Kickstarter Update: Psicrystals
By what is generally considered as little more than a remarkable coincidence, the thoughts of sentient creatures are able to be embedded within certain crystal matrices. (Also remarkable is that so few scholars seek to probe the ramifications of this, the why of it all: is this simply the realities of evolutionary theory in inorganic life forms, or is there a deeper mystery to be considered. Our task here though is to present the state of research in the field and not to descend into either religion or pseudoscience.) What follows is a brief summary of the realities of psicrystal evolution.
The intricacies of embedding one's thoughts into a crystal are not to be minimized but are only discussed here in broad strokes. It is sufficient to understand that only certain crystalline lattices are suitable for holding the patterns of complex thought, especially when considering long-term storage. Thought corruption within the lattice is a nontrivial concern and many investigators have paid dearly for their lack of proper precautions. Of course, as with all things, magic makes the process quicker and safer. It should not be lost, however, that those earliest of psychic delvers made these remarkable discoveries without the aid of external magicks—sufficient time and intention is really all that is required. Truth, even some "baser" beasts have been shown to develop rudimentary psicrystal "companions," as it were, under the right circumstances. (See also Rutherford's fascinating observations of an octopus in his care and the "inseparable crystalline companion" with which it had developed a bond over their years of proximity.)
What Is a Psicrystal
Many a crystal matrix can be imprinted with a copy of some fragment of thought from another creature. This creates a recording of said thought (to be clear, this is a nonmobile object and capable of no action on its own) that gifted researchers can then access independently. An actual psicrystal is formed, however, only when a sufficient amount of thoughts are embedded within a given crystal to give it a semblance of life. (The threshold for sentience in psicrystals is a hotly debated topic, but the standard at present is that these psicrystals are little more than automatons and not to be considered sentient. It is still considered inappropriate by many to even consider the idea of an "inorganic life form," though that sentiment seems to be fading, and the designation is now seeing common usage.)
At their simplest, such psicrystals mimic those patterns recorded within their matrix. You can see how this might cloud the issue of whether they are a unique life form or merely a constructed copy, an object that merely acts upon those processes written within its form. When imprinted with the more instinctual thoughts of beasts, the new entity is deemed a crysmal and will display "personalities" mimicking the model creature.
Psicrystal familiars are more advanced specimens, imprinted with the more complex thoughts of intelligent creatures, and they can exhibit some truly fascinating abilities. They begin to raise the question of actual sentience in the life forms. A typical such psicrystal appears indistinguishable from a small sample of the type of crystal is was formed from. It can, however, quickly grow spiderlike, crystalline appendages to move around and manipulate objects, and it can display other remarkable abilities, such as levitation and electrical discharge.
The entities grow by accumulating more imprinted thoughts, patterning additional and increasingly complex thoughts of other creatures within their matrices, causing their forms and abilities to become all the more varied and strange. It is in these stages that one can find aggregations (or colonial psicrystals) and corrupted forms (psicrystals whose patterning has become altered in such a way as to make them unpredictable and prone to lashing out), among other types.
It is the crystlid that have put many notions of psicrystal evolution to the test though. Crystlids are a recent discovery as some psicrystals seem to have inarguably developed an intelligence all their own. (There are still many researchers that argue that a mere collection of processes, no matter how complex, when copied from another organism, cannot be considered intelligence. Crystlids will have to deal with much fear and hatred in their lifetimes.)
(Issue one of Psychonaut will contain four to six statblocks detailing various psicrystal varieties, including some heavy hitters. The crystlid lineage player option will be detailed in issue two.)
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https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-psionics-for-5th-edition-games/posts/3745996
