Revelations from the Endwalker Preview Site

[MikkoAkure]

What if the voidsent we make a contract with is actually the fragment of ourselves from the 13th that got turned into a Voidsent.

The problem I have with that is that it would be super lame if past WoLs on the 13th grew in power and then were twisted into these giant boss enemies, but our WoL’s counterpart is just a dinky little shadow smaller than 90% of all void enemies.

[Bright-Flower]

Rogue is basically Thief, yeah.

I just find it a little funny that they don't actually call it Thief because it doesn't fit with the character of the WoL, but a scythe wielding Reaper summoning a demonic aether starved entity from a ruined hellscape dimension is a-ok.

It seemed to me that part of it may also have just been that you don't really steal anything gameplay wise. I mean sure you have 'mug' but it's not really the same as the classic thief steal ability.

I also wonder if the WOL reaper will be any different from the npcs. They're not garlean and can use aether normally afterall, so maybe they don't need to use the souls of who they slay etc. Curious to see where that plot goes.

[zeylos]

Maybe there are "parts" of one soul that basically stays back or "falls of" when someone dies. So the core would always go on but something still lingers which then can be used by others.

I've always (maybe incorrectly lmk) that when one dies in Eorzea, their body and 'energy' (aka aether) go back to the world (the body rots the aether can be manipulated and goes back to hydealyn as far as I understand) and then their soul (from what I gather, in eorzea its one's conciousness, personality, memories, emotions etc) alwasy go back to the lifestream regardless of any other conditions, so when u 'use' a soul, you are just using someones energy.
There is also this thing of the end of the heavensward storyline where: Spoiler warning for 3.3:

Haurchefant and Ysayle allow you to be able to sustain Nidhog's power and cast the eyes unto the abyss, even though they died in the storyline, so does this mean sometimes ppl stay as ghosts?

[Riastrad]

The problem I have with that is that it would be super lame if past WoLs on the 13th grew in power and then were twisted into these giant boss enemies, but our WoL’s counterpart is just a dinky little shadow smaller than 90% of all void enemies.

Exactly this. I think if we ever do meet our counter part from the Void, it would be tied to a Main Scenario storyline. Not an optional one.

Besides. I think we already met them in ShadowBringers.

[SannaR]

I've always (maybe incorrectly lmk) that when one dies in Eorzea, their body and 'energy' (aka aether) go back to the world (the body rots the aether can be manipulated and goes back to hydealyn as far as I understand) and then their soul (from what I gather, in eorzea its one's conciousness, personality, memories, emotions etc) alwasy go back to the lifestream regardless of any other conditions, so when u 'use' a soul, you are just using someones energy.
There is also this thing of the end of the heavensward storyline where: Spoiler warning for 3.3:

Haurchefant and Ysayle allow you to be able to sustain Nidhog's power and cast the eyes unto the abyss, even though they died in the storyline, so does this mean sometimes ppl stay as ghosts?

We do know that not every soul goes back or we wouldn't have the various dead people you can encounter in PtoD showing up in there. Also we wouldn't have Fuath and Pixies if souls just automatically went to the lifestream. However we do know that souls are hard to make and new ones rarely happened pre Zodiark summoning. Or at least prior to the sundering if the new life he created didn't also have new souls.

[Jandor]

The problem I have with that is that it would be super lame if past WoLs on the 13th grew in power and then were twisted into these giant boss enemies, but our WoL’s counterpart is just a dinky little shadow smaller than 90% of all void enemies.

Plenty of Azem's have probably been kinda lame at some point in the past 12,000 years across the 14 worlds, would make our characters kind of boring if we're just destined to always be amazing every time we respawn.

[VargasVermillion]

Im so confused about them 'using' the souls of the dead, didn't we get told at ShB that souls were eternal and indestructible and they all would eventually reincarnate into smth?

Actually yeah, voidsent aren't exactly the souls of dead people either so it's either an in universe interpretation of summoning a voidsent or it's of a different nature we just aren't aware of yet. Either way we'll probably get a valid explanation when we do the unlock quest. The idea of summoning a voidsent in the first place seems mad unsustainable and almost cruel in a greater context.

[YianKutku]

It may have to deal with the exact terms of the contract. Depending on how thorough the contract is set up, the voidsent may be unable to find a loophole. Something as vague as "Give me power, I give you souls" gives a lot of legroom for contract exploiting. However, something more specific like, "You give me your power, I give you the souls of those I kill, including my own upon my death. However you cannot under any circumstances do anything that could result in my death, whether directly or indirectly," is a lot harder to exploit.

It would be kind of bizarre if the beleaguered Garleans, desperately making contracts with voidsent for power, can somehow come up with contracts that even the voidmages of Mhach considered impossible.

The voidmages of Mhach started from the basic assumption that no matter how carefully-worded (quoted from Cait Sith), sufficiently intelligent voidsent will find a loophole in the contract. Hence the insurance in the form of the Nullstone, which provided a major disincentive for the voidsent to play rules-lawyer. Especially since the Mhachi have no such restrictions on following any contract, and can use the Nullstone regardless of whether it's justified. (Presumably they don't use it that often because it's not easy to summon and bind voidsent.)

For example, "you cannot under any circumstance do anything that could result in my death, whether directly or indirectly" could have a voidsent go "ah, but I didn't do anything. I simply didn't do anything, and if your circumstances mean you die anyway, that's hardly my problem." Which was a plot point back in Asimov's robot stories, so it's not a new loophole concept.

[Vyrerus]

Perhaps there's something about Garlean physiology that the Voidsent don't know, and it just so happens that when a Voidsent binds itself to a Garlean host they are at the will and mercy of the Garlean.

Though if we go by Aria's problem from the RDM storyline, it could be something that became ingratiated in entire lineages. A blood pact, even, like with Xande and Cloud of Darkness. I mean, what were the rules of that pact? Cloud of Darkness's own laser beams diverted course from hitting Catboi Deluxe on a split second basis...

[YianKutku]

Perhaps there's something about Garlean physiology that the Voidsent don't know, and it just so happens that when a Voidsent binds itself to a Garlean host they are at the will and mercy of the Garlean.

Though if we go by Aria's problem from the RDM storyline, it could be something that became ingratiated in entire lineages. A blood pact, even, like with Xande and Cloud of Darkness. I mean, what were the rules of that pact? Cloud of Darkness's own laser beams diverted course from hitting Catboi Deluxe on a split second basis...

Ooh, that might be interesting. We know the Ascians encourage the use of voidsent by mortals (eg the Haukke and Shisui incidents in the MSQ), and the Garleans are apparently the chosen race of at least one Ascian to bring down the Calamities, like the Allagans were (or whatever civilization eventually became the Allagans). There may have been some tinkering going on.