Not sure if you noticed this...

[BitBitio]

I just wanted to point out, and apologies if this has already been said, but I just wanted to point out that of the Aethers, there is rock(Amberite) metal(Ferrous) plant(Verdant) animal(Bestarin) light(Illuminous) dark(Night).

I'm sure that if there are other Aethers then they follow a similar pattern.

[Kaj]

Interesting Connection. I'm going to have to Zinc on this one.

[Scion of the Mists]

On 7/4/2018 at 1:30 PM, BitBitio the Mudkip said:

I just wanted to point out, and apologies if this has already been said, but I just wanted to point out that of the Aethers, there is rock(Amberite) metal(Ferrous) plant(Verdant) animal(Bestarin) light(Illuminous) dark(Night).

I'm sure that if there are other Aethers then they follow a similar pattern.

Maybe I'm dense, but what is the pattern?  

[BitBitio]

Opposites. Rock and metal, plant and animal, dark and light.

[Scion of the Mists]

Are rocks/crystals and metals really opposites?  In any event, I always thought that Amberite and Verdant were paired (as the external powers), as well as Bestarin and Ferrous.  

Edited July 7, 2018 by Scion of the Mists

[Weltall]

On 7/4/2018 at 10:30 AM, BitBitio the Mudkip said:

I'm sure that if there are other Aethers then they follow a similar pattern.

Brandon discussed plans for other works set in the Aether world (or possibly a rewrite of the world) and at a signing I asked him about Pagerunner's theory on Syl originating in those old plans and Brandon confirmed it. So at one point Brandon was thinking of an Aether that granted flight, though we don't know the mechanism he intended to use for it. Might have been wind/pressure manipulation, might have been gravity, might have been invisible elves for all we know. xD

The only other Aether we know anything about is Duskr from the Liar of Partinel excerpts and given how short those were, pretty much all we can say is 'this is an Aether that at one point existed as an idea in Brandon's head' without knowing what it or any Aethers in Liar could really do. Since that cannibalization didn't work out well and is now redundant, the idea may not ever reappear. I kind of like the idea that its genesis was thinking of a new and more creative name for Night but I have no evidence for that other than the superficial link of Dusk(r) > Darkness > Night.

On 7/6/2018 at 11:50 AM, Scion of the Mists said:

Are rocks/crystals and metals really opposites?  In any event, I always thought that Amberite and Verdant were paired (as the external powers), as well as Bestarin and Ferrous.  

That's not a bad pairing and their functions do map nicely with how allomantic metals are paired up.

Speaking of metals, Brandon had a discussion about Investiture manifesting as metal and the Aethers were brought up as being non-metallic, which included both an unprompted mention of Verdant on Brandon's part and a suggestion that they could be a very weird metal with a low boiling point. Anyhow, Brandon could be considering using Verdant or a variation of it in the rewrite since he brought it up (or it could be he's just mentioning it as an Aether we know of right now) and it could indicate that the Aethers aren't condensed Investiture in the same way that a Shardblade or a bead of atium is but are something different. At the very least, we know that Amberite is still in and it's a crystal. I can't think of any that look like that description that don't include non-metallic elements.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Weltall