Blood Drop Crystals

Mechanics & Inner Workings

These crystals are a hard synthetic quartz, and prized for jewelry among vampires and their cousin races. Blood Drops are hard, durable, and often resistant to scratching and damage, ensuring that they last for centuries, even thousands of years if well taken care of. The areas of the crystal with blood are notably softer and more likely to chip or scratch, and usually exposed areas are put to the back of an item of jewelry to protect it.

Manufacturing process

Blood Drop Crystals are not a naturally occurring mineral, instead completely synthetic and grown in intensely monitored and controlled labs. Much of the process is kept a secret in order to control quality and the production of imitations, and the process of suspending blood in the crystal is a highly guarded secret by most manufacturers. What is known is that the crystal itself is grown similarly to most synthetic gemstones, with lab grown blood and flecks of gold added. Common additives are other Blood Drop Crystals that were too low quality to be sold themselves, and recycled.
The blood used in the crystals is almost always lab grown, and of the cases where it is not grown specifically for the purpose of crafting a crystal, the blood is usually donated by a willing member exclusively for this purpose. Regardless of its origin, the blood in the crystals is always given willingly and not only is it illegal to harvest blood without someone's knowledge for the process there is an incredible stigma against it, along with being illegal in most parts of the world. Doing so is said to be bad luck and cause one's partner to leave them.

Significance

Blood Drop Crystals for most races are a small but expensive oddity, but for Vampires they hold massive significance in courting a partner. Akin to diamonds in the courting and marriage of Humans, they are often fashioned into jewelry such as rings, earrings, pendants, and brooches used to propose to their partner or as a wedding gift to a newly married couple.
When used in a proposal or as a wedding gift, the crystals are often filled with the blood of the one proposing or members of their family, signifying their partner joining their bloodline as a fully fledged member. This is a massive mark of status and are often expensive as they must be custom made, and to make the perfect gem to be fashioned into the perfect piece of jewelry several will have to be made in order to get a specimen that's just the right size and shape. They must then be cut, polished, and shaped just right in order to fit a setting. The smaller the crystal, often the more expensive, as there are likely dozens of failed specimens unseen to yield the final product.
Although the process and culture of giving these for proposals and wedding gifts has only been around for roughly 3,000 years, it is deeply embedded in vampiric culture. Recent years and trends have seen the practice extend past just rich and influential vampires, with other races married to vampires often being presented with them as gifts and tokens of affection. Occasionally they are also given outside of marriage itself, signifying powerful platonic bonds like that of adopted family and lifelong friends between vampires.
Demons and Blood Demons also will occasionally take part in the practice due to sharing much of their culture with vampires, but vampires remain by far the largest population taking part in the process and purchase of these.

Item type

Trade/Manufactured good

Rarity

Uncommon- Often made to order

Dimensions

At most, 5x5 inches

Raw materials & Components

Raw magic, Gold dust, Lab Grown Quartz, Blood (most commonly lab grown), various binders and other minerals for color or chips of 'failed' crystals