[W00tard]

I was just re-reading Bakker's posts on the old three-seas forum, and had something of a revelation.  Perhaps this has already been discussed and I missed it--but as Bakker puts it:

[...]  Given this overarching indeterminacy, there's three basic options: Oblivion, Damnation, or Redemption. [with regards to souls in Earwa]

When people are reborn, their souls most likely come from some pool in the outside--the real question is whence comes this pool?  If it is a closed system of souls, the only pool to draw from to bring souls back into the world is that of damnation.  Those who are redeemed or have achieved oblivion must necessarily have escaped the strictures of the system--leaving only the pool of the damned in play.  That would be the ultimate in massive cruelty--everyone in Earwa is born damned, and if they do nothing to redeem themselves or avoid the notice of the gods, they just go right back into the pool for another round of damnation.  Earwa itself is a place for the damned (hell) and the 100 are just the prison guards (those in charge of administering punishment) in this scenario.

[Wilshire]

Interesting idea, but I don't think I agree. Why would only damned souls be in that pool? That would mean that its a shrinking pool, that, eventually, everyone is saved who chooses in subsequent lifetimes to seek redemption.

[W00tard]

Perhaps a pool of 144,000  shrieking souls--that is then sealed off from the outside.  The 144,000 least redeemable individuals.  Perhaps the process begins anew somewhere else.... Who knows?  I'm just grasping at straws with little actual textual proof.

[Parsh]

Interesting idea, but I don't think I agree. Why would only damned souls be in that pool? That would mean that its a shrinking pool, that, eventually, everyone is saved who chooses in subsequent lifetimes to seek redemption.

It's kind of the same problem some people have had with the idea of reincarnation in our own world: since our population is getting larger and larger, where do the new souls come from? Then again--and here's a pleasant image--maybe the Ciphrang are ripping souls apart, so everybody who's born just gets a piece of a damned soul. I'm not sure if that makes one's theological situation better or worse....

I'm doubtful of the scenario, but stranger things have happened in Earwa.

[The Sharmat]

In that case reincarnation in Earwa works like reincarnation in Pillars of Eternity. More people are filled up with more fractured souls until eventually entropy dissolves every soul into useless motes over millenia.

[Callan S.]

I thought reincarnation had a kind of evolutionary thing to it - be good and you become a 'greater' creature next time. So there are plenty of microbes around that are newly minted soul fragments. They have to be good to evolve into a better pokemon next time around.

[Titan]

I thought reincarnation had a kind of evolutionary thing to it - be good and you become a 'greater' creature next time. So there are plenty of microbes around that are newly minted soul fragments. They have to be good to evolve into a better pokemon next time around.

According to many reincarnation beliefs, yes... But I think the point is just about basic reincarnation - a soul coming back in some form. The "evolution" of the soul - for those that believe this - is a separate aspect that varies depending on belief system.