- I agree with this - and I think that Jahad somehow managed to Amnesia bomb him and seal him in the cave, because Phantaminum wanted to go further 'up' the tower - and Jahad didn't want anybody climbing higher than himself.
- Jossed: Yuri has seen both. And there's also no known escape from the tower; if Jahad had a way out, Mazino would probably have known about it by now.
- POSSIBLY jossed - maybe Yuri has, but we have not seen him on-panel as of yet, and a number of Rankers have been shown to not show their faces (Ren, Karaka), there is no guarantee that Yuri actually saw his face. Also, we have no way of knowing what kind of powers Phantaminum may or may not possess - he could plausibly be a shapeshifter or mind-warper that could disguise himself or warp somebody's perception of what he looks like.
- Well, considering the fact that Phantaminum is a god - as in, literally a god - I very much doubt any type of amnesia attack would affect him, and assuming it did, Bam would be essentially invincible. As we've seen, Bam is most certainly not invincible.
- We know exactly what kind of powers Phanta has.....whatever powers he wants to have. He is an Axis...he WRITES the story.
- Not important, this Troper just thinks referring to him as 'Phanta' is pretty funny.
- Behold; the Top 5 strongest Axes in Talse Uzer! Cola, Pepsi, Pepper, Sprite, and Fanta!
- I agree with this - and I think that Jahad somehow managed to Amnesia bomb him and seal him in the cave, because Phantaminum wanted to go further 'up' the tower - and Jahad didn't want anybody climbing higher than himself.
- Somewhat jossed as it is revealed either Enryu, Phantaminum, or some other higher power revived a dead infant Bam, after Jahad murdered him in front of his mother.
- The current king simply stopped at the 134th floor, and declares everyone who reaches the same point to be a victor and a Ranker, granting them power in exchange for their agreeing not to challenge the status quo. This is why so many people are concerned with either weeding out people who might upset the balance of power in the tower, or with encouraging them — the current king and the entire establishment of Rankers is actually working to prevent anyone from ever reaching the top, and a sufficiently powerful Determinator could break the whole system by forcing the issue. This also explains why none of the Rankers we've seen really seem that fulfilled. And when Bam asks one of the Rankers what's up there, their response is extremely evasive.
- This has been all-but-stated explicitly, really. Jahad only reached the 134th floor, and nobody has cleared the 135th floor. When most people talk about the 'top' when it comes to Rankers and the like, they seem to simply mean the currently-highest-conquered floor of the tower. But, by implication, the great rewards supposedly at the 'real' top of the tower have never been claimed by anyone.
- Confirmed by the author in a question-and-answer session on his blog:Q: Can you really find everything at the top of the tower as Headon says? (10/02/2010)A: They believe that everything can be found at the top of the tower. Nobody has reached the top yet.
- Building on the above. If nobody has ever reached the top of the tower, how do they know what's up there? The truth could be a lot less amazing than the legends make it out to be, or it could be a "the journey is important" thing. Or they could have to beat up god for being such a jerk and setting up the tower in the first place.
- You're never supposed to stop pursuing a distant, unreachable dream. Jahad and all the existing Rankers (the ones we've seen, at least) failed by stopping and sitting on their laurels lording over others with their power; you're supposed to just keep climbing the tower forever. The two top-ranked Rankers have disappeared because they're still ascending.
- The similarities are so close that it's hard to avoid thinking that it was an inspiration, at least (huge divine tower at the center of the universe extends up into the sky, with an entire world on each floor; an overlord has taken over the tower and appointed rulers for each layer.)
- Because it hadn't been built yet. To simply put, the tower is unfinished.
- I love this idea, it also explains why Jahad stopped climbing the tower; he encountered a yellow "Under construction" sign.
- Of course, as no-one's passed it, no-one knows for sure.
- Phantaminum, being an Exis, created more floors when they reached the original top so that they might ascend forever. There used to be a top a lot closer to the 134th before this, though whether any of the guardians remember this or just think it's always been this way is up for debate.
- The tallest Mesopotamian Ziggurat was approximately 91 meters tall.
- If it wasn't for the number being lower than the known floor numbers, you could claim that there'd be a floor for every meter.
- The Book of Jubilees says the Tower's height was 5,433 cubits and 2 palms (2,484m/8,150 ft), about 3x the height of Burj Khalifa, (~1.6 miles high).
- We know each floor of our Tower is high enough, in many cases, for an artificial sky to exist, which is probably a few miles, so that's not much help. However, if you were to count it by actual floors (even though real floors are much small than ToG floors), you could factor it. The Burj Khalifa is in the region of 163 floors, including both usable and unusable upper areas, so a tower with 3x as many floors as that would be in the area of 489 floors.
