Ether


"I must impress upon the reader that although this grimoire contains many rules for working with ether it behoove's one to keep in mind that the enforcer of these rules is ether itself, and it will break these rules at any time of its choosing. Proceed with caution."
Alexander Nostra - Foreward from Treatise on Magical Mecahnics, 6th ed.

Fig 1. A diagram of relative stability of ether's different states. The lower on the Y axis a point is, the more stable it is. Thus one can see that the higher arcs represent changes in state that are more difficult to transition between. Consider this diagram analogous to a reaction coordiante diagram.
1Material State; All matter and energy within a universe.
2Shackled State; This ether presents itself as matter within the system of Material State ether it exists in, it interacts with and for the most part abides by the same physical laws. However it has the ability to manipulate the world with similar limitations to a human Thaumaturge.
3Sapient State; Ether bound only to the rules it "gave" itself. This form has intelligence, but it can at times be difficult to tell between an animalistic, humanlike, or one with such alien goals its hard to tell the difference.
4Absolute State; The fountain of all things, completely unfettered in its ability to change and create.

Ether is the substance by which all things are made; the true elementary unit of reality, nothing and anything all at once. A raw will manifest In its raw true form it appears as the eye perceives nothing; blackness, an undulating, almost flame like void.

Ether is self interacting; it will 'talk' to itself, change itself based both on what it observes in its surrounds, as well as its ideas created ex nihilo. Perhaps the most succint description give to it has been that of 'Will Manifest'.

Ether is in some way fractal; Thaumaturges gone into deep meditation to gaze into Ether to discern its nature report that the deeper the look the more of itself they see; the thing contains itself, and it would seem that from the smallest point to the grandest deposit of Ether there is true no difference in the amount of ether present. Despite this It often seems to behave as if these are distinct quantities, with "smaller"" and "larger".

Ether does have some distinct states (See fig 1.), though it is important to note that these are likely just abstractions we can understand on a gradient of possible states of ether.

Sapient State beings are also sometimes referred to as Primary Intelligences while humans and similarly aware species formed from Material State ether's own rules generating a mind are called Secondary Intelligences.