Quote Originally Posted by SDaemon View Post
Said civilization had zero qualms about throwing away half their population twice over and were perfectly willing to commit genocide of every new life born into the world just so they wouldn't have to feel sorrow or despair and recluse themselves into ignorant bliss of "paradise". The rest of the Ancient population making decisions aren't exactly of high standing moral character either.
There was nothing left to use for aether other than themselves. I'm sure mass suicide wouldn't be their #1 choice had circumstances not demanded it. "...Yet oh how the star had suffered. So many species lost. The land was blighted, the waters poisoned, and even the wind had ceased to blow."

As for the new life: "Once more did our people give of themselves to Zodiark. Another half of our race sacrificed to cleanse the world; to ensure that trees and grasses and myriad tiny lives would sprout and grow and flourish." Sounds to me like the focus was on restoring ecosystems to make the star inhabitable.

Regardless, I couldn't help but notice that "new life" was not mentioned in EW as one of Venat's reasons for sundering, so I'm left to assume either that plot was dropped, the Convocation was incorrect about her motives, or that's the lie she was telling people.

Quote Originally Posted by TaleraRistain View Post
So, this new life had souls and they wanted to sacrifice it to get back what they had.
The Ancients couldn't create souls, so there's no reason to believe Zodiark capable of that feat either. However, souls being randomly generated, it stands to reason there were some in the mix. The Ancients weren't vegan and they didn't consider returning to the star to be a bad thing, so they wouldn't have had a moral quandary about sacrificing a portion of flora and fauna to release their loved ones' souls from Zodiark purgatory.