What is so cool about Aviar if you can have Aethers?

[+Oltux72]

Since Oathbringer at least Amberite is canonical. Aviars have advantages of other Cosmere Arcane Arts.

• no dependence on location
• no exotic fuel
• available to everybody
• potentially unlimited abilities

An Aether, however, seems even better. It does not need to be fed; in fact, they feed you in some cases. It cannot get sick. It can be hidden.

I know Brandon likes birds. But why are they in so high a demand in the Cosmere? Aethers can grant you at least a form of immortality. You can teleport. Why don't people get Aethers and Aviars remain a useful, but minor form of Arcane Powers?

[Weltall]

We don't know how you get Initiated with Aethers in canon so it may not be a power that's easy for people to make use of in the same way that anyone can get access to BioChroma via Breath transfer, or an Aviar if you can find one of the birds. In Aether of Night you just need a bud of the appropriate type to start things off, but there's no guarantee this is still the case and an ambiguous line by Khriss in Rhythm of War's Ars Arcanum suggests there's something tricky about them.

Also, the Aviars we've seen have interesting Cognitive and Spiritual effects which may well be in higher demand than the various effects of the Aethers; assuming for purposes of argument that everything seen in AoN is still mostly true their powers mainly operate on the Physical level. There's also a possible prestige factor: Per Arcanum Unbounded the scholars of Silverlight still haven't figured out how to get to First of the Sun and back without everyone dying horribly. Being able to say 'Hey, I have a magic bird from a place that even Khriss doesn't know how to reach' would probably make for one hell of a conversation starter at fancy worldhopper clubs.

Edited June 27, 2021 by Weltall

[+Oltux72]

4 minutes ago, Weltall said:

Also, the Aviars we've seen have interesting Cognitive and Spiritual effects which may well be in higher demand than the various effects of the Aethers; assuming for purposes of argument that everything seen in AoN is still mostly true their powers mainly operate on the Physical level. There's also a possible prestige factor: Per Arcanum Unbounded the scholars of Silverlight still haven't figured out how to get to First of the Sun and back without everyone dying horribly. Being able to say 'Hey, I have a magic bird from a place that even Khriss doesn't know how to reach' would probably make for one hell of a conversation starter at fancy worldhopper clubs.

If we are thinking about the time of The Stormlight Archive absolutely. But they remain valuable later and it cannot be their novelty. Hence, why?

What does an Aviar do, that some Mistings could not do? Amberite, on the other hand, is almost Shard Plate.

[Weltall]

20 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

What does an Aviar do, that some Mistings could not do? Amberite, on the other hand, is almost Shard Plate.

I mean, we've only seen a couple of Aviar talents so it's kind of hard to answer that one but Sak's ability seems more targeted than A-Electrum since it specifically shows you only fatal danger and doesn't require active effort on your part or a constant supply of metal. We also know that at least one species would be useful for navigation, That could be anything from 'here's the best way to get where you want to go' (which miiiight be replicable with F-Chromium depending on how that works) to 'here's a vision of the space ahead of us and what's waiting' or something similar.

[Honorless]

The Aethers are a core magic of the Cosmere series

Quote

Questioner

Do you think anything in the future would change [Isaac Stewart and Steve Argyle's] minds [on Lightweaving being the magic system they would want to have]?

Brandon Sanderson

No. I mean, there will be other magics. But we have hit all of the core cosmere magics, except for the aethers. And I don't think aethers will be enough to tempt them away. Possibly. That would be my guess. I mean, there will be other little magics, because I always have things like that that I'm writing. But there's only one major magic system that hasn't been used extensively on-screen.

YouTube Livestream 14 (July 30, 2020)

Brandon has been trying to fit them in for a long time, from Lor to Aether of Night to Liar of Partinel to Dragonsteel revisions.

So I'm sure the Aethers are special. The possible uses of Aviars compared to them aside, Aviars also seem much more difficult to get to, even during the time of Mistborn era 4, going by Sixth of the Dusk and Khriss' notes in Arcanum Unbounded. But look at Mraize's personal philosophy of predator and prey from his encounters with Veil. The man would absolutely try to get his hands on them because it's so difficult to get to them. If fewer people have access to them, then it's a valuable commodity + fewer people would be aware of / be able to counter its abilities, which would also make them valuable to the Ghostbloods.

[+Oltux72]

On 28.6.2021 at 9:04 PM, Honorless said:

The Aethers are a core magic of the Cosmere series

Brandon has been trying to fit them in for a long time, from Lor to Aether of Night to Liar of Partinel to Dragonsteel revisions.

So I'm sure the Aethers are special.

But in which way? And what limits them?

On 28.6.2021 at 9:04 PM, Honorless said:

The possible uses of Aviars compared to them aside, Aviars also seem much more difficult to get to, even during the time of Mistborn era 4, going by Sixth of the Dusk and Khriss' notes in Arcanum Unbounded. But look at Mraize's personal philosophy of predator and prey from his encounters with Veil. The man would absolutely try to get his hands on them because it's so difficult to get to them. If fewer people have access to them, then it's a valuable commodity + fewer people would be aware of / be able to counter its abilities, which would also make them valuable to the Ghostbloods.

Yes. Mraize is easy to explain.  But what about the Ones Above? Surely you do not colonize a planet for novelty value.

[Honorless]

On 7/4/2021 at 2:39 AM, Oltux72 said:

But in which way? And what limits them?

Yes. Mraize is easy to explain.  But what about the Ones Above? Surely you do not colonize a planet for novelty value.

All good questions. No idea! Probably stuff for era 4. We've got like... 4 lines of text for the Aethers in canon, I think