Aether
Aether is an intangible arcane energy that is emitted when Aura departs from an organic body, whether by Spellcast or Death. The natural ebb and flow of Aether through Aurum’s atmosphere is best described as countless circular currents.
Aether is thin and flows swiftly in a naturally desolate place with minimal organic life (such as a tundra, desert, mountain peak, etc), but moves slowest and thickest in places saturated with both life and death.
When Aether is extremely oversaturated, it tends to grow stagnant, and succumbs to entropy and decay; this breakdown process taints surrounding physical matter and produces arcane environmental phenomena. This can change mundane mineral formations into Aurastone, but the same reaction causes mutations in organic beings, and insanity in sapient species. What the Kith call “Corruption” is actually a set of symptoms left by Aether decay.
Places where aether decay accumulates in extreme excess inevitably become spawning grounds for aberrations, which aren't to be confused with the mutated variants of Aurum's natural lifeforms (such as the electricorns). Aurum's magi theorize that matter decayed by the Aether becomes the "primordial ooze" and organic building blocks of an entirely new arcane evolutionary branch, dubbed the Aberration family.
Aether is thin and flows swiftly in a naturally desolate place with minimal organic life (such as a tundra, desert, mountain peak, etc), but moves slowest and thickest in places saturated with both life and death.
When Aether is extremely oversaturated, it tends to grow stagnant, and succumbs to entropy and decay; this breakdown process taints surrounding physical matter and produces arcane environmental phenomena. This can change mundane mineral formations into Aurastone, but the same reaction causes mutations in organic beings, and insanity in sapient species. What the Kith call “Corruption” is actually a set of symptoms left by Aether decay.
Places where aether decay accumulates in extreme excess inevitably become spawning grounds for aberrations, which aren't to be confused with the mutated variants of Aurum's natural lifeforms (such as the electricorns). Aurum's magi theorize that matter decayed by the Aether becomes the "primordial ooze" and organic building blocks of an entirely new arcane evolutionary branch, dubbed the Aberration family.