Theory: Polestones and Aethers Correspond to Each Other

[Fritochip]

I think that the system for Soulcasting is likely based on the Aether or vice versa. Especially with the clue of the Emerald Ocean being filled with spores that make plants grow and in Soulcasting, emeralds make plant matter. So I have made a table of the Soulcasting Polestones with their effects along with what we have some knowledge of the Aethers. Hopefully we can tease out some more information. There are two more Aethers than polestones, so I think they must be the Night (black) and Ilumous (white) oceans. 

 

Polestone	Color	Soulcast	Moon/ Aether	Ocean	Effect
Emerald	Green	Plant Matter	Verdant	Emerald	Vine/Plant growth
Ruby	Red	Fire		Red
Sapphire		Gas, Air		Azure?
Smokestone		Smoke, Fog
Diamond		Crystals, Glass			Mraize' pink crystal?
Garnet		Blood		Crimson
Zircon		Oil
Amethyst		Metals	Coprate?
Topaz		Rock, Stone	Amberite?	Golden?	Rock-like growths on the skin
Heliodor		Meat, Flesh	Beastarian?
	Black		Night	Midnight	Teleport Self
	White		Illumous		Teleport Others

Thanks,

Chip

[+Bzhydack]

Pink crystal wouldnt be Amethyst?

[Fritochip]

18 minutes ago, Bzhydack said:

Pink crystal wouldnt be Amethyst?

I would associate the crystal with the soulcasting power of diamond, which is crystal and glass. But hey, just a guess on my part. 

[AquaRegia]

3 hours ago, Bzhydack said:

Pink crystal wouldnt be Amethyst?

Amethyst is purple, or perhaps violet, depending on how you define your color words.

There are pink topazes, however.

[+Oltux72]

3 hours ago, Bzhydack said:

Pink crystal wouldnt be Amethyst?

It was most likely a dead aether. No way to know whether the color remained unchanged. Dead spores of Verdant change their color.

[+Bzhydack]

4 minutes ago, AquaRegia said:

Amethyst is purple, or perhaps violet, depending on how you define your color words.

There are pink topazes, however.

We dont know tone of this pink, tho. But Amethyst can also be pink https://abgold.pl/userdata/public/gfx/1064/2.jpg

1 minute ago, Oltux72 said:

It was most likely a dead aether. No way to know whether the color remained unchanged. Dead spores of Verdant change their color.

Shouldnt all dead Aethers be grey? This seems to be universal thing with tissue damaged by Investiture (Shardblade wounds, Nightblood vampiric traces, Shades wounds etc)

[+Oltux72]

Just now, Bzhydack said:

Shouldnt all dead Aethers be grey? This seems to be universal thing with tissue damaged by Investiture (Shardblade wounds, Nightblood vampiric traces, Shades wounds etc)

What makes you think it died by Investiture? If it died so, probably yes, but there is no evidence for that at all. All we know is that the spores of Verdant change their color at death regardless of reason.
All you can conclude from that is that you ought to look at either live aethers or live spores for such considerations.

[+Bzhydack]

4 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

What makes you think it died by Investiture? If it died so, probably yes, but there is no evidence for that at all. All we know is that the spores of Verdant change their color at death regardless of reason.
All you can conclude from that is that you ought to look at either live aethers or live spores for such considerations.

I think spores are tissue + Investiture, some semi-organic matter, and when Investiture is removed by Salt/Silver, it leaves tissue dead because dont have "soul" anymore, similar to Shardblade wound (cut off soul) or Nightblood (Investiture sucked from user). Maybe I misspelled my thoughts (English still is hard sometimes). I think this wounds are caused not just by Investiture, but also because natural (Innate) Investiture is removed from object/tissue. Work not just for body, because BioChroma leaves colour grey also.

[+Oltux72]

1 minute ago, Bzhydack said:

I think spores are tissue + Investiture, some semi-organic matter, and when Investiture is removed by Salt/Silver, it leaves tissue dead because dont have "soul" anymore,

Extremely plausible.

1 minute ago, Bzhydack said:

similar to Shardblade wound (cut off soul) or Nightblood (Investiture sucked from user). Maybe I misspelled my thoughts (English still is hard sometimes). I think this wounds are caused not just by Investiture, but also because natural (Innate) Investiture is removed from object/tissue. Work not just for body, because BioChroma leaves colour grey also.

These thoughts are correct but incomplete. Corpses are also uninvested. Yet they keep their natural color. But of course the natural color of a corpse need not be the one of the living organism, especially if it is Invested.
I am afraid Invested living organisms, dead organisms and organisms destroyed by Investiture are three distinct categories. So we do not have enough examples.

[+Bzhydack]

1 minute ago, Oltux72 said:

These thoughts are correct but incomplete. Corpses are also uninvested. Yet they keep their natural color. But of course the natural color of a corpse need not be the one of the living organism, especially if it is Invested.

Not necesserly. Corpses are slightly Invested some time after death, because is possible to return to the corpse in some cases (example- Returned, Wax). There is also whole Perception thing - dead human is still, for some time, seen as human, not just meatbag. Also, again Nalthis - the more something reminds living shape, less Breaths is needet - so probably is using its own Innate Investiture. Investiture wants to be alive, so I think it sticks to the living things longer, even after their death.

[+Oltux72]

5 minutes ago, Bzhydack said:

Not necesserly. Corpses are slightly Invested some time after death, because is possible to return to the corpse in some cases (example- Returned, Wax). There is also whole Perception thing - dead human is still, for some time, seen as human, not just meatbag. Also, again Nalthis - the more something reminds living shape, less Breaths is needet - so probably is using its own Innate Investiture. Investiture wants to be alive, so I think it sticks to the living things longer, even after their death.

The problem with that line of reasoning is that merely a human shape reduces the requirements for Awakening. That's why dolls are so popular as awakened servants. And what could have more of a human shape than a human body? Again many variables and too few examples.

[Humble_Knight]

I think the connection is through the natural color aspect of investiture. The reason emeralds are used for soulcasting plants is the same as the reason singing with a large emerald grows plants faster, it ties back to Cultivation. Verdant spores are green, so is lifelight, because that is the color of the associated investiture. Does this change anything for your chart, probably not, but thinking of the colors by their underlying investiture seems important going forward, after everything we learned in RoW

[Ixthos]

I like this theory - it really opens up the possible aethers and their potential powers. I wonder if secret project 3 has two people who have an air and smoke aether, respectively.

It would be interesting to see how aethers interact with gemstones - or if a Knight gained an aether, and depending on which aether and their order - especially with regards to soulcasting. There certainly is an irony with Corpates in general being associated with the essence of Willshapers, who enjoy freedom, but that only furthers my theory on Corpate starships.