Revelations from Patch 5.3

[Hikari_Kishimoto]

Seeing as most (all?) of us are reincarnations of sundered ancients, does that mean Emet will have been shredded up and chucked into the lifestream when he died?
Would he even get sundered at this point?

I'm afraid not. As I understand it, when you pierce an ascians soul with light, it fades out of existence.
It doesn't return to the lifestream, because the soul itself has been destroyed.

[Vyrerus]

I fear not. As I understand it, when you pierce an ascians soul with light, it fades out of existence.
It doesn't return to the lifestream, because the soul itself has been destroyed.

To expound on this, if you pierce any soul with a pure aether blade, then the soul will be destroyed rather than return to the lifestream. This is part of what made Haurchefant's death so poignant. That javelin of light, "Spear of The Fury" was meant to kill and destroy an immortal Echo user(the WoL). Instead it kills Haurchefant, body and soul.

We haven't just been killing Ascians, we've been erasing them completely. At least, that's how it goes in the writing of the NA version.

[Enkidoh]

To expound on this, if you pierce any soul with a pure aether blade, then the soul will be destroyed rather than return to the lifestream. This is part of what made Haurchefant's death so poignant. That javelin of light, "Spear of The Fury" was meant to kill and destroy an immortal Echo user(the WoL). Instead it kills Haurchefant, body and soul.

Except it didn't - Haurchefant came back after all in the climax of the Final Steps of Faith in spirit alongside Ysayle who helped the WoL, Aymeric and Alphinaud pull the Eyes of Nidhogg from Estinien's armour, after they succeed in removing the Eyes and freeing Estinien from Nidhogg's control and banished Nidhogg's spirit forever, they're last seen doing an 'Aerith and Zack' from Advent Children when they smile, and then walk into the light and disappear. So their spirits are most definetely not destroyed aetherically like what befell the Ascians (presumedly they returned to the Lifestream after that).

[Jandor]

I fear not. As I understand it, when you pierce an ascians soul with light, it fades out of existence.
It doesn't return to the lifestream, because the soul itself has been destroyed.

I always just interpreted the beams of light and such as simply one of the few ways to attack something as intangible as a soul, functionally equivalent to stabbing a mortal with a sword.

Stab a mortal to death and their soul gets auto-kicked from the material plane, booting a being that is essentially just a disembodied soul riding around in a meat suit though, well that requires an equally intangible sword.

Maybe I'm wrong but I always thought the end result would be essentially the same, both souls ultimately ending up recycled.