- Alternatively, if you were to break the Burj Khalifa down mathematically (838m ÷ 163 floors = 0.1945 floors per meter), you could calculate the number of floors a Tower of 2,484m would have (0.1945fpm x 2,484m), that being 483.138, or 483 floors, so a little shorter than 489.
- The Third Apocalypse of Baruch mentions the 'tower of strife' reaching a height of 463 cubits/211.8m/695 ft, taller than any structure built in human history at the time.
- As a real tower, as we've established, this comes nowhere close to ToG's setting, which is probably bigger than the Earth itself, not even counting the world outside. However, if you were to run the numbers through the above floor counter (0.1945 x 211.8m), you'd get... 41.195 floors. So not all that helpful here.
- Gregory of Tours quotes the historian Orosius as saying the tower was "made of baked brick cemented with pitch, is fifty cubits wide, two hundred high, and four hundred and seventy stades in circumference. A stade contains five agripennes. Twenty-five gates are situated on each side, which make in all one hundred."
- The definition of the stade (or stadion) unit of measurement varies from text to text, but someone once average all those and got 157.7m, which would place the tower at around 31,540m (~19.6 miles) high, or 6,134.5 floors, based on above calculations. However, as i've read this i've realised that, as awesome as that would be, the height seems to actually be being measured in cubits, not stades. A cubit is 0.4572m, placing the tower at 91.44m (0.4572m x 200), or 17.785 floors. ...Personally, I prefer the stade calculation
- A medieval account by Giovanni Villani claims that "it measured eighty miles round, and it was already 4,000 paces high, or 5.92 km (3.68 mi)."
- If this were the case, 5.92km, or 5,920m, would amount to, in terms of our floor factoring (0.1945 x 5,920m), 1,151.44 floors. Still very high, but possibly more manageable than over 6,000, as above. I like high though, it gives Bam (or Rachel, depending on your view) something to reach for.
- The 14th-century traveler John Mandeville made an account of the tower, and reported that its height had been 64 furlongs, or 13 km (8 mi), according to the local inhabitants.
- 13km, or 13,000m, is very high. So high in fact that it equates to around 2,528.5 real world Burj floors (0.1945 x 13,000m).
- The 17th-century historian Verstegan quotes Isidore, and says that the tower was 5,164 paces high, or 7.6 km (4.7 mi), and quoting Josephus that the tower was wider than it was high, more like a mountain than a tower.
- This would match what we've heard of the tower's width in ToG, though I believe it, unlike Babel, is probably a lot higher than it is wide. That said, at 7.6km, or 7,600m, this clocks in at around 1478.2 real world Burj floors (0.1945 x 7,600m).
- In summary, based on stories of the Tower of Babel, the average floor height of the real world tallest tower as of this writing, the Burj Khalifa, a little bit of rounding, and discounting results we already know can't be right (less than 135), the Tower could be anything from 483 to 6,134 floors high. Not very helpful, but this was a fun train of thought.
- Floor with the bigger number is actually placed lower and the highest floor we've seen is the first floor.
- The tower has an oceanic theme, many creatures are based on sea creatures, the regulars' position (fisherman, wave controller) is also tied with it. There's no air or water in the tower, only shinsu. The higher the number of the floor, the shinsu also gets more dense. It works similar with water pressure. The more deep you are, the water pressure also gets bigger.
- Headon said the answers could be found on the top of the tower. He didn't say which way the top is. This could also explain why no one had reached the top of the tower yet. Also, no one can get pass the 135th floor is simply because the 'shinsu density' is too big for human to handle.
- Building upon that: floors with bigger numbers are indeed lower, but the top in question is still the highest point, e. g. Headon's floor. Meaning that whole quest is wild goose chase, and Headon holds all the answers. The kick is that noone understood that yet and haven't figured out how to ask him properly to get any answers. Or he's a jerk and has no intention of answering anything, continuing the whole thing for his own amusement.
- Or, perhaps, Jahad actually discovered the former, but when he confronted Headon over it, the latter flatly refused to answer and mocked him, after which the king snapped from the pointlessness of his efforts and sacrifices and became the tyrant we know now.
