Ethes

Ethes is a fictional energy substrate used in speculative fiction and world-building to describe a pervasive, non-material medium through which information and energy propagate. In the literature, ethes serves as a unifying explanation for a variety of phenomena, including instantaneous communication, teleportation, and certain psionic effects. The concept is employed across different universes with varying rules, without claiming real-world existence.

In most depictions, ethes is independent of conventional matter and can fill space, including vacuum. It is often described as fragile to disturbance, capable of concentration or dilution, and subject to resonance, interference, or alignment with devices tuned to its frequency. In-universe technologies use devices such as ethes meters, resonance coils, and field generators to detect or guide ethes, and some works portray it as a carrier for information or as a substrate for nonlocal effects.

The term draws aesthetic and theoretical parallels to historical notions such as the aether and to modern concepts like field theories, while remaining firmly within the realm of fiction. Critics note that ethes can function as a flexible plot device if its rules are not defined consistently, but supporters argue that it provides a versatile framework for explaining complex interactions in imagined settings.

See also aether, quintessence, field theory, psionics, teleportation.