brainstorm If White Sand were an Aether then...

[Duxredux he/him]

I'm basing these questions on some other ideas posed on the TotES board. Ideas like if Taldain's sand is an Aether, and I'll be making a couple steps as if that were true.

> Spores are meant to be taken to the stars and Zephyr will serve as emergency oxygen. Will spore bullets be a generally commercial solution to Invested healing? Bullets that are relatively inert until they puncture flesh and then grow explosively, constantly draining blood could give even Wayne or a Kandra a bad day. Verdant, Zephyr, Crimson, and Sunlight all seem really bad for the digestion and complexion, either exploding, cooking, piercing, or binding the target. A big chunk of Rosite in the gut, far too big for the entrance wound could give healers a lot of disomfort until they could remove the chunk as well.

>Let's assume that Taldain sand is an Aether. Sand Mastery in general seems like a hassle to use off world, BUT what if Sand Masters don't only control sand, what if they control any Aether, breaking them free from a Prime Aether? I'm no expert but this seems like something Autonomy might be able to do, and may have intentionally built a group to oppose the Aethers.

> Related to this, what if Bavadin wasn't only making a group of Sand Masters but also an ecology resistant to Aethers in the form of Terken sandlings? Terken disrupts Sand Mastery, and the can be used to coat weapons, armor, and even bodies. What if this disruptive effect extended to other Aethers? On a side note, sandlings would be a potent invasive species on Lumar, particularly if they could subsist on spores.

>Next thought is if Over Mastery for Sand Masters as a method for increasing the number of Luhel bonds would work for an Aetherbound. Not much to add to this, simply something to watch for.

Basically this would be a really cool way to make Taldain relevant once Aethers enter the scene which they are starting to. Bavadin is definitely setup as another antagonistic Shard

Most of this assumes that one Aether they were confused about in TotES is Taldain sand and is in fact an Aether (or functions enough like an Aether that Sand Masters can control Aethers).

Thoughts? If I've reposted someone else's idea, I apologize.

Edited July 1, 2023 by Duxredux
better thread title

[Treamayne]

On 7/1/2023 at 4:45 PM, Duxredux said:

I'm basing these questions on some other ideas posed on the TotES board. Ideas like if Taldain's sand is an Aether, and I'll be making a couple steps as if that were true.

Basically this would be a really cool way to make Taldain relevant once Aethers enter the scene which they are starting to. Bavadin is definitely setup as another antagonistic Shard

Most of this assumes that one Aether they were confused about in TotES is Taldain sand and is in fact an Aether (or functions enough like an Aether that Sand Masters can control Aethers).

Thoughts? If I've reposted someone else's idea, I apologize.

I'll caveat this with:

• I think White Sand is what they are referencing when they say "bone spore" (Tress ch 23); but I don't think What Sand is actually a spore. I think the people of Lumar consider it a (legendary) spore only because White Sand is also controlled with a Luhel bond. That said, I also think that a Sandmaster would adapt well to controlling Aethers. 

Quote

Next thought is if Over Mastery for Sand Masters as a method for increasing the number of Luhel bonds would work for an Aetherbound. Not much to add to this, simply something to watch for.

Well, we see Tress overmaster in Ch 31, and we see that her ability to control the Midnight is fairly increased by the time she usurps the bond from Crow (Ch 49) and Fort (55).

Quote

> Spores are meant to be taken to the stars and Zephyr will serve as emergency oxygen. Will spore bullets be a generally commercial solution to Invested healing? Bullets that are relatively inert until they puncture flesh and then grow explosively, constantly draining blood could give even Wayne or a Kandra a bad day. Verdant, Zephyr, Crimson, and Sunlight all seem really bad for the digestion and complexion, either exploding, cooking, piercing, or binding the target. A big chunk of Rosite in the gut, far too big for the entrance wound could give healers a lot of disomfort until they could remove the chunk as well

 This is interesting, though we don't know that Aether Rosite would act/react like Spore Roseite. I think there is a distinct difference there, and you accurately identified Spores as the part more integral to future fabrial tech. It may be interesting to discover if the person being shot could establish/usurp the luhel bond to prevent further "growth" from the bullet.  

Edited August 4, 2023 by Treamayne
SPAG