- Several panels suggest that Ghost is an irregular, yet no one seems concerned about him the way they are with Bam, Yuri doesn't find him interesting, nobody's worried about him disrupting the tower, etc, even though he seems on the face of it to be drastically more powerful than Bam. Nobody noticed him enter, even though Bam's entrance seems to have attracted massive attention. Both Endorsi and Yu Hansung seem to know him; Endorsiās knowing him shouldn't be possible according to the rules of the test, since he was in her group. The only logical way Ghost could be an Irregular, freakishly powerful, and someone known to both of them without alarming them is if he were an Irregular who was already known in the tower — and the only active irregular is Urek Mazino.
- Nope. Both the appearances of Urek and Ghost as well as their personalities are just too different to match.
- Urek looks like Eminem, Ghost looks like Rak with red skull.
- Nope. Both the appearances of Urek and Ghost as well as their personalities are just too different to match.
- Most of the logic of the above WMG holds for this one, too, though this one assumes that Enryu came back and that those who recognize him keep quiet about it. Enryu is specifically noted as having a red motif, being an excellent spear-carrier, and using huge red spears specifically, which fits Ghost's methods and appearance fairly closely.
- It also matches Rak - ever think of that?
- While it is an interesting theory, this has been jossed by the author. SIU has stated that Shinsu 'turns red in Enryu's presence'. This obviously doesn't happen for Ghost or Rak.
- Or, alternatively, is merely a being created by Enryu.
- Jossed, Ghost is a being created by Headon, based on one of the wall sculptures in the first floor.
- Jahad being a symbolic leader can leave all the political and rulling stuff to the three lords while he tags along with our heroes.
- Explains the reason being that Ghost doesn't use his power is because if he does, the Rankers will recognize him.
- Jossed, Ghost is a being created by Headon, based on one of the wall sculptures in the first floor.
- Jossed, Ghost once again is a being created by Headon, based on one of the wall sculptures in the first floor. He isn't a member of FUG because he isn't even a living being, just a thing made to protect Rachel during the test.
- Simply because it would be the most hilarious and longwinding Brick Joke ever and "not even Urek has that kind of Bullshit ability!"
- I agree with the theory - with the caveat that Jahad has his palace built on the exit to the 135th level. When Phantaminum assaulted Jahad's palace and 'disappeared', he was simply clearing the obstacles out of the way for his continued ascent. He didn't kill Jahad - because he wasn't TRYING to kill Jahad, he just wanted to go to the next level.
Viole looks like Bam and looks like a girl only pretending to be a boy. Wangnan has blond hair like Rachel.
- Jossed. Violie IS Bam, Wangnan is not a powerless, backstabbing douche - he's actually quite clever, manipulating Viole/Bam into passing the entire team.
- Rachel is clever and manipulative too. She doesn't have horns on her neck or Cute Little Fangs however, unlike Wangnan. Wangnan also has no desire to see the stars, unlike Rachel.
- Jossed. Violie IS Bam, Wangnan is not a powerless, backstabbing douche - he's actually quite clever, manipulating Viole/Bam into passing the entire team.
His motivation is to meet Endorsi - he was assumed to be a fanboy(girl?) but that seems too simple for SIU. Also, his body shape and size is extremely similiar to "Yuga", moreover in his first few appearences Riceball wasn't creepy - goofy and weird, yeah, but not scary per se.
And, if you were Ren, how would you infiltrate the group? The "core" team is pretty heremtic; but hey, there's a guy that recruits new memebers. Remember that Khun might not know "Yuga's" real identity - it would require both revealing Anaak's story and Yuri's interfering with the test, so it might be possible that the girls told him nothing about the incident.
Also, SIU has a really perverse sense of humor - it might amuse him to make one of the cutest creatures around a borderline eldritch horror. For added fridge scare - Gyetang wanted to perform CPR on Dan. Bleach your brains now.
- Most likely Jossed. Michael The Missionary killed him. You don't think a character so closely related to Anaak would just drop dead like that, right?
Rachel forevermore shall be referred to as "it".
Jahad gives power to only princesses and her "maybe son" Ja Wangnan is lying on piles of trash.
- Jossed by many, many things, but most of all by the fact that we see what D-Rank and current Jahad look like as of the end of The Hidden Floor arc. Safe to say, the King's a dude.
- There are many arguments which support this theory and for the sake of conveniance shall be presented in list form:
- According to Godai's blog on TOG wikia:
- Any normal human being can awaken (각성, gahkseong; "trigger") into an Exis (엑시즈, Ekshijeu).
- Rachel is so far the most normal person in the series.
- Unable to find meaning in their godlike power, many Exes eventually fall into confusion, and only use their powers to meet their own desires.
- Rachel's desire is to ... see the stars? What a weird goal.
- It could be much worse - imagine if somebody like the Joker got Exis powers, and their desire was just to cause chaos.
