Story Walkthrough

Delve into the core mechanics of Dream Aether in Dreams of Aether. Learn about its properties, encoding, grades, and how it fuels the world.

Dream Aether, often simply called Aether, is the fundamental, purest form of primordial energy in the universe. It is an undetectable, perfect energy with no waste, theoretically allowing for anything to be possible if harnessed correctly.

The Oracle Bracelet continuously absorbs Aether from the atmosphere and can also compress it from dead bodies into its purest form. However, absorbing uncompressed Aether directly from a deceased being is dangerous, as it carries the memories, experiences, and emotions of the departed.

A key observation is that Aether concentration increases with the number of beings in a location, especially spiritually evolved ones, creating a cycle of growth and evolution.

Properties

Dream Aether adheres to specific laws:

• Aether is attracted to itself.
• Aether spun centrifugally moves inward.
• Atmospheric Aether is instantly replenished and maintains its density.

According to the textbook Novice Aether Manipulation, introduction:

Dream Aether is the primordial energy originating the Universe, its source unknown and considered infinite. Energy and matter originate from Aether, with higher Aether density increasing the probability of their generation, potentially leading to Big Bangs and new Universes.

The Aether density of a Universe constantly increases due to three factors:

• Constant self-renewal from an infinite, inaccessible source beyond time and space.
• Aether's self-attraction, drawing it to denser points, similar to gravity. Powerful beings contribute to this increase.
• Attraction to brain activity, particularly thoughts and dreams, hence the name 'Dream Aether'. Solidified Souls are theorized to be mini Aether sources, attracting Aether, especially to intellectually evolved life forms.

Encoding

Basics

To be utilized, Dream Aether must first be encoded. The bracelet's 'Encode' ability transforms Aether into energy for enhancing a person's attributes. Seven basic attributes can be enhanced: Strength, Agility, Constitution, Vitality, Intelligence, and Perception.

The cost to Encode varies with volume. Volumes above 3 cubic meters double the price, and above 6 cubic meters, triple it. For instance, enchanting a 3 cubic meter unit with Sharpness Encoding costs 1 Aether point, same as for stats.

Larger beings require more Aether, but those slightly exceeding volume thresholds are inefficient, as even a cubic centimeter more can significantly increase costs. Therefore, avoiding unnecessary weight gain is advised.

Every body has a finite Aether capacity. As Aether stats increase, the body fills up, eventually exceeding its limit. Human beings have a famous 100-point limit for Aether.

Grade

Encoding also has different grades:

• High-quality Encoding condenses Aether, reducing its space requirement. Grade 1 is like a gas, Grade 2 like a liquid, and Grade 3 like a solid.
• Each higher grade allows the body to hold 10 times more Aether without extra effort. Higher grades also enable more complex Encodings, allowing passive properties similar to Aether Skills to be infused into each Aether Stat.
• The Oracle provides the 7 Grade 1 primary Encodings for free, but higher grades and additional functions are expensive, purchasable from the Oracle Store (e.g., Grade 2 Strength Encoding costs 1,000 credits).

Examples of Encoding

Although Dream Aether is colorless, the Oracle assigns colors for simplicity: Red for Strength, orange for Agility, yellow for Constitution, green for Vitality, cyan for Intelligence, and indigo for Perception. The Oracle device uses more Aether to encode each energy based on its color; one point of Aether for one point of Strength, two for Agility, etc.