Strange room in Twinning

[Gianh]

It may have been discussed somewhere as it's old news (ShB old), and if so, I'd love to be directed to there. The other day, I got the Twinning for mentor and after completion, I decided to go back to just check stuff out. That's when I noticed a strange room.
https://www.deviantart.com/stash/01m7ohhocuq7
https://www.deviantart.com/stash/01ep1zp3nb23


I showed it to a friend and they thought they could be containment device whereas I thought of (stasis) pods when I saw them, but we both agreed they looked sort of origenics (which can't be possible because origenic stuff didn't exist at the time). As they obviously aren't Allagan (everything upstairs has another design), it likely is Garlond Ironworks', but then, what would be the use of such a room? There are clearly a table & chairs.. a lunch room? Doubtful they wasted resources to build such a thing in a world that was facing extinction. a command post? why so many chairs, if Raha was to travel alone? And what are the pods? some device to store energy? It wouldn't make sense as the tower is a huge aether reservoir.
I emitted the idea that either they thought people could travel with Raha only to realise it wasn't possible (but couldn't they have checked that first?) or Raha, if he failed to save the First, and so the Source, would bring back the WoL to that future timeline in order to... bring hope and maybe salvation, I guess?
I am open to every suggestion, or if someone knows the truth behind this, please say it.


I showed it to a friend and they thought they could be containment device whereas I thought of (stasis) pods when I saw them, but we both agreed they looked sort of origenics (which can't be possible because origenic stuff didn't exist at the time). As they obviously aren't Allagan (everything upstairs has another design), it likely is Garlond Ironworks', but then, what would be the use of such a room? There are clearly a table & chairs.. a lunch room? Doubtful they wasted resources to build such a thing in a world that was facing extinction. a command post? why so many chairs, if Raha was to travel alone? And what are the pods? some device to store energy? It wouldn't make sense as the tower is a huge aether reservoir.
I emitted the idea that either they thought people could travel with Raha only to realise it wasn't possible (but couldn't they have checked that first?) or Raha, if he failed to save the First, and so the Source, would bring back the WoL to that future timeline in order to... bring hope and maybe salvation, I guess?
I am open to every suggestion, or if someone knows the truth behind this, please tell me.

[Zero-ELEC]

That might have simply been where people hung out while working on converting the tower into a time machine?

[TKMXIV]

I can only guess a hybrid lab and office meeting room.
The cylinders are most likely fuel cells filled with aether.

[Cleretic]

That's 100% a meeting room, it's very utilitarian and centralized around a singular table. You've seen the level of project they were working on; those brave men and women needed and DESERVED a nice place to sit down, talk, and probably have some lunch! It's not a 'waste of resources'; they needed it, and once you have the space a meeting room's not hard to make and maintain. And when the time comes that a meeting room's no longer needed, they aren't actively removed; you just sorta keep them there until you have need of the space again. This one's off in a disused corner; it's not exactly prime real estate, it makes complete sense to essentially just leave it collecting dust.

Which, honestly, is a great level of detail that most developers don't put in; the Twinning was a place of work, it makes complete sense that off in a corner you can see a window into a meeting room nobody's using. It's a very Portal-style touch.

EDIT: So I went in to see if I could get a better look with some gpose camera work, and it's actually not a single table; it looks like there's three desks laid out in that room.



So not a meeting room, but it still looks like a pretty normal office setup, something the Ironworks would've needed to set up anyway and eventually just left like that. It also looks sort of prefabricated; like the Ironworks can crank out a dozen of these rooms and we've only seen one of them. There's a lot of similar-looking 'containers' to this, but this is the only one we can see inside.

