Spoilers for 7.0 Alexandrian life style

[SannaR]

Based on what you are saying, I believe you are under the mistaken impression that regulators destroy souls. They do not. A person wearing a regulator keeps the soul they started with and when they meet what would be an accidental death, the lifeforce out of a soul cell is used to revive them. So now they have both their soul and a drained soul inside them. Their memories are imprinted on top in order to maintain their personality as the dominant one. When someone dies of old age or illness wearing a regulator, then the souls they've used during their lifetime are then released to the aetherial sea and their soul is stored in the regulator to be cleaned and packaged into a soul cell.

So while it's delaying people's return to the aetherial sea it's not soul killing anyone or draining all life from the planet or anything. Because FF7 is very popular, people think this is a mako plotline, but it's not, which is why the characters didn't stop them from doing it. They find it distasteful and sacrilegious, but it's not actual a threat to the star. At least not from the information we've been given thus far.

The Endless was a different situation as what they needed to be maintained required people to die. And while they were able to coast on natural deaths for four centuries, they've reached a point where Sphene feels she must cause some deaths to get the corporeal aether she needs to sustain the Endless.

Never said I thought they were destroying souls, but that they have to be getting the souls from somewhere as up to now no one has been able to make new souls. If a regulator is made it either has to have a preloaded soul on it or it must come from somewhere else. They weren't around until they "perfected" it when they preserved the original Sphene's memories or there abouts as prior to that they used the suits Otis was placed in. People can bank extra souls if they do good enough work. So if they're not creating new souls and aren't destroying them except for maybe what Zoraal Ja did or being used to power Living Memory then where are they coming from? Also how I took it is even after a person actually dies while wearing one even their soul goes to get cleaned and stored to get banked by someone else at another time. The only thing released from the cycle being their memories. And when they 1st started using them again assuming that a regulator is made and given a soul before use where would they be getting these souls? If they're not preloaded with a soul then yikes.

[Lady_Silvermoon]

Never said I thought they were destroying souls, but that they have to be getting the souls from somewhere as up to now no one has been able to make new souls. If a regulator is made it either has to have a preloaded soul on it or it must come from somewhere else. They weren't around until they "perfected" it when they preserved the original Sphene's memories or there abouts as prior to that they used the suits Otis was placed in. People can bank extra souls if they do good enough work. So if they're not creating new souls and aren't destroying them except for maybe what Zoraal Ja did or being used to power Living Memory then where are they coming from? Also how I took it is even after a person actually dies while wearing one even their soul goes to get cleaned and stored to get banked by someone else at another time. The only thing released from the cycle being their memories. And when they 1st started using them again assuming that a regulator is made and given a soul before use where would they be getting these souls? If they're not preloaded with a soul then yikes.

The Alexandrians have had the ability to extract souls for four centuries. And keep in mind, they figured this out during a world war. A bunch of people would have been dying on both sides. Some time after that, they figure out the other stuff, regulators, Endless, robo Otis, etc. But the Storm Surge is a war that leaves them the last surviving civilization on their shard. At the very least the last survivors on their continent. So they would have the souls of all those dead in stock. We actually see the stock when Sphene is talking to Zoraal Ja, they have thousands of souls in storage.

I don't understand why you're insisting that the regulators have to come with a soul in them already. You put it on and you buy one. If you put it on and there are no souls in it, then you get all the memory wipes, but you don't get revived after you die, your soul gets stored inside. We actually meet a character with no spare souls, the Arcadion fighter that insults Sphene. He's proof that you can walk around with an empty regulator. I don't understand why you believe otherwise, which is what made me assume you believed the souls were being destroyed.

As for why the system is sustainable, the used souls are stuck in the person who used them until death, which is why regulators are required to keep that person's mind the dominant one. At death the used souls are released back into the aetherial sea, and the unused souls and the wearer's soul are sent to Origenics for processing.

Psychonekrosis does sound very much as to what was happening to us prior to rejoining with Ardbert. I also feel it's not sustainable due to the ability to bank souls. Even before Zoraal ja stole and used up a lot of souls they were in short supply. And afterwards if you talk to one of the workers in the government sector they say that the doling out of souls has backed up a lot due to the attack.

