Mana Crystals

**Mana Crystals** or **Magic Crystals** are masses of world energy that have taken physical form due its abundance, time, and the presence of rare minerals that usually can be found solely at great depths. Mana crystals are usually found in areas with a high concentration of world energy, such as mana geysers or underground mana crystal veins where world energy is more abundant and unused, as well as accumulated over time.

Mana crystals are often used as power sources and have their own energy signature, and can be recharged over time. They are used in everyday life, lighting rooms, providing fresh air where there aren't windows, and providing running water for showers and toilets, etc. However, they are not just a power source. They are inanimate objects that yet act similarly to an Awakened's mana core. Their power and purity grow with time by absorbing world energy, and they have the ability to endlessly replenish themselves. Mana crystals are small pieces of Mogar, capable of growth and even memory. They have their own mana flow and pulse.

Mana can't be absorbed from mana crystals. Before the knowledge of crystals existed, people used **elemental stones** to store a single spell, needing to be recharged after every use. Even the weakest red mana crystal holds much more mana than dozens of elemental stones, and can also be turned on and off like a switch, making it last much longer.

In their original state, mana crystals don't like magic. Using powerful spells in their proximity can easily make them explode and trigger a chain reaction that wipes out the entire crystal vein. Normal tools have no effect on mana crystals no matter how strong the metal used or its wielder is. Crystals are extremely volatile and can cause chain reaction explosions if not extracted properly. Only mages can become Crystalsmiths, as they are able to use mana blades like a scalpel to separate the conjoined crystals from the cluster without destabilizing the structure. Instead of cutting along a magic crystal's lines, Awakened can use Invigoration to see cracks instead. By using the mana blade on the cracks, they can recharge low quality crystals or increase their purity by one tier after providing them with enough mana.

Mana crystals cannot gain sentience like plants can, as plants are alive to start with, while crystals are just solidified energy masses.

## Mana Crystal Grades

Crystals have an amount of mana proportional to its color and size, unlike mana cores which have a fixed size (e.g. a nut-sized violet mana crystal is weaker than a violet core while a coconut-sized violet crystal is stronger). Bigger crystals are not only more brittle, but also the mana they contain is scattered along its whole structure.

The quality of a crystal can be assessed by its color, which follows the color grading of mana cores:

* **Red**, **orange** and **yellow** crystals are low-grade, the cheapest and most common. They typically crumble after being consumed. They have a limited number of uses as mediums for Warden Magic and Alchemy and are useless to Forgemasters. They do not recharge by themselves.
	+ Red crystals are considered to be "dumb" since anyone can use them, even if they're imprinted. Red crystals can prolong the duration of an array (by being placed inside the formation, boosting its mana reserve) or grant control of it to someone other than the caster (by the array caster imprinting the crystal while conjuring the array so whoever holds it can turn it on/off)
	+ Orange and yellow crystals work the same way but have much more mana and can be imprinted multiple times, but only with the consent of the original caster.
* **Green** and **cyan** crystals are middle-grade. They have much more mana and are able to recharge over time as long as they hold even a speck of energy. The length of the recharging process depends on the size and purity of the crystal, and the purer crystals take longer to recharge (the brighter the crystal, the purer it is).
	+ With middle-grade crystals, Wardens can make semi-permanent arrays if they are powered by a sufficient number of recharging crystals, though the more damage the array takes, the more mana is consumed. Forgemasters can embed them into their creations, allowing them to receive multiple powerful enchantments as well as gain their own mana capacity, which enables the wielder to cast spells they don't know or wouldn't be able to cast normally.
	+ Most inorganic matter crumbles when infused with too much magical energy. Only mana crystals can harness this power, even recharging themselves faster using the conflicting energies deriving from multiple spells.
* **Blue** and **purple** crystals are high-grade. In comparison to the lesser grades, high-grade crystals recharge at a much greater speed and can also be manually recharged. Only blue crystals and above can sustain complex functions like projecting holograms, copying documents, etc. This is why Communication Amulets are so expensive and have at least a blue gemstone. Only the best Wardens and Forgemasters can afford high-grade crystals. Purple mana crystals have the natural ability to absorb world energy. However, high quality crystals require not only an abundant mana source, but also a lot of time to properly develop.
	+ The mana flow of high tier crystals is called **Mana Breath**, which is a result of them being able to replenish their mana quickly compared to mid tier crystals.
* **White** crystals are a tier on their own, and are never seen outside of the Royal Palace or powerful artifacts. They are the most powerful gemstones a Forgemaster can use and are capable of replenishing their energy reserves almost instantly, no matter how many times they are used. Additionally, powerful Forgemasters can enhance white crystals with a certain element. When a white crystal is cut, the world energy its compressed to its utmost limit and can be used to accelerate the growth of surrounding crystals and help them absorb world energy more easily. Despite looking like an Awakened mana core to Invigoration, white crystals don't have any life force or consciousness. The nature of the white crystal focuses the world energy, giving it a spherical form.
	+ White crystals cannot be imprinted, which makes them harder to manipulate, just like high tiered enchantments. If given a power core, manipulating it is child's play in comparison.

