Quote Originally Posted by Vallavia View Post
This is kind of a major theme in the latter third of the Dawntrail MSQ; while it leaves a few open questions on the precise morality and necessity of it, it's also very clear that the narrative considers the sheer scale of the soul manipulation in Alexandria as an affront to nature, and the whole premise of Arcadion is that we're entering on a wager that we can end the practice in the arena. This is all to say that the mechanisms of this technology are completely novel by design.
While we haven't discussed it here, the social elements also make it very clear that even the parallels we do have do more to show how different things are than any similarities.

Like I said, the closest comparison to the feral soul situation is Reapers, even if the specific details are different; the gist of it should apply, in the same way that we can generally find a lot of parallels between Vipers, Samurai and Dragoons. Yet Reapers are loathed and horrified pariahs from every society; the Arcadion's fighters are celebrities. It's not just that the material norms are mostly out the window, it's that the social norms mostly are too.