Taliesin Montgomery Vanholt
I am glad to know you have returned safely from Philadelphia, and I would also like to thank you for such a wonderful and lively debate at the dinner. My people have always had a deep connection to the Aether and I am known at times to get carried away when discussions manage to find themselves in that neck of the woods.
I absolutely love the idea of an open discussion regarding Aether, and would be more than happy exchange thoughts with you. I only hope that I can live up to your expectations of me.
On the Nature of Aether
The nature of Aether is that it is nothing, and it is everything. It is the end of time, and its beginning. One of your ancients, Lao Tzu, spoke in depth on the nature of Aether, or Tao, as he referred to it. While I do not agree completely with his full perspective, a point I will get into shortly, I feel that Lao Tzu’s Philosophy is worth using as a foundation to work off of, being the closest in comparison to my own people’s understanding and beliefs of the Aether. Therefore, I will use Taoism as a comparison point to provide familiar terminology and concepts.
Lao Tzu describes the Tao as indescribable. He says, “Tao that can be spoken of is not the Constant Tao. The name that can be named is not a Constant Name.” What he is saying in this is, the very act of defining Tao lessons and restricts what the Tao actually is. My people hold a similar belief. The Aether is in all things, and all things are made from the Aether. Council teaching extends that principle to all living creatures, great and small, but that is a flawed perspective, as all things come from the same origin, and therefore, create a connection between all that exists. I will come back around to this point when I address the other portion of your question, but for now, let’s take the statement of all things being made of Aether as a statement of fact, and use it towards a better understanding of its nature.
Imagine that the Aether were a great and mighty river. The material plains would be the river bed, and those items found floating about within it. If you were to state that the river was water, your statement would be correct, yet it would also be wrong. A river has water in it, but all water is not a river. Water does not describe the river; it merely draws attention to one aspect of it. If you pull a hand full of water from the river, you did not take the river, for the river is not something that can be captured. This is the nature of the Aether. It is among us, within us, it saturates the earth below our feet, and is imbued in the air we breathe. Yet, the very action of defining the Aether only serves to lesson what it fully is.
This leads me into the second part of your question, what is the natural state of the Aether and how does that nature affect the greater world. It is often believed in Council teachings, that the Aether is a dormant force, or energy, that waits for an outside force to act upon it and give it purpose. This is not so. The Aether is in constant movement, it is ever changing and shifting. Referring to the river again, when one stands beside the river, it appears as if nothing is occurring. The perspective of the individual sees the river as a static part of the scenery, but we know this is not the case. The river is in constant motion. The river you see in that moment, will never be seen again, as it has completely changed in every aspect of its existence. The closer one looks, the less effect they will notice, yet, when you look broadly, you will notice the erosion of the earth, the mixing of the water with the air, the moving of creatures and objects, the separation and fusing of bodies found within.
The Aether is in constant motion, and is constantly altering itself as it interacts with the world. When individuals use magic or innate abilities, they are using the natural connection the Aether has within all things in such a way that they are able to change the perception they are currently experiencing. Despite the observed change, they are actually doing nothing to change the Aether or the reality of what the Aether is. It is commonly believed by most advanced societies that all of existence came into being from a small ball of energy that then exploded to create matter. Now, the origin of this ball of energy is for a different discussion, but it is my belief that this energy was the birth of the Aether. As the Aether expanded to create the multi-verse, it transformed itself into protons and neutrons, which in turn spawned electrons.
It was the Aether that began to merge into quarks, which organized into protons and neutrons, and electrons which came together into various combinations that would become the material world. It was the Aether that created light and darkness, as neither existed before. As the Aether found combinations that produced various elements, those aspects of the Aether became defined, and they shared a type of memory that wanted to exist. As the Aether grew in its complexity, the universe grew in its diversity, until we progress to our present moment. I should also mention, that there is only one Aether. It is the one constant in all of existence, regardless of realm, dimension, or timeline, the Aether is there. It is why matter from one dimension can travel to another, or someone can move through time. It is the Aether’s nature to create, maintain, and destroy. It does so in every possible means to such a degree that it escapes any type of scope one could attempt to apply to it.
This brings me to the final part of your question, how does manipulation of the Aether affect it? On a cosmic scale, it doesn’t, in the same manner that removing a single gallon of water from a river will not diminish it, nor will the formation of ice, or the creation of a dam prevent the river from being what it is. The Aether is limitless and eternal, because it is of everything and more. When a boulder is shattered, it is no longer a boulder, but a collection of smaller rocks. This is not true of Aether. What it does do, is allow us to apply our limited imagination to the reorganization of matter to create, an often times very temporary, alteration to the natural order the Aether has created through its own trial and error.
I could go on, but I feel doing so would be to answer some presumed questions you may have in regards to my statements. Therefore, I shall leave you with this as a starting point for you to make your response to.
Looking forward to your reply,
Jarvey Militanos Consileratello
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