Question pertaining to the afterlife in FFXIV

[Larom]

Heya guys, I've just finished the level 50 quest "What little gods are made of" where Minfilia talks about how souls are "dissolved" into the aether. Should I take what she says with a grain of salt, or are souls really destroyed after death and there is no afterlife? Has there been anything later in the story to prove this wrong? The lack of an afterlife and soul destruction in stories have always left a bad taste in my mouth.

Thanks a ton for the info!

[Canadane]

I won't spoil anything but as is normal in Final Fantasy games, nobody is ever truly dead.
Except a couple.

[Larom]

Aye, most FFs do have some sort of afterlife. Especially 10 and 6. What worries me a bit is that FFXIV seems to take a lot from FFVII's Lifestream (although the later games kind of ignore soul destruction) and FFIX's Crystal / Recycling of souls. It's surprisingly VERY hard to find any discussion about FFXIV's afterlife. I found one reddit thread from way back in 2014, aaand that's about it haha.

[Anonymoose]

As far as we know (and I'm only up to LV76 in Shadowbringers so if this changed I'm not aware), yes, it is accurate to say that upon death the soul usually returns to the Lifestream where it is torn apart into billions of pieces and eventually those pieces cycle back through the stream and create new life.

Usually.

There are new oddities and exceptions all the time, but it's part of the foundation of how primals work so it must be true(ish at least).

The thing is, it's not a Western worldview, in some ways. What is the soul but one's character and memories? But if memories are aether and aether has memory, can anyone or anything ever truly be completely dead?

[Larom]

As far as we know (and I'm only up to LV76 in Shadowbringers so if this changed I'm not aware), yes, it is accurate to say that upon death the soul usually returns to the Lifestream where it is torn apart into billions of pieces and eventually those pieces cycle back through the stream and create new life.

Usually.

There are new oddities and exceptions all the time, but it's part of the foundation of how primals work so it must be true(ish at least).

The thing is, it's not a Western worldview, in some ways. What is the soul but one's character and memories? But if memories are aether and aether has memory, can anyone or anything ever truly be completely dead?

Well that's a downer right there.

[Neoyoshi]

nobody is ever truly dead.
Except a couple.

Like this person here:

[Larom]

Thanks again for the information guys. I'll probably be dropping XIV, as much as I don't want to. I've been playing off and on mostly for the story and atmosphere (Which WoW completely lacks anymore). This whole "The soul of every character gets destroyed upon death and nothing matters in the end" plot point really ruins that. I don't know why any writer would even include that in their story in the first place.

[SpiritualOcean]

There are ghosts and other undead around, so there’s definitely an afterlife. You wouldn’t have any undead whatsoever without the possibility of an afterlife.

What’s more, around the end of Heavensward, two Definitely Dead allies show up as spirits to help you.

So if you take what you see with your own eyes and experience for yourself, you can only conclude that souls are not completely destroyed and scattered after death, whatever the NPCs say notwithstanding.

[Larom]

There are ghosts and other undead around, so there’s definitely an afterlife. You wouldn’t have any undead whatsoever without the possibility of an afterlife.

What’s more, around the end of Heavensward, two Definitely Dead allies show up as spirits to help you.

So if you take what you see with your own eyes and experience for yourself, you can only conclude that souls are not completely destroyed and scattered after death, whatever the NPCs say notwithstanding.

That's the thing that I looked up and confirmed though from an interview with Koji. The ghosts and apparitions are just lingering pieces of souls not cycled into the lifestream for whatever reason (https://gamerescape.com/2018/12/01/f...with-koji-fox/). Same with the Nidhogg cutscene characters (https://gamerescape.com/2017/09/01/l...w-at-pax-2017/) although that was up to "interpretation" even though they already explained how it works with ghosts. There was also an interview I read that I can't find right now reiterating what Minfilia was saying in that Lifestream / Aether cutscene. Apparently Yoshi-P's favorite FF was FFVII, that's why he included it as canon in 2.0 and Retconned 1.0's original lore. The best I can gather is some parts of people remain, but they don't have sentience or sapience. Kind of like Vivi at the end of IX "My memories will be part of the sky." Funnily enough, FFVII and FFIX were my favorite FFs as a kid until I learned about the lack of an afterlife in those games years ago.

[SpiritualOcean]

For me, I don’t consider the artist’s intent when interpreting or enjoying the art. Once created, it is always up for interpretation by the audience.

But if you look at that interview, he talks about how the reconstructions (or reconstituted primals, etc.) are a piece of the original - but not a perfect recreation. In order for there to be a piece of the original, the original must be persistent (even if only a small part of it is accessible).

There’s an NPC spirit in shadowbringers whose very much who he was when alive. (But I’m not very far in, so take that with a grain of salt).

Anyway, it just seems to me there’s more to it than “the lifestream eats you.” A lot more. But I’m comfortable with that being up to the player.