Question pertaining to the afterlife in FFXIV

[ShinShimon]

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.

There are hints now that this isn't completely true. Specifics would involve massive spoilers for ShB, but it looks like reincarnation or some kind of persistence of souls might exist, at least for some of them.

[Seraphor]

I'm still wondering why you two are talking about real world religion in a discussion about a video game. Seems like you need to get something off your shoulders. Well actually, atheists do have that strange urge to tell other people how much of an atheist they are. Guess that makes sense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

LineageRazor explained why.
I've never heard anyone claim the Lifestream was a downer before. Your religious views influence your perception of these fantasy concepts.
You've specifically brought up the subject of a fantasy game's fictional afterlife, and how it compares to real life concepts of afterlife.

You're the only one being antagonistic here, trying to call out atheists.
All I did was ask a question. If the answer to it bothers you so much, maybe you're the one with the issues?
If you're the one getting offended and worked up over an issue that nobody else is, take a step back and reflect on this for a bit.

Again, it's been explained that the individual is not destroyed in the lifestream. Aerith and Zack return after death, there are spirits in XIV, etc.
This isn't a Christian v Atheist thing, it's a western v eastern thing.

[Jaywalker]

Oh boy, this spiraled hard.

Non-Christian religious person here who believes in some manner of existence after death (no elaborately described afterlives in my faith), not 100% current in Shadowbringers but making headway. People who are current can feel free to correct, but as far as I can tell the answer might fall along the lines of "shit's weird".

Idk that there's a universal in-game setup. The Lifestream exists as the most common route, but not as a destructive thing. Souls being independent from life-energy capable of repurposing themselves into new forms as they accumulate aether is also a phenomenon, the Dotharl may or may not have a legitimate system going where their lifelong will channels souls and energy to new bodies, what the Twelve are and are not hasn't been fully addressed yet. I mention this because the Twelve appear to exist in some form given lore surrounding the Unending Coil of Bahamut, and their nature might have a hand in the nature of an afterlife given there's lore surrounding that too. And then there are certain Ascian-related twists I won't speak of complicating the mess.

There is a lot of lore. Not all of it matches up, but this is a world where the will of people can shape aether--aether being literal life energy among other things--and effect real world situations. I'd be pretty surprised if everything was nixed except for a destructive-Lifestream as described in this thread.

It's not worth stressing over or dropping the game. There's ambiguity and room to interpret a lot.

[QT_Melon]

On another note....

Isn't there also something kind of scary at play about what is going on

Matoya in HW mentioned that the aether levels are dropping. Which kinda hampers the whole lifestream recycling?

[MrThinker]

On another note....

Isn't there also something kind of scary at play about what is going on

Matoya in HW mentioned that the aether levels are dropping. Which kinda hampers the whole lifestream recycling?

5.0 spoilers

that seems to have been caused by excess light from the first fleeing back to the source and causing a stagnation of aether. But we fix it, so things should return to normal

[QT_Melon]

5.0 spoilers

that seems to have been caused by excess light from the first fleeing back to the source and causing a stagnation of aether. But we fix it, so things should return to normal

Mmm I don't know if it's that simple as I finished MSQ and there's also the fact

we also have the 13th shard that is a void

[SannaR]

Midgardsormr also before he left us said he was sleeping in the lifestream. Course he is an alien so who knows exactly how a dragon's soul works since we know they only really die if they don't have at least one eye in their body. Heck i want to say their blood seems to also turn into some kind of mist? At least that's the only thing I can come up with since we see a lot of purple mist stuff around Timat. In SHB it's hinted that at least for our character's soul it's been not only splintered at least once it's also been reincarnated.

[Daralii]

Midgardsormr also before he left us said he was sleeping in the lifestream. Course he is an alien so who knows exactly how a dragon's soul works since we know they only really die if they don't have at least one eye in their body. Heck i want to say their blood seems to also turn into some kind of mist? At least that's the only thing I can come up with since we see a lot of purple mist stuff around Timat. In SHB it's hinted that at least for our character's soul it's been not only splintered at least once it's also been reincarnated.

Their blood(or any other loss of aether) seemingly turns to crystal. The site of Ratatoskr's death is almost completely crystalized, the places where Tiamat's bindings pierce her flesh are covered in crystal, and she's surrounded by a cloud of small crystalline particles.

[Alleo]

OP I am also not a fan of the livestream. (But I am also not a fan of reincarnation) I just dont like that when we lose a character, especially one you truly liked, that this person is probably gone forever and maybe their aether is used for someone else. Its great for the reborn person but it would still mean that you will lose someone forever. So for me I just accept my own head canon that the scions dont fully understand it and that there is some kind of afterlife. For that my WoL fights on, to give to those living a better world while at the same time having the hope to see those beloved that died along the way again, when its their time to go.

I just dont like it if games explain it too much. Just let it be ambigious so that everyone can interpret it for themselves.

[Larom]

OP I am also not a fan of the livestream. (But I am also not a fan of reincarnation) I just dont like that when we lose a character, especially one you truly liked, that this person is probably gone forever and maybe their aether is used for someone else. Its great for the reborn person but it would still mean that you will lose someone forever. So for me I just accept my own head canon that the scions dont fully understand it and that there is some kind of afterlife. For that my WoL fights on, to give to those living a better world while at the same time having the hope to see those beloved that died along the way again, when its their time to go.

I just dont like it if games explain it too much. Just let it be ambigious so that everyone can interpret it for themselves.

That's what I've always said. One thing I still love about World of Warcraft is they leave the afterlife extremely vague. You see spirits from time to time, but not much more than that. So the player can make up their own mind.

As for headcanons, that's a really good way to stay optimistic and keep playing the game. As long as the game doesn't super confirm anything (Like if Yoshi-P ever came out and said: "that's how it works and there's no if, and, or buts about it.") I think that's what I'll do. Thanks for the advice <3

And thanks to everyone else for the great discussion (Besides the two making it personal, of course)