Aether Crystals (Previously Accepted)

 








[/b]Name
:
Aether Formations/Elereal
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[/b]Description
:
A natural crystalline structure. Each crystal glows dimly and has an effect similar to looking at the bottom of a pool in the afternoon. The crystals come in three colors, though they sometimes shine other colors similar to a way a diamond shines.
Orange,
Cyan,
and
Purple.
All three have a curious effect of floating on metal, like two magnets made to give off the same polarity. Larger portions of such crystals will start to negate this strange effect.
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[/b]Abilities
:
The three crystal variants all have strange properties and their own quirks.
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[/b]When a properly-cut orange crystal comes in contact with a small metal structure, from the size of a knife blade to a battleaxe to the length of a longsword, the crystal will spark and float in the same position relative to the point of contact. When given an electrical charge, the crystal will start to glow much brighter and a bright orange flame will surround the metal object the crystal has "bonded" with. Strangely, the flames never touch the metal. This goes for any metal, and any shape of metal.
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[/b]Similar to the orange crystal, a properly-cut cyan crystal will perform the same "bonding" process to metal, though its effect is different. Instead of a wreath of flames when charged, instead, the metal will have cyan arcs of electricity run up its length, looking much more tame compared to the orange crystal's effects.
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[/b]The purple crystal strongly differs from the other two. Instead of some sort of elemental effect when "bonded", instead the area around the metal and the crystal will start to almost have a 'deluminator' effect, dimming the area and refracting the light somewhat. The metal and crystal will vibrate intensely, allowing the crystal to be the core of a vibroblade.
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[/b]Conditional abilities (optional)
:
Warm, dry environments increase the length and temperature of the flame.
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[/b]Areas of high static charge and/or humidity boost output.
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[/b]Large amounts of crystal, cut or not, will produce an eerie dark "glow" in the room. Organic life forms will experience hallucinatory effects, reportedly caused by a low sound outside the range of human hearing (and presumably the other races) and an intense vibration from the crystal, causing eyeballs to vibrate and people to see "ghosts", hence hallucinations.
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[/b]Limitations
:
All crystals are fragile, but not to the point of shattering when dropped. When a crystal is shattered while charged, it will essentially explode similar to an elemental fragmentation grenade, element corresponding with the crystal.
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[/b]Purple crystal explosions will create a very disorienting and nauseating effect along with shrapnel that is propelled and spun twice as fast as conventional fragmentation grenades. The shards lose momentum quickly, however, making it not the first choice to make a grenade out of.
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[/b]Dropping an unbonded crystal onto metal will cause it to bond to that metal at that specific place. If the metal happens to be a charged wire, good luck.
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[/b]A crystal can become unbonded when forcefully wrenched away from the metal it's floating by.
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[/b]Attempting to cover the crystal to protect it will interrupt the bond. It will not break the bond, but the crystal's effects will not take place until the obstruction is removed.
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[/b]Attempting to overcharge a crystal for improved performance will only detonate the crystal as if it was shattered.
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[/b]Conditional limitations (optional)
:
Will not work in vacuum.
However, the purple crystals are exempt from this limitation.
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[/b]Humid areas, or any place of a high concentration of moisture, will weaken the orange crystal's effects drastically, and instantly.
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[/b]Areas of bright light diminish the purple crystal's effects, including but not limited to: broad daylight, floodlights, new flashlights, et cetera.
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[/b]EMP will divert the streams of arc energy randomly, potentially hazardous to, well, anyone in the general vicinity.
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[/b]How does it work
:
The crystals essentially work as amplifiers, similar to pristilite. The charge given to activate the crystals turn into two other various forms of energy, heat and electricity.
The purple variant is strange in the way that most of the energy is turned into motion; vibrations, and it even seems to drain energy from the area around it. However, that's merely the effect of its dull "glow".
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[/b]Flavor text
:
A private mining company had made a discovery in the fringes of The Fringe. Miners had reported hallucinations and a ghostly purple light in their tunnels on moons, despite scanners not showing erchius anywhere close by. Soon the miners found the source of their problems, and determined a massive purple crystal formation to be the problem. Extracting said crystal resulted in little trouble, and soon determined that the hallucinatory effects are only caused by the crystal in large amounts.
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[/b]Soon the miners grew accustomed to seeing these crystals, though robots were more often used after the discovery to prevent accidents related to hallucinations. Some made trophies out of the crystal, some made little gifts to their wives.
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[/b]One day, a miner accidentally dropped a crystal trophy on a metal drill and witnessed its "bonding" effect. The company head then decided to allow some of the crystals to be given to scientists who agreed studied its properties, seeing as it could potentially bring profit. It was determined that the crystals were brittle and fragile, but not so much as to cracking it wide open when dropped. When attempting to study the "bonding" affect, it could be hypothesized that the crystal forms some sort of phase-matter-esque bridge between the metal and the crystal, and only applies to those of certain sizes. One test involved putting the crystal through shock. When the unbonded crystal failed to show anything special, they moved on to bonded crystals, and that is where they found the biggest discovery of the day.
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[/b]The bonded crystal seemed as if it was draining and refracting the light around it and the metal it was bonded to, and eventually the metal cracked under its own vibrations. The metal was replaced with a broken rubium sword and charging it now resulted in a vibroblade-esque effect. A small sample of the crystal was sent to a private arms manufacturer along with instructions on how to prepare such a weapon. Several weeks later, a sword was sent back to the scientists, with a bonded crystal floating behind the blade as if it was part of the blade itself (but not physically attached), as well as a message asking for more of these crystals if possible. A contract was created between the miners and the scientists, and eventually the scientists connected the manufacturer with the miners, who also demanded that the knowledge of the crystal be kept secret to maximize profit.
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[/b]About three months later, a separate mining station of a different company located in a planet sporting frequent lightning strikes found a small sample of cyan crystals. Coincidentally, the same group of scientists were in contact with the company and requested a sample of the crystal. Upon running tests on the crystal again, coincidentally again, the crystal sported long streams of what can be described as arc energy along its bonded metal. The scientists were also surprised to find that the only physical differences between the two crystals is color. They quickly sent another sample of cut crystals to the weapons manufacturer, who promptly returned a similar sword with the cyan crystal in place of the purple one.
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[/b]An unfortunate accident occurred while testing the weapon resulted in the crystal shattering and exploding from an electrical overload and improper wiring, leading to a small amount of personnel deaths. Those who knew about the crystal types were promptly notified of this explosive reaction.
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[/b]A volcanic planet undergoing planetary excavation by another mining company for its abundance of Core Fragments also noted that there were many glowing orange crystals in the caverns. Originally thought to be worthless, they soon decided it could be used for jewelry for its glow and wave effect. Soon, the crystal started appearing on the market. It wasn't long before the miners who discovered the purple crystals found the orange crystals on the market, and they immediately came to a conclusion that either the scientists or the weapons manufacturer had finally leaked the existence of the crystals and they were about to lose profit. However, this was not the case, as this was all operating on a string of coincidences. The miners openly called out the scientists and the weapons manufacturer on leaking the information about the crystals, despite not being the case. Both denied immediately, and soon the miners realized they were the ones who leaked the information, as no prior public knowledge of the existence of two crystals were circulating before their outburst. Soon competing companies started to search for their own special crystals, with varying levels of success; outstanding if they were looking for the three existing crystals, and utter defeat if looking for a fourth variant.
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[/b]Referenced Technologies
(optional): N/A
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[/b]Attainability
:
Open
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[/b]Tags
:
Industrial
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