If souls eventually die, how are new ones born?

[PugPug]

Is there a law of conservation of energy for souls? They lose a little bit of themselves with each cycle, so where does that energy go? Does it reconstitute into new souls?

[Gnomic]

The first batch of souls must have come from somewhere, so apparently souls can be created by some natural process or other.

 

This is known to have happened in the time before the Gods, for reasons which are revealed by the plot.

[MaxQuest]

Is there a law of conservation of energy for souls?

Looking at definition of this law: "energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can be altered from one form to another."

I'd say it seems so, because:

- a soul can splinter into two valid souls (source)

- a soul can be strengthened by absorbing the essence of other souls (Maerwald, Gift of the Machine, Galawain ending)

 

---

Also:

- "What is known is that sapient souls move through an endless cycle of waking life and purgatorial slumber among the gods. [...] The process of reincarnation is not perfect however. Souls can experience "fracturing" over generations, transforming in myriad ways, and not always functioning properly."

- "Shadows are created when creatures with heavily fractured souls die without re-entering the cycle of rebirth. Because these souls are damaged, they drain essence from other creatures in a futile attempt to repair themselves.".

 

---

So it looks like, if the process is left as is, souls do splinter over time, with newborn souls generally getting weaker and weaker. But the population rises and number of shadows increases as well. In order to stop this entropic stuff, there is Galawain's strengthening. And in order to stop the potential highlander situation, there is Berath's Wheel and quests like Servant of Death; also Llengrath who is hunting those who want to live forever.

Edited October 14, 2017 by MaxQuest

[PugPug]

So it looks like, if the process is left as is, souls do splinter over time, with newborn souls generally getting weaker and weaker. But the population rises and number of shadows increases as well. In order to stop this entropic stuff, there is Galawain's strengthening. And in order to stop the potential highlander situation, there is Berath's Wheel and quests like Servant of Death; also Llengrath who is hunting those who want to live forever.

 

 

I don't see how that stops souls from going extinct.

[Madscientist]

Soul energy cannot be constant because the population is rising.

Gods do not create souls because they were created as "soul constructs" by people with souls.

 

This leads to my wild speculation:

There is some kind of "latent spiritual energy" that is constantly created by an unknown process (e.g. cosmic radiation, photosynthesis, . . . whatever).

At some point in the past some of this energy condensed into an object we now call soul and the evolution of life as we know it started.

Souls constantly absorb this latent spiritual energy around them to maintain or repair themselves. They can also give away that energy when they are ill and die that way.

So when a soul is split or a new soul condenses from that energy, the parts collect energy around them to become complete souls.

Sometimes the process can grow wrong. A soul could not split completely and then 2 people are somehow connected (see Hiravias) or a soul does not absorb latent spiritual energy but energy from the souls around them, leading to some kind of soul vampirism.

Edited October 15, 2017 by Madscientist

[Arsene Lupin]

For all that we know of animancy and the "gods," do we really know *anything* about *where* soul energy originates? Like, in the real world, we can trace every bit of energy and matter back to the Big Bang, but in Eora it seems that they're really only aware of soul energy in terms of its movement--passing through ardra pillars, splitting and twining and manifesting in newborns, and so on. It'd be kind of like looking at the energy systems here on Earth while ignoring the Sun--like drawing up food-cycle charts without knowing anything about photosynthesis.

 

Which could be a ripe area for a sequel to explore--because, hell, maybe there are *bigger* gods in the setting that create the soul energy or (more to my tastes) a greater natural explanation for the how their universe works.

[PugPug]

For all that we know of animancy and the "gods," do we really know *anything* about *where* soul energy originates? Like, in the real world, we can trace every bit of energy and matter back to the Big Bang, but in Eora it seems that they're really only aware of soul energy in terms of its movement--passing through ardra pillars, splitting and twining and manifesting in newborns, and so on. It'd be kind of like looking at the energy systems here on Earth while ignoring the Sun--like drawing up food-cycle charts without knowing anything about photosynthesis.

 

Which could be a ripe area for a sequel to explore--because, hell, maybe there are *bigger* gods in the setting that create the soul energy or (more to my tastes) a greater natural explanation for the how their universe works.

 

 

The glanfathan were certain there are (or were) no gods. One would think they knew the origin of souls, as well, given they were capable of building machines to handle them like a potter handles clay. But their secrets are lost. But I think it is unlikely we will discover they were wrong about gods.

 

Edited October 17, 2017 by PugPug

[Boeroer]

Josh said that souls can grow a lot more powerful during a lifetime. So the splintering or grinding of souls just rebalances this. I guess that it's in the interest of the gods that people's souls grow over lifetime and then return to the Wheel - so that Rymrgand can take away a part of it and feed it to the gods or do something else with it... Last part just speculation

[PugPug]

Josh said that souls can grow a lot more powerful during a lifetime. So the splintering or grinding of souls just rebalances this. I guess that it's in the interest of the gods that people's souls grow over lifetime and then return to the Wheel - so that Rymrgand can take away a part of it and feed it to the gods or do something else with it... Last part just speculation

 

Yeah, he answered me on tumblr:

 

 

Souls can degrade to non-viability, but every lifetime grows a soul’s power.  A soul invariably fragments somewhat when a lifetime ends, but some souls fragment less than others.  A single soul that fragments into two or more large “chunks” on death can become two or more souls in the subsequent generation.

 

I think it runs counter to some of the things said in POE1 -- I think it might have been Durance who said something specifically about all souls being crushed to dust under Berath's wheel, and the woman hanging in the Gilded Vale says souls are always a little bit less than before. But it's possible that POE1's characters don't know the whole story.

[Lotti Fuehrscheim]

I think it might have been Durance who said something specifically about all souls being crushed to dust under Berath's wheel, and the woman hanging in the Gilded Vale says souls are always a little bit less than before. But it's possible that POE1's characters don't know the whole story.

So we have a priest who preaches decay, and an adult complaining that things are worse than in her youth.

 

Something we can hear in our own world every day.

 

It just tells us about universal prejudges.

[PugPug]

 

I think it might have been Durance who said something specifically about all souls being crushed to dust under Berath's wheel, and the woman hanging in the Gilded Vale says souls are always a little bit less than before. But it's possible that POE1's characters don't know the whole story.

So we have a priest who preaches decay, and an adult complaining that things are worse than in her youth.

 

Something we can hear in our own world every day.

 

It just tells us about universal prejudges.

 

 

I'm not calling it a retcon, but I think it might have been an omission from the first game.