Power Crystal

"The Jewel of Charta! I'm invincible!"

— Blackfire, Teen Titans (2003), "Betrothed"

Diamonds are a Magical Girl's best friend. They are also friends to Mons, Doomsday Devices, space rangers, magical knights, Humongous Mecha, and regular old Robots. So if you want something to look highly advanced or incredibly magically powerful, just slap a Mineral MacGuffin on it; just like a normal MacGuffin, it doesn't even have to do anything to be neat!

You see, while it's been fine for gold and silver to coast by on their prettiness to be worth something, in our fiction we seem intent on making jewellery work for their value and turn them into a universal battery so popular for energy storage it makes the AA look shameful.

In a magical setting, they'll often be called "The Eye of..." and Power Glows will be in full effect, leading to the crystal being a Glowing Gem. In science fiction settings, they tend to be welcome with the Sufficiently Advanced Alien races. They also can appear in less advanced settings when doing the job of "focusing crystal", not directly making the energy themselves but somehow being able to turn any other energy source into Stuff Blowing Up by having lights bounce around off the internal angles. Your Mad Scientist or Evil Sorcerer will probably be using such a crystal to power his Death Ray.

In a Video Game, these gems are usually the Power Sources and weak points of the robots containing them. They also dim or crack when under a heavy battering, or sometimes even blink like a half-broken LCD display. Robots who are killed will frequently have their crystals dim and go opaque.

Power Crystals may be faceted or completely round and smooth. Depends on the design aesthetic.

Choice spots to bling out your power armor are:

• Forehead, as a "Third Eye"
• Shoulders, as a military epaulet
• Center of the chest (rarely, over the heart), as with "Iron Man"
• Below the navel, or as a "belt buckle"
• The back of the hand, as with "Lensman"
• The palm of the hand, as with Iron Man's Repulsor Rays
• On the knees (but for some reason, rarely the top of the feet)

These may not always exactly be crystals or jewels. Oftentimes lenses and emitters also perform this duty, by virtue of their placement.

If extemely powerful, a crystal may be an Amulet of Concentrated Awesome or an Artifact of Doom.

When actually used for attacking, that would make it a case of Gemstone Assault.

Compare Crystal Spires and Togas, Gem-Encrusted, Green Rocks, All-Natural Gem Polish, Body to Jewel, Crystal Prison, Silver Has Mystic Powers, Gem Heart, Mystical Jade.

A Sub-Trope of Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry (why else would this power be contained in a gem?)

A Super-Trope to Data Crystal.

This item is available in the Trope Co. catalog.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Agni's Philosophy: One is instrumental in the summoning ritual.
• Ah! My Goddess: Skuld has two on the backs of her hands, and two on top of her feet.
• Downplayed examples are found throughout the Low Fantasy world of Blue Ramun — the Blue Doctors use slightly magical crystals in their healing work. Jessie uses a "Hearing Stone" much like a stethoscope to check a patient's lung function. "Water Stones" and "Crystallized Blood Stones" are both mentioned in the context of surgery, the first for rinsing out a wound and the second as a transfusion source for a patient who has lost a lot of blood.
• Digimon Frontier has Dynasmon, who has one set into the palm of each hand. There's also JagerLowemon, who has them all over his body.
  • As'maria is definitely in love with this trope. Nearly all X-Antibody Digimon he designed have green light-emitting crystals at somewhere of their bodies, one even has them as its hair.
• Dragon Ball's Chi-chi has one of these in her helmet, used for lasering anything she doesn't like the look of.
• In Dragon Quest: Legend of the Hero Abel, the Red Stone and Blue Stone hold untold power that can only be unleashed by those chosen to guard them. Most importantly, the Red Stone has the power to set loose an all-powerful dragon, who can only be sealed up again by the Blue Stone. The Blue Stone is given to Abel, and while normally it's attached to his headgear, on one occasion he removes the stone and fixes it to a magic staff. Talia is given the Red Stone, which she wears on a necklace.
• In Endride, Adamas is a giant floating crystal that absorbs sunlight through the North and South poles and then projects it throughout Endora, creating an artificial daylight, which drains by the end of the day for an artificial night.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Lacrima crystals, which are formed from and contain magical energy that can then used to power almost every kind of magic item. Depending on the type of magic stored within the crystal, forcibly breaking one can release the contained magic in an uncontrolled reaction.
  • When the Etherion was fired at the Tower of Heaven, the tower absorbed the magic energy and transmuted into a giant lacrima crystal that contained the destructive and varied elemental energies of the weapon. While Jellal intended to use the energy to power the R-System, Natsu in desperation devoured some of the crystals for a Power-Up to defeat him, and the damage the tower took over the course of the battle caused a chain-reaction that forced them to redirect the energy back into outer space before the crystals failed and released the energy in an uncontrolled burst.
• Fate/stay night: The Tohsaka family specializes in a school of magic devoted to storing magical energy, typically in jewels. Rin does so by sprinkling her blood on her jewels every night, and uses them in battle by throwing them. The downside? Using the jewels generally destroys them, and those jewels are really expensive, so the Tohsaka family always has money problems.
• GaoGaiGar:
  • G-Stones actually convert positive emotions, most notably courage, into energy. The J-Jewel, being a replicated version of the G-Stone, probably works similarly.
  • Zonder Metal counts too: it converts stress and other negative emotions into energy.
• Gundam: The various Alternate Universe continuities love this trope.
  • In Gundam Wing, all three Wings and the Epyon have large green "search eye" cameras on their chests.
  • In Gundam X, the green gem on the GX's chest was the receiver for the microwave power transmission system that powered up the satellite cannon.
  • Most of the GN-powered mobile suits in Gundam 00 have these, usually taking the form of one large crystal in the chest and at least one on each limb. They're supposed to be the storage units of the GN particles that make them go.
  • SD Gundam has crystals being used in various forms. Musha Gundam makes much of a 'Gundam Crystal', an artifact which is often split into separate parts and handed down to successive generations of heroes. Some versions of the series also have the Mushas house crystals on their torsos, inside of which are their 'GunSouls'. Upon death these crystals exit the body to await reincarnation.
• In Guyver there are the Zoa crystals which are embedded into each Zoalord's forehead that give them their power. Some even have other crystals stuck into other parts of their bodies.
• Harukanaru Toki no Naka de: The Dragon Gems the Hachiyou have on their bodies might count as this, considering they're the source of their powers and are used for performing attacks (or for giving the Miko a power-up, for that matter).
• Heroic Age: Bellcross has crystals on his chest, forehead, and palms... and making up his shoulder and hip joints.
• Lyrical Nanoha: Having more in common with Super Robot than its Magical Girl Warrior siblings, the series puts a gem on every piece of technology there is; it usually displays what function the machine is using at the time. (Subaru even has the gems on top of her roller blades.)
• Magic Knight Rayearth: Both the Rune Gods (while in robot-like mode) and the Knights' Escudo Weapons have significant, color-coded crystals on them.
• Mazinger Z: Several Robeasts have Power Crystals in different body areas. An example is Brutus M3, who had two huge diamonds set on its chest worked like a Phlebotinum Battery.
• My-Otome: The titular Otomes use gemstones as their Transformation Trinkets, worn as earrings (and standard rings for their Masters).
• In Naruto, Naruto wears a crystal pendant that belonged to Tsunade and, before her, to the First Hokage. It can be used to hold back the Nine-Tailed Fox possessing him, but when he reaches six tails, Naruto deliberately shatters the crystal.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Angels have glowing crystal cores which cause the creature to shut down or, in the Rebuild continuity, explode (with a Rain of Blood as an after-effect) as if their body was made of gelignite when sufficiently damaged. Evas, which are essentially man-made pseudo-Angels, more sensibly hide theirs under several tons of armour. There are exceptions to this rule, however, as not only do some Angels, like Leliel, Bardiel and Iruel lack visible cores, but there are some, like Zeruel, who can conceal his core behind a protective membrane (or ribs in Rebuild) should its AT Field be breached. That said, the original series' Ramiel was just one big, octahedral Power Crystal / Wave-Motion Gun.
• Panzer World Galient: The titular Humongous Mecha has a glowing, diamond-shaped crystal between its eyes.
• Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl: In the three-episode Team Galactic arc, Cyrus uses a crystal of the Red Chain in the palm of his glove to mind-control the legendary Pokémon Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf.
• Rolling Girls: Bests get their powers from heart shaped crystals that fall from the sky.
• Sailor Moon: Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi-Moon's Power source and transformation devices are the aptly named Silver Crystal. They carry their respective versions in a brooch worn on the bow on their chests. The same crystal is also carried on Sailor Moon's wand during the first arc/season after it's obtained and the other girls get a crystal they transform with in the manga. Each senshi is said to have one known as a Sailor Crystal (apparently the the Sailor Starlights carry their Sailor Crystals in their brooches according to the Material's Collection).
• In Saint Seiya Omega, each Cloth — divine armor — has one, due crystal pendants being the new vessels for the Cloths. They're officially called Cloth Stones.
• Slayers: Halfway through Slayers Next, Lina acquires a set of four Demon Blood Talismans from Xelloss, which she can use to amplify her magical power. She wears one on her collar, another on her belt, and the others on her wrists; they glow brightly when she channels their power. In addition, she also sports a pair of fake crystals in her shoulderpads, enchanted to explode when removed by a thief.
• Tekkaman Blade: The title character uses a green crystal to transform ("Tekset"). Other Tekkamen, mostly hostile, use crystals of various colours and shapes.
• In Tenchi Muyo!, the gems that can interchangeably go either on the hilt of Tenchi's sword or on Ryoko's wrists.
• Transformers:
  • Jetfire in Transformers: Armada has "Lensman" hand crystals, but has never been seen using them.
  • Energon stars in Transformers: Energon (the sequel to the above series) were used by the Transformers to create energon weapons. However, the energon star would eventually run out of energy and vanish, along with the weapons generated by it. Energon stars (and weapons) were colour-coded by faction: red for Autobots and yellow for Decepticons.
• In The Vision of Escaflowne, the Escaflowne has crystals that seem to serve no function but decoration, and a chest-mounted crystal that's basically the engine — this is where the pilot places a dragon's heart in order to fuel it. We actually see the shoulder crystals firing laser beams in one of Dornkirk's visions of a possible future where Van and Hitome 'rally the dragon' to defeat Dornkirk.
• Witchblade has a crystalline "eye" which is visible even in passive form (as a jewel on her "bracer") and glows red when aroused going to kick some ass. See?
• In Xam'd: Lost Memories, the title monster is formed by one of these embedding itself in a person's body. Bonus points in that the crystals are the souls of the dead (albeit after some sort of processing) and fully sentient.

