Ether

  Ether, sometimes referred to as the true fifth element instead of gunpowder, as some ballistics fanatics would like you to believe - is a highly caustic type of oil. Like all things terribly experimental and unethical that comes out of the Golden Empire, Ether is a product invented by the Technocrats of Westport. In this case, from the illustrious Camille family itself.   Ether at its core is a heavily refined oil - cleansed from all its impurities and enchanted with arcane traits of regeneration, force enhancement and void.   What it is meant to be, is an infinite source of power. An oil that never burns out, as the arcane directly mirrors the oil's power while drawing from magic instead of fossil. Through regeneration ether recharges itself, through force enhancement ether is far more potent than ordinary fuel, through its void component ether siphons metaphysical aspects to reinvigorate its mana. Thus - breaking the promise of an infinite power source.   Instead, it is a dangerous substance which works mostly as intended. With a backdrop that it will slowly drain anything near it until reality around becomes unstable. Causing not death, but worse, abyssal corruption.     Thanks to its dangers posed and the insane costs of refining and enchant oil to peak magical purity, ether is rare and mostly only found in Westport or Diestria.   Mainly, it is used like blood for the clockwork hearts of automatons. Pairing the ether fuel with a neutral-conduit - a type of crystal battery that bottlenecks the siphoning of magic to be slower and more controlled.   The ether directly corrodes the battery, corrupting the crystal instead of the world around the automaton. Though it also means that the crystals when infected trigger inbuilt safety protocols to detonate and destroy the eldritch infection.   The automatons hence do not function forever, but unlike steam driven machinery, they can run for days on end up to a month before requiring maintenance - whereas a coal driven custodian will last ten hours at best.  

Dangers

  While ether offers a more efficient and cleaner source of fuel than coal and oil - it is not without drawbacks. Unlike traditional energy, ether spills risk tearing holes in the fabric of reality, which allows the abyss to seep through and empowers the abyssal lords to act from such rifts.   There still requires a significant amount of ether to cause an imbalance though, as too little might get overpowered and disenchanted by an overflow of arcane streams that clog up and kill it. Returning the oil to the earth.   Two or three scrapped and leaking automatons just won't do it, but six and counting will create ever more pressing dangers of eldritch reality sickness.   The fuel is therefore highly sought after by abyss worshipping cults as offerings to their dark idols or mutagenic components to empower themselves. While these threats are local and far from world ending - as reversible with a ton of resources, experts and combatants - even the coin and power worshipping Camille dynasty keeps it as a not for sale family secret.