So Uh......(5.3 spoilers)

[Cleretic]

And as to Thordan and Nero's things, I think they just have entirely mundane answers.

Thordan was terrified of us, we just kicked the ass of him and the entire Knights Twelve right as he held what he thought was power enough to control the entire world. Couple that with the fact he's a man of faith, obviously he's going to see us as something great and horrifying in that framework; either an angel of retribution or a demon depending on where he was mentally in his last moments.

The object Nero tossed out was the comm unit attached to his Tribunus suit (the one he speaks into in the Praetorium). This is after his speech talking about basically turning away from what he knew and pursuing the new unknown, so he basically did the equivalent of throwing his phone into the sea to quit his job. The warbly sound that follows is pretty close to the sound it makes when he starts talking to Cid through it in the Praetorium, so it's definitely the sound of someone--probably either the Ironworks or the Empire--trying to get ahold of the guy.

Not everything is obliquely foreshadowing future events--in fact this game kinda doesn't do oblique foreshadowing, it does proud 'To Be Continued' splash screens and callbacks to parts of resolved stories (You wouldn't call Alexander foreshadowing of Shadowbringers, for example). Sometimes characters just have emotional beats, and the cutscene direction accentuates them.

[Fenral]

The object Nero tossed out was the comm unit attached to his Tribunus suit (the one he speaks into in the Praetorium). This is after his speech talking about basically turning away from what he knew and pursuing the new unknown, so he basically did the equivalent of throwing his phone into the sea to quit his job. The warbly sound that follows is pretty close to the sound it makes when he starts talking to Cid through it in the Praetorium, so it's definitely the sound of someone--probably either the Ironworks or the Empire--trying to get ahold of the guy.

That particular scanner unit was modified by Unei (at some point), and she said it would guide Nero to the power he was seeking. Instead, he chucks it off a cliff, where it ends up picking something up at the bottom. The current location of that scanner is just out of bounds on the same map where we found the beacon that let the Crystal Exarch call us to the First.


It was originally meant to foreshadow Eureka, but then Eureka became something else, so they found a really roundabout way to pretend it was actually detecting something else CT related.

[Alleluia]

So I actually went back and checked this, because I was relying on fallible memory. Y'shtola breaks the tension with jokes (that usually aren't very funny) at other times, but in that case, it seems more of just the soundtrack recognizing that she's making a nigh-impossible promise to keep. Not ominous, not foreshadowing, just recognition that Y'shtola is about to say something with rather a bit more weight than anyone involved in the discussion is about to give it.

I've rewatched it, too, and I really don't think so. For reference if anyone needs it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCie2IebTIU Its at 2:13.

There's a notable pause, long enough that everyone is like ".... Y'shtola???" and repeating her words back to her cus she's just dropped her sentence. And there is also that high pitched sound effect that happens, indicating building tension. And the zoom in to her face.

Its not just her pausing to indicate the gravity of her promise. Its an awkward pause, noted by everyone. Yeah, she laughs it off. But it was still ominous.

I mean, I don't think she's lying about why she's trying to travel to other worlds. I think she wants to fulfill her promise to get back to Runar and the Night's Blessed, and her behavior hasn't indicated any weird kind of urgency to me beyond her normal focus-that-borders-on-tunnel-vision when she's searching for answers.

Though I do wonder what she thinks the Night's Blessed might run into that they'd need her help badly enough to call on her across worlds? But she could have just been speaking in general hypothetical terms there.

Or she found something in her three years researching Ronka that strikes her as a possible concern, but she hasn't felt the need to mention to us, yet. No idea.

[Rannie]

Honestly I think she was just screwing around with them because afterwards she flips her hair and says that they can call on her. She has screwed around before like that with telling us that our "followers" awaited our divine judgement.

She's found a lot of Unsolved Mysteries (insert trade mark here) on the first and she's intrigued still by them. So she'll do her damnedest to get back there.

