Question pertaining to the afterlife in FFXIV

[Cilia]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but...

When discussing the pixies' childlike temperaments, Alphinaud (I believe) conjectures that souls may not dissolve in the Lifestream, but still exist as independent packets. This is why pixies are the reincarnated souls of children - their existence persists in the Lifestream until they are reborn. Handily enough, this also explains doppelgangers on the First - Gerolt's doppelganger just has another piece of his otherwise fragmented soul, which is why they are for all intents and purposes the exact same person. (His First counterpart just has long flowing hair instead of being bald.)

It's not like this is a new concept for Final Fantasy, either - it's possible to persist in the Lifestream of VII with a strong emotion, though this tends to degrade the personality of those who do so. President Shinra and Septhiroth both manage it through greed and hatred, respectively.

The events in Amaurot suggest the Warrior of Light / Darkness is the reincarnated soul of an ancient Ascian - Emet-Selch's good friend Hythlodaeus no less - and that their overwhelming strength is owed to them having the soul fragments of their other selves that were rejoined through the Ascians' machinations. Ardbert was their First counterpart, who seems to willingly merge with the Warrior of [Light / Darkness] to help stave off the corruption from the Lightwardens' power until it's used to finish off Hades.

[dragoelete]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but...

It's not like this is a new concept for Final Fantasy, either - it's possible to persist in the Lifestream of VII with a strong emotion, though this tends to degrade the personality of those who do so. President Shinra and Septhiroth both manage it through greed and hatred, respectively.

i would like to mention that...

sephiroth according to ffvii lore didnt persist through hatred in the lifestream the reason he always comes back is that the lifestream sees him as an alien existance therefor it cannot absorb him

[Enkidoh]

i would like to mention that...

sephiroth according to ffvii lore didnt persist through hatred in the lifestream the reason he always comes back is that the lifestream sees him as an alien existance therefor it cannot absorb him

Not just that,

I'm pretty certain that he refused to diffuse into the Lifestream simply because his will was too strong. His Jenova infusion indeed probably did not help though.

As for President Shinra living on after death, ignore what was said in The Maiden Who Wandered the Planet, as it's not actually canon (it's just a glorified fanfic that was licenced by Square without actually being officially endorsed as canon by them) - the original game or FFVII AC pretty much never touched on what happened to the President's soul after Sephiroth did him in, it's safe to assume he returned to the Planet as normal. But anyway, I digress...

Getting back onto FFXIV, it seems that in some cases, the soul may not necessarily return to Hydaelyn after death, but instead exist in a kind of purgatory state - this is the only explanation as to why numerous enemies that fell to our blade throughout ARR's story show up posthumously in the appropriately named Palace of the Dead (Teledji-Adeledji being one of the more infamous inhabitants), just so you can have the satisfaction of killing them again. Given that all those found in there met sudden and violent ends, it's possible that the old ghost-story trope of 'unfinished business' may apply there, but it's all very murky.