Avengers: Infinity War: The history of the Infinity Stones

Credit: Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures; from Thor: The Dark World (2013)

The Reality Stone

The MacGuffin for Thor: The Dark World (2011), the abilities of this Infinity Stone are rather vague. Also known as the Aether, the stone is contained inside — or perhaps is — a shifting mass of blood-red liquid. It also, according to Odin, converts matter into dark matter, and feeds off the life force of host bodies. Sounds like a super-up version of Carnage from Spider-Man, if you ask me.

In any case, as explained in The Dark World, every five thousand years, the Nine Realms of Yggdrasil come together in perfect alignment during an event called The Convergence. This allows the barriers between the Realms to weaken, of course, not to mention play havoc with the laws of physics. The evil Dark Elves, led by Malekith, planned on using the Aether during a previous Convergence to plunge the universe into literal darkness, until Odin’s father, Bor, stopped them. Fearing it could be used again, Bor hid the Aether inside a pocket dimension.

Unfortunately, as the next Convergence approached, Jane Foster stumbled upon this pocket dimension while in England and became the Aether’s new host. This, in turn, prompted Thor to take Jane to Asgard, and Malekith and the Dark Elves to pursue them. Eventually, the Aether safely passed from Jane to Malekith who, again, tried using its powers to turn everything into dark matter. Thor was able to stop Malekith, and, for some bizarre reason, the Asgardians gave the Aether to The Collector.

As far as we know, the Aether is still in the Collector’s possession as of Thor: The Dark World. Doubtful it will stay in the Collector’s possession for very long. After all, Benicio Del Toro will appear as the Collector in Avengers: Infinity War. More than likely, Thanos will be stopping by Knowhere to pay the Collector a visit.