Do artificial beings have souls ?

I'd point out to all the people waffling on the nature of souls that for all apparent purposes, a soul is simply an intelligence that has become solid enough that it is able to survive the process of reentering the life stream without breaking down into it's component anima and thus is able to be reborn in time on this world or another. It doesn't -do- anything else, full stop. It doesn't have any special qualities beyond that single one, and it doesn't even, usually, retain it's memories (barring certain highly unusual things done to it's aether). The basic format of the soul, the core level personality, apparently remains, but even then variations on the form are enormously different over time.

Which in turn means that a soul is 'special' but is not a crafted thing but an emergent phenomena, any being that is sufficiently self willed will inevitably gather enough aetheric density to the part of itself that does the decision making and thinking to inevitably gain enough aetheric density to continue existence after death, and even THIS can be wiped out under the right circumstances (As Dynamis proved capable of doing)

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Originally Posted by Iscah

That was a totally unnecessary justification anyway, because it's already established in lore that teleporting can take your party members along with you. I think it's stated by the aetheryte guards who explain teleport magic, and you definitely see the Warriors of Darkness do it when they escape you at Xelphatol.

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We also see this in the Sage job questline, where one person distracts the WoL and their companion while another completes the teleport spell, taking their entire party with them.

I am curious what it actually means to have a soul in universe or not.

Like, as we understand it, when you die, your soul returns to the aether to be recycled/reborn. No heaven or afterlife, just float for a bit then get recycled. Cool. But with very few exceptions (like Minfillia/Ascians/Maybe certain peoples of the Azem Steppe), being a reborn soul is not really meaningful/does not offer some kind of benefit.

Does not having a soul limit your abilities to do things, or have some detrimental effect?

Also, I think spot on to Shadowdancer- perhaps having a soul or not is just being above a certain level of aetheric density.

Several times character make reference to hells. So people do believe in an afterlife even though they known there isn't one.

Yeah games should never touch what happens when we die in definitive ways. Creates lots of problems. Also if everyone knew they would just be reborn I imagine the suicide rate would be like....crazy high.

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Originally Posted by Necrotica

Several times character make reference to hells. So people do believe in an afterlife even though they known there isn't one.

Yeah games should never touch what happens when we die in definitive ways. Creates lots of problems. Also if everyone knew they would just be reborn I imagine the suicide rate would be like....crazy high.

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To be fair though, I don't think the population at large is even aware of the intricacies we players are aware of. Like, I'm not even sure the average guy on the street is aware Hydaelyn is an actual entity and not just another name of the planet. I also would wager most people don't even know what or who a "Zodiark" even is.

Most of what we see in the religious sense is either centered around the 12 gods or some kind of Earth analog (Shinto/Animism, Reincarnation myths, etc)

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Originally Posted by kaynide

To be fair though, I don't think the population at large is even aware of the intricacies we players are aware of. Like, I'm not even sure the average guy on the street is aware Hydaelyn is an actual entity and not just another name of the planet. I also would wager most people don't even know what or who a "Zodiark" even is.

Most of what we see in the religious sense is either centered around the 12 gods or some kind of Earth analog (Shinto/Animism, Reincarnation myths, etc)

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Exactly this. The population at large is not aware there even IS a planet, or what it entails for there to BE a planet. It bears noting that the bulk of characters we meet are scholars especially learned in Aetherology, and Sharlayans to boot, who are known to both be more aware of things and incredibly cagey about that information, so most of the people we meet only have the worldview of their religion; since the WoL also doesn't go around dispelling any notions, otherwise the Ala Mhigan side of StB would've gone very differently if we'd gone around everywhere saying "You know there are no Heavens and Hells, right? And we're not too sure Rhalgr is real..."

Granted, with Myths of the Realm, who knows just how much of "Myth" will end up being actually real but misunderstood, so it's likely the "Heavens" and "Hells" DO exist but in a different way than we think of them.

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Originally Posted by Necrotica

Several times character make reference to hells. So people do believe in an afterlife even though they known there isn't one.

Yeah games should never touch what happens when we die in definitive ways. Creates lots of problems. Also if everyone knew they would just be reborn I imagine the suicide rate would be like....crazy high.

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No, I don't think they would. Plenty of real-world religions believe in reincarnation. Interestinly, according a report I looked up (it's the internet though, so take it with a grain of salt), it's lower in the countries where the dominate religion does believe in reincarnation.