Comic Books

• The 99: The titular superheroes' powers come from magic stones.
• All Fall Down: Count Von Deadly uses one of these — until he explodes.
• Atomic Robo: Brutally spoofed. While fighting Dr. Dinosaur, Robo articulates several reasons why a time-traveling dinosaur scientist is flatly impossible. After Robo notes that Dr. Dinosaur would have had nothing but fronds and rocks with which to build a time machine, Dinosaur angrily attempts to Hand Wave it by saying "I had CRYSTALS!" After that, pretty much any explanation Dr. Dinosaur gives tends to involve "CRYSTALS" in some way.
• In The Autumnlands: Tooth & Claw, Dunstan's father uses a luminous gemstone to summon a lightening bolt with grievous results.
• The DCU:
  • Justice League of America: An early story has four people empowered by mysterious black orbs from another dimension to follow their desires in an unstoppable crime spree. One woman, coveting jewelry in the window store, becomes Gem Girl, capable of using a different superpower from every gem she stole based on gem lore and powerful enough to trounce Wonder Woman.
  • Superman:
    • Several times, Kryptonite is a formidable power source. Generally done in the interest of making things harder for Superman, Supergirl or other Kryptonians. For example, it was the power source for Metallo in his original incarnation, though with no anti-Superman malice at the time (all the scientist who made Metallo happened to have on hand when he made him was some Kryptonite).
    • In the Post-Crisis universe and other continuities, Kryptonians use a kind of glowing crystals called "Sunstones" which perform a large array of tasks, such as constructing building structures or storing data.
    • In Superman: Brainiac, the Man of Steel studies information about Brainiac recorded in Sunstones left by his father.
    • In Last Daughter of Krypton, a sunstone guides Supergirl back to Argo City and then displays a message recorded by her father.
    • In Bizarrogirl, the Bizarro's rocket ship is controlled by sunstones. Supergirl also learns information about the Bizarro race via a Sunstone.
    • Who is Superwoman? reveals that those multi-purpose glowing rocks are also hard and sharp. Supergirl keeps a communication device made from Sunstones. During a heated argument with her mother, Kara smashes it to pieces, and cuts her hand on the shards.
    • Superman: Up, Up and Away!: Kryptonian Sunstones are self-replicating, infinitely programmable and can transmit data at lightning speed. The object buried deep beneath Earth's surface is a massive Kryptonian warship made of Sunstone. Superman also uses the Sunstone to build a new Fortress of Solitude.
    • Superman and the ThunderCats has the magical stone Mxyzptlk gives Mumm-Ra in order to cross dimensions.
    • In Two for the Death of One and other Superman stories, the Runestone of Merlin is a huge red gemstone glowing and bursting with immeasurable magic power. It is coveted by rival sorcerers Satanis and Syrene — daughter of the original custodian — who seek to gain omnipotence by absorbing its powerful energies.
    • In The Killers of Krypton, Empress Gandelo's minions use glowing green crystals to send and receive messages.
  • Teen Titans: Raven has a red crystal "Third Eye".
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Wonder Woman: Warbringer: In order to save her home and break the bloodline curse on the titular Warbringer, Diana uses a crystal called a Heartstone that has the ability to teleport the user anywhere out of Themyscira the user chooses — on the downside, it can then only be used to teleport back to Themyscira.
    • Wonder Woman and the Star Riders: Each of the Star Riders has a star jewel with magic properties that give the wearer additional control over an elemental power and help keep natural elements of the world in balance. All the gals have a spot for their jewels on their belts.
    • The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): The Heart of Baetylus is at first presented as a crystalline chunk with great and dangerous necromantic power, and is eventually revealed to be a broken off chunk of the "Baetylus," the solidified and crystallized souls of a dead world, that forms the core of the "Titan" which once tried to destroy life on earth.
• In Lands of Arran, the Elven civilizations possess crystals that concentrate the essence of a particular element within them, be it water, plants or even souls. A handful of the characters are bonded with these crystals, enabling them to manipulate these elements and become a One-Man Army.
• In The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Jabiru's crystal can help him see the way, and indeed shows Scrooge the way to wealth, by making him see Alaska's Northern Lights.
• Marvel Universe:
  • Darkhawk gained his powers from a mysterious gem he found in an abandoned carnival. Many, many years later, it turned out the gem was actually supposed to trap him in another dimension and slowly absorb his life-force as fuel. Only the fact it wasn't designed to work with humans stopped that. Not so much for anyone from an older species who stumbled on to them, though.
  • The Infinity Gauntlet requires the empowerment of six gems representing the powers of soul, time, space, mind, reality, and power. On occasion, there have been additional gems, including the once-off Ego Gem.
  • Iron Man has crystals in the palm of his hands as focusers for his repulsors. Also, there's a triangular crystal in his chest.
  • The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior: The wizard Ogeode's Prisma-Crystal. He needs it for pretty much any really powerful spell, and it's also the mechanism for turning normal humans into crystal warriors.
  • Squadron Supreme: The various versions of Doctor Spectrum get their Combo Platter Powers from a Power Prism, a large multicolored gem. Squadron Supreme (2015) reveals it is of Kree origin.
  • Thunderbolts:
    • Moonstone's name and powers are derived from a Kree gravity stone that was found on the Earth's moon and bonded with her nervous system. The stone gives her the power of flight, intangibility and laser blasts from the hands. For a time, she had absorbed a second gravity stone which also granted her the ability to control gravitational forces, erectforce fields, generate miniature black holes, and transport objects through dimensional rifts.
    • One story gave a Meta Origin to many of the MU's power crystals, revealing that the Moonstone, the Power Prism, the Bloodstone family's Bloodgem, Man-Wolf's Godstone, Basilisk's Alpha and Omega Stones, the Sphinx's Ka-Stone, and the diamond that empowered Blue Diamond were all part of a Lifestone Tree created by the Kree in co-operation with other races.
• Mickey Mouse: One comic (a Scrooge McDuck/Mickey Mouse crossover to boot) deals with the characters chasing after an alien babe who was stealing diamonds. As it turns out, she needed them to fuel her spaceship. (There is a small Artistic License – Physics moment when Mickey apparently figures out that the diamonds must be fuel, because "they contain carbon".)
• In Tooth and Claw, Dunstan's father uses his crystal to strike an ox with lightening.

Comic Strips

• Mandrake the Magician: The Crystal Cube, a source of tremendous magical power held for safe-keeping in the College of Magic in the Himalayas.

Fan Works

• Antipodes: The majority of the setting's Magitek is powered by spell-fixing crystals, such as the ones mined beneath Totemhoof. These are described as being crystals whose structure gives them a natural affinity for magic, allowing unicorns to enchant them with a variety of stored spells.
• Fallout: Equestria: Most of the Magitek both ponies and zebras used was powered by enchanted gems. This was in fact the cause of the war: While the ponies needed zebra coal for their industry, the zebras needed pony gems for their magic. A zebra assassin finds out the hard way that, due to Rarity's special talent of finding gems, even being completely invisible isn't a defense if your stealth cloak is powered by a gemstone.
• The Flight of the Alicorn: The Adamas Firmamentum, or Heavenstone, is a gigantic, flawless diamond enchanted so as to be able to store magic. It can accumulate an immense charge, either by a single unicorn pouring magic into it over time or many powering it up at once, and can allow a unicorn that has bonded with it to perform feats that would otherwise be impossible for any single mage. The ancient unicorns used it to gather the energy to move the sun and moon.
• Half Past Adventure: Features an example straight from its source material, Adventure Time, in the form of crystals that are used to psychically beam letters to each other — here, they're given the name "prismgrams", and mostly used by resident Rainicorn-Dog Robin.
• If Wishes Were Ponies: The Goblins of Gringotts place a great deal of value in Painite due to its unique properties allowing it to serve as a magical conductor for armored plating. Because of its extreme rarity on Earth — the only place where Painite is found is in Burma — when Sweetie Belle haggles for price over a fist-sized bag of Painite the Cutie Mark Crusaders accidentally became the 10th-richest benefactor to Gringotts.
• Sword and Claw: The protagonists receive two diamonds from the pharaoh Thutmose (among other gifts). These diamonds allow them to store up spirit energy or demonic energy for later use.
• The Tears of Gaia: There is a very ancient magical artefact called the Tears of Gaia. According to the Creation Myth, it is a gem created by Gaia with her own shed tears and the powers of the dead Alicorns are stored inside the Tears. The power found inside can be enough to wipe out most of the world! Most nations and the Blight want it in their possession, the other nations for defence and the Blight to expand its influence faster.
• Vow of Nudity: Spectra's spellcasting ability, healing powers, and disease immunity come from the gemstone on her necklace. (Shame it also curses her to always be naked...)
• With Strings Attached: Lots of examples:
  • Paul is basically one big human-shaped power crystal—his hair, teeth, and nails are all magical diamond, and his bones may be as well. And he got that way by unknowingly grabbing onto a Trap Gem, which turned him into a diamond statue.
  • John's Kansael is a blue teardrop-shaped diamond.
  • The skahs wizards cast some of their magic through diamonds.
• With this Ring... (Green Lantern): Carol's Star Sapphire gem is her power's source and symbol.
  A large star sapphire gem, the symbol of her power, levitated from her table nearby and flew to her hand. Its power reinforced her own, and she formed a psi-shield against him.