Zoraal Ja not only used up a lot of the supply on himself, his attack on Everkeep meant that a lot of people burned through a lot of souls all at once which would up demand. So yes, due to his actions they are in a state of low supply and high demand, but that doesn't mean it's unsustainable. It means the prices of souls will go up dramatically, which will cause more people to die of accident increasing the supply (and yes, I just realized how dark that is). But it's a system any of them can choose to opt out of whenever they like. No one is forced to wear a regulator.

[SannaR]

Snip

I don't think the Alexandrians had the technology until the dome was built if not some time around there and definitely not how we know them today until after they preserved Sphene's memories. Though I suspect that even that didn't work out as planned as the announcement that they had done it comes off as it wasn't perfect.

Anyway the reason why I insist apon the assumption that they come with a soul is that regulators can be looked at the same way as a person being soon after the sundering. Without a regulator a person only has one soul. The one that resides inside their body. That's how the Arcadion fighter along with anyone post Zoraal ja's attack that has no more bonus souls can still be alive. Now lets give a person an empty regulator. They still only have one soul so any accidental death they have prior to earning enough credits to buy a soul means they die, everyone forgets about them and their own soul goes to Origenics to be cleansed and their memories to Living Memory. If they come with a soul then they get a buffer. That and having a job seems to be tied to having a soul inside of your regulator. As one npc you talk to during a quest where one of the people in charge of soul distribution asks you to talk to how some folks feel about their situation after the attacks says they basically in a catch 22 situation. Where the place they worked at before the attack was completely destroyed in the attack. That they need to buy a soul so that they can find a job, but they don't have enough credits to buy a soul.

We also know that souls were already at a low supply high demand before the attack and afterwards there's an even lower supply of them. I'm also fairly certain beast souls aren't able to revive people as we see with Zoraal ja after Gulool Ja Ja killed him and with that hunter we're introduced to. Where beast souls seem to only function the same way that a warrior's inner beast works. In that they act as a berserker mode that might not allow the user the ability to ascertain what is happening around them. As both Zoraal ja and the hunter looked to move on instinct vs how the Arcadion fighters are aware of what is happening around them.

[Lady_Silvermoon]

That and having a job seems to be tied to having a soul inside of your regulator. As one npc you talk to during a quest where one of the people in charge of soul distribution asks you to talk to how some folks feel about their situation after the attacks says they basically in a catch 22 situation. Where the place they worked at before the attack was completely destroyed in the attack. That they need to buy a soul so that they can find a job, but they don't have enough credits to buy a soul.

Are you sure the NPC you talked to didn't mean they couldn't go out and work because they had anxiety about doing any labor without a spare soul rather than they won't be hired without a spare soul? I haven't done the side quests, so I don't know which NPC you're talking about.

ETA: I thought about it more and given people are allowed to go without the regulators entirely, not being able to find work unless you have a stock of souls doesn't make sense. That seems like the kind of thing that would have to be mentioned in the MSQ given they stress how Sphene allows people to choose how they wish to live and provides supplies for those who do not wish to make their home in Everkeep. If going without a regulator meant living in poverty, then that should have came up. I think perhaps the NPC you spoke with either works in a dangerous field or just has general anxiety about being out of spare souls.

[SannaR]

Are you sure the NPC you talked to didn't mean they couldn't go out and work because they had anxiety about doing any labor without a spare soul rather than they won't be hired without a spare soul? I haven't done the side quests, so I don't know which NPC you're talking about.

ETA: I thought about it more and given people are allowed to go without the regulators entirely, not being able to find work unless you have a stock of souls doesn't make sense. That seems like the kind of thing that would have to be mentioned in the MSQ given they stress how Sphene allows people to choose how they wish to live and provides supplies for those who do not wish to make their home in Everkeep. If going without a regulator meant living in poverty, then that should have came up. I think perhaps the NPC you spoke with either works in a dangerous field or just has general anxiety about being out of spare souls.

It most likely is anxiety. The quest doesn't say what she did just that she wasn't a hunter. Though Solution 9 isn't as safe as most would like you to think if people can threaten to beat up a garbage collector who had to take a break because they have a milder case than the boy we get introduced to does of their aether tilting too far towards lightning.