- Exes serve the universe by taking on the duty of leading a story that is crucial to the entire history of universe.
- Rachel's actions did lead up to what is now season 2.
- Theory:
- An Exis power does not count as a battle ability, but rather as authority over a section of the universe.
- Rachel has no fighting skills yet managed to go all the way to the 25F and perhaps beyond. Could her pre-awakened ability have something to do with, coincidences?
- I don't think it's an Exis power - Exis power is to literally 'rewrite' reality - she's never shown anything close to that ability, if she could do something like that, don't you think she would have 'rewritten' it so that Bam conveniently died in any of the multiple possible situations (when he took the initial test, when Hwaryun swung at him during the Crown game, when he 'saved' her from Hoh) rather than try to kill him herself in an obvious manner?
- Any normal human being can awaken (각성, gahkseong; "trigger") into an Exis (엑시즈, Ekshijeu).
- No connection between the two, Headon is the Guardian who first greeted Jahad and his allies, Phantaminium is an irregular who slaughtered all of Jahads top guards.
Their mouths look similar. They are also both extremely powerful - Ghost was possibly the strongest regular on the second floor and Karaka is a Slayer.
- Is it just me, or does Karaka look an AWFUL lot like Griffith from Berserk when he has that helmet on? If intentional, this doesn't bode well for FUG - considering what happened to Griffith's band because they were holding him back.
- Jossed; their personalities are way too different and as of The Cage arc, both Karaka and The Ghost are present at the same time in completely different locations. Plus, Ghost can somehow create a Shinsoo Blackhole Sphere, which is limited exclusively to irregulars and a handful of special beings in specific locations. Karaka isn't either of those.
- Karaka also ends up being nothing like Griffith, and isn't anywhere near strong enough to despose of the rest of FUG.
He'll try and ignore them so they won't recognize him, either due to not wanting them to know he's alive or thinking it could cause some problems with FUG.
If they do realize it's him, the one to recognize him will be Rachel, due to knowing him when his hair was long (This may happen if for some reason he does actually let his hair down) When she does, she will freak out.
- Jossed. Khun knows he's alive, Bam knows he knows, and Rachel is no longer with Khun, as she betrayed him along with two of his team members, who were planted on his team as FUG's agents, although there is also no implication that Rachel has been told that Bam is still alive. He's actually trying to avoid Shibisuās team, which has said man, Anaak, Endorsi, Hatz and Amigo in it.
- ... Unbelievably, this is actually Semi-Confirmed at the end of the Hidden Floor arc; after becoming King of the Tower and viewing things from the same height as a god, Jahad figured out how to manipulate Fate, which is backed up by Khel Hellam in Season 3. Given that pure Time Travel itself isn't a thing in Talse Uzer, Jahad being able to alter future events makes him the closest thing you can get to a Time Lord in Tower of God. Not bad for a joke made in late 2012!
Because only irregulars can take the test from the guardian. This would mean that the only person who can advance upwards is Jahad (And possibly Enryu and Phantaminum, if the WMGs about them going up are true)
- Phantaminum, Enryu and Urek Mazino have all been confirmed as Irregulars - A previous WMG is that the reason Phantaminum disappeared was because he already went up to the 135th floor and beyond.
- In addition, Jahad initially climbed the tower with the heads of the 10 great families - who would ALL have to be Irregulars, since there was no such thing as a regular at that point. That brings the MINIMUM number of people in the tower capable of going to the 135th floor and taking the test up to 17 - the 10 family heads, Phantaminum, Enryu, Jahad, Urek Mazino, Bam, Rachel, and Ghost.
- You gotta make distinctions. An Irregular is not an "official" term. By "official", I mean, a term used by the Guardians to refer to people. It's a made up term created after Jahad made a contract with the Guardians, allowing him to make tests of his own to refer to people who "bypass" the system. However, the phrase "only an Irregular might take a test directly from the Guardian" is probably incorrect because the difference is hard to grasp for the ones not being irregulars themselves. The Guardian explicitely states "I ask you, you who opened the door by himself, what is it, you desire?", so logically speaking, the Guardians don't care about all the Irregular stuff. What counts is the fact of having opened the door by oneself. To restate this: Bam, Jahad, Enryu, Urek Mazino and Phantaminum are eligible to take tests from the Guardian while Rachel and the 10 Warriors who just went in through an open door, are not.
- What's also interesting is the ability to freely manipulate shinsu. Is it needed to open the door in the first place or granted by the tower for the chosen ones who open the door? Do Guardians judge the worthiness of taking tests based on this ability or on the fact that guy opened the door? If so, are there people with this ability who didn't open the door but are still eligible to take tests? You could think of a ton of special circumstances...