Films — Animation

• In Atlantis: The Lost Empire, the Atlanteans have small crystals with evident healing powers, and a big huge one that's under the city that keeps the ecosystem down there going.
• In Barbie & The Diamond Castle, the castle itself is covered with diamonds, with a new one added each time a new song is sung. These diamonds also have the power to ward off evil spells.
• In Toy Story, Buzz asks Woody if they still use fossil fuels or if they have discovered crystallic fusion. Lightyear takes this line and runs with it, making Buzz’s motivating goal throughout the movie the development of a crystal fusion core that can facilitate Star Command’s Faster-Than-Light Travel, with the eventual final result becoming the Mineral MacGuffin that drives the rest of the plot.
• In Turning Red, the coin-sword used in the red moon ritual appears to have a red crystal that projects a beam of light under the right conditions.

Films — Live-Action

• In The Dark Crystal, the titular crystal is a Cosmic Keystone that has been damaged but is still used by the villains in rituals to restore their youth. When it is repaired, it restores the Castle to its former state and heals the barren and dying world.
• In The Hobbit, the Arkenstone of Erebor glows and pulsates with its own inner light, although the flashbacks don't show it powering anything in particular.
• In The Last Witch Hunter, the witches at Danique's place all use magical gems to make themselves look young. No Immortal Inertia ensues when one is destroyed.
• In Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, Jared-Syn hands each of his followers a red crystal, which they can use to kill people and collect their life force. The red crystals' souls are emptied into a giant white crystal at Jared-Syn's hideout, which he believes will allow him to conquer Lemuria once it reaches full power.
• Parodied in Napoleon Dynamite: The crotch-frying "time machine" that Uncle Rico ordered online needed you to insert the most vital part: power crystals. Which probably were just pieces of quartz. Surprisingly, the time machine featured in the film is a very real device called a "hyper dimensional resonator". Plans and kits for building it can be ordered from ads posted in many New Age (and similar) magazines and websites, and there are even unofficial websites for hyper dimensional resonator users. Not only is the "power crystal" just quartz, the plans specifically call for ordinary quartz (which is treated by the plans as if it were a Power Crystal). The only real bit of parody in the scene is the crotch-frying bit. Though usage the real thing does involve wiring electrodes to your crotch, and it kinda seems like you would wind up electrocuting yourself, it actually never does any more harm than failing to send you back in time, wasting your money, and making you look like a complete fool.
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The glowing sensor crystal at the base of the Ilia-probe's neck. Spock, upon seeing the giant image of Ilia in V'Ger's memory, says that "the sensor must contain some special meaning. I must attempt to mind meld with it." He does, finds out that it's a direct link to V'Ger, and the power of V'Ger's mind knocks him unconscious.
• Star Wars: Kyber crystals, gemstones strongly attuned to the Force, play a recurring role in Sith and Jedi matters.
  • They're traditionally used to generate lightsaber blades — a kyber crystal sits within each and every saber hilt, as well as Jedi and Sith holocrons.
  • In ancient times, they were used by the Sith in superweapons. And also in more recent times: guess what powers the Death Star's superlaser?
  • Kyber crystals are quite rare, and are found in appreciable quantities only on a handful of planets. Ilum served as the Republic Jedi's primary source thanks to its rich crystal caves, but was mined to exhaustion by the Empire; other sources include Christophsis, Jedha, Lothal, and Exegol. Expanded universe material, both Legends and Disney, includes a handful of other sources, such as the Adegan system and Dantooine, a handful of unique gems, and some more unorthodox variants — for instance, the peals formed in the guts of Krayt dragons can also be used for this purpose, if you can get them out of the dragon in the first place.
• In the Superman films, crystals activate the holographic systems in the Fortress of Solitude. They can also remove (and, in rare cases, restore) Kryptonian powers.

