What do you think is the differences in souls?

There's really no telling with Gilgamesh Greg. A lot of the indicators we see point to him being the Gilgamesh Greg from FF5, still galavanting around the multiverse via the Rift, rather than being some FFXIV-flavored knockoff like Shinryu was. He might not even adhere to the same set of physical and metaphysical laws.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

There's really no telling with Gilgamesh Greg. A lot of the indicators we see point to him being the Gilgamesh Greg from FF5, still galavanting around the multiverse via the Rift, rather than being some FFXIV-flavored knockoff like Shinryu was. He might not even adhere to the same set of physical and metaphysical laws.

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It probably won't ever happen, but I wish they would explore the multiverse of FF seriously and beyond Dissidia games.
But yeah that's probably a fan wish that would never happen.

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Originally Posted by Kranel_San

It probably won't ever happen, but I wish they would explore the multiverse of FF seriously and beyond Dissidia games.
But yeah that's probably a fan wish that would never happen.

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The closest they got was The After Years, where they pitched the idea that the crystals in Final Fantasy games are seeds of an alien race manipulating the planet's development for experimentation or something or other--look, The After Years wasn't very good, I don't remember its multiverse pitch all too clearly, only that it wasn't picked up by any other FF game, crossover or no. Which is probably a good thing, because TAY also showed the problems of making a game grappling with that multiverse 'seriously'. Namely, that it shrinks down the other games and treats them as lesser than whatever the one doing that story is in; TAY's optional bosses all but directly declare that all the other 2D FF worlds faced down those same beings and lost. Which is absolutely insulting to me as an FFV fan, because you can't tell me that there's ever a problem that Cecil and company could deal with that Bartz and his friends couldn't take down LEAGUES quicker and easier.

Dissidia works because it structures its story in a way that everyone gets at least one chance to be cool, and the final battle can be taken up by anyone, so the only favoritism going on is your own. ...but also that it doesn't take itself too seriously, which lets it have Shantotto and Ultimecia hurl insults at each other for two minutes and let that be their moment in the sun. Which is also an accurate approach to the series; remember, the game with Aerith's death is the same one that has Wall Market.

My mind keeps on wondering about what kind of effect the rejoinings really have on souls made post sundering or at least made post 2nd sacrifice. As I doubt the planet stopped making new souls. We know that not everyone person on the source or the shards has a soul of an ancient inside as there are some people at least of the source and on the first that witnessed multiple star showers events. Yet Thancred, Y'shtola, Urianger and Ryne haven't awoken to the echo even though they've all seen at least two star showers. What we don't know is how dense any post sundering souls are. Or what seven calamities do to them? As they wouldn't have shards of themselves being popped back in.

Beq Lugg notes that the rest of the Scions have denser souls than citizens of the First, so they still got another piece added back after every Rejoining. My theory is they're the product of the souls born after the Ancients began sacrificing to Zodiark but before the Sundering. As the Echo is awakened by a soul remembering the trauma of the Final Days (well, the first Final Days), they can't awaken to it because they were never there.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

I don't think that souls in this particular in-game universe behave the same way that many of us would intuitively expect. Your sense of 'self' is largely a function of your memories, and most memories don't remain on a soul after it's returned to the lifestream without a good reason (i.e. powerful unresolved regrets, or Kairos' aetheric manipulations). Although I wonder what happens to all these memories. Perhaps there's a lifestream primal like FFVII's Minerva who sits around jotting all of them down somewhere.

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Seems that you can take memories in, you can't take them back out (beyond something creating a stain too stubborn for the lifestream bath to remove, like the memory equivalent of red wine on a white shirt.)

I did get the impression that you retain your memories and your sense of self, and possibly all your previous memories from other lives as well, while you're in there. Moving on/sinking deeper into the aetherial sea seemed to be at least somewhat of a choice, and you could choose to hold off on it (at least for a bit) if you wanted to.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

Beq Lugg notes that the rest of the Scions have denser souls than citizens of the First, so they still got another piece added back after every Rejoining. My theory is they're the product of the souls born after the Ancients began sacrificing to Zodiark but before the Sundering. As the Echo is awakened by a soul remembering the trauma of the Final Days (well, the first Final Days), they can't awaken to it because they were never there.

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It's possible that a soul is just a soul and they all start out at equal density, it's only Etheirys unique split nature that results in different densities on the different worlds.
Essentially, whatever process it is that leads to the creation of a soul is not sundered, but the process that places said souls into living beings is.

In theory a fully rejoined but not fully restored world would see all the sundered being born with proper full fat 14/14 souls.

In 'Tales from the Shadows: Through His Eyes,' Hyth describes the soul bound to the Phoinix as 'resisting the pull of the Underworld' on account for its regret. Free floating souls without a vessel likely have a natural pull that draws them back into the lifestream. I imagine that the only ones that tend to linger are the ones that still have some unfinished business of some sort.

I don't think that you're ordinarily supposed to retain memories of the soul's previous lives, although Soul Crystals seem to help with this if you have the correct affinity, which is probably why the player character learns combat arts so easily.

I'm curious to know what happens to the original soul when an Ascian takes over someone's body, though. Do the two souls merge and share their memories, or does the original soul just get overridden unless it's of comparable aetheric density?

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Originally Posted by Lyth

I'm curious to know what happens to the original soul when an Ascian takes over someone's body, though. Do the two souls merge and share their memories, or does the original soul just get overridden unless it's of comparable aetheric density?

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Well, the most present example of this we've got is Thancred and Lahabrea; Lahabrea stole his body, but it seemed like Thancred was pretty okay afterwards. That seems pretty clearly 'cram 'em down and override everything'. As to whether they had access to the host's memories... I guess the question there is 'how good do you think Lahabrea is at improv?'

Huh. This sounds a lot like the Four Souls theory of Shinto mythology.

There, they're split into the hostile soul, the harmonious soul, the happy soul, and the mysterious soul -- all being part of one, combined person.

Makes you wonder if Emet did the stuffing down method or if Solus actually died on that one mission and Emet took over the body. Elidibus, the black masked and ShB/EW Fandaniel at least that we know of were manipulating dead bodies. No clue about Iygthorm, Nabriales or the few Ascians we physically deal with was doing the soul squish/old school possession or if most were doing the dead body snatch.

Hermes when we deal with him as let's kill everything Fandaniel and later as Amon does suggest that remembering past lives does actually happen. Or he probably wouldn't call Amon being his favorite. Do we think the Dorthral have people with soul sight? As we've been told they have a way of knowing who just got reborn even if the Dorthal was born into a different clan. It seems odd that even though that ability is talked as though it's rare amongst the Ancients that it would just disappear. Even in Elpis there seemed to be a few that could tell. Just not as strongly as Emet or Hythlodaeus.