Could Autonomy be an Ascended Aetherbound?

[teknopathetic he/him]

As many people have noticed, the magic from Whitesand looks a lot like an Aether magic system.

1. Sandmasters on Dayside mentally connect with the sand much like Tress does with her spores
2. People exchange water in order for the ability to use the abilities.
3. The sand and the spores change colour to grey when depowered. 
4. Just like in Tress, the investiture comes from outer-space from an object in the solar system. The smaller Sun on Taldain is said to be surrounded by particulates. Hmmm, sounds a bit like spores. Could the pulsing be the pulsing of something like an Aether? 
5. Sandmasters must hand the sand to an initiate to begin a new "bud" within a Sandmastery initiate. This handing of the grains must occur like in Aether of Night. 

We know that Aethers are contemporary with Adonalsium, so it stands to reason there would have been Aetherbound on Yolen. And if there were Aetherbound on Yolen, then those people likely would have been strong enough or informed enough to get involved with something like the shattering. It actually would be odd if no Aetherbound were involved in the shattering, either as antagonists to the 16+ conspirators, or a part of the group itself. 

An aetherbound Shardholder might actually act quite a bit like Autonomy does: the idea of granting your powers to other people (avatars) but still having them be a part of you sounds A LOT like how Aethers work. Basically, Autonomy is growing buds of herself similar to how an Aether bud might grow in an aetherbound person as we see in The Lost Metal. An Aetherbound might also see Autonomy as something granted by power, as the Aetherbound gained power from her aether but was able to use it autonomously. 

Aethers also have a fluid identity that incorporates and individual and autonomous aspects, and as aethers likely do not have human genders, the we/he/she/i could be an Aetherlike gender-expression. If Bavadin were to be an Aetherbound, perhaps ascending caused some very very strange things to occur for both her and the Aether she was attached to? This could explain why Bavadin seems to have her own "bone aether", but that the Aether is not one of the original 12. 

TINFOIL-ER IDEAS
This could also explain some tensions we have seen in Taldain's history? Perhaps the Aether and the Aetherbound do not always see eye to eye. Perhaps Dayside and Darkside are split as some sort of compromise between the two beings and the two invested stars? As a larger tinfoil, what if Bavadin and the Aether eventually broke their bond and had a nasy breakup? This could explain why Bavadin locked down the planet (to keep the Aether Out) and why a Dark Aether seems to have appeared in recent history (the Aether that had been part of the Ascension to Autonomy). 

Edited February 14, 2023 by teknopathetic