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In general ae is two characters and æ is one. The a e can be in words never spelled with an æ such as Fae, so ae and æ shouldn't be treated the same, unlike say i and ï (dais) or e and é (cafe) etc which the exact same word can be spelled without the accents. Admittedly some words in English can be spelled with a diaeresis or not, such as mediaeval.
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