Literature

• Avalon: Web of Magic: The mages each have an item of jewelry that "channels" their magic. Also, the main plot of the last six books is finding the Nine Power Crystals of Avalon in order to stop the flood of bad magic.
• A Chorus of Dragons: Tsali stones are colorful jewels formed from crystallized mortal souls, and are consumed by unscrupulous wizards to power their magic.
• The Cinder Spires: Ubiquitous within the setting, though unlike most examples these are grown in vats rather than naturally occuring. They are also quite larger than is common; creating vats is Lost Technology and all power crystals are needed for military needs, with none left for the civilian market, so all of them are grown to a minimum size where they can power an airship. Gwen Lancaster's family owns the largest vattery in Spire Aurora, and is rightly proud of the quality of their products, though it's generally accepted that a power crystal needs at least a century of running-in before it is seaworthy.
• Codex Alera features a variant, in that the Canim bloodstones don't power their magic but protect the wearer from it. They are usually set in the hilts of their weapons or in amulets.
• In Darkover, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, the "starstones" (aka "matrix crystals") can amplify a person's Psychic Powers to the extent where they can achieve magic-like effects. One character observes that a particularly large and powerful matrix could "pull one of the smaller moons down out of its orbit".
• Dinotopia's sunstones serve as the power source for any and all Lost Technology found by the protagonists.
• David Eddings appears to be fond of this trope... both of his main universes — the Belgariad and Sparhawk settings — features a gemstone with enough power to give GODS a case of the shivers, and which functions as a Cosmic Keystone. Fortunately, these artifacts — the Orb of Aldur and the Bhelliom Blue-Rose, respectively — are in the hands of the heroes. The Malloreon, however (a sequel to the Belgariad) also features an equally-powerful but EVIL gemstone, the Sardion.
• In Empire of the East, certain rare black gems are incredibly beautiful to spirits, wizards, and others with magical vision. But only Ardneh knows what they are, and he is able to draw immense power from one by transforming it back into what it originally was: The magnetohydrodynamic core of a hydrogen fusion power lamp.
• In the Inheritance Cycle, gems are capable of storing massive amounts of magic, allowing a mage or dragon rider to store days and weeks worth of magic, so that they have a massive supply at their side to use at once, as opposed to merely whatever is in their bodies. For this reason, dragon riders' swords are set with gems, and may carry extras around, as well. Eragon often stores magical energy in the jeweled Belt of Beloth the Wise, or else in Brom's ring.
• In The Iron Teeth web serial the magic system is based around the use of magic crystals to achieve various effects depending on the type of crystal used.
• Journey to Chaos: In the world of Tariatla there exists a mineral known as "Soiléir" that absorbs magical power and stories it. Eric and Kallen have these in the shape of a clear arrowhead crystal attached to the end of their respective Magic Staff. Eric steals part of a reaper's divinity with it, which gives him access to Make Them Rot necromancy.
• In The Magic Thief books, wizards use, instead of the traditional Magic Wand, a jewel or stone called a locus magicalicus to focus raw magic to cast spells. As Nevery explains, a locus stone ranges from anything between a rock and a gemstone.
• Rogues of the Republic: Most ancient technology is based on crystals, often absorbing energy from some ambient source (like sunlight) and doing something useful with it (like levitating). They are also used as keys and communicators, but those are more expensive.
• The Scholomance: When properly enchanted, small crystals are a highly efficient "power sink" for storing Mana for later use, optionally at a distance via Sympathetic Magic. The protagonist has a staggering fifty courtesy of her mother, whose Radiant Mind crystals are world-renowned — her only problem is the grueling personal effort of filling them.
• The Seventh Tower: The light-based magic of the Chosen relies on Sunstone gems, which can be controlled mentally by a trained user or embedded in Magitek. They're produced by investing a type of non-magic gem with The Power of the Sun — a tricky business, since most of the world is under The Night That Never Ends.
• Shannara: Examples include the Diapson Crystals which convert solar energy to power airships and the Elfstones, which have so many uses (sometimes unintentional) as to serve as a veritable MacGuffin for the series.
• Small Persons with Wings: The Parvi Pennati, or Small Persons with Wings, once fended for themselves with the Magica Vera, which helped them make clothes and houses for themselves as well as see through lies and illusions. When they started using the Magica Artificia, the Magica Vera made all their spells useless, so they stopped using the Magica Vera and stored it in a moonstone, which has been set in a ring. Anyone who wears the ring becomes a Living Lie Detector and can see through all magical illusions. If a human drops the ring into a glass of water and then drinks the water, they learn every Awful Truth about themselves and may be Driven to Suicide. The Turpins have spent centuries safeguarding the moonstone, but now the Parvi want it back so they can use their native magic again.
• In "The Staff in the Stone" by Garth Nix, gems are popular Mana reservoirs for spellcasters. Pale gems like diamonds work for easy-access, short-term storage, while darker ones like rubies and amber can hold a large amount for a long time but are slow to release it. For best results, they're incorporated into a sorcerer's ring or wizard's staff with complementary materials.
• Star Trek:
  • Humans first discovered dilithium on the Jovian moon Amalthea in 2049. During the mid 21st century Cochrane studied dilithium but kept the knowledge he gained secret until he could find a way to monetize his findings.
  • The original series novel "Chain of Attack" suggested low warp speeds were possible without dilithium crystals simply using the power generated by the annihilation of matter and anti-matter, and dilithium was needed to amplify the reaction enough to make higher warp speeds possible.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • According to the Young Jedi Knights novels, lightsabers are powered by a simple battery, converter, and "focus crystal". Apparently just clarity and sparkliness is required of said crystals, Jedi can "sense" if it's good or not. (They don't even apparently need to be of any particular mineral.) If they're not sparkly enough, the lightsaber will explode.
  • Other sources expand on the idea. Lightsabers with multiple crystals can have more than one length setting. The crystal may be responsible for the color of the blade, though the colors of the crystal and blade need not match. Not all crystalline materials will work; in one case, Corran Horn constructed a blade with two length settings, but the extended length didn't work when he used a fake diamond. In fact, it shorted out rather spectacularly.
• The Stormlight Archive:
  • The currency of Roshar consists of "spheres," gemstone shards suspended in glass, which glow when filled with stormlight. They are often used for illumination, and it's a minor show of luxury when you can "waste" spheres on light. Stormlight also powers the Magi Tech fabrials. What most people don't realize is that stormlight also powers the incredible surgebindings, powers over gravity, destruction, and more. So when an assassin with surgebinding comes after a rich king, he finds limitless power to fuel his abilities.
  • Shardplate is also powered by stormlight, which is one of the reasons it is assumed to just be a Lost Technology version of fabrials (the truth is more complicated). Most suits of shardplate have infused gemstones placed strategically around their structure to power them, and even let them regrow lost pieces with enough time. An early plot point revolves around how a suspicious number of gemstones in the king's armor cracked at the worst possible moment, pointing at an assassination attempt.
• The Time Machine: The titular device is made mostly of quartz carved into a mildly impossible shape.
• J. R. R. Tolkien made use of this in his legendarium. Most known are the silmarils, of course, carrying with them the power of light. Frodo´s phial, containing the same light, has obviously the same power. There are also other chrystals, like the Elendilmir, which is borne by Aragorn, gaining him the nickname "Elfstone" (Elessar), and the stones embedded in the three Elven rings.
• The Magitek in Tough Magic is powered by mescs and macrys, both varitations on power crystals. Interestingly, they can, and in fact have to be regularly filled with magic, making them more directly similar to batteries than most examples.
• In The Witchlands, some witches can infuse gemstones — most commonly quartz — with their magic, allowing people without their power to use them. The most common of these are painstones, which serve as anaesthetics, and firestones, which seem to emit light or heat depending on how they're made and are used to make lamps and lighters.

