Aether Cultivation is...weird.
Even if I was forcibly gifted the knowledge of how it works, and I read a bunch of novels with a similar idea, it's still weird to me. But I can at least attempt to explain it to my other otherworlders who somehow end up here of all places.
I'm gonna divide it into three sections: Aether, Aether Formulas and Rings of Power, for the sake of easy digestion.
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Aether
There are seven main affinites to aether: Iganti, Aquarii, Terraqi, Aeroqi, Caligos, Luxari and Omni, which translates to: fire, water, earth, air, dark, light and neutral.
As well as two types of aether in this world: natural and internal.
There are also about a million little sub affinities created by mixing and matching the main seven ones in various ways, but that shit gets too complicated and you end up with weird shit like: life, metal and luck aether.
Natural aether is just...is. It's like matter, atoms, energy, everything has aether in it and it's generated by or is the cause of natural phenomena.
For the most part, aether is just dispered into the air and is just...everywhere, but sometimes natural aether can get concentrated and condensed into other forms like liquid and solids.
(Side note: Liquid fire aether tastes like sparkling spice apple cider. I don't know why either.)
Internal aether is...weird. Basically, every living thing has a soul, and that soul is able to produce aether by just existing. However, not all souls produce the same type of aether.
There was a belief that the aether affinity of one's soul was based on one's personality, but that idea died out after a while.
It's now known that one's affinity is determined by parentage and environment.
For instance, a father with an Ignati soul and a mother with a Terraqi soul, living in an Aquarii rich environment, could end up with kids exhibiting any combination of Terraqi, Ignati or Aquarii aether...or Omni, Caligos and Luxari because reasons.
The long and short of it, aether is just weird magical energy that can't really be used unless one's an Aether Beast or have an Aether Formula, speaking of...
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Aether Formulas
Circa...long ass time ago when the universe was primordial soup, people figured out how to carve Formulas into their souls. This enabled them to use aether in weird and extraordinary ways and unlock unimaginable power and abilities.
As far as I understand it, Aether Formulas are like...computers.
Aether by itself is just raw power, it doesn't really do anything unless converted into other forms, which is where the Formula comes in. It helps to dictate the flow and type of aether used by a cultivator, as well as use the aether in new ways.
It's best to think of different Formulas as different builds of computers. An art tablet and a gaming PC may both use electricity and are computers, but they're used in very different ways.
This analogy means that aether arts can best be thought of as apps.
And before this needs to be brought up, yes its possible to swap out a formula, no it is not recommended in the slightest.
It is also possible to upgrade and change a formula but that would involve somehow editing someone's soul...
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Aether Rings
If a Formula is a computer, aether arts are apps, then the Rings are miniaturization and upgrades.
Cultivators of aether formulas can divide their strength into ranks and grades.
Grades are the difference in platform and builds, while ranks are differences within those platforms.
For example, let's say there are two cultivators with the same formula who are both at the Novice grade, while having a one rank difference in power.
Keeping with the computer analogy, both cultivators are basically using calculators, but the one who is a higher rank is using a graphing calculator as opposed to a basic one.
Now, if the difference between the two was between grades, let's say Novice vs Acolyte, then that would be like a calculator vs a desktop PC from the early 2000s.
As a cultivator gets stronger and more practiced, they're able to solidify their gains by condensing aether into "rings" that spin around their formulas. This equivalent to adding RAM or memory storage to a computer.
Once a cultivator gets to five rings in a particular grade, they can condense those rank rings into a "grade" ring and then go up one. This is like...somehow condensing all of the components of a computer into a smaller, more powerful computer.
I believe this pattern holds true all the way up to Deity grade, but I have no idea if that's true or not.
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Regardless, this entire thing has just been my own way of understanding how aether and cultivation works.
If y'all end up in world like this, maybe y'all can come up with a better analogy.
Granted...this understanding only applies to most humans I've met so far...