All are familiar with the four commonly known elements, air, earth, fire and water. The world is known to be a composite of these four elements, but the common lout is frequently ignorant of the fifth element, the final element. For beween the four elements, finely dispersed, is the aether. The substance of the aether is so delicate, that it permeates the other, coarser elements. Thus, the aether is wherever there is another element, and whereever there is no other element – it is an all-pervasive.
Despite its gosammer quality, the aether is in many ways the strongest element, the master element. The aether is the stuff of life, the humour of soul. It is the scaffolding of reality, it holds it up, it is the adhesive of reality, it holds it together.
Apart from existing in the three normal dimensions, the aether has a relationship with time that has confounded many. Though it mostly follows time’s steady flow, the aether also seems to exist with some degree of independence. Most experienced sorcerers agree that aether sometimes moves in anticipation of an event, even before it has occurred
All magic occurs as a result of changes in the aether.
To those who can perceive it, the aether is apparent to all senses. Most hominids are most aware of its visual aspect, which is that of glowing, semi-transparent, three-dimensional fractal patterns of interlocking circles, spirals, coils, swirls and whorls, glowing in all concievable colours. The visual effect is much like the ghost images left behind by quickly spun Roman candles. The patterns twist, gyrate and drift, and the faster they move, the more energy-rich the aether is. Audibly, the aether can be perceived as a highly complex melody (sometimes called the song of the aether, or the music of the spheres). The sound of the aether is usually just above the threshold of perception but growing to thunderous force when a theophlatos strikes. The smell of aether is rich and varied, but always pungent, and tactially, it tingles and surges like electricity, making those who can sense it feel stimulated, but with increased strength one gets a feeling of restlessness.
All of creation is infused with aether, and a highly aware sorcerer can derive as much information from the glowing patterns of the aether as he can by watching the other elements by daylight, and thus he can see as well by day as by night. Most sorcerers, however, have too weak Awareness, and thus can only perceive those phenomena which are very intense in the aether, those affected by magic.
The aether in earth is turgid, woven in relatively calm, durable and repetitive patterns. Metals and crystals have the most stable and immutable patterns of all. The aether found in fire spins frantically, surging up out of the fuel, spinning up and out in fire and smoke. The aether in clear air is also quite free, dancing like motes and sparks with only vague and temporary cohesion. Clouds show stronger patterns, and running water once more comes to resemble earth, with rather stable but asymmetrical patterns, rippling gently and repetitively.
Most metals are very receptive to free aether, but cannot hold it, their weaves are rigid and fixed, without room for any new infusions. Aether continually slips through metal objects, causing them oscilliate when seen with Awareness in the vicinity of magic. The prime exception is lead, which has a meager aether content, which is held in a very stable, honeycomb-like weave, making it hard for other aether to penetrate. Metheoric iron is another exceptin, it is both conductive to magic, and easy to enspell.
Crystals are a different matter. Crystalline substances hold aether in stable loops, and is somewhat resistant to magic (somewhat like lead). But if successfully infused with magic, crystals make excellent vehicles for it, and thus crystals are favoured vessels for holding mana and bearing enchantments. The rare mineral cornite blocks magic entirely, is totally unaffected by it, and seems to be entirely devoid of aether. Ordinary salt, while not affecting ordinary magic to any perceptible degree, has a detrimental effect on Chaos and the monstrous beings is breeds.
Aether is bound up in living beings, tied in their bodies and especially intotheir blood. Indeed, it is the aether in their bodies that makes them living beings, rather than lifeless dummies composed of fire, water, earth and air. Furthermore, the spirits of sentient creatures are entities composed of aether alone.
Living creatures are affected by the movement of the aether, whether it be winds or ambience. As the aether grows more motile, living beings become more energized, volatile. When the aether is quick, people grow tense, emotional, impulsive; They sleep less and what sleep they have is filled with vivid dreams and nightmares. When the aether grows slow, people become lethargic, disaffected, indecisive; They sleep more and dream little.
The elemental spirits so frequently conjured by sorcerers for one purpose or another consists of a single element infused with sufficient aether to render it coherent, and inhabitated by a spirit.
Some souls are so strong as to be able to influence the aether around them. Such souls are said to have mageblood in their bodies. For most such souls, this is an unconscious process, subtly bending reality around them. But some are aware of what they do, and consciously use their gift. These are sorcerers.