Aethereal Beings

An Aethereal Being is a living creature composed entirely of self organizing magicks. Aethereal beings can be neither created nor destroyed, but some persist as unique identities whereas others can manifest spontaneously as excitation of the magickal field.

A being that is only partly composed of magic is a magickal species.

Status As Living Creatures
There has long been contention among scientists over whether aethereal beings should be classified as living creatures or as non-living constructs. The standard definition of life requires that a creature have the following properties: The only of these qualifications aethereal beings can be said to clearly meet is response to stimuli. For the rest it is often unclear to what extent they conform to the qualifications. For example, while an aethereal creature will often clearly manipulate energy through magic they do not seem to need to do so in order to survive, and while they are structurally composed of magic, their composition is fluid and they can gain a physical form.
 * 1) Organization - being structurally composed of basic units or components
 * 2) Metabolism - the conversion of energy into more usable forms and use of energy to perform basic tasks in the body
 * 3) Adaptation - the ability to change over time to respond to external conditions
 * 4) Response to Stimuli - any reaction on the part of the organism to short term external stimuli

Some systems of organization put aethereal beings under a broader heading of self-organizing bodies, categorizing them as non-physical living creatures, which is perhaps more appropriate. It is the apparent intelligence of the aethereal beings which has made them so often a candidate for being considered living, but while intelligence may make a creature appear to be living it may not necessarily be a living creature if it has intelligence alone.

Persistent and Impersistent Beings
There are two types of aethereal beings: persistent and  impersistent. Persistent beings have always existed in the Localverse and always maintain unique identities, though those identities may fluctuate and change in relation to various factors. Impersistent beings manifest themselves out of the magickal field as a result of strong excitations in the field, usually coming from the voluntary or involuntary invocation of magic by a large number of magickal beings.