- Right for the Wrong Reasons, no one can access the 135th Floor, but not due to irregular status, but rather due to Jahad being a prick. For the specifics, see the WMG answer below.
- Essentially confirmed by the most recent chapter — except rather than a weapon, they were part of the key that Jahad used to lock access to the 135th floor.
- Semi-correct. It turns out to be a copy of the Thorn, a weapon that Enryu once used to kill the 43th floor Guardian.
- This is half-true. Word of God (from the author's blog) is that Jahad is inactive at the moment; the acting head of government are the Three Lords, although we don't really know much about them.
- Even after Jahad wakes up as of the end of the Hidden Floor arc, this WMG is still sorta-kinda true-ish but in an inverted sort of way. While Jahad's orders are typically sent out via alters, Adori Jahad is the only person who directly receives orders from the King himself.
- Could also come with the sub-theory that FUG knows full well that he is Jahad reborn, and they are trying to either a) maintain control of him when he figures it out, or b) are trying to convince him to become a benevolent ruler rather than the apparent tyrant he has been in the past (and doing a TERRIBLE job of it).
- Also explains why Bam is able to pick up techniques so fast. He isn't COPYING them - he's already learned them previously, now he's just remembering how to perform them!
- Jossed: It is revealed that Bam is actually the son of V and Arlene, two of Jahad's companions when he first ascended the Tower.
.. Of course, this theory does kind of fall apart when you consider that the contract is more likely binding her, as opposed to binding the regulars, but who knows?
- Well, arguably, as Jahad's contractual immortality apparently doesn't apply to any Irregulars, if she were to... have her contract violated by an irregular, she is still technically a virgin as she's never gotten frisky with anybody the Tower recognizes as a person.
- Surely he has to have some expertise in fighting after climbing thirty floors.
- Well, given that he managed to fight against two other people at once during the Crown-Game- one of whom had a knife, it wasn't like he didn't have any fighting expertise, it's just that his teammates were comparatively monstrous.
- Semi-Confirmed as of the Cage Arc humorously; he manages to get the jump on Quaetro with a "deadly kick."
- Almost certainly jossed; he was revealed to be the son of two of Jahad's companions, Arlene and V, and every family head he's met since has called him either "Son of Arlene" or "Son of V", including Jahad himself.
- Jossed. We've been told that he's cut off ties with FUG and that he hates the lot of them...and by extension, he has beef with Viole.
- Double-jossed. His hatred to FUG is actually staged, and he's always been part of FUG.
- Triple-jossed. While he was always part of FUG, Ron Mei's dialogue at the end of the Workshop battle suggested that he earnestly had beef with Viole and was trying to get the Slayer Candidate position for himself.
- Double-jossed. His hatred to FUG is actually staged, and he's always been part of FUG.
- Confirmed as of The Cage arc.
- Let's start with the facts:
- Jahad can only be killed by an Irregular due to the Tower's contract.
- Bam is an Irregular with a great talent in Shinsu.
- Bam is currently acting under FUG because he doesn't want his friends to be harmed.
- Bam was taken in by FUG due to his talent, but his current power is achieved not only from Training from Hell, but also from a mysterious something he gets after Rachel's betrayal.
- Now the speculations:
- That mysterious object is probably made by FUG.
- There is also a possibility that the object serves not only as a power amplifier, but also power repository. >>> Semi-jossed, see below.
- FUG may eventually declare Bam has outlived his purpose especially because Bam's personality isn't something FUG wants. >>> Confirmed; they want to kill Bam.
- If the object really is a power repository, FUG can rip Bam's power out and transfer it to someone else: Rachel. >>> Semi-jossed, see below.
- If FUG were to do that (transfer Bam's power to Rachel), that helps them because they'll get a minion who:
- has a genuine desire to climb (Bam merely follows Rachel, while Rachel has another reason to climb),
- is loyal to them (because FUG gives her the means to climb the Tower), and
- can kill Jahad (as an Irregular).
- Further speculation: FUG seems to be a sneaky organization in general, but suddenly announced Juy Viole as a Slayer Candidate to the whole world. This always felt a little weird to me, but if one considers Rachel in the role the poster above speculated, it would make sense.
- Have a 'visible' Slayer Candidate to be the center of attention, keeping the second Irregular safe from scrutiny.
- If/When the Slayer Candidate everyone is aware of is either eliminated by the Tower or by FUG, it would seem that the danger for the Tower has passed and people in charge can loosen their guard a little.
