Finished the MSQ - Feels bad, pushed to do evil [Spoilers inside]

[Shialan]

The endless are computer programs with the memory of people. They could only "live" in that last zone, but to do that they needed to kill actual people.

[Larirawiel]

Yes. I also did not like the end. Because i have already figured out a solution for those memories without deleting them.




Cheers

[Revash]

Ya, they are kept alive by a machine, would you go to a hospital and kill every person who is under life support for 20y plus? maybe you would, but that would still be murder.
My point is that they are all still alive, you cant tell me that the husband who waited for his wife there for hundreds of years and now reunited with her only to have them both killed were not a live.

Thats just it. They are not "alive" in a sense cause their bodies are dead. They are just eternal ghosts stuck in a fantasy world where they cant leave. Your example regarding hospital machines is that the body is still alive, the lungs breathe, the heart still pumps blood. The closest example the endless would be regarding your husband and wife scenario is: the wife's body is dead and buried but their memories and voice is digitilized and created into a computer hologram oh and to edit. That computer hologram is stuck in the server room it has been created in, it cant leave. So without a body to experience its joys and pains. Are you still "alive"? Philosophical question so lets leave it at that.

[genuine_stranger]

Thats just it. They are not "alive" in a sense cause their bodies are dead. They are just eternal ghosts stuck in a fantasy world where they cant leave. Your example regarding hospital machines is that the body is still alive, the lungs breathe, the heart still pumps blood. The closest example the endless would be regarding your husband and wife scenario is: the wife's body is dead and buried but their memories and voice is digitilized and created into a computer hologram oh and to edit. That computer hologram is stuck in the server room it has been created in, it cant leave. So without a body to experience its joys and pains. Are you still "alive"? Philosophical question so lets leave it at that.

Even if you possess a body; Do you consider someone as alive who is in a coma for the past 10 years? You could make the same argument that they're stuck, and only comprised of their memories, experiencing life only through dreams if they have them.

Truly a philosophical dilemma.

[Valcarde]

For all the folks who say 'Ohhh, we have to be evil and kill these people', I ask:

Did you forget what's required for these facsimiles to continue to exist? They are immortal technologically sourced aetheric vampires literally consuming the souls of others just to exist. Their very existence is not only an affront to the cycle of life but a parasitic and destructive one as well, requiring consumption of Spoken souls just to continue their ersatz lives. So long as the Endless existed, the consumption would get worse and worse and more people would need to die to keep them in their hard light hologram state.

It was not a genocide, it was a mercy.

[Bonoki]

You mean we weren't already murders every time we enter purple smoke and kill bandits?

[Lyndina]

I mean...those endless are alive because Sphene consumes human lives to keep on going. She cant move on from the people she once knew, but that died. Would it be righteous to "lenghten" the life of a hospitalized old man, that basically is in a coma but dreams always, by killing whole towns / continents and harvesting the organs of those cities just to keep that one man alive? We did the right thing.

[Revash]

Even if you possess a body; Do you consider someone as alive who is in a coma for the past 10 years? You could make the same argument that they're stuck, and only comprised of their memories, experiencing life only through dreams if they have them.

Truly a philosophical dilemma.

Well in your case. There is a chance that the coma patient might wake up...even if the chances are 0.0000001%. If there was a chance of the endless to recover their bodies and live "normally" then this discussion would go in a completely different route. The endless's body is dead and absolutely no turning back there. It would be more of a philosophical question of removing life support from a brain-dead patient. He won't recover no matter how long you wait. Only problem is that his loved ones are refusing to accept it and are willing to kill millions to keep that "heart going". Aka. Sphene.

[genuine_stranger]

For all we know, souls are formed and return to the aetheric sea, we're the memories are being wiped.
So souls are aether in which memories can be stored.

With all the advanced tech, I highly doubt that the Alexandrians could not recreat such aether. Unless the only form of aether they knew and had access to ARE the souls of their very people, which would've been a good point.

Fact of the matter is, this whole theme was explored on the most basic level, leaving us with more questions and more or less satisfied with the msq in itself.

[CottonC]

Less satisfied, at least in my case, whole story and themes (such as case if Endless are alive or not and if they should have something to say whether they should live or die.) felt superficial at best and just there to validate Wuk Lamat as an NPC.