Our current Chapter 12 of the book of Ether was a single chapter in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon as well. The break between chapters is therefore original at least to the way Moroni recorded it and it cannot be known if it follows a similar division on Ether’s record.
The difference between the chapters up to this point and this one is that we leave the very terse description of only the outlines of events, and begin to see the more complex history that occurred during Ether’s life. He was a witness both in that he saw it, and that he wrote it.
We learn that while Ether follows a lineage that traces through kings, the most recent royalty had been held in captivity. Even while in captivity, however, it appears that some of the sons of a king might not remain captive, and that appears to be the case with Ether. We might therefore suggest that he was not the last-born, and therefore not a designated heir to the throne.
We learn in verse 1 that Ether’s lineage is still out of power. Coriantumr is king; however, Coriantumr does not appear in the genealogy list in Ether, Chapter 1.