- Perfect time to use the second, hidden Irregular to strike.
- That thorn copy is indeed a power repository, but for the real Thorn, not for Bam's powers.
- FUG indeed plans to kill Bam, rip his powers and transfer it to someone else, but that someone else turns out to be Karaka.
Another possibility, related to this one, is that FUG is actually pulling a Kansas City Shuffle by having Bam be a dramatic, obvious threat in order to draw attention away from Rachel. Consider: FUG first forced Bam to openly declare himself as a regular, then hid him, then made him a slayer. Wouldn't it be easier to arrange things so he never declared himself? They wanted him to declare himself so they could then pretend to hide him, convincing the Jahad government that Bam is the crux of their plans when they're actually sneaking Rachel up the tower to kill Jahad.
First off theirs the whole soul eating thing, which was something that White was infamous for, as he went around killing thousands in order to collect souls. Then Pedro mentions how some members of FUG was against his "resurrection", implying that he was a person of high standing already in the organization, and that he was somehow killed. Haoqin also says that Pedro should "respect his senior" after he gets pissed about the comment on his height.
Then there's the fact that, along with the statement that "Hoaqin" is just an alias he uses, the characters for the name "Hoaqin" (호아퀸) is almost identical to that of the name "White" (화이트).
- Wholly confirmed before the Dallar Show ends.
- Confirmed that he's at least one of Karaka's minion as of Season 2 Chapter 90.
- While this is not confirmed, it is interesting to note that FUG's plan is to infuse Bam with the copy of the Thorn, then melt him with the copy while in the presence of the original Thorn, then use that newly forged Thorn to kill Jahad. So indeed, they don't exactly plan to make Bam kill Jahad, they just want his Irregular power, so whether or not Bam makes a contract will be rendered moot.
- That is only the plan of PART of FUG - the part that includes Beta, Karaka, and Xia Xia. Hwaryun appears to work directly for Grace (the leader of FUG), and HIS plan is still unclear - but it definitely involves Bam alive in some way.
- The point of this WMG is that 'possibly' because Bam made his "...this is not your power, but your shackle..." contract with the second floor guardian, he no longer HAS the "Irregular Power" that FUG wants.
- Original poster here. Yes, this is exactly what I meant. By making a contract he has made himself a citizen of the tower or something close enough that he no longer has the quality to kill Jahad and the Heads of the 10 Families.
- Jossed. Awww.
- Jossed on two levels; one is that Bam's backstory confirmed that he's not Jahad's son, and two is that we get to see what Jahad looked like as a D-Rank regular during the Hidden Floor, and it might as well be Wangnan wearing a costume and a mask.
- SIU said in his blog that "it is not as if I killed (Khun) off screen..."
- Jossed, they make it to Train city are are clearly still alive, just very tardy.
Considering we still know next to nothing about Rachel or her goals, it's still too early to call Rachel straight up, no-questions-asked, pure evil. Not yet anyway. This troper is still going with the idea that Rachel is a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
The rewards are said to be at the top of the Tower. We may infer that by "the top", they mean the top outside the Tower, as it is ostensibly the highest point possible of the Tower. As it is a place outside the Tower, there is no Shinsu, or at the very least, it is very scarce. Shinsu is described as an energy vital to those within the Tower. By being born within it/living within it for long enough, your body becomes too used to Shinsu and requires at least a certain amount of it in the environment to survive, similar to how we normal humans need a certain amount of oxygen to function properly.
Therefore, only Irregulars, who come from an environment where we assume there is no Shinsu, may reach the top of the Tower and survive it's environment so that they may claim the supposed reward. However, by living too long inside the Tower, one's body gets used to Shinsu and therefore, would fall into the same situation as all those born within it—thus, taking too long to reach the top results in being unable to finish the journey. This is the reason why Jahad and his cohorts have stopped at the 134th Floor—they realized this fact and also realized that finishing the climb could potentially kill them. Thus, they stopped climbing and settled for ruling over what they've claimed as theirs.
This is also another reason for why Irregulars are despised by most of them—because only they can finish what they started.
It's very likely the Tower Guardians are aware of this, and likewise FUG, having spies and contacts everywhere—which ties into why Rachel seems so adamant to climb the Tower as fast as possible: because she knows she's running on a timer; if she doesn't hurry, she'll not be able to survive being outside the Tower because of reaching the point of needing Shinsu to live.
