"Throw wide the gates, that we may pass" [SHB speculation]

[JeanneOrnitier]

With the full ShB trailer I'd assumed "throw wide the gates" was literal and we'd be using the gates of the two versions of CT to walk between the First and Source like a portal. But:

From 4.56, I got the impression he was actually talking about your gates, namely the walls around your soul. As we're resisting, there's that line, "Why won't they open?" which seems to imply that opening them temporarily is what allows our face-to-face conversation to finally take place.

But I got this same impression in 4.56, yeah.

[Iscah]

I almost wonder if the Tower ever even sunk following Xandes Calamity, now... I mean, if history must be rewritten...

• Xandes Calamity happens; Send the Tower into the future so it appears shortly after Dalamud fell.
• We then open it up, clear that whole mess, and it's resealed. All under the misguided assumption that it merely slept beneath the earth all that time...

I've also wondered if that might have been the case - it makes a lot more physical sense than an entire tower dropping into the earth and then popping up again millennia later...


Though as luck would have it, I've just finished the Lv50 monk quests on my alt - for those who haven't played it, one of the characters is a historian who gives a fair bit of lore if you talk to him between quests. One of those is about the Crystal Tower - I'll have to type it up another time, since I can't copy-paste it, but he mentioned that he'd been researching the area prior to the Calamity, and was able to detect the Tower underground by its energy signal.

Of course, it's also possible that there's something else down there, and he simply assumed it must be the tower.

[Rocl]

Fun fact about Erik: He is the first person to name Midgardsormr in FFXIV. Prior to the MNK quests being added in the 1.X series, we had absolutely no information about the Battle of Silvertear Skies, really! Just the intro! He even had theories about an unusual energy signature in Mor Dhona being linked to the Crystal Tower of legend and being ridiculed.... only for his theories to be proven true in 2.0! It always really tickled me the way they introduced lore through him.

(Most of the job quests from 1.0 carry over into 2.0 with little-to-no change, with WHM being the big exception. That Monk foreshadowed some 2.0 things and filled in background for ARR just really got me excited for the relaunch back in the day.)

EDIT: Thanks to Moose, I can show you what Erik said in 1.0 about the Tower:

...
Since ancient times, the Falls and the region of Mor Dhona in which they are located have been believed to be the seat of a great spiritual energy, as less advanced peoples were wont to call it.
So old are these beliefs that the tomb of Xandes himself, the first emperor of Allag, was built deep beneath the surface of Mor Dhona, in the hope that the mystical power which resided under the lake would raise him from the dead.
...
The aether of the area is in an extremely chaotic state. I had long thought this to be a result of the Battle of Silvertear Skies, but have learned that this is not the case!
The disturbances I have observed do not all derive from a single source. Beyond the imperceptible aether emitted by the Keeper of the Lake, there are even stronger aetherial waves coming from deep below the earth to the east.
I have studied these waves in great detail, and discovered that they can be used to reconstruct an image of their source. And I believe their source is a tower! An enormous, vast, gigantic, underground tower!
Do you not see? <sigh> Of course you don't... It could only be the lost tomb of Xandes - the first emperor of Allag of whom I spoke mere moments ago. But wait, there it more to tell! You see, it is impossible that a normal building, however large, could release so much ethereal energy. An immense crystal on the other hand - that most certainly could. Putting these observations together, I had no choice but to conclude that the ancients' seemingly fanciful references to the tomb being wrought of crystal were not so fanciful after all!
And that is the history of Silvertear Falls - or as much as I am willing to expose that meager mind of yours to in one telling. <sigh> If only there were some way to access this crystal tower beneath the surface... It would prove my theory and be the discovery of the century!

[ShadowMeowth]

About this line, while it might be inconsequential, there is an almost uncanny similitude to what Loffrey, one of the Templars in league with the Lucavi in Final Fantasy Tactics, says to open the gate to the Necrohol of Mullonde:

"Zomal, Reeve of Time, by oath unto you am I bound. Timeless, cross you now the vastness of Time's gulf. Throw wide Her gates that we may pass!"

Nabriales does invoke Zodiark's name when screwing with time in the Chrysalis, so I assume time magicks might have something to do with Him. Enigma also said the first time he called to us:

"Let expanse contract. Eon become instant. Throw wide the gates that we may pass!"

That was a reference to time. In structure, both Loffrey and Enigma's phrasing might be considered similar.

Now, let us consider that Enigma was referring to our mind/soul gates. He might even be using a royal "we" just like Minfilia did as the Word of the Mother when talking about herself and, by proxy, Hydaelyn. I wonder if in this first Call, if Enigma is some kind of vessel of Zodiark, he was referring to himself and Him so they could pass the WoL's "gates" and give us the blessing of Darkness to save the First.

Of course, this is all speculation. What are your thoughts?

[YianKutku]

To be honest, at this point I'm not sure "throw wide the gates" isn't just some ritual incantation that is the equivalent of dialling a number, and then trying and trying again to get some signal.

As in, it doesn't actually mean anything now, if it ever did when it was constructed. It's not inherently a message to us, as much as the Enigmatic Figure repeatedly and slowly going "Alexa Omega, call the Warrior of Light".