[The Lost Metal][Secret Project #1]Connections between these books

[+Oltux72 he/him]

Last warning: This contains spoilers for The Lost Metal and the preview chapters for Secret Project#1

Discussions with @Chaos have resulted in this going here.

 

You have been warned.

 

What is the connection? Aethers obviously. What have we learned?

• Aethers need water to grow
• Aethers put their bearers into a Connection with a Core Aether, to which the Aetherbearer is subservient to an extent

Now what does that mean for the rest of the Cosmere?

• It makes the worldbuilding of SP#1 a lot less odd. Aethers react with water. The planet is undergoing what ought to be expected if a Core Aethers goes wild and rains down unlimited spores onto a planet.
• It also explains why Aviars are so valuable. They come without restrictions. Surgebinding requires oaths and Aethers make you serve a Core Aether. A Shade is quite dangerous and ethically dubious. A Seon has rather limited abilities.
• It may also explain what Hoid wants on the SP#1 planet. The Core Aethers there have undergone some change. Hoid hopes to get unrestricted Aethers.

Yet we are left with many open questions

• What will have happened to the Core Aethers?
• Is there one Core Aether of each kind for the whole Cosmere or multiples of them?
• What is the connection between Aethers and Sandmastery?

What do you think?

[lacrossedeamon]

And for a possible cosmere constant, sandmastery also drains water and is actually reliant on a plant-based organism similar to the Aether's pollen. I also wonder if these are related to the mold in Elantris that metabolize Investiture to give off light.

[Criggleworth]

I think there must be multiple core aethers.

We know that SP1's world has 12 moons that rain aether spores. Something must be generating them. And the fact that they are mutated/evolved compared to TwinSoul's aether, to me implies that they have their own core aethers.

Additionally, TwinSoul refers to the 12 Primal Aethers. The capitalization suggests that it is known that there are specific original core aethers that others have split off from.