Contracts, by their definition, are agreements made between different parties. If one party breaks the contract, it is made void. Thus, if one makes a contract with a Guardian to use Shinsu (as shown in Floor 2), then breaks it somehow, one would no longer be able to use Shinsu (or use it as well). However, Bam was shown to somehow command Shinsu to attack Hwaryun during the Crown Game—before he made the contract.
It's possible the "shackle" the 2nd Guardian spoke of to Bam may imply that it binds him to the Tower in the way that he is unable to kill Jahad because of it despite being an Irregular—but FUG isn't dumb enough to get a weapon that is useless in the first place against their enemy. They must be aware of this fact—therefore, even if Bam's contract binds him in this way, as he has shown he can use Shinsu without a contract, he needs only break it and train until he can use Shinsu under his own power.
How this will be accomplished, I do not know yet. Bam certainly has no intention to kill Jahad on his own, but probably killing the 2nd Floor Guardian will do it. Doing it is another thing entirely.
As a side-effect, this means that should Jahad and the 10 Great Families do something to severely displease the Guardians, they may revoke the benefits granted to them by their contracts, including longevity, the right to rule, and, most importantly, protection from being killed by a non-Irregular.
He has a Jahad crest ring. He's ambiguously gay, at least for one chapter. He's rather pretty. He's been referred to as "The 10 Families Greatest Mistake". SIU invokes androgyny confusion with the readers and also quite a bit with the in-universe characters.
Wangnan was made a Princess of Jahad before anyone realized he was a boy.
This is heavily implied, but since it's not explicitly stated and some people might have missed it:
- Yuri meets Jaina Repelista Jahad and asks her about Bam. Jaina Repelista Jahad feigns ignorance, but promises to search for him if Yuri gets her something. Yuri agrees, and right after she leaves, Repelista laughs to herself, with a "gotcha."
- Later, Mazino encounters Bam because he was sent to get the child of Zigena.
- After successfully retrieving the child, he indicates (when delivering it to his manservant) that getting it was a request from Yuri.
- Waaaay back in 1:28 while Bam is having one of his flashbacks about Rachel in the cave, you can see the three eye'd crest of Jahad on the wall. This could mean a couple things, the most probable being that Jahad is a legend outside the tower as well as inside.
- Or, more interestingly that Jahad has a way to at least contact the outside of the tower if not leave it completely that he hasn't let anyone else know about. Instead of sleeping he could be ruling both the inside and outside of the tower.
- Could explain why Phantaminium entered and stormed his castle, cause he already knew of him from outside...
- Jossed on two levels; the blanks for the unnamed Tenth Family Head match up with that of Hendo Lok Bloodmadder, who's a guy, and also Bam's backstory confirmed that he's not Jahad's kid in any capacity. Additionally, the right-bottom emblem in the Ten Family's logo-spread was that of the Ari Family (not to be confused with the Arie Family), and that "cross" is a sword.
- Jossed; the unnamed Tenth Family Head is Hendo Lok Bloodmadder, and children from the Hendo Family have contractually shortened lifespans, typically only a 100 years. Meanwhile Adori possesses the oldest confirmed age in the series, at over 5000 years.
- It was mentioned that she fell for a genius from the same family and Ren is the same family a genius and the youngest member of RED along with a complete Jerkass who would use someone feeling like that for even if they loved you.
- just wild here but it could be an interesting story how Karaka went form being a prodigy unequaled in his family and a agent of Jahad to a Slayer and what happened with Kaiser and afterward would make a great Start of Darkness.
- Almost certainly Jossed as Karaka is not a Lo Po Bia, but likely directly related to Jahad himself by blood, similar to Wangnan.
- With the practical limitations of building a Tower of the size depicted in story (even in a world full of magic populated by Exis), as well as certain supplementary materials suggesting it's Bigger on the Inside, it would make perfect sense for the inhabitants of the Tower to be living inside a constructed world with different physical laws than our own. The Axis would, in that case, be the devs of their region, capable of Rewriting Reality.
Obviously, Gustang would find out about this, and not appreciate that Jahad's plan did this to Eurasia, and is now looking for potential allies that will one day support him in getting back at Jahad. This is why Gustang appeared to be supporting Bam from behind-the-scenes of the Workshop Battle, and now appears to also be the person that made sure Princess Garam hiding out on the Floor of Death was able to be kept secret from the eyes of Jahad.
- Heh, was going to add "Gustang is betraying Jahad (taking that as already established) because of his daughter (that's the guess part)."
- Semi-Confirmed as of the Three Orders mini-arc. While his motives aren't known, Gustang gave a stingray to Rachel which stole Data-Jahad's Fitbit of secrets, along with Urek's sex-offender anklet and Wangnan's fashion ring, and now the Poe Bidau family have been branded as traitors.
