Is this a plothole? Question about the Endless

[ElHeggunte]

But they can't be both. But the game TELLS us they are the former, but SHOWS us the latter as the process of their creation.

Why can’t it be both? Memory aether is just data—metadata for the soul, if I had to choose an analogy. The aetherial sea strips and discards memory aether from the soul too, with the occasional exception of especially strong memories sticking around when the soul is reincarnated. The Living Memory is just a bastardized version of the lifestream where it separates the soul from the memories, then it copies the memories into its database before discarding them. Afterwards it uses the blank souls as a base and superimposes the copied memories onto it to make the Endless.


That’s what the process seems like to me anyway, based on what we’ve seen and what the characters have said.

[Lady_Silvermoon]

Why can’t it be both? Memory aether is just data—metadata for the soul, if I had to choose an analogy. The aetherial sea strips and discards memory aether from the soul too, with the occasional exception of especially strong memories sticking around when the soul is reincarnated. The Living Memory is just a bastardized version of the lifestream where it separates the soul from the memories, then it copies the memories into its database before discarding them. Afterwards it uses the blank souls as a base and superimposes the copied memories onto it to make the Endless.


That’s what the process seems like to me anyway, based on what we’ve seen and what the characters have said.

Because there is no mention of the memory aether being discarded. Quite the opposite they seem to be made of memory aether as that is what seems to dissipate when they do. And there would be no reason a digital copy of you would need lifeforce to be maintained. If it was just a digital copy, then there should have been a way to store them in a VR world. If it's memory aether then we're wiping the one and only version of people out of existence, so it's weird we're told not to feel guilty about it cause they are just copies.

The reason it can't be both is because the two explanations contradict each other. As I said before, it'd be like saying "I scanned your brain" then showing a brain being removed from someone's skull. That's not the same thing. And given there are two Otises we know that's not even a requirement.

Also they aren't using blank souls as a base as souls are eternal, so you wouldn't need more. The reason Sphene needs to kill people is because lifeforce, unlike souls, can be used up. The souls are being packaged into cells and sent back to Everkeep, the Endless are running on lifeforce.