Live-Action TV

• An early episode of Angel featured a demon with a jewel in its head which had to be smashed in order to permanently kill it.
• Babylon 5 also has datacrystals.
• In Charmed, crystals can be bewitched for a wide array of functions, such as forming energy cages, electrocuting those inside said cages, resonating in the presence of evil, absorbing magical powers, spreading curses, and divination. Of note, crystal pendants, either quartz or amethyst, are used to scry for lost things or people over a map.
• Doctor Who:
  • In "The Horns of Nimon", putting a special crystal into the ceremonial staff the Nimon give to their spokespeople turns it into an energy weapon that can stun the Nimon.
  • The Metebelis Crystals which enhance telepathy, seen in "The Green Death" and "Planet of the Spiders". And then in the New-Who episode "Hide".
  • The Thirteenth Doctor's TARDIS console room is full of glowing orange crystals, including one serving as the Time Rotor, and six columns pointing at the rotor. The production designer said the intent was to make it look like the crystals all power the Time Rotor.
• Firefly's data storage units use square crystals. Truth in Television, sort of, since that's something that crystals can be used for in real life through holographic memory.
• Kamen Rider Wizard is this in spades, as all of his powers are based on rings with different stones set in them. Occasionally, he was given a raw gemstone that one of his allies would have to cut and refine into a new ring. Even his visor is a gigantic gem.
• Land of the Lost (1974) had a lot of these, with varying effects from dimensional gateway controls to impromptu grenades.
• Power Rangers and Super Sentai:
  • The Choushinsei Flashman had their Prism Flash henshin devices, which provided them their powers — in one episode they were damaged, only for them to get their Mid-Season Upgrade via the prisms getting repaired.
  • Despite sharing their names with the trope title, the Power Crystals in Season 1 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers aren't really examples — they're energy projections from the Power Coins that, when plugged into the Zords, become solid and cause the Zords to combine into the Megazord (and, once combined, they act as the joysticks.) They're not separate power-granting artifacts.
  • In Mighty Morphin' Alien Rangers, the Zeo Crystal is an artifact of potentially world-ending power sought by Rita's father. It ends up broken up, and when later found, each of its five parts gives the Rangers a new set of powers as the Power Rangers Zeo. Its power is said to grow over time. The Zeo Rangers also have "Zeonizer Crystals" inside their morphers ("Storage Crystals" in Chouriki Sentai Ohranger). Separate from the Zeo Crystal itself they also are only seen making the Zords combine into the Megazord.
    • In the Power Rangers (2017) movie reboot, the Zeo Crystal is even more important, despite never being seen. Turns out a Zeo Crystal is the source of every life-bearing planet's ability to support life, which means if Rita got her hands on it, Earth would die in short order.
  • In Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger and Power Rangers Wild Force, the Rangers wield Gao Jewels/Animal Crystals, tiny orb-shaped gems with a model of an animal inside, which they use to summon and combine their Zords.
  • The Dino Gems from Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, pieces of the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs and absorbed the creatures' power in the process.
  • The Energems from Power Rangers Dino Charge seem to qualify, as they charge up the Dino Chargers used to power the Rangers' tech.
  • The Mashin Sentai Kiramager draw their power from sentient magic jewels called Kiramei Stones. Thanks to Juru's creativity, he's able to use their magic to turn them into Humongous Mecha vehicles.
• In both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, virtually all technology from the Sufficiently Advanced Aliens has crystals at its most basic level. Goa'uld have rainbow-colored geometric ones, the Ancients' are clear flat rectangles.
  • In both cases the crystals are mainly used for data storage, which is actually something that crystals can be used for in real life through holographic memory.
  • Then there's the Zero Point Module, perennial MacGuffin and power source. It looks like an orange, glowing lump of quartz.
• Star Trek: The power source for Warp Drive is the crystalline material called Dilithium, and in the original series must remain in that form to work. Prior to the discovery of a method to recrystalize dilithium, the crystals had a limited useful life and had to be replaced from time to time. ^note  Part of the impetus behind introducing the concept of recrystalizing dilithium was the desire to avoid Next Generation stories involving searching for dilithium.
  • Later Techno Babble describes it as not the actual power source, but as a regulating agent for the Matter / Antimatter reaction (IE: what makes the energy usable for purposes other than blowing things up).
  • Even later descriptions state that Dilithium itself is attuned to Subspace, which makes its discovery a major milestone in a civilization's development of Warp Drive since tapping into that dimensional layer of reality is how warp drives travel faster than light. It not only enables the antimatter-fueled powerplants needed for the immense power demand of a warp drive, but is inherently required for a warp drive to function at all. Dilithium crystals going inert can have catastrophic results if in an active warp reactor core, and is the cause of "The Burn", a galactic-scale apoclapytic event in the far future season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery.
• The Ultramen have ones on their chests called Colour Timers as an indicator as to how much longer they can last. It's stated that only members of the Ultra Space Garrison possess these for places that are dangerous for them to remain in their normal form for too long, like within Earth's atmosphere.
  • Ultraman Tiga and Ultraman Dyna have secondary crystals on their foreheads. These are used to change forms and transfer energy to other Ultras.
• In the The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Superhero Episode, Mr. Mosbey has Arwin create a super-ray that will amplify his power to turn children into miniture adults. It turns out that Arwin had design the ray in that it needs diamonds to power it.

Pinballs

• The seven magic jewels in Tales of the Arabian Nights, which are needed to enchant the player's scimitar to defeat the evil genie.
• The Time Crystals of Pro Pinball: Timeshock!

Myths & Religion

• YMMV of course on whether it's this or Real Life, but Edgar Cayce and his followers claimed that Atlantis made heavy use of these, and it was part of what led to their downfall.
• Many New Agers and neopagans believe crystals have special properties that enhance certain qualities or aid in healing (channel already existing energy though, not produce it).
• Orgonite. It's not actually a true crystal, but molded resin (eg, plastic) filled with bits of minerals and shiny things. The purpose is to absorb bad "orgones," or negative energy. Whether or not they actually work, some peoples' orgonites are quite beautiful.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons is full of magic jewelry, both standalone and embedded in other items.
  • Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 introduced a class over the Internet, whose schtick involves embedding crystals into their skin. Precious gemstones specifically.
  • Many spells involved gems as component or focus (e.g. Gemjump — teleport to prepared gem). Sourcebooks on magic items and materials (like Volo's Guide to All Things Magical) have lots of gem-related entries.
  • Psionics has a particular affinity with crystal — most psionic items are made at least partially out of crystal, psions can acquire a "psicrystal" companion, and there are psionic powers that can summon shards of crystal to attack enemies with. Not to mention "power-up" crystals embedded in armor and other items that make them quasi-magical.
• The Earthdawn roleplaying game features not only crystal plate armor and shields, but also living crystal armor (small columns) and so-called "blood pebbles" (hundreds of small magical gems) that can be implanted into a character's skin and grow by feeding on the magic of the character's blood until they provide a natural armor bonus on the whole body (except the head). Because the crystal is alive and part of the character's body, the character can feel and move with it as if the crystal was his skin.
• Hearthstones in Exalted are magical gems produced via geomancy that provide their user with energy and special abilities when attached to an attuned artifact (weapon, armor, amulet etc.).
• GURPS has "powerstones" (which are always made from gems) that are pretty much absolutely required to provide extra energy for casting any powerful spell as the only other alternative is horribly ironic death as the casting rips your life force out of your body.
• Mage: The Awakening: Mages use soul stones to create Places of Power and enhance their spellcasting. A soul stone is literally part of the creator's soul and magic, voluntarily separated and manifested; despite the name, they take many forms, from gems to perfect imitations of live plants.
• In Princess: The Hopeful, the Specchio Charm Enduring Beauty can literally peel away someone's beauty, converting it into a powerful magical gemstone. It's mentioned that using a Bequest powered by one of these gems is almost always a Belief compromise for Princessess, unless they have reason to believe that the gem was created willingly.
• In Rocket Age the Venusians use ancient crystals to store psychic energy, often mounting them on their priest's staffs. Small ones are bound into Venusian Wooden Axes and Shields, ancient artefacts that can parry RAY beams.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • The Craftworld Eldar universally wear "Waystones," a gem worn over the heart which captures the soul of the Eldar upon death to prevent it from being painfully devoured by the Chaos god Slaanesh. These spirit stones allow the Eldar a peculiar kind of necromancy with Wraithguard and Wraithlords, battle constructs controlled by the spirit of a long-dead Eldar in a waystone. The Eldar also pimp out their vehicles and weapons with countless more mundane gems. They also occasionally have starships and titans powered by spirit stones. Though, since they already have a light cruiser class called the 'wraithship,' they had to call spirit-powered starships 'ghostships'
  • The Dark Eldar have these too. They hold souls, but unlike the Craftworld Eldar, who use them to hold their own souls in stasis in death, the Dark Eldar use the crystals to hold the souls of tortured captives for various uses, primarily consumption.

