The Ascians going forward

[MikkoAkure]

I don't want to spoil any specifics since you probably haven't done it yet, but this is a thing in the game Including the amnesia.

There is an ascian -one of the convocation- who is not only indifferent towards the Hyd/Zod thing, but a stalwart ally of ours. Pity only in a sidestory.

If you're talking about the Pandaemonium storyline, that takes place before Zodiark/Hydaelyn/Ascians existed and doesn't count.

If you're talking about the Eden storyline, that person...

Wasn't exactly an Ascian anymore and had been reincarnated into a body and mind with no connection or memories to previous life, as all life has been doing since the beginning of life.

[SannaR]

If you're talking about the Pandaemonium storyline, that takes place before Zodiark/Hydaelyn/Ascians existed and doesn't count.

If you're talking about the Eden storyline, that person...

Wasn't exactly an Ascian anymore and had been reincarnated into a body and mind with no connection or memories to previous life, as all life has been doing since the beginning of life.

I'm guessing it's the 2nd one. It's a technicality I'd say for that person. They still are an inheritor of a convocation member's soul. That person even knows said fact.

I'm not sure if we would run across any more. Unless Elidibus managed to raise more on other shards or the source before he came to the 1st and inhabited Ardbert's body. Outside of Fandaniel. Unless he put them in stasis or stand-by or something.

[kaynide]

If you're talking about the Pandaemonium storyline, that takes place before Zodiark/Hydaelyn/Ascians existed and doesn't count.

If you're talking about the Eden storyline, that person...

Wasn't exactly an Ascian anymore and had been reincarnated into a body and mind with no connection or memories to previous life, as all life has been doing since the beginning of life.

Spoilers below!

Was talking Eden; Regardless of what Gaia decides to do on a personal level, she is the reincarnation of Logriff, with (potentially) all powers/abilities that entails.

Unlike most souls that dissolve and reform from bits and pieces of each other to make a "new soul", the Ascians remain intact when they reincarnate. The only real difference now is that, when she does eventually reincarnate, there will be no means to restore her lost memories as the Ascians no longer have their crystals and/or the original 3 unsundered.

[rainichan]

I'd be down for that, where they just end up being like that character: I used to be that person, I remember things, but I don't have the drive to try anything bad. That would make a more interesting angle on some and it would be a nice lore source.

[Iscah]

Unlike most souls that dissolve and reform from bits and pieces of each other to make a "new soul", the Ascians remain intact when they reincarnate.

I don't think that's accurate. That was our pre-Endwalker understanding, and even then I'm not sure of the source of the explanation, while I can remember a couple of instances of people talking about souls as immortal and cycling through the aetherial sea.

The only people where we know of specific reincarnations are sundered Ancients (not necessarily Ascians) but that's all been in the context of Endwalker reframing our understanding of how souls work, and there's no reason to think it's exclusive to them.

Anonymoose would have had the references for where we get the "aetherial blender" idea but it seems we've lost him here.

[MikkoAkure]

Spoilers below!

It's been awhile, but I was under the impression that the case in Eden storyline was only because of an (un)healthy amount of mental and magical conditioning from another ex-Ascian.

Fandaniel's past life never showed actual Ascian powers before becoming an Ascian and it seemed to me that with his case and the case before in ShB that sundered Ascians across the shards and the Source are completely normal people until given memories from the crystals and possibly powers either through them or other means. The black-masked Ascians would also have had to receive their powers from somewhere after all. Other than the fact that their past lives were on the Convocation, there's nothing at all different from sundered Ascians and other sundered people who happen to have an Ancient past life. Unless I'm missing something somewhere.

[VictorTheed]

I think it'd be cool to see some Ascians as trash mobs in a future dungeon and some of the important ones left be the 3 bosses for the dungeon.

[Rannie]

When you talk to Cool Old Man Professor in Sharlayan after the tribunal near the beginning of Endwalker. He schools us on Memory and memory erasure due to the spell the 99 have on them. He also brings up that the world was of two thoughts behind what happens to the soul after death. One being the aether blender and rebaking to make a new soul. The second being the soul just being erased of memories and being Reborn. Mind all of you that it's interesting to know that between the end of ShB and EW with the stories, specifically Through His Eyes Emet was able pick apart all the souls in the underworld. It never mentioned exactly what happened. There's also the fact that he, Hythlodeaus and our Past life had plans to give up the ghost and be Reborn (same souls) together again.

Also with Azem's soul Hythlodaeus (the recreation by Emet) mentions he'd recognize the color no matter how thin it was in ShB.

[KageTokage]

The original explanation about how Ascians cheat death suggested that part of the soul remains intact after death and it's that part that gets recycled while the rest of its aether is simply dispersed. It's because Ascian souls don't get compromised in absence of a physical body that we have "shatter" them so that the Lifestream can reclaim them properly.

As far as the cycle of life and death goes, there may not be an afterlife but there are still some mysteries like where souls come from and what happens to the memories that are "cleansed" from them that are still unclear.