It's that time again! More questions! Now, we're likely veering off into the undeveloped (or underdeveloped, at least) and speculatory, but let's do it.
I'm much more up on the lore these days, but one thing I'm still having trouble with is the relationship between the aether and religion. Bear with me as I lead you nose-first through my thought process here.
I feel like I remember (during the explanation of the aetherytes, maybe) that physical bodies come from aether and eventually return to aether (magical decomposition?) and as such we can temporarily jump in and out of the Lifestream to teleport/return. And maybe I'm making this up, but I think there are implications that our souls are also aether-based, but then they move on to the afterlife, i.e. Thal's realm.
We also know from the threat of the Primals that the aether/Lifestream is finite, or at least doesn't renew quickly enough to keep up with the drain of the Primals. So if we are composed of aether and only 50% of that aether (our bodies, not our souls) returns to the Lifestream after we die, doesn't that imply that the whole system of life and death on Hydaelyn is unsustainable? Or am I missing or misinterpreting something?
Short version:
People in Hydaelyn are bodies (physical aether) + souls (non-physical aether), but only our bodies (physical aether) returns to the Lifestream when we die. So doesn't that produce a sort of terminal aether half-life which will eventually exhaust the Lifestream, regardless of the Primals?
I'm much more up on the lore these days, but one thing I'm still having trouble with is the relationship between the aether and religion. Bear with me as I lead you nose-first through my thought process here.
I feel like I remember (during the explanation of the aetherytes, maybe) that physical bodies come from aether and eventually return to aether (magical decomposition?) and as such we can temporarily jump in and out of the Lifestream to teleport/return. And maybe I'm making this up, but I think there are implications that our souls are also aether-based, but then they move on to the afterlife, i.e. Thal's realm.
We also know from the threat of the Primals that the aether/Lifestream is finite, or at least doesn't renew quickly enough to keep up with the drain of the Primals. So if we are composed of aether and only 50% of that aether (our bodies, not our souls) returns to the Lifestream after we die, doesn't that imply that the whole system of life and death on Hydaelyn is unsustainable? Or am I missing or misinterpreting something?
Short version:
People in Hydaelyn are bodies (physical aether) + souls (non-physical aether), but only our bodies (physical aether) returns to the Lifestream when we die. So doesn't that produce a sort of terminal aether half-life which will eventually exhaust the Lifestream, regardless of the Primals?
