I do not think they will. I understand the basis of many arguments in the thread - for example, I don't think it's presumptuous or selfish exactly to be discussing ways of both throwing a bone to the people that have been there for the server for a long time in any capacity - yes, including just playing, because good, long term players are important in any server - and trying to stall perming a little as at this stage in the server's lifetime, a perm for someone is more likely to result in a quit than in others, and it has been acknowledged by most by now that it is not going to be 'turned off' or anything.
So no, I don't disagree or find any fault with the discussion itself, however I do feel that it is largely moot. They aren't going to give back soul strands as an OOC reward (I agree that it should involve an IC event), and with everything on their plate, Ed isn't going to sit down and try to think of an IC excuse for it to have occurred. On the contrary, the loremaster is more likely to think of a hundred reasons why it should not. They did want their IC system in place, but it did not make it - I am not sure how willing they would be to consider a sort of contrived replacement based on something like was suggested, but maybe someone can answer. What I mean is a quest similar to what they had in mind for whatever was automated, or donation of the interested party, or whatever, and perhaps could only be attempted if xyz, whatever. If someone wanted to waste a cdq... never know.
Speaking of the Loremaster, I do disagree about the aging meaning losing soul strands, by the way. It was my understanding, which will no doubt be corrected, that it's more that a soul is tethered to say, a bindstone, by those strands...after all, when you die by natural causes, or even unbound murder, your soul is taken whole. It is only when tethered to something that defies death that your strands snap one by one, instead of all at once. If someone lives out their allotted lifespan, they will die of old age - the vessel expires, and the soul is taken whole. The soul does not necessarily weaken as the body age; I think that's in some way faulty logic. We lose strands because they are under such constant wear...who knows what condition they reach the deities in after all that! But just physically old...*shrugs* It is the vessel that is cracking, not the soul within it.
((Edit - too slow. That is what being longwinded gets you!))
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