Aether Well

It seems a little simple to start this project with a concept so simple. It is the thing that we are using to compose this encyclopedia after all, but it bears mentioning as a basis for future reference.

The Aether Well is a Repository for ideas, thoughts, spells, and images. It retains the finest thoughts of the greatest people in the last five generations. It is what inspired and sparked The Phinacian (fin-EH-ki-an) War, and what caused the Aetheric Revolution that followed. The control of this sacred concept (The Well) was the source of much debate and bloodshed. To be permitted to use The Well is a great honor. Only the finest minds and most revered scholars are allowed access. The Well has no physical location, and as such, the control of its access points if very complicated.

## Current Access Protocol

Access is controlled by the use of a set of stones, The Aether stones. This article could never hope to cover the depth and breadth of the use of The Aether stones, but suffice it to say that these stones are part of a finite set of 144, but that only 104 of their locations are known currently. See Phinacian War, Fallout.

## History

In the early days of The Well, functioned as the plaything of some higher mages and sorcerers. They used it to dream, imagine, and play. The creator Berevard (beh-REH-vard) Longpath, the eclectic, divided the Primal Aether Stone into 144 pieces in order to facilitate communication between himself and a few of his colleagues. The number 144 has some specific significance as a magical number, but, once again, there is not enough room here for the discussion of Arcane Numerology. Berevard only sent 25 or so (The actually number is lost, though it may yield some important information to research.) of The Stones to the others. This kept Berevard with controlling interest in the Aether Well. This control ended when a small group of adventurers broke into Berevard’s castle and killed him over a petty family squabble. Such was a common fate in those darker days. Shortly afterward, Berevard’s trust assumed the control of the stones, and decided that the best way to maintain balance was to distribute The Stones to noteworthy rulers and scholars, the bulk of which went to Phinacian Scholars.

The Phinacian War followed, and with it the control of the stones changed again. This change of control is often understood as the beginning of the Aetheric Revolution. The most relevant outcome of The Atheric Revolution, of course, was the Berevardian Creed, named after Berevard himself, as an honor.

## Limitations of the Well

The Well is a very powerful resource. It can hold knowledge, our greatest resource, over the eternities. But it comes with some serious draw backs. The first and most obvious of which is the Retention Theory put forth by Marklin Tarf (MARK-lin TARF). While it is still called a theory by the community at large, it heavily inspired the Berevardian Creed, and changed the way The Well was used dramatically.

The Retention Theory states that any time an Aether Diver accesses an Impression in The Well the Impression will be changed. This is the primary reason that the Berevardian Creed in necessary. It is also the reason that every Aether Diver must undergo rigorous training and testing before receiving their Aether Stone.

Another limitation of the Well is Impression space, which, without getting too technical, is limited by the size of the initial Stone, and the number of divisions. This is a great concern for us in our research. Knowing the number of impressions is finite determined a lot about the way that information is stored. It forced the Divers to become more creative with the methods they used for making new impressions. The power of Interlacing Impressions, the method that we use for this study, was only discovered after The Well had been half way filled. This is the reason that many topic and discussions are convoluted. It is also the reason that there are so many poorly named Impressions.

The final important limitation of the Well is the number of Stones. While the number 144 likely was the only reason the Well was possible, it limits the number of Divers. This requires that every Diver be as impartial and observational as possible so as to lend the greatest amount of actual knowledge without tainting that knowledge with opinion. As Divers, we cannot have opinions about what is happening, and at the risk of having my Stone revoked, I must say that limiting the opinions expressed seems to limit the humanity of the records, and by extension the Divers.

-Zolo Marteck

See Also:

* Cites
	+ Aether Diver
	+ Aether Stones
	+ Aetheric Revolution
	+ Arcane Numerology
	+ Berevard Longpath
	+ Berevard’s Trust
	+ Berevardian Creed
	+ Impression
	+ Interlacing Impressions
	+ Marklin Tarf
	+ Phinacian War
	+ Phinacian War, Fallout
	+ Retention Theory
* Cited
	+ Aetheric Condensation