Aether of Night Future Plans

[Pagerunner he/him]

Brandon recently spoke about his future Aether plans.

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[00:05:35]

Q: Are the Shards from Aether not canon?

A: Aether of Night is not intended to be canon anymore. The thing is, I’m trying to work it back into the Cosmere, so when it’s done there are going to be dramatic changes.

In other words... It's coming!

So, Aether was supposed to kick off a series, and we've long thought that the war-between-Shards aspect was lifted out for Mistborn's Ruin and Preservation. The 'dramatic changes' appear to be replacing the Shards of Aether with something new. I hope this means the magic system and the characters will be carried over - those were the best parts of the book in my mind, as I was left very underwhelmed with the ending. The story almost stands on its own, now, and I think that would be a wise direction to take.

However, I must admit I don't want to see Aether very soon. Brandon has 5 active cosmere series right now (Wax&Wayne, Warbreaker, Elantris, Stormlight, and White Sand). White Sand won't be as much on Brandon to do, 'cause of the graphic novel and all that, and Mistborn and Stormlight are both the 'big series' he's working on. But I'd like to see him get through Elantris 2 and 3, Nightblood, and Modern Mistborn before jumping into the back half of Stormlight, as he was planning a few years back. If Aether is a standalone (like The Silence Divine), then it could go well as a 'break book' between Stormlight 6-7 or something like that, which wouldn't require fans to wait for him to finish a series. So, that's why I'd like to wait to see new Aether; Brandon's just got a lot on his plate right now, and needs to start wrapping things up. (And that's not even counting his other ongoing series; since Apocalypse Guard is following Reckoners, the only thing he's completed entirely is The Wheel of Time and Original Mistborn.)

[Weltall]

I spotted that one too, nice to have a reminder that he's planning something for Aether. I imagine he'll say something again with the upcoming State of the Sanderson as well.

My current speculation is that the Vax that Ati mentions in Secret History and Khriss writes about in the Elantris 10th AA is Vaeria renamed and the story will either take place before Mistborn when Preservation and Ruin were doing something on another planet prior to creating Scadrial or (perhaps more likely) it will be more contemporary and deal with the repricussions of something those two did, only now they aren't around to fix it. I also wonder if his stated interest in rewriting Aether means that he's going to remove them from Liar of Partinel when the time comes to revise that story, or whether they'll remain a pre-Shattering thing that carries over. I could see that one going either way.

And yeah, the ending felt rushed and the 'clash between gods/end of the world' plotline has since been done much better in Mistborn but there's definitely material for a good story in there. Lots of plot elements that were never really explored, hints at other cultures and I think another sentient race that never showed up, the Shentis... and of course whatever Brandon has planned for Aethers as a magic system will probably really knock our socks off now that he's improved so much as a writer. I doubt we'll see this for a long time but it's going to be one more thing to look forward to in the years ahead.

[Pagerunner he/him]

Good call; he did mention it, and say that he did say that there are 'seeds of the story already in other books.' That implies there's more than just the Amberite in Mraize's collection. Vax, having been mentioned twice in two different books, is a good candidate. I also didn't get a chance at the last signing to ask about my pet theory, that some Southern Scadrians have Bestarin, but it could also fit.

[Weltall]

Speaking of other Aethers, anyone who thinks that Duskr from Liar of Partinel was conceived as a new name for 'Night', raise the hand of your Forgotten killbot.

And yeah, since he mentioned both seeds and books in the plural and I'm pretty sure he's not counting Liar in that sample, Vax is looking pretty solid as the future setting for Aether's rewrite as it's been mentioned several times and the crystal in Mraize's collection is the most obvious candidate for the second such seed. And Peter at one point said that there's a specific reason that Aethers are 'already canon' but nobody has figured it out yet. If we can get at what's so significant about Aethers that could help us predict where he's eventually going to take things.

And while trying to find that quote I also found another by Brandon a couple years back where he said that Aethers may not remain in the Liar/Dragonsteel arc when they're revisited because he wasn't happy about how they turned out.

Last random observation, Amberite seems to be a word looking for a worthy story. Brandon used it in Mythwalker, Liar of Partinel and Aether of Night but none of them have been published. Hopefully it will finally have its day when the rewrite is finished, whenever that might be.

[+Extesian he/him]

I just saw these threads, brilliant. I loved the ideas behind Aether of Night even if the prose is well below modern Sanderson standards.

To be honest I figured the reason Aethers are already canon is simply that Amberlite is in Mraize's collection, as that Word of Peter was after Words of Radiance was published. But I'm intrigued by the idea that they could have been actively employed in another book, or in some other way had the magic referred to. I'm thinking I should reread every Word of Hoid...

[Auger he/him]

Liar of Partinel almost certainly will include Aether's, as it's about pre-shattering, where magic was everywhere - both lightweaving and Aethers are native to Yoden.

[Pagerunner he/him]

2 hours ago, Auger said:

Liar of Partinel almost certainly will include Aether's, as it's about pre-shattering, where magic was everywhere - both lightweaving and Aethers are native to Yoden.

Actually, it probably won't include Aethers. Out-of-universe, here's the scoop:

Brandon wrote Aether around 2002 back before he was published, with a whole bunch of other books that he didn't feel comfortable trying to sell. After Tor purchased Elantris, he started taking pieces of those books to write other books. Some elements of Aether (the war between Shards), Mythwalker (an unfinished book which is completely available on his website), Mistborn Prime, and Final Empire Prime were pulled together for the Mistborn trilogy. Warbreaker also used pieces of Mythwalker. In 2007, Brandon tried to write Liar of Partinel to kick off the Dragonsteel series, pulling in the Aethers. Ultimately, he didn't like how the book turned out, and scrapped it. (He did more repurposing for Way of Kings; there are elements from Dragonsteel and Mythwalker in it, as well.) Aethers weren't originally designed for Yolen, they were designed for Vaeria. Brandon experimented with Aethers on Yolen, but that isn't canon, and probably won't be the case going forwards.

[Weltall]

Yeah, we know from Peter's comment that there's something about Aethers that Brandon very much wants in the cosmere and cannibalizing them for Liar of Partinel seems to have been an attempt at doing so, back when Brandon didn't think Aeither of Night was ever going to be published. Since then he (almost certainly) included a reference to them in Mraize's collection and Aether has gone from 'scrapped' to 'planned to be rewritten someday' status, so there's no pressure to include them in Liar of Partinel as he'll get them in eventually through other means.