[Gianh]

I thought of it too, but I have read "An unpromised Tomorrow" from "Tales from the Shadows", and nothing in the writing even imply the Ironworks of the future have resources to use for building meeting places like this. Don't get me wrong, I perfectly understand the need for comfort and everything, if only for morale (like proven by the culinarian/alchemy quest in EW, good food works wonder to keep one's spirits up), but they spent a lot of time in the remnant of the "Keeper of the Lake" until they could open the tower (I think. it's not clearly stated in the story if they actually set up shop *inside* the Tower after waking up Raha) and it's said they had other things in mind than repairing it or making it comfortable.
We do not know how tech evolved between the end of stb and this moment they sent the tower back, but it still looks strange to me that they'd make so clean looking table (even if "prefabricated"... are there even factories to make these in the future? if so, why? given the world is on the brink of collapsing). I'd think that if it was a meeting room, there would be one table in the middle, not 3 scattered and looking in different direction (though I can see why there is one facing the window, to keep an eye on the work going on). There is also the matter of accessing it, as there doesn't seem to be any bridges or portal leading to it.

All this to say, you may be right, but this room looks extremely pristine, even after 100 years of disuse (unless Raha went there to clean everything up once in a while) we'll never know its true use and it's probably only for vibe & a nice detail the dev added. I know it sounds like I am trying to give it more meaning than it likely has, but as far as FF14 is concerned, I believe SE does/did thorough work and don't leave thing to chance, if something is added, there is a reason why.

[Cleretic]

Look, it's a background detail, in an inaccessible area of a dungeon where the storytelling focus is very clearly elsewhere; you need to pull some camera trickery to even see the tops of those desks. Realistically I would expect some clutter in a place like this, but in this context, yeah that was probably too much effort.

But it is blatantly clear that the future Ironworks did have some level of manufacturing power. Several of the enemies in the dungeon--including the Tycoon itself--are clearly made by them, and a lot of the dungeon's actual architecture in the second and third legs is also clearly made by them. (Everything up until the first boss is clearly Allagan.) They obviously weren't in Fallout-level post-apocalyptic conditions, at some point in the several generations they took to make the Twinning, they clearly got something going, possibly by repurposing old Castrums or something. The Ironworks goddamn Ironworked, and by the time they sent the Crystal Tower off, they clearly had a system going. In that context, I actually would expect a lot of prefab buildings like we see: if they have a bare minimum I can completely understand that a lot of their work is made with one factory just pumping out multipurpose shipping container-style boxes.

As for how you get in: you can tell from my screenshot that there is a 'lip' to it, a protrusion that likely acted as an entry step. My guess, there was a platform or walkway of some sort there that just got moved at some point, probably fairly abruptly.

[Iscah]

Any arguments about the particular room being "wasted resources" surely apply to the facility as a whole. Why so many clean manufactured floors and elaborate crates? The overall vibe of the facility isn't post-apocalyptic scrappy repurposing, it's a sleek and high-tech-looking setup. Whether that should have been the vibe or not, this mystery room fits with it.

[Gianh]

I am not saying it doesn't fit, it sure does fit the vibe (and going back to Twinning again, there is a huge difference in style when you see the 'normal' looking wooden crates at the entrance of the Tower https://www.deviantart.com/stash/01hr6lt3uz85 with how it is in the "second underfloor") it wasn't my argument here. Merely that it didn't look like what a post apo world tech *may* look like, in my opinion, and based on what I read in the Tales from the Shadow, but it's only my interpretation.
When I returned again to the Twinning, I noticed that this wasn't the only one place that had this design. Not talking about the vibe, but the 'box' that is ontop the room. There are two others, out of reach, but with the same design ('door' and window) and identical platforms next to them.
https://www.deviantart.com/stash/01ubqlacsf2x
So from this, I believe you're correct, Cleretic, when you say it's likely living quarters for the Ironworks people of the time (add to it that the Tower would offer good protection with the defence mechanism both from the Labyrinth and what Raha can control inside the tower) + everyone who wanted to assist them or needed assistance. They could have been 'pet project' when they weren't working on how to send the tower back in time and through the rift.
only a thought