The Lord's Essence

Picture shows an essence shower around an Imperial Southern Outpost protecting the city of Gete.

Here are the words of that perennial gas bag, The One Father, as he tries to illuminate the importance of Essence in Lendorian society. The religious devotee doesn't understand the words 'in short', for after this introduction, he spoke for another 4 hours. I have quoted the first few minutes before I fell asleep.

The Lord's Essence goes by many names in Imperial society:
The Lord's Gift, Mist of Purity, the Divine Dust, Rain of Purity, Essence and White Mist are just a few. The skies of Lendor are rife with the swirling Lord's Essence - a mist-like, translucent cloud that attaches itself to anything it touches. White Mist plays a key role for all beings of Lendor as it is formed of our Lord and Saviour and provides us with a direct connection to his divine infinite purity.
Without its life-giving properties, all Aurae and Sorce dependant Lendorians would fail to fuel their blessed abilities. For the rest of the populace - those not Lord's gifted, essence still plays a vital role as the most valuable commodity in existence. Just a week's worth of collecting the Divine Mist on hats and clothes can feed and house a family for a month. In short, Essence provides a Lendorian with all they need: fuel, sustenance, wealth, and future stability—an eternal life of light to refuse Dark's taint.
— One Father's opening comments from his 'Purity' speech 829AP

Queen's Law: Equity for all

Individuals can take as much of the Lord's essence as they can collect on their clothes and hats but are not allowed to use mass-collecting devices like buckets or bed sheets. Organisations are banned from extracting essence from the sky, thus allowing all individuals, rich and poor, fair access to the valuable commodity. A visual explanation of the effects of essence:

In the morning, your clothes are at their most vibrant and full of colour.

By the end of the day, the essence has been absorbed into the Tatrin on your clothes and saturated the fabric. You would then use your home Essence Collecting Machine to suck out all of the Lord's Gift to restore your clothes to full vibrancy again. Essence is a subtle presence in the air and, in most cases, is barely noticeable, but throughout the day, your clothes and hats will accumulate the valuable commodity, and gradually, your bright, beautiful clothes will saturate. For this reason, the wealthy have started using essence-repelling clothes, which avoid the key essence-retaining fabric Tatrin.