Things I learned from Encyclopedia Eorzea III
Do with this what you will, ffxiv fandom.
G'raha and the tower appeared about 15 years after the Flood of Light. Ardbert and team were all already dead. "Our" Minfilia had already dissipated.
At the time, he looked like his normal self. He is described as a Mystel dressed as a mage, so we can assume people knew he was a "Mystel" at the time, vs. later when his appearance is only speculative.
A bunch of refugees clamored to the Crystal Tower when it appeared. He said yeah you can hang out here, the tower defenses will keep you safe.
And then fucked off for 4 years to survey the damage of the Flood of Light.
When he got back he knew shit was really fucked and ASAP started trying to figure out how the hell to get the WoL over for pizza
At some point he figures out he needed to address the WoL verbally for some reason for the summoning to work properly???
He decides this shit is gonna take 5ever and I'm already having a quarter life crisis. I'm going to bind my aether to the tower. It's the one secret anti-aging trick that has doctors PISSED
It'll be great, like, he'll almost never age.
Downside, his body slowly becomes necrotic with crystal.
More time lost because he has to use aether to discretely animate his crystallized limbs and digits to keep their use.
At some point, early Crystarium dwellers get tired of asking him for his name (he won't give it) and him rejecting the crown they offer him so they start calling him the Crystal Exarch.
Exarch says OK and wheels out some Allagan nodes to help build what would become the Crystarium. Go ham, guys.
Since no one really recalls what the Exarch looks like in present day, G'raha likely began wearing a cowl after returning from traveling Norvrandt, or when his body begins to change. Those who remember are likely dead (age or sineaters) or sworn to secrecy.
The developing crystal, which he did his best to hide, prevented him from truly connecting with the others.
Sometime after this, an infant Lyna falls into his care.
Well technically the Settlement Council (because he was like hey let's have a representative government [not because I grew up in one or anything!]! I'll just be over here.)
But he was very involved in her upbringing.
Probably because he was close friends with her parents.
Who die tragically while serving in the Crystarium guard (Meaning that the guard is at least 30 years old, likely more, as her parents were known to have served in the guard since inception basically and Lyna is 33 in SHB)
G'raha was probably in his mid-eighties at this point, judging by Lyna's age in SHB (33) and that we know G'raha had the Crystal Exarch title for 9 decades + the 24 years he had lived before he entered the tower. (He is likely slightly older due to the intervening time between being awakened in the Bad Timeline and heading to the First.)
He FINALLY gets summoning to work something like 90 years later!!!!! Except it still doesn't! Five years before he could nab the WoL, he nabbed Thancred instead (oops). It took another 2 years for it to successfully transport a soul again.
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