Quote Originally Posted by Skyblade
I figure it is far more likely that at the point a sorceress dies, whether killed or if she dies of old age, her powers pass on to another person. If a sorceress has a particular person nearby, she likely has some control over where her powers go, but, if not, they will head for the nearest or the most suitable host. So even if Adel died in outer space, her powers would eventually wind up making their way to another person, though, since we have little indication of how old Adel was, it may be 50-70 years before that becomes an issue.
Um, that just supports what I was saying. If they wanted to avoid her Apowers being passed on, they'd want to keep her alive at all costs if this were true, which would sorta imply that the seal was keeping her alive indefinitely (or else it would be a pretty bad seal). Actually though, I guess it's possible that the seal could contain her powers within itself even if Adel died inside it, which is perhaps more plausible since the only thing we know for sure is that it seals her powers while she's alive. It's the fact that the seals nature is clearly ambiguous in regards to prevention of death which is important in terms of R=U though.

Big D's theory there is what me and the other authors of the FAQ determined to be the most plausible reconciliation of the apparent contradiction found within even the Ultimania itself (which says both that sorceresses have human lifespan and that they can't die while they have their powers). Basically the sorceress powers would prevent them from dying, so they'd be stuck in the dying moment in great agony. Their bodies would naturally then produce a intense urge to give away the powers, which is what we see happen to Ultimecia. She doesn't want to die, but as she approaches Edea the burden becomes to big to bear.

I think there's some vague allusion to Jenova going on here actually, since the tutorial states that sorceresses prefer to avoid spreading their powers too thin. So the powers live on forever and gradually become more gathered until ideally one person would have all the powers (and be like a new Hyne I guess). The powers can't simply disappear, but won't just fly off into space, so the subject is kept alive until a successor is found. I imagine it's just instincts kicking in. Exceptionally strong sorceresses might be able to fight it off for a while and keep her powers for some time even after being killed, but eventually the natural drive to give up the powers would take over entirely, maintaining the succession of witches.

So even if Adel could technically stay alive even as dead, it'd hardly be a pleasant type of existence and couldn't last that long anyway, except possibly if you were completely isolated from everyone else. Makes you wonder if that's what they were doing to Adel; keeping her powers trapped in the seal while letting Adel spend countless years kept alive in a tormented state of death without release. Pretty grotesque