Lore talk:Aetherium

The Light of Arkthzand

Circa {{Year|2E 582}}, the Wayward Guardians sent the adventurer to recover the Aetherium embedded within the Animunculi guarding the recently rediscovered Library of Arkthzand. These [[Lore:Reachmen|Reachmen]] hoped to use the gemstone's powerful enchantments to arm themselves against the encroaching forces of [[Lore:Rada al-Saran|Rada al-Saran]]'s [[Lore:Gray Host|Gray Host]].{{ref|name=ONA|[[Online:Ardanir|Ardanir]]'s dialogue during [[Online:The Light of Arkthzand|The Light of Arkthzand]] in [[Online:Online|ESO]]}}

I have moved this from the article as it appears to be total speculation. As Caraamon correctly pointed out, the gems obtained during the quest The Light of Arkthzand are never confirmed to be shards of Aetherium. I would take this a step further and say that these gems are most likely not Aetherium.

Ardanir has no idea what these gems are and refuses to speculate. However, he does proffer the following line: "Just holding these gems makes me feel uneasy. Like there's something deep inside them that wishes to be free. But then, I am no shaman." From what we know about Dwemer animunculi outside Vvardenfell, they are powered by soul gems. ESO also confirms that these gems can contain the souls of mortals, who remain fully conscious in this strange state of mechanical undeath (see e.g. this quest, this mount).

If we were to take a guess at what these Arkthzand Gemstone items are, my best guess would be a soul gem. Without a source specifically identifying these gems as Aetherium, I don't think we can include the above on the page. Radiating "a soft blue light" and being found in a Dwemer ruin associated with Aetherium is not really enough to confirm anything. —⁠Legoless (talk) 19:13, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

I beleive that this lorebook claims that the strange blue gems might be aetherium and uses the appropriate name for them

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Crafting_Motif_96:_Arkthzand_Armory_Style —⁠Tyrvarion

(talk) 22:29, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

True, but this doesn't relate to the above quest. That book should certainly be mentioned though. —⁠Legoless (talk) 00:11, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

I agree that this does not directtly relate tot he quest but it clearly states that dwemer contructs of Arkhazand use aetherium as the powersource (or at very least that they contain them) and the quest log for the "Light of Arkhazand" quest says following:"The shamans of the Wayward Guardians claim that certain Dwarven constructs contain gemstones imbued with powerful magic. Ardanir wants me to acquire some of these gemstones." The pieces of blue gems in the Wayward Motif are also shaped almost identically to the ones in Arkhazand Armory (and we have confirmation that Arkhazand Armory motif (and as such Arkhazand dwemer contructs use Aetherium). Description of Ardanir while fitting does not imply that there is soul inside. Aetherium was described as volitale before and him sayng "soemthing wants to get free from there" does not have to be necesarily about soul. The very suggestion that they would need shamans try to work with them rather than outright state they will use them suggests that those are nothing as common as soul gem. Especially coming from member of race that despite rather simple skills in many fields is very skilled at magic craft. I am certain they would recognize soul gem if they seen one.Tyrvarion (talk) 11:18, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

Potentially off-topic request

If anyone knows where the word "Aetherium" comes from irl (beyond the classical element of Ether) could they please add it to a "notes" or the "see also" section? I've seen it used in media pre-skyrim yet skyrim is almost all that any search engine will tell. In fact, I feel like the wiki in general would benefit from a larger volume of etymology information for a vast number of words/names from the Elder Scrolls overall. — Unsigned comment by 84.17.50.148 (talk) at 18:25 on 11 May 2022 (UTC)

We do not have that information. My guess would be that it comes from the word Aetherius and the chemical suffix -ium. If we did have anything factual to say about the etymology of this word, it belongs on General:Etymology rather than here on the lore article. —⁠Legoless (talk) 12:38, 12 May 2022 (UTC)