Interesting Question Regarding Voidsent.....

[YukikoKurosawa]

Say a Voidsent is killed on the Source. As we know they were once people, would their souls go to the Source's aetherial sea, be purified (since the aetherial sea cleanses corruption of the soul), and reincarnate as normal people? Or are their souls so thoroughly corrupted they can't be cleansed? If the latter, then what happens to their souls? If it's the former than we could, theoretically, "save" the transfigured inhabitants of the Void by bringing them to the Source, killing them, and letting their souls go to our lifestream and be purified and be reborn as normal people.

Something I'd like to ask the devs about next story live letter.

[KageTokage]

I think it was implied that you can't truly kill voidsent unless they bring their physical bodies over to the Source, as their soul is simply banished back to their original body back in the void should their vessel be destroyed.

That said, I feel somewhat doubtful we've seen the last of some voidsent like Diabolos because while did he did get blown up by the Nullstone, it was stated that it nullifies pacts by destroying the vessel involved, not necessarily the soul occupying it.

[Vyrerus]

I think it was implied that you can't truly kill voidsent unless they bring their physical bodies over to the Source, as their soul is simply banished back to their original body back in the void should their vessel be destroyed.

That said, I feel somewhat doubtful we've seen the last of some voidsent like Diabolos because while did he did get blown up by the Nullstone, it was stated that it nullifies pacts by destroying the vessel involved, not necessarily the soul occupying it.

Well, there was his entire manifestation within the Diabolos Armament in Zadnor.

Voidsent definitely have that whole, "Assuming Direct Control" thing that Harbinger did with the Collectors in ME2.

[Necrotica]

This makes me wonder if we could find some way of diverting a reflections aether sea to feed back into the source could that cause a non cataclysmic rejoining. Beings would die off, but then flow back to the Source preventing new life from occurring on the reflection.

But to go with original question I think voidsent are so far gone that when killed they fully die meaning soul and aether too. Would also explain why the Ascians considered the world a lost cause. No hope of anything there ever being rejoined no matter what method used.

[Brightamethyst]

Would also explain why the Ascians considered the world a lost cause. No hope of anything there ever being rejoined no matter what method used.

The Ascians considered the Thirteenth a lost cause because there was no way to bring it back into balance. On the First we brought back some of the balance not by injecting darkness, but by removing some of the excess light. That's not possible on the Thirteenth because there is no (or at least not enough) light left so removing some of the darkness wouldn't change anything.

Though that conclusion is now in doubt, after certain ShB revelations...

[Cleretic]

The Ascians considered the Thirteenth a lost cause because there was no way to bring it back into balance. On the First we brought back some of the balance not by injecting darkness, but by removing some of the excess light. That's not possible on the Thirteenth because there is no (or at least not enough) light left so removing some of the darkness wouldn't change anything.

Though that conclusion is now in doubt, after certain ShB revelations...

Their plan was to, once Zodiark was together enough to be operable, sacrifice lives to Zodiark to fix the Thirteenth, then do a proper Rejoining. Because of course that was their plan, it's always their plan even if alternatives are available. If Lahabrea was out of peanut butter his first angle would be to sacrifice lives to Zodiark to get more, he'd only settle for alternatives once that proved unviable.

And while completely unrelated to the topic, it's folly to consider a 'non-cataclysmic Rejoining', because a Rejoining by nature requires a destruction of a society, even if doesn't cause an apocalyse on the Source. A 'non-cataclysmic Rejoining of the Thirteenth' would still effectively kill the Thirteenth, and to no real benefit unless you're specifically an Ascian who considers all sundered lives inferior to unsundered lives.

[Cleretic]

What is the source for this? Which cutscene/dialogue specifically, because I do not recall ever coming across this plan regarding the Thirteenth.

So, this one's really complicated in terms of finding actual proof for this, I apologize for the ensuing wall of text.