Theatre

• At the end of The Rocky Horror Show, before they beam the castle back to the planet Transsexual, Riff Raff cries "Activate the transit crystal!".

Theme Parks

• Various crystals have appeared in Disney Theme Parks attractions.
  • The Indiana Jones Adventure has hinted within the queue that Indy became lost on his search for the tourists going after a Gem of Power that provided the energy source to the entire Temple of the Forbidden Eye
  • The Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game has Hades and his army of Disney villains seeking out pieces of the Crystal of the Magic Kingdom that could allow him control over the park and the Disney worlds within.
• Lost Island Theme Park has the Yuta's Agatu Gem that helps promote natural growth and creates earth elemental energy from harnessing the sun's rays and smaller Yunti Stone crystals used for various enchanted devices such as the Thermal Equalizers in the Volkanu dark ride or the Windicators used by the Udaran Air Society in scientific and mystical rituals.

Toys

• LEGO:
  • The Rock Raiders gather green energy crystals (one of the video games also included red energy crystals, five times as powerful as the green ones) as part of their main goal, which is to use them to power their Cool Starship and return home. Hindering their goal are the monsters on Planet U which eat said crystals as their main diet.
  • Power crystals of various colors are the main macguffins fought over in LEGO Power Miners, a line very similar to Rock Raiders. The miners couldn't use them, but needed to keep them out of the mouths of rock monsters, since eating the crystals supercharged them and caused earthquakes on the surface.

