Do we know about other Aethers?

[prayingforsuperpowers]

I haven’t been able to read Aether of Night yet, but I’m curious if we know of other Aethers besides Crimson, Rosite, Sunlight, Zephyr, Midnight, and Verdant? 

spoilers for the Lost Metal and Tress:

Spoiler

Also, do we know why Twin Soul survived for so long and Captain Crow was terminal? Like what was the difference there?

 

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Dunkum said:

Aether Of Night contains at least 3 Aethers that were not in Tress. It also has "Amberite" instead of "Roseite" but in practice they are the same thing, and as has already been stated, it isn't canon, so it isn't clear how reliable it is as a source.

Aether of Night spoilers:

Almost (AoN Spoilers and Spoiler Spoilers)

  Hide contents

Aether of Night contains 4 known Aethers, though they work more like Twin Soul's use than in Tress. The bonding process is a bit different from TwinSoul's and entirely different from anything seen in Tress. Aethers in AoN have no water consumption as part of the bond.

Verdant - pretty much identical to what we see elsewhere

Amberite - Very similar to Roseite - there are some properties we have not yet seen in TwinSoul's use of Rosite, and some uses of Rosite that were not present in AoN.

Bestarin - Animal Aether, which allows any wound to be healed instantly by grafting animal skin/limbs over a wound (e. g. an early Bestarin shown has an Owl Eye replacing one eye and an Eagle claw replacing one hand) They are the primary soldiers and warriors.

Ferrous - Is the Aether of Metal and has some normal effects in communicating with Fabrials* and other metalworking. Ferrous Aedin show an emotional detachment due to their bond. A Ferrrous Aedin may voluntarily become a Corpate (a type of Aether Fabrial) which can have one of a number of forms, but once bound to a form, the change is permanent and only a Ferrous bonded still in human form can communicate with a Corpate. 

Then there are the Vo-Dari - the priests that can use a Sending (a Gift of the ancestors to the priesthood, which is open to all races and ethnicities) to teleport things and people nearly anywhere. 

Spoiler

Over the course of the book, they learn that :

Illuminous - the true bond of the Vo Dari, kept secret - allows the user to teleport other people (not yourself)

Night - the titular Aether of Night -  similar to Midnight Aether in Tress, but also capable of teleportation (only self, not others) and can also be used to augment other Aethers, if somebody has two bonds. 

Ch 17:

Quote

Darro shrugged again. “Amberite and Verdant are opposites, and they both grow things. Ferrous and Bestarin are opposites, and they both transform their hosts into something else. Maybe Night and Illuminous both Send.”

 

**Using "Fabrial" here in accordance with the WoB that says eventually Fabrial will be the Cosmere catch-all term for any MagiTech - not just things powered by Stormlight.

 

[alder24]

39 minutes ago, prayingforsuperpowers said:

I haven’t been able to read Aether of Night yet, but I’m curious if we know of other Aethers besides Crimson, Rosite, Sunlight, Zephyr, Midnight, and Verdant? 

spoilers for the Lost Metal and Tress:

  Hide contents

Also, do we know why Twin Soul survived for so long and Captain Crow was terminal? Like what was the difference there?

 

I haven't read AoN too, but I think this isn't canon.

Regarding TwinSoul and Crow, on Lumar Primal Aethers are a parasitic strain of Aethers, not present anywhere else in Cosmere. They forcefully bond with people making them into Spore eaters, and constantly drain them out of water. Spore eaters have no control over Aethers, and Aethers only protect them from injuries and death.

TwinSoul on the other hand is Aetherbound with a Primal Aethers which isn't from Lumar and isn't parasitic. Aetherbound can not only communicate with their Primal Aether, but also control and grow Aethers which requires water. But Aetherbound isn't constantly drained out of water like Spore eaters are, this isn't killing them nor do they feel pain.

[Dunkum he/him]

Aether Of Night contains at least 3 Aethers that were not in Tress. It also has "Amberite" instead of "Roseite" but in practice they are the same thing, and as has already been stated, it isn't canon, so it isn't clear how reliable it is as a source.

Aether of night spoilers:
 

Spoiler

Aether of Night contains 6 Aethers, though they work more like Twin Soul's use than in Tress. in fact I don't thin they ever appear as spores at all:

Verdant - pretty much identical to what we see elsewhere

Midnight - the titular Aether of Night -  pretty much identical to Tress

Amberite - same thing as Roseite

Bestarin - i don't remember the details precisely, but I think this one transformed the user into something that was partly animal. don't have time to search my copy for the exact language.

