Should Eldritch Tokens only be used as tokens for the original reason they were placed?

Question

Eldritch tokens are often used for differing purposes and different mythos cards and effects. Can they or should they be used generically across all active effects? Here is an example.

The Cthulhu ancient one spawn Eldritch tokens on any sea space occupied by an investigator when a reckoning effect occurs and the ensuing effect is investigators traveling through these spaces get delayed (stopped in their tracks). One of the mysteries for this ancient one places Eldritch tokens on each sea space nearest each investigator and allows them to test against it and spend clues toward solving the mystery.

Does this then mean every Eldritch token, whether it was placed by the Cthulhu reckoning effect or this mystery now delays investigators, and every Eldritch token is a candidate for being tested against to progress through the mystery, or do we have to have some way to keep track of which tokens were placed by which mystery/effect? I can see either approach as being easier or harder in both cases, so using the "harder on investigators" reasoning doesn't work. The sensible storyline approach argues that the tokens should be unique to the mystery/effect that created them.

I lean toward the sensible story approach but it is rather fantastic to consider that so much is going on in this wild flurry of activity that maybe it is worth simply saying an Eldritch token is simply indistinguishable from any other token once it's placed.

Update: The reference guide indicates that

When the active Mystery is solved or removed from play, discard all tokens on it or placed by it. Then draw a new Mystery, placing it on top of any solved Mysteries.

so at least there is some maintenance of the eldritch tokens (pulling them off) as these get solved. I do not know if mythos cards result in eldritch tokens being placed in locations.

Answer 1

Typically, you use a straight forward reading of the rules/instructions in EH. In this case they indicate that the tokens are interchangable.

The mystery you refer to also clearly states that any Eldritch tokens remaining on the board when the mystery is solved should stay on the board. This rather strongly indicates that (in this case at least) it is intended that all Eldritch tokens can be used to resolve the mystery and that you must abide by the travel restrictions on all the (new) tokens that the Cthulhu AO has.

Also, I'm sure that if the intent were other, they would have included alternative tokens. This also hasn't been mentioned in any errata document from the publisher. So, I'd go with the instructions as written.

Further, this correspondence was received from FFG in answer to the question, which seals the ruling:

An Eldritch token is just an Eldritch token. If placed on the board or a card, it has no inherent effect. They act or affect the game as instructed by any effects that reference them. Players are not expected to remember where any given Eldritch token came from.

An Eldritch token placed by a Mystery is exactly the same as an Eldritch token placed by Cthulhu’s reckoning effect. In such a case, Eldritch tokens on the board represent odd happenings or areas under the influence of Cthulhu.