Quote Originally Posted by SpectrePhantasia View Post
However, 'themes' being apparent is not a valid excuse for being needlessly murky on what is pretty inarguably the most important event in the entire world's lore.
The impression I've gotten is they wrote themselves into a corner in ShB, one which they might not have recognized until they read players discuss it. The "new life" angle is what was presented in ShB (and mostly dropped in EW), so either the Convocation was mistaken about what Venat's motives were or that was the reason she was giving people.

I consider the second sacrifice the more interesting one. Zodiark had to restore the world after the Final Days. We're given no indication Venat objected to this, perhaps it was seen as being necessary after what we hear and see of the devastation it caused. We're told in Elpis that the Ancients can't create souls, so it calls into question whether Zodiark would be able to either. What exactly was he asked to do? Were it to make the planet inhabitable again, then the priority should've been on the flora and fauna necessary to re-establish an ecosystem. It doesn't make sense for the Ancients to give their lives for other humanoids unless they were incredibly altruistic.

Perhaps they asked Zodiark to return the world to how it was before the Final Days and, even then, it seems he was only capable of bringing back life in its infancy. Any newborns, whether human or animal, would've had to have been raised by the Ancients, which would certainly lend itself to them being loathe to sacrifice them later. Even taking humanoids out of the equation, you couldn't convince me to offer up cats I'd raised from kittens to be sacrificed. However, I'm sure I could find people who would if it meant releasing their departed loved ones.

Speaking of which, they wrote the souls of the sacrificed were trapped within Zodiark, which also changes the debate. It wasn't just about bringing them back to life, it was that their souls weren't even free to return to the star and a big deal is made about this being a fundamental part of their beliefs. I'm not religious myself, but I can only imagine that's like saying your loved ones can't go to Heaven, they're trapped indefinitely in purgatory, but you have the means to free them if you're willing to make a trade. This would be a difficult choice for many.