Quote Originally Posted by Alleo View Post
And we do know that souls do reincarnate. That is now canon in story. (Our soul being probably the 14th one) Also people on the shard had to be reborn quite some times too because the split that shattered the souls happened quite some time ago. Yet here we are with people like first!Gerolt or even Ardbert our soul part. One could argue that we might be special cases but someone like Gerolt? He does not possess the echo yet his shard part also lives. That means they must have reincarnated too because they cant be new souls otherwise they would not be shards of each other. (Which begs the question on how new souls are created and if those that are created are whole)
Bear in mind, that while Grenoldt, Mowen, and the Traveling Merchant at the beginning of ShB MSQ might have a suspiciously strong resemblance to their counterparts on the Source, they have not been confirmed to be split souls, either in-game or out. It is only fan speculation, and should not be presented as fact.

The fact that they have a strong resemblance to their source counterparts is not relevant. In fact, it's a strike AGAINST the theory. We have only one confirmed example of two people who have parts of the same soul, and that's the Warrior of Light and Ardbert - and unless you were VERY specific in how you created your Warrior of Light, the two don't resemble one another at all, and in all likelihood aren't even the same race or gender (or both).

I think there was even an interview where Yoshi P mentioned that certain professions attract a certain type of individual, and so we might see some familiar faces on the First. I don't remember the interview, or if that's exactly what he said, though.

I agree, though, that reincarnation does happen. The WoL's own soul is one example, and all of the Ascians that aren't Lahabrea, Elidibus, or Emet-Selch are also reincarnations of the various Convocation members. There are very likely others. However, I personally believe that not ALL souls reincarnate - I don't think there were enough Ancients left after Zodiark chowed down on three quarters of them to account for the entire population of Hydaelyn. Some souls - most, probably - came about in some other way (probably the "new life" Zodiark created), and THOSE souls, I think, are subject to the whole dissolution and reforming process that the Sharlayans have studied. They don't reincarnate - or if they do, it's only under special circumstances.