User blog comment:Deafro/Dust and Aura: What is to come?/@comment-15108745-20130901195645/@comment-16763585-20130901202524

The only problem I have with the second theory is that Dust is explosive. If the purpose of Dust is to alter the characteristics of someone's Aura, then why does it react to external stimulus? Perhaps it could be said that Aura pulls the energy from the dust and makes it inert, taking in the characteristics to replicate a specific effect.

The third theory really just comes down to a different flavor of the second. Treating Dust as a seperate source of energy from Aura means that its something that is not entirely under the casters control and therefore involves more risk. Dust is powerful but for that power there is a penalty. It also makes magic measurable and tangible, we the watcher can see the reserves left, as opposed to Aura where it just goes until the writer says its doesn't.

Both theories are entirely plausible but using Dust in the third theory just makes the most use of Dust as a unique method of magic, which as a personal preference I like a bit more.