Been looking into a bit of Aetherium stuff lately, (as youve seen) and just had a random thought occur to me whilst playing with my new(old) toy in Skyrim- Keening.
Kagrenacs Tools doesnt say much about the forging of Wraithguard, Keening and Sunder.[indent]
Kagrenac forged three great enchanted artifacts, which are called Kagrenac's Tools. Wraithguard is an enchanted guantlet to protect its wearer from destruction when tapping the heart's power. Sunder is an enchanted hammer to strike the heart and produce the exact volume and quality of power desired. Keening is an enchanted blade that is used to flay and focus the power that rises from the heart.[/indent]
I have no theories on the materials used to forge Wraithguard and Sunder- but it did occur to me there is some distict visual similarities between the crystal blade of Keening, and refined Aetherium.
We know that Aetherium once refined was capable of holding immensly powerful enchantments and yet was extremely stable[indent]
while it has a strong magical aura, it is alchemically inert, and no known process can enchant, smelt, mold, bind, or break it. ~ The Aetherium Wars[/indent]
With Aetherium's unique resistant 'anti magic' properties and its power storage potential, would it be possible that the blade of keening is in fact a refined Aetherium shard?

Edit: Thats not to say just any old shard with a hilt slapped on would do the job of Keening- Kagrenac was a master craftsman and no doubt would have woven a great deal of magic and skill into crafting a blade designed to tap the power of the Heart. Just theorising at base materials.

Edit 2: Image references. http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb58378/elderscrolls/images/3/30/Keening_Skyrim.png http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb58378/elderscrolls/images/d/d9/AetherialShield.png
I would attribute the glow on the shield to it being freshly forged and well, not beaten up by being used on the Heart of a God several times.

Would be interesting if it is true, Im sure there is a great story in there somwhere as to how a shard of Aetherium - a tightly guarded secret of the Skyrim Dwemer Clans, one that even provoked a Civil war- made it from Skyrim to Morrowind and was made into the Blade.- 400 years after it was refined.
Allthough if anyone was goin to know about, have access to, and make use of it, Kagrenac would be the one.

You have a point there I mean the is no known bluish tinted mineral in morrowind, skyrim, that could be the the material used to make the keening. So the having the keening being made of Aetherium. Is very good possiblity. Here's the pictures of the morrowind version.

Keening http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW_Artifact_Keening.jpg

Here's also the Sunder Hammer and the Wraithguard Gauntlet.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW_Artifact_Sunder.jpg

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW_Wraithguard.jpg

The Wraithguard looks like it was made from Dwarven Metal , How they got the powerful unique (purplish glow in game) enchantment is another story (Bethesda we need more items with multiple enchantments like this)

The Sunder looks as though it may be made from dwarven metal though it does appear darker than most dwarven weapons.

The interesting thing about these Dwemer artifacts is that little is known about their construction beyond who made them. The Dwemer possessed a level of knowledge that has been blatently lost to the other races. It wouldn't suprise me to eventually discover they were in fact made from materials not entirely "mundane".

The Dwemer tapped into something with the heart that the Tribune and Dagoth Ur couldn't even control.. and with the tools an entire race went *poof*. In my opinion they succeded in what they were attempting and the tools are a legacy of that endeavor. I would conclude they are at least partially divine; infused with raw elements of creation to facilitate a return to the godhead.

My two cents

Addendum:

I know some folks would argue...


**spoilers**


















...that the Dwemer achieved becoming the "skin" of their "metal god". In a way, this would be correct. But from a metagame/4th wall break kind of way, they were successful in achieving a return to the godhead. Recall the quest from the College where the mage had you acquire Keening and the result (his being bound to the player). The Dwemer may have been bound to the "skin" but they do not make an appearance. Their technology is present but their forms are gone in totality. A shard from the "skin" (in my assumption) could be tapped by an ambitious mage and a spiritual form could be called, much like the mage from the college (that the player can summon at will). There seems to be a transferrence of the entire race to another state, which I think is return to the initial form. Past subgradiation and what the Thalmor want to achieve. That's not to say Bethesda can't explore this later and prove me a little off.

Again, my two cents

keening is made from soulgems and dwemer ingots. You've just started a conspiracy theory.

I'm sure Aetherium could be used as a more powerful soulgem if someone wanted to. It would be rather funny if all the Dwemer managed to do was trap themselves in a shard of Aetherium.

It looks more like malicite in my opinion.

Source?

I think its a very interesting theory, OP, and it is just possible you are correct.
I doubt aetherium existed as a concept during Morrowind development but lore gets added on to and refined all the time.

Keening in Skyrim is obviously damaged and has lost a lot of its power.
The fact that youre able to wear it without Wraithguard and not get killed attests to that.

I dont remember any lore that specifically states what material the blade of Keening is made from and with the addition of the immensely powerful crystal aetherium in Dawnguard it seems like a logical connection to make.

The problem with the other theory of the keening blade being made of soul gems , is the fact that no other race has ever tried this. SoulGems are pretty plentiful. So if any other race have tried to do this and failed, I doubt even the technology of the dwemer could get a soulgem (minerial) to be strong enough to make it a weapon. If they could then wouldn't the dwemner also create lots of weapons using Soul Gems. The shear rarity of the keening blade itself lends to the truth that it must come from a very rare element like Aetherium

The reason why The keening , I am guessing with the heart of Lorkan destroyed by the neverrine in morrowind is a possible cause for its loss of power.

There are diffrent types of soul gem and it is very possible that it had something to do with dwemer disapearance. Have a look at quests like Azura's Star, and the facet of being partially traqed allows the dragonborn entry in to soul cairn.

Dwemer's may have been the masters of technology, but they carried out their experiment in pure ignorance trying to gain more understanding and knowledge.

Maybe they trapped themselves into the weapons and the Wraithguard and due to unknown consequences more and more Dwemer die inside them.
That causes the artifacts to lose their power/s, ergo, you can use them know without having to fear immidiat death

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/final-report-trebonius

Meanwhile, there isnt any indication that Keening was made of soul gems.
Therefore its less likely a theory as an aetherium shard as at least the artwork for aetherium and Keening are similar in Skyrim.

True but soul gems do a have limit on how many souls and how powerful of a soul a gem can hold. The entire dwemner race dissappearing all at once, where talking thousands of people. I really don't think besides azura's star can hold more then one soul at a time. If you did the (spoiler) quest for Arniel. At the end of the quest he dissappeared, so what happened to him could have happened to some of the dwemner, but it didn't effect any body else but him. You are standing next to him when he does and it doesn't even effect you. So if there was a soul gem involved. It would have to be a soul gem that is beyond anything known in lore or theories.

About the keening blad the OP could absolutely right in saying his theory that the blade could be an aetherium is very plausible because in dwemner lore there is no known blade or anything made the same way.

One of my earlier characters found Keening somewhere (I forget where.) Once I researched the lore, I found the very existence of such an artifact to be frightening.

Finding the others and doing something with them could make for one helluva DLC........