Ferrous - encases the user in metal. in AoN this appears to be permanent, though again i'm a bit sketchy on the details.

Illuminous - allows the user to teleport people (and maybe objects - don't recall if it is ever used that way)

 

[Dunkum he/him]

42 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

Almost (AoN Spoilers and Spoiler Spoilers)

  Hide contents

Aether of Night contains 4 known Aethers, though they work more like Twin Soul's use than in Tress. The bonding process is a bit different from TwinSoul's and entirely different from anything seen in Tress. Aethers in AoN have no water consumption as part of the bond.

Verdant - pretty much identical to what we see elsewhere

Amberite - Very similar to Roseite - there are some properties we have not yet seen in TwinSoul's use of Rosite, and some uses of Rosite that were not present in AoN.

Bestarin - Animal Aether, which allows any wound to be healed instantly by grafting animal skin/limbs over a wound (e. g. an early Bestarin shown has an Owl Eye replacing one eye and an Eagle claw replacing one hand) They are the primary soldiers and warriors.

Ferrous - Is the Aether of Metal and has some normal effects in communicating with Fabrials* and other metalworking. Ferrous Aedin show an emotional detachment due to their bond. A Ferrrous Aedin may voluntarily become a Corpate (a type of Aether Fabrial) which can have one of a number of forms, but once bound to a form, the change is permanent and only a Ferrous bonded still in human form can communicate with a Corpate. 

Then there are the Vo-Dari - the priests that can use a Sending (a Gift of the ancestors to the priesthood, which is open to all races and ethnicities) to teleport things and people nearly anywhere. 

  Hide contents

Over the course of the book, they learn that :

Illuminous - the true bond of the Vo Dari, kept secret - allows the user to teleport other people (not yourself)

Night - the titular Aether of Night -  similar to Midnight Aether in Tress, but also capable of teleportation (only self, not others) and can also be used to augment other Aethers, if somebody has two bonds. 

Ch 17:

 

**Using "Fabrial" here in accordance with the WoB that says eventually Fabrial will be the Cosmere catch-all term for any MagiTech - not just things powered by Stormlight.

 

yea, that's a lot more detail than my mostly half-remembered read from a few years ago.

[Firesong she/her]

AoN Spoilers

Spoiler

I am of the opinion that Ferrous is still a thing, but that Beastarian isn't. The Essence of Beastarian would have been replaced by Crimson, as both are about bioloigical material. With crimson being like coral. This is stated by a WoB. 

I say this as the Aethers roughly correspond to Essences (supported by WoB)

 

Zephyr is obviously Zephyr/Jes

Verdant is Pulp/Palah

Crimson is Flesh/Ishi

Sunlight is Fire/Chach

Roseite I believe is Crystal/Vev

 

Ferrous would be Metal/Kak.

Meaning, what we have left is one for Stone/Bone, Opaque Gas or Smoke, Blood and non-oil Liquid, and Oil. 

However, I do believe that Ferrous would likely be very different in canon than in AoN.

 

[Ravenclawjedi42]

3 hours ago, Firesong said:

AoN Spoilers

  Hide contents

I am of the opinion that Ferrous is still a thing, but that Beastarian isn't. The Essence of Beastarian would have been replaced by Crimson, as both are about bioloigical material. With crimson being like coral. This is stated by a WoB. 

I say this as the Aethers roughly correspond to Essences (supported by WoB)

 

Zephyr is obviously Zephyr/Jes

Verdant is Pulp/Palah

Crimson is Flesh/Ishi

Sunlight is Fire/Chach

Roseite I believe is Crystal/Vev

 

Ferrous would be Metal/Kak.

Meaning, what we have left is one for Stone/Bone, Opaque Gas or Smoke, Blood and non-oil Liquid, and Oil. 

However, I do believe that Ferrous would likely be very different in canon than in AoN.

 

Of course, there is the problem that you put ten proposed aethers, but we know there are twelve varieties.

[Firesong she/her]

40 minutes ago, Ravenclawjedi42 said:

Of course, there is the problem that you put ten proposed aethers, but we know there are twelve varieties.