[Cleretic]

It was originally meant to foreshadow Eureka, but then Eureka became something else, so they found a really roundabout way to pretend it was actually detecting something else CT related.

Oooh, this is neat, do you have a source on that? I believe it, I'm just a lover of cut content, so I'd really like to collect some notes on stuff like this. Especially since I might do a lore video on Eureka someday.

[Necrotica]

I kinda assumed she had made a pact with some evil force to feed her eye sight.

Her sight that actively drains her life.

But has shown no signs of such. She has some entity in her acting as a battery for that.

Probably the same entity that recolored Thancred's eye. It is all coming together. Some great reveal is coming!

That or just bad writing.

[Fenral]

Oooh, this is neat, do you have a source on that? I believe it, I'm just a lover of cut content, so I'd really like to collect some notes on stuff like this. Especially since I might do a lore video on Eureka someday.

It's more of a "this couldn't mean anything else in context," sort of deal, unfortunately. Yoshida, walking, talking PR nightmare that he is, all but announced Eureka while the CT raids were ongoing, way back in the 2.X days, suggesting it might become a new type of relic content. When 2.5 hit, he reminded people that they hadn't gotten around to Eureka, but this was (noncommittally) the ending to the current CT raid series. Then players noticed the scanner scene.

There are several references in-game and in the Encyclopaedia Eorzea referring to Xande's tomb in Mor Dhona. There's even concept art. G'raha's search for said location is also mentioned in the Eureka quest series, as something unconnected to the primal Eureka on the Isle of Val.

There's another speculative possibility besides Eureka, though. Back before Heavensward hit (like a bomb), Yoshida mentioned in interviews he was considering resetting MSQ progression again after a few expacs if necessary (World of Warcraft style), to keep players from being gated too badly. Post-5.3, he came clean about how the Crystal Tower was sealed as it was so it could be used in the event of a second world reset. From this, we can infer that there was, at one time, a planned version of Shadowbringers that took place on the Source, after a time-skip, that used Syrcus Tower as a hub. (Also that G'raha was indeed intended to play a role beyond the CT raids. Sort of a long-form FFIII reference.)

As for how they finally ended up using the scanner? That's from Natsuko Ishikawa's twitter, post-Shadowbringers launch. Sorry I don't have links handy. (You can find it yourself if you /gpose at the back of the Syrcus Trench and fly your camera up the cliff.)

[MikkoAkure]

There are several references in-game and in the Encyclopaedia Eorzea referring to Xande's tomb in Mor Dhona. There's even concept art. G'raha's search for said location is also mentioned in the Eureka quest series, as something unconnected to the primal Eureka on the Isle of Val.

Xande's Tomb isn't a mystery. It was a named location in 1.0 that you could visit, a crystal cave in Mor Dhona with a bunch of crystal stalactites and stalagmites pointing towards a bigger crystal pillar in the center with a decoration around it. The description of the tomb in the EE describes the exact same place too. Then later, Erik from the monk quests says that the Crystal Tower is in fact Xande's Tomb, and we already know that's what G'raha was looking for when he was in NOAH.

[Fenral]

Xande's Tomb isn't a mystery. It was a named location in 1.0 that you could visit, a crystal cave in Mor Dhona with a bunch of crystal stalactites and stalagmites pointing towards a bigger crystal pillar in the center with a decoration around it. The description of the tomb in the EE describes the exact same place too. Then later, Erik from the monk quests says that the Crystal Tower is in fact Xande's Tomb, and we already know that's what G'raha was looking for when he was in NOAH.

I don't doubt it, actually, but somehow you're the first person in 10 years to mention it here.

[Cleretic]

Xande's tomb came up not in 1.0, but in the 1.x quests leading up to Dalamud, so it's fairly understandable that people didn't notice it. If I'm remembering cutscenes I saw on Youtube years ago correctly, I think Gaius' first scene might've been in that tomb?