In Oblivion, we are introduced to Welkynd Stones and Varla Stones; crystalline minerals of aetherial origin (or grown from seeds that can be traced back to fallen fragments of aetherius). We also see raw unharvested versions of these growing all over ayleid ruins.

But now, with Dawnguard, we get some other form of aetherial glass: "Aetherium". How exactly does this "aetherium" fit in with welkynd and varla stones?

I ask because this new development may hamstring my efforts to keep my Ayleid Meteoric Iron Weapons revamp plan for Skyrim and my want to keep it lore-friendly. I was planning on having the from-scratch redesigns not actually be genuine Ayleid artifacts, but "fully functional replicas" built from a hodgepodge of salvaged ayleid and dwemer apparati using the same materials (with "meteoric iron" being grown much the same way welkynd stones grow using some manner of dwemer incubator).

Isn't there Aetherium in Blackreach? I assumed that's what those huge blue glowing crystals were. The ghost chick who wants you to collect the pieces in Dwemer ruins claims the Dwemer must have mined it from some deeper place she was unaware of.

Those rocks look very much like the raw Sky Stones that one scholar from Oblivion found in a cave. It's plausible the blue crystals are all over Nirn in remote areas.

The gems in Blackreach are soul gem geodes. What qualifies them as such, I don't know.

The Geode in Blackreach seems to be a mixture of Corundum ore and soul gems.

Hmm... How to compare that to the development of soul gems, I wonder?

I was talking about the ones you can't actually mine, not those ones.

If they were that important to the Dwemer, would there be so many left within reach?