The Aether

**The Aether,** also referred to as the **Vale** or the **Realm of Souls**, is a theoretical alternate dimension of purely psychic energy that echoes and underlies the familiar four dimensions of the material world. The energy that surges throughout its immaterial walls is created by the thoughts and emotions of humanity, acting as a dark mirror of its pysche. The relationship between the Aether and the material world is, therefore, symbiotic. The Aether can give form to demons.

Only a tiny handful of people have heard of the theory, and generally dismiss it as a fantasy. Draconi possess a natural affinity to the Aether - a threadlike connection known as an Aperture. It's possible for humans to also gain an Aperture, but not through natural or safe means.

## The Nature of the Aether

The psychic energy that makes up the Aether is believed to be the direct result of the existence of sentience in the universe, in particular the intelligent species of Charos. Considered to be a dark reflection of the material universe, the Aether is an ocean of chaotic psychic energy; raw emotion and sentient thought given reflected and converted into pyschic energy within this chaotic '**Realm of Souls**'. The existence of the Aether, or at least the pyschic energy that resides within it, is therefore reliant on the existence of sentient life to fuel it.

The amount of pyschic energy created within the Aether is huge, and grows as the population of sentient life of Charos does. It is not individuals with unique thoughts, emotions and ambitions that will create ripples within the Aether, as these are far too insignificant, but the collective mindset of entire nations and continents. The shared horror of war. The hopeful ambitions of all people, both selfish and philanthropic alike. The vile deeds and acts that men and women do to one another on a daily basis, both crude and horrific in nature. All these things create conscious and unconscious emotion that is consistant amongst all people, and this powers the Aether.

There is no order to the Aether. The collective pysche of humanity is not filtered as it manifests within it, the vast sea of psychic energy instead being an indescribably horrifying sea of chaos. Everything is mixed into a blended soup of power, and very immaterial nature of this realm makes inhabiting it in mind or body utterly impossible. In *theory* there should be nothing to anchor all this energy into consistant divisions. It is all a mess. If, somehow, a human mind were to enter the Aether it would be brutally and irrevesibly torn into thousands of pieces; twisted, changed and tortured beyond any sense of repair.

## Order

However despite its chaotic consistency, there is evidence to suggest that some of the pyschic energy surged about the Aether is indeed somehow anchored so that it gravitates together into a limited number of uniformed shapes. Common emotions, thoughts or ideas (such as wrath, envy, fear or even love) are somehow drawn together fused into one shape, therefore giving the Aether some kind of order where none should be able to exist.

The evidence of this can be found in the existence of demons; malicious spirits that are formed of enough of its corrosponding emotion of thought. They are sentient creatures formed by the physic energy of the Aether, fuelled by humanity and given identity by whatever type of energy it is birthed from. Uniquely, demons could theoretically exist within both the Aether and the material world, if they could cross the barrier between them.

Under normal circumstances, the physic energy of the Aether is never still for long enough to give a demon form, as it takes a huge amount of power to give birth one. The presence of demons, however, was proposed following the Icecrown Incursion some years ago. This not only proved that there was, indeed, some kind of anchor that is giving the chaos of the Aether some kind of order, but that the existence of demons is symbiotic with the existence of humanity. As the human population grows, the strength and number of demons within the Aether may well grow alongside it.

These 'anchors' are called the Primordial Aspects. They are four of the strongest and most prevelent characteristics of the human pysche given form, and all demons are formed from pne of their conjoined swirling masses of Aether energy. The exact nature of the Primordial Aspects and what each other them represents is currently unknown, though the Cult of the Ceph believe them to be sentient gods. This is, ominously, a distinct possibility - though they may not be gods so much as four exceptionally powerful demons.

The Aether is not a sentient force. It's simply a metaphysical dimension that is linked, physically, to our own via the human pysche. However, almost all evidence points to the Aether being uncompromisingly hostile towards the material world and its inhabitants. We cannot exist within it, and it would aggressively leak into reality to consume it were the barrier between our two worlds broken. This is mostly evident with the existence of demons, which are seemingly universally hostile towards people.

Why the Aether is so malicious is currently unknown.

## Discovery and Research

The Aether has existed long before modern society. Ancient Charosi history shows that its presence was an accepted fact amongst ancient humans - known as the Ceph. They would hunt and vivisect live Draconi, using them in dark rituals to harvest their natural Aperture and steal their affinity to the Aether for themselves. The leaders of these rituals, the Shaman, were said to use the Aether to cast powerful spells and live for thousands of years. Although the ancient Ceph went extinct, their legacy lives on in the form of Ceph Cultists - modern humans who attempt to replicate the dark rituals and bloody spells the Ceph used to summon the Aether. Their rituals are never successful, as they lack Draconi to use it on, but it hasn't stopped them using human sacrifices (usually unwilling ones) in their place as they perform the ritual, attempt to summon a demon, then bluntly wonder why it didn't work...

The Aether was discovered by Naomi Masher accidentally. She had been working with the blood of Thorn at the time in an attempt to make the first Switcher, unaware of the natural Aperture that Draconi possess. Her work lead to the first Icecrown Incursion, which released a small demon into the Institute. The demon was quickly put down by Wyatt Masher, but King Ptomley ordered a full research project to begin with the goal of investigating and weaponizing the Aether. Despite Naomi's warnings that the Aether was too dangerous, Ptomley ordered the project anyway in the interests of Sethian expansion. The project was entitled Soulcreek. Naomi agreed to the project, but secretly used it to research a countermeasure against the Aether rather than a way to weaponize it.

Naomi shared her data with Daniel Bedington, but this resulted in the accidentally creation of the Blacklight pathogen. The virus was released over Icecrown City, and the 2nd Icecrown Incursion took place. This saw not only the first signs of a mass breakout of the Aether into reality, but the presence of a much larger demon on Charos - an entity the Glitched came to call the Sheep. The incursion did, however, allow Naomi to further her research into counter measures against the Aether, resulting in the creation of more advanced AI and the Soulcreek Prototypes.