Quote Originally Posted by Absimiliard View Post
Is it truly demanding a sacrifice from the planet when the life brought forth by Zodiark wasn't even entirely a product of it to begin with? The Ancients sacrificed themselves to create Zodiark and later did it again to restore life to the world, meaning they did not need to utilize the planet's reserves of aether for the act in the first place. Thus, any life brought forth by Zodiark is, in my opinion, already removed from the natural order. Sacrificing this life to bring back the people that died to give Zodiark life just seems reasonable, and it in no way would harm the star. If anything, restoring the Ancient population would have been a great boon given their desire to resume living for the planet as they had.
It's a little wonky that we don't exactly know if the life that sprung up after Zodiark was by Zodiark, or just... well, after Zodiark. Zodiark's presence does actually impact the biosphere (the Fisher Studium questline is explicitly about the fact that killing Zodiark messed with aether currents and how that screwed with marine life), so it could go either way.

But... aren't both angles reflecting pretty badly on the Ancients? If it's from the planet, again, they're going back on their whole mission statement and demanding tribute from the planet they're supposed to be nurturing. If it's from Zodiark, then they're going against Zodiark's plan. They asked him to fix the planet; he did, and then he made new life. Who are they to take this new life that he made and say 'we don't want this; eat it and give us back Hythlodaeus'? maybe Zodiark has a plan, and they're screwing it up.