Blood Crystal

Crimson Currency

Written by Endrise

The universe doesn't discriminate how you pay your prices.
As long as you pay, it will obey your orders.

— Necromancer

Blood Crystals are gems made out of the blood and bone of living creatures, holding a semblance of life. A valuable black market spell component that in the right hands can provide mages an easy way to cast their magic. Or even bargain with otherwordly entities.

Properties

Origins

Blood Crystals are a natural phenomenon amongst a small percentage of the Oread populace. Growing from their bone marrow, they form on the surface of their skeleton. Most are too small to notice, but some may protrude far enough outwards to show up on the skin.

Some cases exist outside of the heritage with those who have close ties to the Plane of Earth. Instances are spotted on animals, sea life and even insects. Anything that seems to possess some sort of circulatory system and either a skeleton or exoskeleton.

Characteristics & Traits

Blood Crystals start off white while holding pockets of red blood throughout, creating a webbed structure of chambers holding the liquid. Breaking a crystal can cause blood to leak out from it, if not cause its vibrant colour to become more reddish brown in the progress.

Common Use

People have been using Blood Crystals as alternatives to a spell’s magical components for millennia. The blood contained within has small traces of a soul, allowing casters to use that to power up their spells and other forms of magic.

Necromancy is one school of magic that shows the best results using Blood Crystals, allowing easier reanimation and resurrection of people. Bodies may even show intelligence beyond their basic functions and the demands of their master.

Bargaining Currency

A more uncommon usage of Blood Crystals is as a bargaining tool with otherworldly patrons, commonly Demons and certain Fae. People use them as an alternative to their soul, coined as literal blood money. With it, they can ask for small demands from Outsiders.

Emphasis on small demands, as the amount of crystals needed ramps up fast when approaching an equivalent to a mortal soul. Records speak of literal buckets worth of gems.

Taste

iron

Color

Red to reddish brown

Related Locations

• Plane of Earth

Related Species

• Oread

Synthethic Crystals

Attempts at ethical recreations of Blood Crystals led to alchemists making crystals from calcium and animal blood. The difference is a more purified look, with fewer imperfections visible.

The downside is that each crystal has less potency when used as a spell component. They hold less essence per gram, requiring larger quantities for similar results. Only samples made with either fresh blood or humanoid blood seem to create greater results.

Titan's Blood Crystal

A legend speaks of crystals made from Titan's Blood, sought after for as a near bottomless supply. Mages believe these to have enough essence to last a lifetime of casting before running out, potent enough for even the mightiest of spells. Though its existence is only a rumour, with no explorer ever having found a crystal near the graves of the Titans.

History & Culture

Market & Trade

Because of its ethical questions, Blood Crystals are rare. No common markets stock them and multiple regions across Fabulae ban the usage of it. Hence there is such a large black market for them, encouraged by mages who care little about how their magic is achieved.

Illegal trades makes many Oreads targets for harvesting said crystals, both alive or dead. Many go missing, graves get robbed or even a few exposed to excessive healing magic to create tumorous growths. Popular victims are sorcerers, Crystal Man Disease patients and anyoone who has close ties to the Plane of Earth. Many are kept alive to ensure a continuous harvest of Blood Crystals.

Culture & Tradition

Many cultures have a negative view on Blood Crystals because of their ties with necromancy and Outsiders. They believe them to bring ill omens or corrupt others through temptation of power, fed by bloodshed of others. Others believe them to be prisons of the soul, fragments kept in a state of purgatory, unable to die. Hence few wish to associate with the practice of their creation or usage.

Some, however, see them as symbols of life and healing in a crystallised form. With non-invasive surgery, Oreads may remove a few crystals to help the sick and wounded with recovery. Keeping them close to one’s heart is believed to help heal physical wounds quicker.

An assortment of jewelry exists, used by both regular people and mage to stimulate necromancy in all its form. But in the hands of amoral mages, it gives them a key to work with the concepts of life and death. Focusing their spells through it to revive long-dead individuals, or controlling the corpses of powerful entities. Others may use it instead to make deals without throwing away their own souls.