Potential evidence for this one is scattered... about as far as it's possible to get for this game. Potential information could be in the Heavensward MSQ, it could be in incidental quest dialog in Shadowbringers, it could be in live letter Q&As, it could be in convention Q&As. And frustratingly, since the most details on the Ascians' plan was in Shadowbringers, we don't have an Encyclopedia Eorzea to refer to, which is disappointing because this is exactly the kinda stuff the Encyclopedias Eorzea tend to clear up. So here's everything I could glean from talking to multiple people and checking some old topics both here and on Reddit:

The actual details of the Ascians' plan for the Thirteenth have never been discussed. In the ShB role quest capstone it was said that 'a world of darkness needs a mirror of pure light', but given that was specifically said by an Ascian to a survivor of the Thirteenth we can't really take it as evidence; it could easily be a complete lie, given that Elidibus' explanation given to Ardbert's crew was also a complete lie. However, we do know that they have a plan to make something of it, because their overall mission statement doesn't make sense if they don't. They can't return the world back to how it was if the Thirteenth is completely unsalvageable, therefore they must see the Thirteenth as salvageable.

So then comes the question of how, and the 'how' is the big enigma. We know that there comes a point where Zodiark is strong enough that he can be awakened and used for this; Hydaelyn in the post-Antitower scene implies this point is after the Eighth Umbral Calamity, but we know that explanation was a bit fuzzy, and the Tales from the Shadows short story doesn't suggest that the Ascians are active in G'raha's future. That might mean that they still had to do more Rejoinings and it's just that the Eighth was the last chance to stop them, or it could mean that they're just off doing something else that Omega isn't privvy to in that story--perhaps that getting Zodiark functional requires a few more steps, maybe something like 'he needs more sacrifices and there ain't enough on the Source, let's go drain the Fourth'. No matter what, Zodiark is eventually an active factor. We know from the Void quests in Shadowbringers' patches that fixing the Thirteenth is possible but slow; that sounds exactly like something you get Zodiark to shortcut, but it also might possibly not be necessary for them to fix it in the first place. We do know that we've never seen any evidence of them trying to fix it though, which lends credence to the theories of either 'they can't right now' or 'they don't want to'.

So in short, we know that the general structure of the Ascians' plan is 'step one is get Zodiark together, step two is ???, step three is Amaurot'. And we know that the Thirteenth isn't an insurmountable barrier. The overall theories I've seen basically fall into two categories:
1. Zodiark fixes the Thirteenth by basically speedrunning the technique Unukalhai landed on, then they do the Rejoining proper.
2. Zodiark just forces all the Rejoinings anyway, and then fixes the consequences of one of those shards being a little bit wack.

And of course either way, we know that Zodiark is powered by sacrifices, so some of those are happening either way.

So in short: Apologies for jumping the gun a bit on this, it turns out this is among the most complicated questions to answer unless Natsuko Ishikawa's office is down the hall from yours. However, all evidence does suggest that whatever their plan was, it is either somehow hinging on 'sacrifice lives to Zodiark', or by slim chance the explanation given to Cylva by the Ascians actually was accurate, which would... still require a huge amount of death anyway.

This is complicated, and it's possible that one of the people I asked for confirmation might still be able to pull up a Gamescom Q&A or something, but it looks like it's less in the category of 'this is confirmed somewhere' and more 'all evidence trends towards something like this'. At the very least, the immediately present evidence leans so far towards 'their plan is Zodiark' that an argument otherwise would need to find some pretty convincing evidence, and to my knowledge that definitely doesn't exist.

[AwesomeJr44]

Their plan was to, once Zodiark was together enough to be operable, sacrifice lives to Zodiark to fix the Thirteenth, then do a proper Rejoining.

I think you accidentally typed this in the wrong tab. Please switch back to the tab with Fanfiction.net open and continue writing your fic.

[Lyth]

The 'Four Fiends' that we see in the 6.1 cutscene seem to have been around for 10000 years or so. I suspect that it's a case of being 'cursed with immortality', and there might not be a way for lost souls on the Thirteenth to actually return to the lifestream at present.

I do want to know more about aetheric corruption and how it relates to the rejoinings and calamities to date. For example, what prevented the First from instantly becoming like the Thirteenth when Ardbert killed Mitron and Loghrif? Does the element in question actually matter, or could you create a 'Void of Light' filled with sin eaters?