Consider these entries on Aethrals more simply to make one aware that these beings do EXIST, may be referenced, and even possibly crop up as NPCs if the need arises - but I would personally prefer player characters choose from one of the many other racial types instead. Thank you for understanding.
Aethrals are beings from the Aethral Realm, a separate plane of existence from our own (much like the Underworld and Demon Realm). Simply put, one may think of them as 'light demons' - extradimensional beings with a predisposition towards the Light element, much like Demons and Shadow. Unlike Demons, however, Aethrals rarely possess a humanoid shape. Some appear as nothing more than pure light or energy, while the greater and more powerful Aethrals supposedly have forms beyond the realm of mortal comprehension. While they're much more rarely seen in the mortal realm than Demons (who are more naturally tied to mortal desires and enjoy intermingling with them), those who do have need of appearing before mortals must tell them to be not afraid as their natural forms are supposedly even more grisly than those of demons and monsters. Some may employ powerful illusion magic to take on a more familiar shape, or appear via an avatar of some kind, but many simply do not care enough to do so.
Whatever the case, much of this is hearsay that may or may not be reliable, so infrequent is it that Aethrals are encountered in IGNOLand. What we DO know is that there are as great and many Aethrals as Demons in their own realm, and many of them too have a hand in the operations of the Underworld. It is important to understand that Aethrals are just as alien - if not moreso - to the mortal realm as Demons, and no less dangerous. Mortals who encounter Aethrals have claimed that their presence is inherently otherworldly and unsettling, possessed of an aura that makes them feel unreachably vast and incomprehensible even if they disguise their natural forms. Aethrals are also not Divines, but more akin to Demons in that they are dimensional beings with their own free wills and dispositions. They have a strong sense of justice, but their morality skews so far towards their own ideals of 'righteousness' that few mortals could hope to live up to their lofty expectations. Mortals deemed unworthy of them may be deemed enemies and swiftly cut down. One would be advised to always exercise caution when in the presence of an aethral being, for Light is not always good.
