#crystalsapiens

Mor’Otesi is a large, rocky world bombarded by ultraviolet radiation emitted by its star. It is an extremely cold planet, with oceans of liquid methane, and sillicone-based life.

Phytocrystals, the Otesian equivalent of plants grow long, translucent crystals, which absorb energy from the ultraviolet radiation, and convert it into chemical potential energy. Otesian “herbivores” either have sharp, crystalline teeth to bite off these crystals, or secrete acids to weaken the crystals and make them easier for consumption. Some also dig under the ground to get at the nutrient-rich tubers. Carnivores use similar strategies to eat their prey after hunting it. All life on Mor’Otesi incorporates sillicone crystals in some way, and many have their own ways of absorbing and releasing energy.

The dominant lifeform on Mor’Otesi are the Crystalsapien. These are intelligent, humanoid beings, who are extremely technologically advanced. Millions of years ago, their ancestors, the Lithosapien, nearly drove themselves to extinction through nuclear war and climate change. The few dozen survivors used biotechnology to rejuvenate their environment and to modify their own bodies, giving rise to the Crystalsapien.

Crystalsapien vary greatly, but they all have the same genetic code, and a variety of crystals throughout their body that allow them to absorb and release energy in almost any form. For instance, they can absorb sound energy and release it as electrical energy, or vice-versa. They can absorb kinetic energy and release it again in the same form, and they can do something similar with light - but they can also release energy that they absorbed from heat or electricity in the form of light, and release energy absorbed from light in the form of electricity. These are just a few of the different types of energy transfers they’re capable of.

The Crystalsapien, having stabilised Mor’Otesi’s environment, agreed to leave their homeworld undisturbed, and instead spread out into space, colonising their entire start system. As their technology grew more advanced, they discovered faster-than-light travel, and started spreading out into the galaxy, seeding other sillicone-based worlds with the potential for life. Each of these worlds has its own Crystalsapien Guardian, or group of Guardians, who protected the world as life evolved on it, including sapient life (based on a version of the Crystalsapien genetic template). The people of these worlds often see their Guardians as godlike beings.

This is kind of inspired by Leonardovincent’s alien redesigns on DeviantArt, which try to take into account how a species like that would actually work. I’m not sure if there’s a name for that, but I’ve been calling it biorealism. This post is also inspired by the other biorealist whose work I’m a fan of, @laurelhach, who’s done some cool redesigns for Star Trek aliens, and also redesigns of the Time Lords from Doctor Who as dragon-like aliens, that you should definitely check out

(That said, unlike them I’m not doing art right now. I might at some point in the near future, though)

Anyway, I’m starting with these two species because 1/ Leonardovincent hasn’t done these yet so I don’t have to worry about being derivative, and 2/ I’ve got ideas for how to reimagine these species

First, Gourmands. I’m getting rid of the ‘their stomachs connect to a pocket dimension’ idea because I don’t see how something like that would evolve in nature, but what I’m replacing that with is arguably cooler: their stomachs are essentially nuclear fission reactors

They use fission to ‘digest’ (the process is very different from the one we use) heavy elements - and by that, I mean elements heavier than iron - and the products of the fission reaction can be spat out as a defence mechanism. Which means that the green stuff Upchuck spits out is effectively either molten radioactive waste or water contaminated with particles of radioactive waste

(It’s not always radioactive, mind you, but even then it’s at high temperatures due to the heat from the fission reaction)

In this reimagining, the reason why Upchuck can’t eat pizza is because all the elements its made from are lighter than iron, so he’d actually be losing energy by digesting it. That’s actually what gave me the idea in the first place

Other than that, they’re staying pretty much the same with one exception: because of how their digestive processes work, their epithelial tissues are lined with lead, which increases their durability. Also, the organic compounds in their bodies are made from heavier elements than ours, in particular germanium instead of carbon

Next up, the Crystalsapiens. The ideas I’ve got for them boil down to one thing: they’re only capable of specific energy transfers. I’m taking inspiration from various types of crystals we’ve learned about in Physics, as well as types of crystals I’ve researched myself. Those include piezoelectric crystals, scintillation crystals, pyroelectric crystals

The deal with piezoelectric crystals is that, if you apply a potential difference across them, they rapidly expand and contract, producing pulses of sound (typically ultrasound, but I can imagine a pulse of audible sound being generated as well). If you compress or stretch a piezoelectric crystal, they generate an electromotive force

As for scintillation crystals, they release light when exposed to ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation comes in three forms: alpha particles, which are essentially helium nuclei; beta particles, which can be electrons or their antiparticles, positrons; and electromagnetic radiation as either gamma rays or x-rays. It’s more like a flash of light than a laser, but that’s still cool

Pyroelectric crystals generate an electrical current when heated. This is actually a related property to piezoelectricity, so it could be the same kind of crystal exhibiting both these traits

There’s also the photoelectric effect - this typically requires frequencies higher than visible light, and apparently that’s the case with crystals as well, which require x-rays for the photoelectric effect to happen. The way this one works is that when the crystal gets struck by a photon with a high enough frequency, an electron in one of its atoms might gain enough energy to escape. The commonly used example is a charged substance losing its charge, but I can see it happening the other way

So basically, in this reimagining the energy transfers that a crystalsapien is capable of are: electrical to sound; elastic to electrical; electrical or light to, well, light; heat to electrical; and possibly light to electrical

And hey, if the piezoelectric and pyroelectric crystals in a Crystalsapien’s body could be the same substance, which would leave two or three types of crystal in their body. Crystalsapiens appear to be made of two types of crystals

Its worth noting that while visible light won’t be enough to emit light or generate a voltage, light dependent resistors exist, so being hit with a laser could at least increase the current caused by a pre-existing emf in a Crystalsapien’s body

Aside from energy transfers though, until Sugilite was introduced, tie-in materials suggested that the Crystalsapien homeworld was a planet called Mor’ Otesi, but that was since retconned to be a legend in one of the games. The compromise I’ve come up with is that Mor’ Otesi is real and is the Crystalsapien homeworld, but Crystalsapiens are highly technologically advanced and travel around the galaxy creating or terraforming (well, Mor’ Otesi-forming) planets, then guiding the evolution of life on those planets and guarding the species - which is what Sugilite did on Petropia