- Later confirmed without a doubt when Gustang confronts Traumerei, although it isn't entirely out of revenge. While he is upset by how Jahad sealed away Enne, his main motive is out of disillusionment over the stagnancy of the Great Warriors.
- There are many things wrong with this theory. Firstly, for notion that Guardians are Axis is wrong on account of Enryu, who is not an Axis specifically by Word of God, managing to kill one, which would be impossible if they were Axis. Secondly on them being former Axis, how the Hell does one stop being an Axis? Author Powers aren't just something you can lose. Also, becoming an Axis isn't just something you can be granted by passing a test, according to what little info there is, any normal shmuck can become one via "Awakening." Also, why would ones evil nature prevent them from becoming an Axis? Also also, how did you jump from "Rachel wants to see the stars" to "Rachel wants infinite freedom"? Also also also, what do irregulars have to do with Axis? Also also also also, Bam was born (and then killed) way before Phanta's siege, so him getting "distracted" by Bam being born makes zero sense. In conclusion, it's a joke to say that this string of baseless guesses makes perfect sense, when it actually brings up more questions than it answers. Jossed.
Given that the two are at least half-brothers, Karaka may start teaching Wangnan how to harness the power in their blood.
- To support this theory, at one point Jahad stated that he acquired his fate-manipulation powers on a certain day. What if it was when Jahad was about to continue climbing only to then be stopped by the Tower giving him visions of what would happen if he completes the 135th Floor? It would make sense, since Jahad is the only Irregular around who can actually control fate as he did. From what we've seen, Bam does have the ability to alter fate and destiny, but he does so subconciously and he definitely can't see fate. The fact that Jahad can both see and control fate and to an entirely different level than other Seers around definitely indicates the Tower gave Jahad that power for a very strong reason and that reason could very well be to stop him from presumably dooming the Tower by unlocking whatever horror lies on the 135th Floor.
- A decent idea would be that completing the 135th Floor ends the Tower itself and sends everyone on it to the Outside. Since the people of the Tower know absolutely nothing about the Outside, and we also don't know whether or not the Outside would be better than the Tower, maybe Zahard knows that it's too dangerous to take everyone in the Tower out into a world they know so little about.
- It's quite possible, in fact, that the Outside could be an even worse of a Crapsack World than the Tower. If we think about it, the Irregulars that entered the Tower all quickly displayed incredible strength. But what if that isn't just because they were special? What if the Outside is actually a world full of conflict and strife? What if the Irregulars that entered the Tower HAD to be powerful to survive? If even the Irregulars had a rough life on the Outside, then how would the people of the Tower, who had little understanding of the Outside and tend to be much less powerful than Irregulars, fare on the Outside?
- While Urek, another Irregular, has shown to strongly desire to return the Outside and leave the Tower, don't forget that he came in far later on after the Original Irregulars had settled on the Tower. So maybe the conflicts on the Outside may have diminished so Urek could live a decent life, but at the same time, we also know fully well just how powerful Urek is. Maybe the conflicts haven't fully settled down and Urek was also trained and had to be powerful to survive.
- A noteworthy apparent support of this theory is that when Urek came to ask Gustang about how to leave the Tower, whatever happened between them made Urek gave up on the idea and even said he would rather dig his way out with a spoon than ask him anything again. It's quite possible that the Original Irregulars, such as Gustang, doesn't like the Outside, as they can clearly stand to be apart from it, and want nothing to do with it and Gustang probably shoved this straight into Urek's face, which would have most likely greatly annoyed and irritated him.
- Not only that, we have to remember Rachel's words. As much of a Jerkass as she is, she said at one point that she couldn't bear to live in the Outside anymore. So we have at least one Irregular who hates the Outside. Maybe she doesn't know exactly what's on the top of the Tower. Perhaps this may get to be karma for her later on, as she tries to escape her home by going into the Tower and then climbing to get glory, only to be slapped with the reality that she is in fact trying to return to the home she hates so much.
- It's quite possible, in fact, that the Outside could be an even worse of a Crapsack World than the Tower. If we think about it, the Irregulars that entered the Tower all quickly displayed incredible strength. But what if that isn't just because they were special? What if the Outside is actually a world full of conflict and strife? What if the Irregulars that entered the Tower HAD to be powerful to survive? If even the Irregulars had a rough life on the Outside, then how would the people of the Tower, who had little understanding of the Outside and tend to be much less powerful than Irregulars, fare on the Outside?