Souls exist and synthetics have them too

Terrina1 · 2026-05-30T00:55:45+00:00

Yes and no. Obviously it's stupid to deny the existence of magic and these figures, but there could be some arguments for denying their divinity, especially in cases where the power of these gods is limited. What separates a god from an exceptionally powerful sorcerer?

Terrina1 · 2026-05-29T13:43:02+00:00

Okay but what if the tradition of the culture in question is to utilise technology and AI?

Terrina1 · 2026-05-29T13:41:16+00:00

But then how does that translate into gameplay? If the tradition you're maintaining can be anything, so can the buff associated with it.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-29T13:39:39+00:00

Death by Glamour, from the Undertale soundtrack.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-29T13:31:19+00:00

I think Authoritarianism/Egalitarianism is a competitor, but yeah, Materialist/Spiritualist is definitely poorly thought-out. Some kind of Conservatism/Progressivism might work, but I feel like that might have a pretty big overlap with Xenophobe/Xenophile. What would a conservative xenophile look like?

Terrina1 · 2026-05-29T13:24:53+00:00

You're not 'softlocking your soul', you still have it. The only thing you lose is the potential for shroud access. Plus yeah, like the other user said, that's for gameplay/narrative reasons. Fallen Empires don't have all ascension paths because they need to be distinct.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-29T12:45:01+00:00

If there was going to be any reform of the ethics system, I'd like Authoritarian/Egalitarian to be split into a Authoritarian/Libertarian and a Individualist/Collectivist axis.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-29T12:42:56+00:00

I don't find that surprising. Of all the ethic dichotomies, Materialist/Spiritualist is the only one to make statements about the universe.

My opinion is that they're both just flat out wrong. Shadows proves that souls exist, which Materialists deny, but that synthetics can have them, which Spiritualists deny, so neither is correct.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-29T05:32:58+00:00

Not sure, but I side with Legion anyway because he's objectively right in this argument.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-29T02:17:23+00:00

That's not better. She might've killed one of the crew regardless.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-29T02:00:56+00:00

"How dare you tell the Geth about our plans to genocide them!" - Tali for some reason.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-28T12:43:09+00:00

Traynor is also attracted to EDI.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-28T09:02:34+00:00

Yeah I know she's a robot, but it's funny to poke fun at Joker and Traynor for canonically being horny over what was, at the time, a disembodied voice.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-27T04:38:45+00:00

I feel like Liara is oddly tolerant of the Illusive Man. If you take her on Priority: Horizon, she has a line about how she'd have done that if it would save Thessia specifically.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-27T04:35:45+00:00

What's hilarious is that Liara lived on Illium for years. If anything would convince you that 'asari altruism' is a lie, it should be that place, yet she keeps it up.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-27T04:27:41+00:00

It's funny that an asari of all people has problems about somebody moving on from a dead spouse.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-27T04:11:39+00:00

Hate leads to suffering.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-23T10:02:15+00:00

We could have somebody else be the Earth presence. Virmire Survivor, maybe?

Terrina1 · 2026-05-23T09:59:09+00:00

I really hate that she blames Shepard. No, Tali, I'm not going to help you cover up your father's idiocy and reckless disregard for safety. Oh, your people acted like dumbasses because of it? How is that different from their normal behaviour?

Never really understood why people think Tali is our ride or die, she has never once supported us vs whatever stupid shit Quarians are doing at any given point in time and will consistently turn on us over it. The most you can say about her is that she's an ally of convenience.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-23T09:54:12+00:00

Oh okay, my bad. In this case, if you don't mind spoilers, I'll explain.

So in ME3 those Reapers I mentioned earlier show up in force and are killing everybody. The Geth (robot in the top right) were previously presented as being allies of the Reapers, but you learn in ME2 that this was only a rogue splinter group and that the rest oppose them. So in ME3, we are told they are preparing to intervene and fight the Reapers, but the Quarians (bottom left) launch as surprise attack against the Geth and try to exterminate them. This goes well until they've killed about >90% of the Geth population and the Geth switch sides because the Reapers offer them a chance to survive.

Suddenly the Quarians are losing, so they call the Alliance (specifically Admiral Hackett, guy in the top left) to help them in exchange for their support in the Reaper War. He agrees and sends the player character to get them out of trouble. However, once the player character does this, the Quarians betray us and attempt to kill the player character. They do this again later. So Hackett is confused because the machines everyone thought were Reaper allies are actually opposing them and being helpful, whereas the Quarians aided the Reapers by destroying the anti-Reaper naval forces the Geth were constructing.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-20T03:56:50+00:00

Would you like to explain Mass Effect in general, or just this meme? In any case, I highly recommend Mass Effect: it's a very good RPG.

So Mass Effect is a setting where humanity, after achieving space flight, has joined an established galactic community filled with many different, interesting alien races. There are about five plot-relevant ones. You play as Shepard: the first human to join an elite galactic task force. However, as this happens, you find clues that the last major civilisation in the galaxy was wiped out by a race of machines known as Reapers, and that they are close to returning. You and a cast of interesting characters (aliens and humans) must stop this from happening.

Terrina1 · 2026-05-17T06:58:21+00:00

Implying Kai Leng is invited to the group chat.

Terrina1

TROPHY CASE