Reality Stone

The Reality Stone, also known as the Aether, was one of the six Infinity Stones.

History[]

Thor: The Dark World[]

The Reality Stone is one of the six Infinity Stones. Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves, created a weapon out of the Reality Stone called the Aether. It is known to be able to convert matter into dark matter, and otherwise maintains an almost lifelike existence that causes it to bond in a parasitic fashion to a living host. Once bonded, the energies of the Aether slowly consume any mortal host, and also have a volatile and deadly effect on any who come into contact with the host in a manner that the Aether perceives as threatening. Bonded with a stronger host that understands its power, the Aether can be employed as a weapon where it lashes out with a concussive force, or reaches out to convert matter. During its brief time bonded to Malekith, the Aether also enhanced his physical form, causing him to grow threefold in height.

Every five-thousand years a cosmic event known as the Convergence causes the Nine Realms to become aligned, and Malekith planned to use this event and release the Aether to plunge the Nine Realms back into darkness. But the Asgardians intervened and took the Aether from him by force. Bor then had it hidden away where none could find it, and over the following five millennia its story faded from known history.

After five-thousand years, the next Convergence brought the Nine Realms into alignment again, and in so doing portals began to appear in the walls between realms. Jane Foster was dragged through one such portal to the hidden vault of the Aether where it bonded itself to her. She was taken to Asgard for treatment, but the physicians there could do nothing to remove it.

The Aether quickly became the central focus of a war when Malekith returned after a five-thousand year sleep to reclaim it. He almost succeeded when he pulled the Aether from Foster into himself and became its new host, but was stopped in the act of transforming the Nine Realms by the combined efforts of Foster and Thor.

Having recovered the Aether, the Asgardians decided that it was unwise to store two Infinity Stones in one vault, and turned the Aether over to Taneleer Tivan, the ageless archivist and curator known as "the Collector".

Guardians of the Galaxy[]

The Aether mentioned by The Collector when he explains the history of the Infinity Stones to the Guardians.

Avengers: Age of Ultron[]

When Thor explores a vision forced upon him by Wanda Maximoff, he sees the Aether along with the three other known Infinity Stones.

Avengers: Infinity War[]

As part of his quest to obtain the Infinity Stones, Thanos raided Knowhere in search of the Aether. He found the Infinity Stone and presumably deemed the Aether too powerful to control, so he solidified it into the Reality Stone with his Gauntlet. He used the stone against his enemies.

Avengers: Endgame[]

Three weeks after the Decimation, the surviving Avengers hunted Thanos down only to learn that he had used the Infinity Stones' power to destroy them. Enraged, Thor Odinson decapitated Thanos and they were left unable to restore everyone disintegrated by Thanos.

Five years later, the Avengers came up with a plan to retrieve the Infinity Stones from the past using the Quantum Realm. For the Reality Stone, Thor suggested going back to 2013 to extract the Aether from Jane Foster, though he warned that they would have to transform it into an actual Stone for it to be useful to them. Thor travelled back in time with Rocket, but got distracted when he saw his mother, Frigga, who would die on this day. Rocket was able to extract the Aether from Jane and returned to the present with Thor.

After gathering all of the Stones, Bruce Banner was able to use them to restore everyone that Thanos had disintegrated. During the final battle, a 2014 version of Thanos managed to retrieve the Stones and attempted to use them to end all life in the universe to remake it. However, he was foiled by Tony Stark who stole the Stones back and used them to disintegrate Thanos and his army at the cost of his own life.

After Thanos' defeat, Steve Rogers returned the Stones to their original timelines at the point that they had been taken.

Capabilities[]

Realitokinesis: The Reality Stone gives the user the ability to control dark-forces and at full power, manipulate reality. It can also revive the dead. It can even restore lost body parts of its hosts.

Appearances[]

Marvel Cinematic Universe (4 films)

- Thor: The Dark World (First appearance)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (hologram)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (vision)
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Avengers: Endgame (mentioned only)

Behind the scenes[]

To be added

Trivia[]

In the comics, the Reality Gem is yellow. The Reality Stone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is red.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has confirmed that the Aether is the "Reality" Stone of the Infinity Stones.^[1]
In the comics, the Collector owned the Reality Gem before Thanos took it from him.
In Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the Aether appears in the form of a Stone. In Endgame when telling the other Avengers that it's "more of an angry sludge sort of a thing," noted that "someone's gonna have to amend that," suggesting that the Avengers transformed it into a Stone as Thanos did for their own use.