Evidence accumulated over more than a thousand years finally led the peoples of Asgard to realize that aetherite had shaped the land they lived on, the face of the moon above, and even their own souls. The exploitation of its fourth state—pure energy—changed the fate of the continent.

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Aetherite is also known as aether crystal, genecite, and sapienite, but most call it blue crystal based on its appearance. Through the endless toil and struggle to survive and build a civilization, humans discovered that aetherite has three primary forms: a crystalline solid; a gas; and a liquid with the appearance of underground water. Blue crystal in these three states permeated their lives, but due to their low level of technology, they only knew to treat the three as a mineral, a religious offering, and a biohazard respectively.
Blue crystal in its solid form could serve as a sturdy material. In its liquid form as crystallis it flowed freely beneath the earth and could be ritually imbibed in order to sharpen the senses, while in its gaseous form it was known as blue mist, and often became poisonous hand-in-hand with the degradation of the environment. But in truth it was better understood as a deceptive trap than as a poisonous gas, for travelers who entered the Blue Mist Sea were lost forever, never to be found.
At first the three were believed to be unrelated phenomena. The obscure connections between them remained a puzzle, until a coven of Caeruluna-worshipping witches received a sign from the ancient past informing them that the three were one and the same, and established the blue crystal cycle as a religious philosophy. But though they had finally recognized the unique properties of aetherite, they still neither realized its potential nor knew how to use it. 

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The technological revolution finally began when Drave the Snake-Eyed gazed upon runes carved in blue crystal amid the Arche ruins and the fourth state, energy, was revealed to him.
Once processed, blue crystal in its fourth state of pure energy becomes capable of providing enormous power. Thereafter, it was discovered that blue crystal in this state could easily catalyze conversion between the other three states, making them available for a wide variety of uses that now were freed from their dependency on the long slow operation of the natural blue crystal cycle, which took place outside human control.
Fed with endless amounts of blue crystal energy, Archecores left over from the age of the Ymirus drove a renaissance and revolution in Arche technology. Once activated, they successfully stopped the spread of the miasma and created clean air. The environment soon took a turn for the better, as plants flourished and the land began to produce a greater variety of crops, giving the Vecks the breathing room to build up their strength. This event marked the beginning of the Common Era.

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Successful replication of the technology of the gods allowed expeditions to discover ever more Archecores; clans joined forces and tribes grew bigger in the race to mine blue crystal for fuel. As a result, the Asgardian tribes swiftly evolved into a feudal society. The Vecks became the Kingdom of Veck, with Industrial Revolution-level production capacity. In just a century, the Asgardian continent took on a dynamic new face.