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The Crystal Tower

Approximately six millennia ago, when the world still languished in the aftermath of the Third Umbral Calamity, there arose a man who led an army of mages on a campaign of conquest. Xande would go on to found the storied Allagan Empire, as well as marry the secrets of magic and wisdom of science to create aetherochemistry. Through advances in this miraculous field, he expanded his dominion to encompass the continents of Aldenard, Ilsabard, and Othard.

However, generations of peace and prosperity gave rise to decadence, and a thousand years after the nation’s birth, progress all but ground to a halt. The people grew complacent, abandoning learning and drowning themselves in leisure, and society stagnated. None lamented this deplorable state of affairs more than a technologist named Amon.

Desiring to restore his nation to its former glory, Amon brought Emperor Xande back from the grave. Under the founding father’s leadership, the empire was given renewed purpose in world domination. In order to bolster the might of his armies, Xande entered into a pact with the Cloud of Darkness, a sovereign among voidsent, and granted their kind passage to the world of men in return for their aid in assuring the supremacy of his reign.

The Crystal Tower played a key role in all of these events. Built to harness the power of the sun, it provided the sprawling empire with energy during its heyday. When the empire fell into decline, Amon used that selfsame energy to resurrect Xande, and Xande in turn used it to open a gate to the void.

Eventually, the emperor resolved to welcome the Cloud of Darkness herself into our world, a feat which would require a voidgate of heretofore unseen proportions. To this end, he commanded that the eikon Bahamut, captured in Meracydia, be encapsulated within a massive iron sphere. The sphere was launched into the heavens and set into motion alongside the moon, where it utilized the wyrm’s affinity to fire-aspected aether to accumulate solar energy in a more concentrated form. Yet while the tower had been fortified to channel the increased flow, the land upon which it had been built could not withstand the immense forces. The Crystal Tower’s collapse triggered a series of earthquakes which shook the entire realm, bringing about the Third Umbral Calamity and consigning the Allagan Empire to oblivion.

For five millennia the Crystal Tower lay buried and forgotten, until the violence of the Seventh Umbral Era coaxed it from its resting place. Awakened from his long slumber, Emperor Xande once more sought to fulfill his nihilistic ambitions, but he would be thwarted by the stout souls of the fellowship of NOAH and their newfound comrades from the distant past.