## Spirit Crystal

A **Spirit crystal** is an altered white mana crystal that has the 7th element enhanced through Spirit Domination. Once a Spirit Crystal is embedded one in an artifact, no one but the original Forgemaster can use it, making it impossible to pass it down.

## Memory Crystals

**Memory Crystals** allow a mage's thralls to act as one, to learn from each other's experiences, and to pass that knowledge onto others. By linking their lesser undead or golems with a memory crystal, a mage becomes capable of keeping themselves away from the fight while collecting and sharing the data. Memory crystals enables giving a brain and learning abilities even to inanimate creatures, turning them from mindless monsters into a well-trained army simply by accumulating enough experience. Very few people on Mogar know about this and most of them are Guardians. The only human who has successfully employed them in recent years is Balkor. Without the memory crystals, he would have never managed to give his undead thralls and Valors a hive mind, nor be so successful in his endeavor and bring the Griffon Kingdom to its knees.

The memory function of an altered crystal works akin to an artificial willpower that shields them from external influences like Domination. Memory crystals don't store every memory of every person that touched it; any crystal registers just the strongest imprint of the holder. Memory crystals, instead, can store a specific part of the consciousness of the user, e.g. a behavior, a memory, or a spell. Mana is the energy of the mind and crystals can store it as well as the world energy. Then the spell can be triggered simply by "pushing it out".

The secret of powerful artifacts like the Spell Hoarding Cube also lies in memory crystals. It is thanks to them that not only the mana, but also the will of the mage can be stored inside of it along with their spells and keep them indefinitely.

## Artificial Crystal Germination

A technique developed by Glemos using Balor eyes as a conduit for world energy and Harmonizers linked together, forming small circles. It uses Balors that collectively have access to all six elements, regardless if a group consists of two three-eyed Balors or six one-eyed Balors. A group unleashes six elemental pillars at the same time against the metal circle. The enchanted ring focuses the abundant world energy of the mana geyser at its core and when the Balors add the power of their eyes, a small mana crystal forms at its center. However, without a full set of elemental eyes, growing crystals is impossible and without them, the experiment stops.

Despite the gemstone starting off barely the size of a pea and with tinge of red so deep like an old bloodstain, the forced germination of a mana crystal in seconds rather than decades is something that mages have tried and failed to accomplish for millennia. The Balors continue to shoot pillars of elemental energy until their eyes bleed and they are incapable of keeping them open anymore. The ring focuses the mix of elemental energies generated by the monsters, adding them to the world energy from the geyser before forcefully injecting them inside the crystal. By the time exhaustion forces the Balors to stop, the gemstone grows to the size of a nut and becomes of a brighter shade of red.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1557: Eye Versus Eye (Part 1)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Chapter 183: Once More, with Feeling
3. ↑ Chapter 1573: Growing Power (Part 1)
4. ↑ Legion on Discord
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Chapter 254: Learning (Part 2)
6. ↑ Chapter 1005: Talent and Experience (Part 1)
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 199: Unexpected Guest
8. ↑ Chapter 791: Ill Omen (Part 1)
9. ↑ Legion on Discord
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Chapter 184: Once More, with Feeling (2)
11. ↑ Chapter 354: Holy Crystal (Part 2)
12. ↑ Chapter 227: Mana Breath
13. ↑ Chapter 1146: White Cores and Crystals (Part 2)
14. ↑ Chapter 1269: Solus’ True Power (Part 1)
15. ↑ Chapter 1593: Training Time (Part 1)
16. ↑ Chapter 1620: Life and Death (Part 2)
17. ↑ Chapter 1604: Tower Gate (Part 2)
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Chapter 1456: All Work and No Play (Part 2)
19. ↑ Chapter 1613: Chaos and Flames (Part 1)
20. ↑ Legion on Discord
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Chapter 1554: Perfect Body (Part 1)
22. ↑ Chapter 1558: Eye Versus Eye (Part 2)