I believe that Midnight and another one fit outside of the ten. That it is 10 Essences and 2 special ones. 

[Ravenclawjedi42]

33 minutes ago, Firesong said:

I believe that Midnight and another one fit outside of the ten. That it is 10 Essences and 2 special ones. 

Maybe Sunlight? Although that does fit pretty well with Chach. But the other special one would probably be an opposite of midnight.

[Firesong she/her]

Just now, Ravenclawjedi42 said:

Maybe Sunlight? Although that does fit pretty well with Chach. But the other special one would probably be an opposite of midnight.

Nah, Sunlight is definitely just Chach. Both deal with fire and heat. 

I feel we just haven't seen the counterpart of Midnight yet. Nor do we have any reason to think they would necessarily be opposites. Also, note, these are just names given to them by humans, having opposite names doesn't mean they are actually opposites. And, seeing the traits of both, I would argue that they aren't opposites, their effects are quite unrelated. Production of heat and light, versus the creation of entities out of Midnight Essence which one can control and "possess." Seem very different from one another. 

 

[Arcayenneist]

On 9/20/2023 at 6:08 PM, Firesong said:

Nah, Sunlight is definitely just Chach. Both deal with fire and heat. 

I feel we just haven't seen the counterpart of Midnight yet. Nor do we have any reason to think they would necessarily be opposites. Also, note, these are just names given to them by humans, having opposite names doesn't mean they are actually opposites. And, seeing the traits of both, I would argue that they aren't opposites, their effects are quite unrelated. Production of heat and light, versus the creation of entities out of Midnight Essence which one can control and "possess." Seem very different from one another. 

 

I know it's more than a year later, but I stumbled across this thread while doing research on this to try to create a chart to help my players come up with mechanics for Fabrials for the new Cosmere RPG.
Like Firesong suggested, I also concluded that Midnight and another aether are outside the classic 10 essences, almost like "god-aethers" or something else entirely.

I also initially placed Sunlight + Chach together for the same reason, but came across a potential problem (potential non-problem).
All Aethers/Focuses/Essences also corolate to the color of a polestone (which can vary in color, such as zircon). Chach/Spark corrolate to Ruby/Red.

While I'm not decided, I would also hypothesize that it could be an effect similar to using a magnifying glass to cause heat, and that instead Sunlight Aether corrolates to Vev/Diamond/Lucentia. 

Crimson could also easily be Shash/Blood/Garnet.
This is what I've landed on so far, with a heavy part of it hijacked straight from the Ars Arcanum. (EDITTED 2/14/25)

Spoiler

AoN Spoilers (based on what others have said)

Essence	Number	Number	Herald/Order	Gemstone	Body Focus	Soulcast	Surge1	Surge2	Aether	Color
Zephyr	1	Jes	Jezrien (WR)	Saphirre	Inhalation	Translucent Air/Gas	Adhesion	Gravitation	Zephyr	Dark Blue
Vapor	2	Nan	Nale (SB)	Smokestone	Exhalation	Opaque gas/Smoke	Gravitation	Division		Onyx/Dark Gray
Spark	3	Chach	Chanarach (DB)	Ruby	Soul	Fire	Division	Abrasion	Sunlight	Red
Lucentia	4	Vev	Vedel (ED)	Diamond	Eyes	Quartz, Glass	Abrasion	Progression	Roseite	White/Light Gray
Pulp	5	Palah	Pralla (TW)	Emerald	Hair	Plants	Progression	Illumination	Verdant	Green
Blood	6	Shash	Shalash (LW)	Garnet	Blood	Blood, Aqueous liquids	Illumination	Transformation	Illuminous	Violet
Tallow	7	Betab	Battar (EC)	Zircon	Oil	Oil	Transformation	Transportation		Light Blue
Foil	8	Kak	Kalak (WS)	Amethyst	Nails	Metal	Transportation	Cohesion	Ferrous	Purple
Talus	9	Tenat	Talenel (SW)	Topaz	Bone	Rock/Stone	Cohesion	Tension		Orange
Sinew	10	Ishi	Ishar (BS)	Heliodor	Flesh	Flesh	Tension	Adhesion	Crimson	Yellow
Midnight									Midnight	Black
*										White

 

 

However, I'm not wholly convinced that the Aethers do correlate directly, or perhaps more they have a common root and so have similarities but diverge instead. My brain latches onto the idea of a direct 1:1 pattern because PATTERNS! but it might not be so (EDIT: And Sanderson has said as much)

Edited February 14, 2025 by Arcayenneist
Correcting the table

[DracoAdamantus he/him]

On 2/9/2025 at 10:59 PM, Arcayenneist said:

I also initially placed Sunlight + Chach together for the same reason, but came across a potential problem (potential non-problem).
All Aethers/Focuses/Essences also corolate to the color of a polestone (which can vary in color, such as zircon). Chach/Spark corrolate to Ruby/Red.