Video Games

• In APICO, Honeycore are mysterious honey-colored crystals that resonate when hives are nearby. They are found in the Tundra and Hallowed Island, and their resonance generates power to activate Bobbee's fully automated machines. Honeycore resonate more strongly under the full moon.
• Atlantis: The Lost Tales: All of the technology in the game, mainly flying boats called flyers, is powered by crystals. Crystals also have other abilities in the sequels.
• Avernum features these a lot, particularly in relation to a): magical portals, b): golems, and c): anything made by the Vahnatai. The bigger ones often go boom nicely.
• Baldur's Gate III has the Netherstones, magic gemstones of incredible power and significance: the leaders of the Cult of the Absolute use the Netherstones to control an illithid Elder Brain via the Crown of Karsus in their bid to take over Faerun. The last half of the game centers around taking the Netherstones from the Absolutist leaders to control, or else destroy, the Elder Brain.
• Bayonetta: Played with with the Eyes of the World, specifically the Left Eye of Darkness that Bayonetta already owns as the jewel in her witch broach and the Right Eye of Light that she is searching for and basically fuels the story. Ultimately averted in this case, as this was all misdirection — the jewel in her broach is magical, but was a gift from her childhood friend Jeanne and isn't the Left Eye. In fact, the Eyes of the World are instead an intangible magical power held by Bayonetta and Father Balder, that can be used to resurrect a god and bring about Armageddon. The series also has Witch Hearts and Moon Pearls, which are collectibles that can extend Bayonetta's health and magic, respectfully.
• BlazBlue:
  • Ragna the Bloodedge possesses a pair of red crystals on the back of his hands. They act as the activation devices for his Azure Grimoire.
  • Mu-12 has large plates all over her battle suit for the exact same reason as Ragna, save that hers are more effective, since she is the Inheritor of the Azure.
• Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge: Every time you kill an enemy in the first level, you have to sit through a railshooter sequence while clicking on blue "Tantanik Crystals" to collect them, as they are a necessary power source to access the FMV sequences.
• Castlevania: Curse of Darkness: Every Innocent Devil has at least one crystal somewhere.
• Crash Bandicoot:
  • Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back has purple crystals literally named Power Crystals around which this game as well as some that follow center and are main objective of your efforts. Their power is only vaguely described (it is stated gathering Master Crystal and 25 Slave Crystals allows Cortex to brainwash entire Earth to do his bidding) plus they get New Powers as the Plot Demands in post-Naughty Dog games; in Wrath of Cortex they're used to put Elemental Masks into hibernation and in Twinsanity Cortex uses them to power up his dimensional-travel device.
  • There are also gems in almost all games. In Crash Bandicoot (1996) they are mostly used just as platforms, but in Cortex Strikes Back they explicitly power up N. Brio's laser that destroys Cortex Vortex.
• The Crystal of Kings, as the title states: The source of power for the entire kingdom of Estorea lies in the magic crystals owned by members of royalty, these orbs of great power rivaling even the gods. Unfortunately, a wizard serving the Estorean Court named Nightspirit decides to dabble in crystal of chaos, allowing the forces of darkness to invade the land and kickstarting the game's plot.
• Dark Souls: The Primordial Crystal gave Seath the Scaleless true immortality. Also, the most powerful sorceries are crystalline, invented by Seath after centuries of studying said Crystal. Fortunately, just because the Primordial Crystal is powerful does not mean it's very tough: it can be broken by a single attack.
• Dawn: There are obelisks in the game that are powered by a crystal on the ground next to them. Ash can activate said obelisks by shooting the crystal with his magic, providing it with power.
• Dawn of War: The Eldar use crystals for their plasma and thermo plasma generators.
• Devil May Cry 4: The Savior has blue gems on its forehead, chest, and both of its arms, shoulders, and legs. In-game, these serve as The Savior's weak spots. For best results in order to save Nero, Dante has to destroy them all, although the gem in the chest is considered the most vital weak spot, as damaging it would directly and significantly reduce the boss's health bar.
• Divinity: Original Sin II: Phase Capacitors are large crystals that act as inexhaustible power sources for Precursor Magitek. The player character needs to find a few to open locks in a Precursor installation in Act III.
• Dragon Age: Origins: The golem character Shale uses crystals for both attack and defense rather then use regular weapons and armour.
• Dragon Quest IX has Nod's Tear, which a little slime wants you to find to wake Nodoph up. This little gem is actually a concentration of all Nodoph's power and emotion, which, once shed, left him barely able to return home.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • The series in general has these in the form of Soul Gems, which can be used in conjunction with a Soul Trap spell to trap the souls of enemies as they die. The more powerful the creature, the higher quality the Soul Gem must be in order to trap its soul. Once trapped, the filled Soul Gem can be used to Enchant an item, imbuing it with spell effects. It can also be used to recharge an already enchanted item which has been drained through use.
  • The Ayleids, a presumed extinct race of Mer (Elves) who acted as Abusive Precursors to early humankind, had several types of crystalline objects imbued with magical power. Many of these are still found in their ruins in modern times (most notably in Oblivion which is set in their former homeland), but is now Magitek Lost Technology. To note:
    • Welkynd Stones restore Magicka to user.
    • Varla Stones can be used in the place of the aforementioned Soul Gems to recharge enchanted items.
    • The Ayleids also possessed "memory crystals", which could release memories directly to the user. Overuse of these crystals was said to cause a "problem of capacity" for mortal minds.
• Amarr ships in EVE Online primarily use lasers. Fitting different crystals to the laser turrets affects attributes such as optimal range, damage type, and even what color the laser is.
• EXTRAPOWER: Star Resistance: The Shakun Star central computer's head protects and encapsulates a large crystal with an unknown woman encased within it. The computer does not stop its attacks until this crystal is finally shattered.
• Fairyside: The "Lunite (II)" note reveals what the blue objects that serves as Shirley's EXP drops from monsters and upgrade shop currency is:
