Other possible Aethers. The blood essence.

[DoctaDajman]

I have seen that essences are tied to aethers in a way or that aethers tie into one of the essences.  I am curious what peoples thoughts are on a waterbending sort of aetherbound... or blood perhaps?  How do you think the blood essence would play out in the form of an aetherbound? Is there an aether that would line up with this?   

If the aetherbound were to create liquid, how would that work with their cost? If it were water they were to create would they be able to create more than they are using to create it?  That seems sketchy but the blood essence is one that exists right?  

 

[Treamayne]

6 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

I have seen that essences are tied to aethers in a way or that aethers tie into one of the essences. 

Not quite. It's more like both the 10 Essences and the 12 Aethers are subsets of something else with slightly different interpretations of the source. 

WoBs:

Spoiler

Quote

MoriWillow

Is there any significant relationship between the twelve types of aethers and the ten essences on Roshar, even just in a sense of recurring cosmere-wide patterns?

Brandon Sanderson

I would say yes, but it's tenuous.

Secret Project #1 Reveal and Livestream (March 8, 2022)

Quote

Comatose

Also talking about aether, a lot of the aether spores—or all of them that we've seen—map fairly neatly to a primal essence or element. And so we're wondering, if that's a continued pattern, what’s the essence for the crimson aether? Or to put it another way, what's with the red spikes? The world wants to know.

Brandon Sanderson

What’s with the red spikes? So, red spikes are the aether version of coral, which is… I did not, let’s just say, want to do a flesh aether. So we're going in a coral direction as our kind of organicish, fleshy sort of thing. Do understand they're not going to be a one-to-one, right? We might have some wiggle room there, but so far I've done them as a one-to-one.

Comatose

But that is kind of fun, though, if it is kind of mapping to flesh that it's still got kind of a horror or like a scary element to it.

Brandon Sanderson

Imagine it more like carapace and things like that as what we might call our "flesh" for mapping the aethers there. I'm not going to go with some aether that creates giant tumors. I did toy with it. It just, you know, certain things don't work as well as other things.

So the the verdant aether is— verdant and roseite have been the two that have always been the most interesting to me. Though of course, zephyr is really important for the for the space age cosmere, right? Being able to have portable air and some some propellant that breaks the laws of our universe by providing propellant that is small, very compact, and very easy to use as a propellant helps a bit with space age stuff.

Shardcast Interview (July 30, 2023)

 

There is likely to be at least one liquid-manifesting Aether; but it is unlikely to manifest quantities greater than the cost. Also, the Luhel Bond draws on Hydration from the Aetherbound/Sprouter/Sand Master's body - so even if water were to be created this way, it would take time for that source to be metabolized and available for fueling a Bond. White Sand Spoilers:

Spoiler

That was one of the plot points in White Sand. The Kerztian drug introduced into the water was a diuretic that both incerased the rate of dehydration and interfered with digesting water - so the Mastrells dehydrated despite drinking water during the battle. 

Hope that helps. 

[Isilel]

6 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

If the aetherbound were to create liquid, how would that work with their cost?

 

So, sandmastery in White Sand is (seemingly) not an aether ability, but it is also powered by water and feels quite similar overall. And I don't know if it was retained in the comic, but in unpublished prose version

 

Spoiler

It was possible to produce water with it and in excess of what had to be consumed to power the ability. It was called slatrification, IIRC.

 

I wonder how the planned official version of the novel will handle it in published form.

[Jult]

1 hour ago, Isilel said:

I wonder how the planned official version of the novel will handle it in published form.

That is being retconned out of existence from what we know. WoBs:

Spoiler

Quote

Strumienpola (paraphrased)

Can you slatrify sand into other liquids?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

*thinks a moment* I admit that slatrification is one aspect of Sand Mastery I'm the least fond of, because it doesn't mesh well with the rest of Cosmere magic. The comicbook writers are working with my original script, with very minor changes, but if we ever release White Sand in print - which we might do - I might end up changing it. So - I won't answer that, because I'm not yet sure if slatifying into water is possible. *laughs* You can think of the comic as sort of in-universe story about those characters, then.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

About slatrification, he said that if he ever writes the novel, he'll make slatrification an in-world legend.

Warsaw signing (March 18, 2017)

 

Quote

LewsTherinTelescope

I was wondering if you could answer a couple questions about the White Sand omnibus, as I've gotten the impression you're mostly the one running that?

1. Khriss prologue: Is this Khriss's introduction from the prose, or is it a different scene?
2. Slatrification: Brandon's mentioned wanting to retcon out slatrification, and Volume 3 does not contain the main (I think only?) time it was actually used in the prose. However, in Volume 1, it is mentioned a few times by a couple characters. Are you changing this in the omnibus, or is this being left as-is?
3. Khriss's notes: Are these just things from the prose that didn't really make it through into the graphic novel prior, or will we be getting some new nuggets of information as well?

Isaac Stewart

1. Khriss's introduction is adapted from the prose but has been changed to better fit her character and the needs of the rest of the store.
2. Slatrification was never meant to even be in Volume 1, but somehow it slipped in. Slatrification has been entirely edited out of the omnibus.
3. Khriss's notes are meant to help flesh out the world in ways a graphic novel normally can't. Some of it is world building that has been taken and adapted from the prose. There's new stuff there, though. I hope readers will enjoy it!

General Reddit 2021 (Nov. 2, 2021)

 

 

[Isilel]

Thanks! So, it seems that there isn't going to be a way to circumvent the water cost using an aether-like Luhel bond.

Whether any other liquid, for instance oil, can be created with an aether, remains to be seen, I guess.

Edited July 7, 2025 by Isilel

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

1 hour ago, Isilel said:

Thanks! So, it seems that there isn't going to be a way to circumvent the water cost using an aether-like Luhel bond.

Whether any other liquid, for instance oil, can be created with an aether, remains to be seen, I guess.

Also, it has appeared to look like White Sand is the '13th' aether, and is not an actual aether, just one that somehow got named one because of the similarity.

[LewsTherinTelescope]

I think midnight is Blood. Re-Shephir has been associated with Lightweavers, Midnight Tressence feels a strong desire to drink blood, and a real blood/water aether would be problematic for the spore seas remaining spores.

I wonder if we might get a thin oil or something (Tallow) as a spiritual replacement, maybe?