Shadowbringers and magic

[Jonnycbad]

No dragons on the first, huh... that would mean the First's crystal tower serves a vastly different purpose than the Source's wouldn't it?

Our Tower was built to harness Dalamud's power iirc--that power being Bahamut's in reality, who himself is a primal born from the memories of a member of Midgardsormr's brood held by a distressed Tiamat.

No dragons, no Bahamut primal, no dalamud...so what purpose would the First's Tower serve?

The Ascians have a long track history of playing both sides in order to stir up conflict. For example, it's very likely that it's the Asians who imparted knowledge of Allag tech to Garleans so they can develop Magitek. Why? Because the Garleans were subjugated and oppressed people, mistreated by most other nations, and the Garleans could not defend themselves against their aether-derived techniques (magic). Meanwhile, other downtrodden peoples (beast tribes) are given methods to summon Primals so they can drive away oppressors from their homelands. Now you have these powerful civilizations warring against each other using powerful means. I also strongly believe that the Ascians are what seeded the concept of Black Magic and White Magic as well to the Mhachi and Amdapori as well, and released the plague unto the Nymians.

Now, what does this have to do with CT, Allag, and Bahamut? Well, the Allag probably understood or maybe someone whispered into Xande's ear, that Primals are immortal unless killed, and as long as they have fervent prayers to maintain their form, they will draw aether at will and store it like a battery. So, Xande had the CT built and Dalamud constructed. The plan was simple. Declare war on a tribe and drive them to the brink of desperation. Meanwhile, the Ascians will appear when they're at the brink of total annihilation and offer them a tool to turn the tables--Summmoning. Then, when the Primal is fresh and has yet to feast on Aether, the Allag would unleash one of their Ultima Weapons (or Proto-Ultima?) to weaken the Primal before ensnaring it in Dalamud. Then they would launch Dalamud into space, beyond the reach of Hydaelyn's aether. With no other ambient to absorb other than solar aether from the Sun, the Primal would drain the sun's power and store it like a battery. Dalamud would then transmit excess energy to the crystal tower as a relay station to power their civilization. Thus I do not think they built Dalamud specifically for -Bahamut-, but built it with the plan in mind to create an energy-draining enslavement chamber for a Primal they would force an unsuspecting beast tribe to summon out of desperation, defeat it, and ensare it forever. The Merycidians and Bahamut just happened to be the end result. But I think it could have been any tribe and their beastmen perhaps. I think Bahamut was first, and then they subjugated the Warring Triad afterward. What made Bahamut extra strong was that he could gorge himself on Aether from a near limitless source of aether (the sun) without draining Hydaelyn dry, as well as Dalamud being chock full of capture Dravanians who are being kept alive and tortured to maintain their prayers of salvation, which in turn nourish Bahamut.


Now back to your question about what could the CT on the First serve? Like I said earlier, the Ascians probably taught the predominant races on the First about CT technology just like they did for the Allag on the Source, which means there's likely some other Dalamud-like counterpart also on the First with a similar function--to ensare and drain a Primal that's passively feasting on a boundless supply of solar aether. My bet is that while CT was called Syrcus Tower on the Source, CT is called the "Tower of Babil" or "Tower of Zot" on The First---and all the FF4 implications that come with that (Giant of Babil instead of Bahamut and maybe draining LUNAR aether as opposed to Solar aether).

[YianKutku]

Our Tower was built to harness Dalamud's power iirc--that power being Bahamut's in reality, who himself is a primal born from the memories of a member of Midgardsormr's brood held by a distressed Tiamat.

Minor correction: as far as we know from pre-Shadowbringers info, the Crystal Tower on the Source was built by the Allagans long before Xande was revived and the war with Meracydia was a thing. Allegedly, Syrcus Tower was built as a solar energy collector to help power the entire Allagan Empire at the time, which it reportedly did with abundance.

After the whole Xande and Meracydia and Bahamut thing, Xande ordered Bahamut to be sent up into space, and repurposed the Crystal Tower to draw energy from Dalamud instead. According to the lorebook (which is necessarily a summarized version of the dialogue in the CT raids, so the details might be different), Xande specifically intended this Dalamud-power to be used to open a portal to the Void.

Now, with the current questions about where the Crystal Tower really came from on the First and possibly the Source, anything is possible. But the important point is that Syrcus Tower pre-dates Xande and Bahamut/Dalamud significantly, putting aside its obvious remodelling and the usual Ship Of Theseus arguments.

[LineageRazor]

Also, we fought Alte Roite which was a type of Dragon and it's from whichever shard Deltscape's beings came from.

The enemies created by Omega were, in many, if not all cases, based on fictional characters. I believe that it said that the Deltascape folks, in particular, came from Garlean folklore.

No dragons, no Bahamut primal, no dalamud...so what purpose would the First's Tower serve?

In addition to what folks have said above, I don't think it's a given that there IS a Crystal Tower on the First - YET. It's my theory that the Crystal Tower there is the Crystal Tower FROM the Source, either teleported there, or existing simultaneously in both places, once the Gates are finally Thrown Wide.

There's too much we don't know yet to really make any kind of assumptions.