Many times people experience the aethernet as something not to different then actuality. So people have been comming up with theories and have been aspiring to create a means of travel through the aethernet.
To my knowledge there has been no such means invented yet. However, it is the Empires dillusion that they can reduce the amount of inspiration and desire that these fronteermen have so that they fail to proceed research.
Information to be added when more is known. So far though, the Eastcourt appears to be some sort of gateway into the Aether that Techtribes use. Some even go so far as to say that The Eastcourt is the Aether.