The CROWN, the one that Astos demands from you and that the wizards in the Marsh Cave were guarding, is neccessary to enter the Castle of Ordeals. I have wondered about this for some time, on two points: First of all, since you need the TNT to break to canal to even get to the Castle of Ordeals (You need to get the canoe at least, then need to get to the place itself), why is it necessary to have this as a qualifier? You should have it no matter what by this point in the game, and I think it'd be impossible not to. Assuming this, then the reason it was put in must be something regarding the storyline. The FFI world and story has always amazed me with its intricacy disguised by simplicity, at least in my opinion, and I was wondering if anyone has done any speculation on this matter. Could the crown originally be from the Northern Civilization, and Astos needs it to somehow use the power of that civilization? Could Astos desire it so that he could enter the Castle of Ordeals for some purpose (I doubt if he did get the Rat's Tail that Bahamut would even think of bestowing new powers on a dark elf, but maybe...) , or maybe the Dark Elves were involved in the construction of the Castle of Ordeals? I don't reallly have a definite question, just looking for any speculation.