"Thug: An unofficial, though allegedly sanctioned, term for a wizard that belongs to a cult whose members enter or manipulate the aether. In truth, these cults (which, by all accounts, are little more than organized gangs) are not always considered by scholars to stand among the other, acknowledged wizard societies since there seems to be little or no connection between the first thugs and the Thief or his followers. Various accounts of the thugs attribute to them bizarre and fantastic power, but little or no evidence has been found to support these claims. The first thugs appeared in Ithamar, though stories of them quickly spread. They are most often associated with urban areas and underground crime."

He is right that there is little accurate information on the thugs. I have included stories of them in the Corpus, but these are not always consistent and the picture they paint is far from conclusive. As for the "aether," this author's treatment of it is weak. Where did I read a better?

[In different ink]: "The aether is the spiritual representation of the mortal world that binds all entities together. To interact with the aether is the manipulate the most fundamental processes of creation." This explains why the thugs were thought to be so powerful. If they were capable of truly manipulating, or even entering the aether, there is no reasonable way to predict what they could do.