Crystalids

Family: Earth Elementals
Habitat: Caverns, tunnels, mines
Height: Varies
Lifespan: Several centuries
Intelligence: Varies
Diet: Mana, minerals
Abilities: Heightened strength, heightened durability, regeneration, petrification immunity

Physical description

While their bodies vary greatly in both size and shape, they are composed of living crystals that roughly mimic the forms of other lifeforms.

General description

Crystalids are silicon-based lifeform born deep within the ground. It is strongly believed they are reincarnations of other races, animals, and monsters. They only spawn in underground areas with strong connections to the spirit worlds. When they burst from the ground, they are fully formed and with a certain degree of intelligence, but it's quite random. Depending on what they were in their past life, they will take on different forms. A human, elf, or other demihumans would be reborn as a humanoid crystalid with human level intelligence and vague recollections of their past life, while an animal would result in a beast-like crystalid. Sometimes, a monster will hatch.

While the form of the form of the crystalids is shaped by the soul the color is determent by where they spawn. They come in a number of colors, such as red, green, blue, purple, and so on. However because they don't sexually reproduce it's uncommon to see a different color then those born in the region. Although some have been known to travel.

While demihuman type crystalids can be friendly, or at least reasonable, monster types have been known to attack on sight, much like their organic counterparts. This has caused trouble for miners who dig in areas where they spawn. When crystalids die within proximity of a spawning area, they have been known to simply respawn close by, albeit largely without their memories. This will cause them to keep returning. However, the respawning process takes a few days, allowing miners time to retrieve resources.

As long as the core of their body isn't damaged, crystalids are quite durable. Given enough time, they are able to regenerate damaged, and even lost limbs. Being buried alive helps speed up this process. In fact, they have been known to lightly bury themselves to absorb minerals from the ground. While they don't appear to age and they can regenerate, they are not immortal. Eventually, they will break down, although this will take many centuries and there have been reports of crystalids living over a millennium. It's still far more likely they will die from unnatural causes then natural ones.

Because their bodies are essentially made of precious stones, crystalids are often valued targets. Crystalid songbirds are valued pets for the rich. While their immunity to almost any form of petrification makes statue hunting difficult, there are ways of rendering them unconscious and locking their movements in a statuelike state.

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I was inspired to create this race from a combination of the above picture and TheAmberBub's explanation of how trolls spawn in the Amber Blade universe. If I remembered right, they hatch from stone deep underground. Like with the Amber Blade trolls, they have a strong affinity with the earth and are immune to the gorgon's stone gaze.

The picture was originally commissioned by someone else as a jewel TF picture. However, I thought it looked like it could make a good monster girl and adapted it into a race of demihumans. I got the owner's permission to post this, but he has shut down his DA account from the time this was made and asked me to leave his name out of these things. I've posted other pictures of his as well. Until he says otherwise, I'm going to leave him as anonymous. When I asked for a background, I found out there was already a colored version, but never got my hands on the file.

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Line art by Colors by me

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