While I'm not decided, I would also hypothesize that it could be an effect similar to using a magnifying glass to cause heat, and that instead Sunlight Aether corrolates to Vev/Diamond/Lucentia. 

Crimson could also easily be Shash/Blood/Garnet.
This is what I've landed on so far, with a heavy part of it hijacked straight from the Ars Arcanum. (EDITTED 2/14/25)

  Hide contents

AoN Spoilers (based on what others have said)

Essence	Number	Number	Herald/Order	Gemstone	Body Focus	Soulcast	Surge1	Surge2	Aether	Color
Zephyr	1	Jes	Jezrien (WR)	Saphirre	Inhalation	Translucent Air/Gas	Adhesion	Gravitation	Zephyr	Dark Blue
Vapor	2	Nan	Nale (SB)	Smokestone	Exhalation	Opaque gas/Smoke	Gravitation	Division		Onyx/Dark Gray
Spark	3	Chach	Chanarach (DB)	Ruby	Soul	Fire	Division	Abrasion	Sunlight	Red
Lucentia	4	Vev	Vedel (ED)	Diamond	Eyes	Quartz, Glass	Abrasion	Progression	Roseite	White/Light Gray
Pulp	5	Palah	Pralla (TW)	Emerald	Hair	Plants	Progression	Illumination	Verdant	Green
Blood	6	Shash	Shalash (LW)	Garnet	Blood	Blood, Aqueous liquids	Illumination	Transformation	Illuminous	Violet
Tallow	7	Betab	Battar (EC)	Zircon	Oil	Oil	Transformation	Transportation		Light Blue
Foil	8	Kak	Kalak (WS)	Amethyst	Nails	Metal	Transportation	Cohesion	Ferrous	Purple
Talus	9	Tenat	Talenel (SW)	Topaz	Bone	Rock/Stone	Cohesion	Tension		Orange
Sinew	10	Ishi	Ishar (BS)	Heliodor	Flesh	Flesh	Tension	Adhesion	Crimson	Yellow
Midnight									Midnight	Black
*										White

 

I've been putting something similar together. I also initially thought that the aethers would have the same colors as their corresponding polestones, but quickly realized that there are severe conflicts between color and effect for the aethers we know. 

In your table, you have the colors of Roseite aether as white, Sunlight as red, and Crimson as yellow. In Tress, all the spores we see are the same color as the effects they create (except for Zephyr, since it's just air). We know that Roseite is pink, Crimson is red, and (going off of the aethers art from Coppermind), Sunlight is likely yellow or gold: 
https://coppermind.net/wiki/Coppermind:Artists/cosmiciaria#/media/File:Aethers_by_cosmiciaria.png. 

I went off the assumption that the colors of polestones & aethers are not 1-to-1, and it's much more likely the aethers would correspond to the essence and/or soulcasting material first, and the associated gemstone secondarily (if possible).

I also remember in Tress, two of the crew members disagreed on if bone spores were a thing or just a myth. For the purpose of this at least let's assume they are real. They also say there's debate on "whether they are black or white". This sounds a lot like the White Sand from Taldain. I won't repeat all the information as has been posted before, but this thread (and those linked within) goes into more detail:  

So that's 6 of 12 aethers. Then there's those from AoN, from which we get two more.

Spoiler

Assumptions on the AoN aethers:

• Ferrous and Luminous aether will still be canon, and still work roughly the same.
• Amberite and Bestaran aether have been replaced in official publication by Roseite and Crimson aether, respectively. However, as the Amberire and Roseite aetherbound we have seen functioned pretty similarly, we assume that Crimson aetherbound have similar abilities the Bastaran did.

I also agree with the earlier comments in this thread that there would need to be two "special" aethers that do not correspond to essences. The fact that it operates so differently from the other spore types makes that easy to assume, but I have three specific thoughts (mainly from Tress) that influence an idea on how the other aethers operate/correspond.

