The Aether

"The Aether is like some cruel cosmic trick to the enlightened mind. I swear the more I understand about how it all works, the less it makes sense."

- Adanus Tercin Vespe

Known by several names, The Aether is a dimension linked with the phenomenon of Psionics in the material universe. The Aether is inhabited by non-corporeal entities of considerable psychic power that powerful psychics can interact with while “Dreamwalking” in the Aether (the process of exploring the psychic realm involuntarily while asleep.)

The study of the Aether, and its related phenomena such as spirits, its currents, levels and related aspects to psionics is known commonly as Aetherics

Nature
"Most will tell you the Aether is an alien dimension, something strange and disconnected because they cannot see it. But is not. The Aether flows through the stars and planets just as the Psionic will shapes it. Reality is influenced by the Aether just as much as thinking beings influence it."

Sometimes mistaken for a separate plane of reality. The Aether is a higher dimension overlaying the material dimensions of the universe. Existing in a matching state to the physical universe, the Aether is imperceptible to most beings, though images of it can be seen in daydreams, hallucinations, meditations and most importantly when dreaming. Even when fully immersed however, such as in meditation or a dream-like state, the Aether appears in ways physical beings are familiar with. Only beings native to it such as thoughtforms or the Eloa'Nar are capable of perceiving its true appearance.

Psionic power manifests as energy to influence or modify the physical world from the Aether’s swirling vortexes of power. Those drawing their energies from the Aether either do so subconsciously - such as from mental impulses or reactions - or are consciously made in the form of summoning acts like gestures and chants. Most life in the universe is capable of subconsciously influencing and responding to the presence of the Aether, though not much more than that. The mood of a room, the instinctive impression of a person or a sense of imminent danger are all things influenced by a connection to the Aether. The intensity of this connection is the determining factor of psionic sensitivity; the level of ease for which an individual can interact with the psionic realm. Even the psionically deaf - beings whose connection to the Aether is weak to the point it is negligable - still have a minimal psionic presence in it.

Some reports describe the Aether as having a "depth" to it. The easiest summary being that the deeper one immerses their mind in Aetherspace, the less the space needs to conform with reality. Other sources speculate this depth is not so much a physical depth as a level of how perceptible the raw Aether is. A reality unfiltered by conscious perceptions and unconstrained by physical rules, described by some as "pure imagination". "Depth" is used by scions to describe this as pushing into aspects of the Aether less constrained by reality is often compared similar to diving. That to experience these more raw aspects requires more concentration and expertise, but is also more difficult to leave.

Only hypersensetives and masters of their own talents are known to be capable of experiencing a completely raw Aether for any length of time.Usually describing it as completely unconstructed and devoid of rules. In her published journal My Explorations of the Aether, the 5th millennium ID Dreamwalker Thereni Cea Lilivec once wrote "For a brief moment I was in everything at once. Every sound, every smell around me was present. Smells and sounds I did not even know existed. I had to tell my heart to beat, and my lungs to fill. The room in which I had been meditating was a constantly shifting mess of shapes, like I had forgotten about distance and form. I could not even tell you how long those ten seconds were."

Inhabitants
Most life forms within the dimension are colloquially known as thoughtforms. Apparitions of psionic energy shaped by the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortal beings. In particular tempestuous regions of the Aether, massive currents of raw psionic energy are funnelled, sometimes giving violent birth to semi-intelligent spiritual apparitions. These confused spirits often clash with one another, unleashing massive amounts of psychic power in battles that can last from mere moments to millennia. More placid thoughtforms drift along the currents of the aether, drawn to the psionic signatures of physical beings. Lacking full intelligence, thoughtforms are mimics. Only being able to behave or take forms of things they pick up in the imaginations of physical beings.

Not all life in the Aether is native to it. It is possible for a physical being to permanently inhabit the Aether through rituals that transfer the mind permanently into a fully aware psionic thoughtform. Although such a ritual can lead to the host body being abandoned.

Eloa’Nar
The Eloa’Nar are primarily separated into two groups: The Isio’Nar and the Mali’Nar. While their oriigns beyond stories of ancient experiments to control the immaterial, these two groups are divided primarily over how the Aether should be utilised. With Isio’Nar believing in a grand plan to organise the universe for the ultimate ascension of all, and the Mali’Nar believing the Aether to be a tool to empower themselves.

Both groups however consider themselves to be the new lords of the Aether, shaping it to their own designs. With more powerful lords shaping pockets of the dimension to suit themselves and populating them with servile thoughtforms. As the Eloa’Nar were once mortal, they are independently capable of imagination, their realms capable of looking like places unfamiliar to any being of the physical. Even retaining any qualities that might be considered alien or physics-defying in the material universe.

Eloa'nar are known to be capable of projecting themselves into the material. The effect of this can vary with the individual, with some appearing as phantoms, and others creating convincing facsimiles of physical bodies.

Spirits
The primary and most numerous denizens of the Aether, spirits are creatures born of the other-realm's essence. Entities whose temperaments can range from curious and friendly to hostile on sight. And theories vary as to how heavily influenced their attitudes are by the emotions of physical beings

There are many theories as to how spirits are born, how they persist and how they die. Some are seemingly immortal while others live only for a brief moment in time. Attempts to bind them to physical bodies (as well as more anecdotal folk tales among various cultures in the galaxy of monsters, the possessed and spirit-talkers) indicate at least some are capable of verbal communication and complex thought. Leading some to believe that distinctions should be established to differentiate various spirits on measures of cognisance.