The fourth Harrowing indicates to my MC that the Hegemony is increasing its supply of aetherial blood. Our MCs do not know whether that increased supply is already being used or merely stockpiled. The nearly empty bandoliers of aetherial blood could just as easily indicate that the Hegemony is afraid of its own Theurges going rogue or otherwise losing their aetherial blood since we know at least two powerful Theurges (Sarcifer and Cerlota Viore) have done exactly that and Sarcifer apparently specifically targets those still loyal to the Hegemony.
But yes, @cascat07 I agree that millions could quite easily die of various causes in the course of this war. I commented on the XOR 1 WIP thread that:
according to the in-game world index’s history section, it took 80 years for the Hegemony to form so my MC is reluctantly expecting decades of warfare to topple the Hegemony even under the best of circumstances and this may coincidentally solve the problem of starvation because the population may be much smaller by the time the rebellion wins.
I guess I am more concerned with whether the rebellion will still be facing a Harrower vs starvation choice after the war ends.