside of one of the islands, which is currently not accessible in game. If it isn't going to be used in game, why would they not only make the artwork, but put it in so prominet a viewing location anytime someone logs in?

[Belhi]

A possible location for the Antitower is in the Sea of Clouds. You know how when you log in to a region, you see beautiful artwork? When you log in to any zone in Abalathia's Spine, You see a picture of a large upside down castle on the underside of one of the islands, which is currently not accessible in game. If it isn't going to be used in game, why would they not only make the artwork, but put it in so prominet a viewing location anytime someone logs in?

Actually I was wondering if possibly it was that ruined structure high above the Sea of Clouds with all the banners hanging off. I originally assumed it was part of the Vanu Vanu story but it hasn't been mentioned at all.

[Nalien]

Wonder if the AntiTower is just the development name for the place, and we could instead finally be visiting that Amalj'aa tower that has been mocking me since day one... Would be kind of interesting to see the story come full circle like that, I mean Ifrit was the start of our God-Slaying journey...

Alternatively, we've got the complete wrong end of the stick, and it isn't an AntiTower in the sense of being the opposite or whatever, it's an AntiTower in the sense that it destroys Towers... Like Antibiotics, or Anti-Aircraft... Fun fact; Crystal Towers story gave us a pretty good idea of the state of the Allagan Empire before its fall... Crystal Tower was the seat of Xandes Empire and the Allagan Warriors of Lights advance is what pushed him to dump all of Dalamuds energy into the tower and usher in a new Umbral Era... What if the Allagan Warriors of Light had an Anti-Crystal Tower weapon ready to utilize? Wonder if there are any parallels to be drawn there with the current state of affairs... The Allagan Warriors of Light grew too powerful, now we're growing too powerful...

[myahele]

snip

That's a pretty good theory. An Anti (Crystal) Tower. I can see that happening since the Allagan Empire seemed to have been on the verge of Civil War.

Then again, where does that leave Selina? She was a good Allagan royal that wanted to preserve the Crystal tower since it was a "beacon of hope" for everyone within the Empire.

Of course, if the Antitower was the answer to Crystal tower then maybe the project was abandoned and sealed?

[Fenral]

Yup, he's weighing in. This is good stuff, though, I swear.

You can say Salina was a "good" Allagan royal, but all the signs indicate she was ineffectual as well: the last of a bloodline that was slowly but surely running Allag into the ground. However well she meant, the exposition made it seem like Doga and Unei had pretty good reasons to place their bets with the Amon and Xande camp at the time. They were missing presumed dead after the calamity until their clones emerged (with their knowledge and personalities) 5000 years later, so any insight they might have been able to give the survivors as the last of the Archmagi never made it that far. Left to her own devices, I can imagine Salina simply leaving everything to "hope" and writing off the decline and fall as Xande's fault, for lack of wise counsel.

There's also nothing connecting her to the revolution aside from knowing about it in some capacity. It's telling that Doga and Unei, who were inside when the Tower fell, clearly state that Amon triggered the time-stop, but G'raha, recounting secondhand information from inherited memories, says it was Xande. In a mystery novel, that would flag his entire testimony as suspect. He knows what Salina thought she knew, and nothing more.

Whether or not it's meant to be there, there's a pretty solid and realistic foundation for human drama there in the backstory.

[Morningstar1337]

snip

This might support the Lahabrea-is-still-alive-in-Nidhogg theory. To Nidhogg, we're probably colateral damage for his revengance, but he would probably not consider attacking us unless we defend Ishgard from him, to Lahabrea, we would be the object(s) of his revenge instead of Ishgard. At the very least, I can see them working together due to theoir interest coinciding and Lahabrea telling Nidhogg about this AntiTower, but this would be more of an Enemy Mine of anything since if Nidhogg was willing to destroy Ishgard to avange Ratatoskr, then I think he would had felt rather angry at what the Ascians and Allagins did to Bahamut.

Of course it is that reason why I suspect that Nidhogg is being controlled by Lahabrea in some capacity, rather than willingly working with him

[Kaiser-Ace]

Ok, lets take a ride on the wild head cannin train for a stop.

If the Anti-Tower is Eureka, and below the Labyrinth of Ancients somewhere in the chasem, is it possible it was a hanger for Anti Primal weapons simmilar to Ultima and Omega? or at least an R&D area that led to Ultima and Omega?

[myahele]

From the Vantage of the "Last Remnant" in Azys Lla, I can see 2 tower-like structures: The one in where Castrum Solus and the one in the center of the Warring Triad statues.

What really gets me is that the Tower where the Warring Triad are has 2 wings and one side is emanating "aether particles" similar to what's Antithesis/ Tiamat's prison and also in the Pappus Tree. I wonder if there's a connection there?

Speaking of "Last Remnant" I am curious as to why this small island was made worthy enough to pluck from the ground and levitate? Could this be related to the Remnants of Sephirot?

Time will tell, I guess