1. Midnight spores are said to be the spores/aether of night (obvious I know, but bear with me)
2. The two "special" aethers are likely opposites of each other (so night and day)
3. Midnight spores are the only one we see that don't just produce some sort of matter/energy. It creates a full-blown midnight essence creatures, one that you can put your senses into, but isn't just a mindless drone. You have to feed it your water or it will no longer listen to you. There's a temporary Luhel bond formed, which for the other aether types is only a thing for aetherbound.

With the first two points, you'd think that sunlight spores are the opposite to midnight spores, but I disagree. Yes their names are opposite, but what they call different spores on Lumar may not necessarily be the actual aether's name, and the effect of Sunlight spores is pretty mundane to be one of the "special outliers". It's basically just Zephyr spores, but fire/heat instead of air.

Some people have said it may be whatever aether the bone spores occupy, with white being the opposite of black, and (if an aether is behind sandcasting as we believe) its power being some sort of telekinesis. However, sand casting is just limited to, well, sand (ie stone). Looking at the ten essences, Talus both has the bones as its associated body part, and its soulcasting material is rock and stone. Both of which fall in line nicely with the bone spores.

But there's another named aether that could be an opposite to night/midnight, and which has an appropriately "outlier" effect

(Small AoN spoiler)

Spoiler

Luminous aether. Its name implies it gives off light, and its effect is that it can teleport people by turning them into light to rapidly travel to a destination. 

 

Luminous aether and Night aether are also effectively the two "god" aethers in AoN

That all being said, this is what I've come up with. Items in italics have been written about at one point but has neither been confirmed or denied if they will remain canon. Items with an *asterisk are things that are speculative on my part, based on tangential information we already have or continuing a pattern in theming I noticed. Items with a ??? I have yet to come up with something appropriate to fill it (what are your theories?)

Spoiler

Name	Gemstone	Gemstone Color	Essence	Body Focus	Soulcasting Properties	Aether	Spore Color	Spore Effect	Aetherbound Ability	Notes
Jes	Sapphire	Blue	Zephyr	Inhalation	Translucent gas, air	Zephyr	Blue	Releases violent burst of air	*Creation and manipulation of air (Aerokinesis)
Nan	Smokestone	Gray	Vapor	Exhalation	Opaque gas, smoke, fog	*Pythian	*Gray	*Releases noxious clouds of dense, toxic gas (similar to chlorine)	???	Pythia, the oracle of Delphie, was believed to get her visions from inhaling natural gasses from geologic fizzures under the Temple of Apollo
Chach	Ruby	Red	Spark	The Soul	Fire	Sunlight	Gold/Yellow	Produces heat and light	*Creation and manipulation of fire/heat (Pyrokinesis)
Vev	Diamond	White	Lucentia	The Eyes	Quartz, glass, crystal	Roseite	Pink	Grows roseite crystals	Grow elaborate roseite constructs
Palah	Emerald	Green	Pulp	The Hair	Wood, plants, moss	Verdant	Green	Grows vines	Grow and manipulate vines
Shash	Garnet	Deep Red	Blood	The Blood	Blood, all non-oil liquid	???	???	???	*Manipulation of water (Hydrokinesis)	This one confounds me, because the aethers feed on water. So what could this one produce that isn't water-based?
Betab	Zircon	Pale Blue	Tallow	Oil	All kinds of oil	*Elaion	*Orange	*Produces a heavy, flammable oil	???	Elaion is the ancient greek word for oil, made it similar to Zephyr
Kak	Amethyst	Purple	Foil	The Nails	Metal	Ferrous	*Purple	*Grows thin, razor sharp ribbons of metal	Permanently transform into a living computer / machine / metallic construct; Communicate with transformed Ferrous
Tanat	Topaz	Orange	Talus	The Bone	Rock and stone	Bone	*White	???	*Manipulation of rock and stone (Geokinesis)
Ishi	Heliodor	Yellow	Sinew	Flesh	Meat, flesh	Crimson	Red	Grows sharp spines of organic coral-like material	Graft new flesh into your own; *Healing and grafting flesh onto others
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Midnight	Black	Creates midnight essence	Create midnight essence constructs
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Luminous	[gives off white light]	*Randomly transports living things caught in the radius by transforming them into light	Transport living things by turning them into light