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A species of fungi known as Golloriee is a fairly uncommon creature I've come up with. Its origins are certainly very unnatural, but have been shrouded in folklore over time, they say the crystals were born from a dead god, can you believe that?(but it does explain the magical energy, and the occasional..sentience, these little crystals have.)

The fungi grow in damp areas, like swamps, underground caves, pipes and sewers that haven't been tended to, etc. and they need to latch onto a host animal to reproduce, eating the animals flesh and growing crystal stalks in its place like a mold, and spreading spores from those stalks, or stabbing into a nearby animal and starting the process all over again! so I suppose that's an evolutionary reason for growing into sharp crystal shapes.

The older the stalks, (as in hundreds of years,) the more likely they are to start thinking, but this is pretty useless unless something is there to teach them stuff. these smart spores usually target a hosts' brain instead of their organs, and grow within it, attaching to the neurons and taking command! how scary is that? good thing all those ones are underground.

Anyway, how plausible is this species? How much would I have to use the "iT's MaGiC" excuse with?

L.Dutch
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tlilly
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If they actually are crystalline, right through? Totally magic.

If they merely have fruiting bodies that look crystalline? Totally plausible. They could even have genuinely crystalline cell walls, shells, or spicule skeletons, made from silica, calcium carbonate, or calcium phosphate. If they need large amounts of phosphate to grow, that would explain why they specifically grow on dead animals.

Logan R. Kearsley
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I'm pretty sure that living sentient rocks isn't possible(aside from magic), but maybe it could work similarly to coral? This is off the top of my head, but maybe instead of one big organism, its a bunch of smaller ones that have their brains and vital organs on the inside, and the crystals could either be a waste mechanism or made off a skin that is easy for crystals to grow on, which would explain why they like damp areas - the minerals in the water makes it easy for them. They cannot move, which is why the crystal-fungi would need a host to spread. The sentience is a whole seperate thing though. Maybe as the crystals attatch to one another, they connect nervous systems, and it becomes a sort of collective conciousness. More likely though, they'd need magic to begin thinking. Keep in mind, this is all off the top of my head, and will likely need some tweaking to get it to work.

Photino
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Crystals grow and form very slowly. Even the fastest growing crystals, mostly common salt crystals grow slower than would be advantageous for biological processes.

Now, the organism you are creating could secrete chemical compounds that could then create salt crystals, as sort of a protective measure. This could give it a crystal like appearance.

However, this crystal layer should be fairly brittle to allow it to crack to allow the organism to grow. These cracks would then be filled/covered in new crystal forming compounds to seal it up. It could also go through a molting process of some kind.

Basically, you can use salt crystals to create a sort of exoskeleton or shell. Would mostly protect it from bacterial or other fungal infections, not so much as physical protection from predidation from larger organisms. This secreted chemical compound could be a sort for any toxic or exotic effects the organism is known for.

Sonvar
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It's possible. After all, there are microbial 'jewel' creatures that form crystal shells in nature. However, a parasite like this would be obviously visible to other creatures, and that might lead to them avoiding the crystals. The best parasites, such as tapeworms, aren't externally visible and therefore not as vulnerable to removal. It might make more sense if the crystals were symbiotic instead of just parasitic. For example, in exchange for getting nutrients and a mobile home, they grow into crystalline 'armor' on a host.

Brinstar77
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