#concept creature

Fish friend

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Semi-Crystalline Alien Physiology (Condensed Overview):

Body Composition & Metabolism

The species is semi-crystalline, built from carbon–aluminum crystal lattices permeated by living mineral tissues. The external surface functions as both skin and metabolic interface, absorbing dissolved minerals directly from surrounding fluids. Mineral composition strongly influences growth patterns, coloration, sensory acuity, and overall health.

Microscopic surface tubes vent gaseous byproducts and discharge excess electrons and oxidizers when exposed to air, preventing internal charge buildup.

Sound Production & Hearing

Communication and hearing are handled by a specialized organ resembling a crystalline eardrum or voice box.

Across its surface are ~120 carbon–aluminum crystalline resonators arranged in hexagonal arrays, each encased in a droplet of highly resonant fluid. Temperature changes across the organ modulate these resonators, allowing them to both generate and detect sound.

The resonant droplets are fragile and can be ruptured; once lost, the fluid may take years to regenerate, potentially permanently impairing communication.

Vision System

Eyes are internal, mineralized globes rather than soft tissues. The inner surface of each globe is lined with ~70 million hexagonal sensor groupings. Each grouping contains six microcompartments tuned to different wavelengths (cyan, magenta, yellow, violet, infrared) plus a central compartment that measures light intensity.

Each compartment is filled with a thin mineral gel rich in photocatalysts; incoming light triggers electrical changes detected by conductive structures within the gel.

A small calcite lens on the front of the globe focuses light onto the sensor layer. A semi-muscular mechanism adjusts focal length by shifting the lens position. The calcite also grants polarized vision as a side effect.

Neural Architecture

The species lacks a centralized brain. Instead, neural processing is distributed throughout its internal crystalline structure. Sensory input, memory, and cognition emerge from the entire lattice, meaning the organism effectively is its own brain rather than possessing one.

Reproduction

Sexual reproduction occurs via crystalline budding. Compatible individuals each break off a growing crystal bud and place them together in a mineral-rich pool. These buds fuse into a seed crystal, which grows over several years into a sapient individual.

Using multiple bud donors helps repair lattice imperfections and introduces structural variation, serving an analogous role to genetic diversity.

Anyhow, if you read this far, thanks! Leave a comment with any questions, comments or rude remarks and I’ll try to get to them in the morning.

More monsters and their opposites. I know some creatures have different names in different cultures, these are just the first that came up in a Wikipedia list of hybrid creatures.

Part one can be found HERE.

If you love the reverse mermaid, I have a little character called Manmer who has quite a GALLERY. 

This is what happens when I remember plesiosaurs and sea scorpions existed.

Jeanne Plounevez

Concept Artist at Amplitude Studios - SEGA

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