Aether, the building force of the universe, the essence of existence itself. Aether is what gives ideas a tangible form. It's everywhere we go, in everything we touch, in everything we see. Although it's an element so common, its nature is hard to grasp and control. It's believed that aether can only be transformed, not created, yet it contradicts the increasing amounts of aether in the universe and events after the rupture.

What is the source of this surplus? Some believe that we have yet to better understand the inner machinery that weaves our universe, some believe there are hidden dimensions abundant in it, some believe there is an infinite source that the aether is drawn from, an idea of an absolute and true god construct, responsible for all creation.

We will delve deeper into these theories over the period of our course, but for starters, it's better to explain how aether interacts with other aspects. Its basis is simple, it allows them to exist. It's due to the aether, that nether exposes its properties. It's due to the aether, that order dictates the principles of the system's functioning. It's due to the aether, that the nature of chaos is everchanging and impossible to grasp. It's due to the aether, that our psyche forms, allowing us to think and feel. It's due to the aether, that there exists a tangible, physical matter. It's due to the aether, that we feel the flow of time. It's due to aether that coordinatable universe exists, that our limbs and arms have their placement in space.

The invocation for aether is simple, it's the word CREATE that we use intuitively for our spells, but to comprehend the nature of arcane in detail, we must remember, that to create is to TRANSFORM aether.

The unique thing about aether is, that it doesn't require other aspects to interact with it, for it to exist. It can be out there, timeless and contained in nothingness, but its interaction with order and chaos is what gives its color.

The most common aether is cyan, it's an aether given an orderly form. It's the color of long-lost ancient civilizations, who learned how to control this force in its full potential, forming seas, structures, and even life, just out of the ordered aether.

Then, there is a theoretical pure aether, white and translucent, like shards of glass, its shape given by an absolute rigor or an absolute intuitive understanding.

The counterpart to cyan is brown, aether in chaos. An everchanging substance, kindred to primordial waters, where almost everything in existence can be potentially created by a pure chance, just to dissolve or transform back into a mess a minuscule period of time later.

Then, there is a theoretical black aether, dense and tar-like bubbling mud.

Then, we have the pure arcane, with colors ranging from transparent light blue to deep purple. It's the basis of classical magic, of spells that by nature, are just a pure force in the world, like arcane missiles or gradient shield.

Then, we have elemental magic, which utilizes aether of all colors and forms, based on its intermediate state. You might intuitively know, what form and color these elements have, but it's a very impure aether, and we don't know If its purified counterparts can theoretically exist.

However, it's still possible to classify a few other cases, such as pink aether, which is a pure combination of psyche and order, then there is a yellow aether, which is a combination of psyche and chaos, the very nature of insanity.

What famous examples of aether do we meet in nature?

Life – it's believed that souls are timeless, eternal constructs. In such a case, we can call aether the cradle of soul, it's what brings the souls into the tangible universe, allowing it to interact with other systems.

Nebulas – vast clouds of aether, cradles of stars, planes, and realms.

The architects – mysterious entities with a large amount of cyan aether embedded in them, might range from subatomic sizes to vast, celestial constructs. Their only goal appears to be to reshape the universe from its chaotic shape into a large megastructure known as the labyrinth. They don't discriminate, everything not under the control of the labyrinth's boundary might be re-assimilated, and every deviation from the labyrinth's original structure will be recycled. The labyrinth is ever-evolving, so their tireless work continues for eons, and they seem practically indestructible. If you see a giant machine with thousand legs, moving blocks of steel and stone. You might consider yourself a lucky witness.

Aether singularities – end-tier structures, formed of highly-concentrated aether, which seeps en masse from its core. Since the appearance of the witch, believed to no longer exist. The birthplace of the eldest and most advanced civilizations in existence.

Ancients – intelligent life made of cyan aether, believed to exist since shortly after the beginning of time. It was told, that their nations were, unlike ours, aether by birth. They could intuitively connect to aether and create life, structures, and matter, at will. Just as was the case with the aether singularities, they're believed to be extinct.

Ascended – intelligent life, not aether by birth, who ascended into aether forms

Aether wells, rivers, and oceans – remnant structures made from aether in undisturbed form, the purer the aether, the more properties similar to Primordiality it has, allowing to cast, or create with ease, even with an intuitive understanding of a child. One of the theories suggests, that wells of aether which can be randomly found across the planes, are connected to rivers, which also lead to enormous seas. It is thought, that two mother seas, connecting all other seas, may exist. One below us, constructed of pure chaos, and one above us, constructed of pure order.

We hypothesize that those places are larger than the reality in its entirety, yet there seems to be no way to access them or form wells, they have to appear naturally. In that case, even one vial of marginally purified aether can fetch prices that would allow you to purchase whole fleets or corporations. If a well of pure aether were to form, it could lead to global-scale wars over its control and whoever would be able to utilize its power to its most potential, could become a new, leading power in the universe.

The other theory, which is not incompatible with the previous, is a bit weird, but the calculations... seem to be correct. Somewhere, there exists a 'center' with infinite energy, which produces about a cubic meter of matter per month... not even aether matter, just... steel, of some sort and it is, what created everything we know and don't know, even given all the shenanigans with time dilation, which seems to pass way faster in the outer layers of the labyrinth.

Given that theory, there must exist an advanced technology or power in that center, capable of transmuting and separating the aspects that form that cube of steel... eh, forget it, students. You can read the paper as your homework, it's not obligatory though. It was written by one of your colleagues, apparently to mock, or how he calls it 'troll' the science.

Morins, I can't believe you're wasting your talent just to prove that by your own criteria, our science is non-sensical. The lesson is over, Morins gets a passing grade for the entire course, but please don't follow in his footsteps.