  Lunites are most often used by fairies to perform magic. Some fairies are better at channeling that power. Monsters will also ingest lunites to make themselves stronger, but the gems are retrievable upon death.
• Final Fantasy: The Elemental Crystals from various games. Their exact powers vary from game to game, but they're usually the main Cosmic Keystones of the world, maintaining and controlling the four elements. In some games, their powers can be harnessed and amplified, and in a few, even a single shard of a broken Crystal has enough power in it for a person to transform into a hero.
  • They also tend to keep the Sealed Evil in a Can... sealed.
  • Final Fantasy XII has Nethicite - essentially a crystalline stand-in for our world's nuclear power, including being major source of energy and Fantasy Nukes. The save points also take form of crystals in this game and some of them even allow you to teleport around Ivalice. And some are actually monsters that will attack you.
  • They're even more central in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series.
    • Specifically, in Final Fantasy XIII, crystals are the source of magic: large crystals power the fal'Cie machine-gods who in turn bless humans with the power of the l'Cie by marking them with a Power Tattoo containing a crystal which grants them potentially limitless power... as well as a time limit and a specific mission. Failure turns you into a shambling monster made of crystal. Success isn't much better as you are frozen in crystal until the fal'Cie or the gods see fit to de-crystallize you and return you to their service. There is also another crystal unique to l'cie, the Eidolith (See the current page image) which allows a L'cie to summon an powerful entity in battle, provided the l'cie impresses it enough to forge the contract.
    • In Final Fantasy Type-0 each of the four nations bears a crystal gifted by fal'cie gods, these crystals in turn imbue the peoples of each nation with a different power. For Rubrum the power of magic but only to the young, the power of weapons to the people of Milites, the power of dragons to the people of Concordia and the power of the shield to the people of Lorica. These crystals can also imbue people with the power of the l'cie giving them unique abilities and eternal youth at the cost of degrading their sanity and absolute loyalty to the will of the crystal.
• Gift (2001): Yellow, Black, Blue and Red Magic Crystals which give Gift one of four special powers: to create light, to create darkness, to fire a Freeze Ray or to produce gunpowder respectively. The Green Crystal unpowers the Magic Staff.
• Geneforge features crystalline "power coils" as power sources for heavy equipment. These always explode if you screw up when trying to shut them down. Pre-destroyed ones are often surrounded by "flawed crystals" that function as Shop Fodder.
• Halo: According to side material, the UNSC is interested in the energy-storing properties of blamite, a high-explosive crystalline material found only on Suban, one of the Elite homeworld's two moons. If that's sounds familiar, that's because blamite is also what the Needler's explosive homing projectiles are made of; let's hope the UNSC's researchers have taken the proper precautions.
• Jeanne d'Arc: The all-important Spirit Gems that the heroes wear on their armlets. Each Gem grants a new transformation (each character can wield between three and five, depending on the slots on their armlet) and two of them are permanently missable if the player doesn't have sufficient warning.
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: Prismere crystals are used to make all sorts of Magitek for the human races, and the Tuatha use it to make weapons and implant it into their skin. It's seemingly perfectly safe for mortals but drives Fae insane.
• Knights of the Old Republic: As in the broader Star Wars canon, certain rare crystals form the core of lightsabers, where they create the energy beam that the rest of the saber hilt focuses into a coherent blade.
• Legend of Mana: The Jumi have gems as their hearts. It gives them unlimited life and lots of power, but if it's so much as scratched, never mind destroyed, bad things happen.
• The Legend of Dark Witch: Pure Syega are lumps of crystallized magic that humans can use for their needs. In fact, many characters are often seen with a Syega crystal or two on their designs to augment their abilities. The only ones who don't actually use them are Zizou, her sister Mati (on account of them both being Physical Gods and thus probably having no need for them anyway outside of gameplay) and Fae such as Stoj. Gameplay-wise, they serve as items needed to upgrade abilities.
• The Legend of Spyro: Spirit gems — clusters of quartz-like crystals growing from the ground — serve as the source of the dragons' magic; by breaking and consuming them, dragons can restore their internal magic reserves. They're a major element in all three games, as they serve as the primary means by which Spyro recharges his health and Mana Meters and gains experience points.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Magical artifacts like the three spiritual stones in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are often ornate gemstones with gold decorations or the like, while in the same game the silver and golden gauntlets have red gemstones set into them, possibly the source of the extra strength they give you. In addition, the Master Sword, in all its appearances, has a yellow gem set in the hilt where the blade meets the crossguard.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Flavor text attributes elemental powers to gemstones: electricity for topazes, fire for rubies, and ice for sapphires. Several pieces of gear are noted to make use of their properties, such as the heat-resistant Desert Voe armor being inlaid with sapphires.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Fusing a gemstone to a weapon makes it function as a magic rod of the associated element. In addition to the Fire, Ice, Lightning triad of Breath of the Wild, opals hold the power of water.
• Long Live the Queen: Lumens are empowered by special stones called Lumen Crystals. Whether or not Elodie chooses to recover the Lumen Crystal passed down from her mother has a big effect on how the plot can unfold.
• Lord of the Rings: The Third Age: Spellcraft Gems are basically an Expy of Magicite. Equipped as an accessory, they permanently teach spells. One basically teaches a 1:1 copy of a characters skillset, but another teaches powerful Black Magic without having to ask Sauron really really nice to teach you.
• Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime: Upgrades for ship stations are represented by gems that can be attached to them to give them different powers. Generally speaking, power gems increase how many shots a weapon fires at once and increase the engine's propulsion, beam gems replace projectiles with laser beams, and metal gems replace guns with wrecking balls or sawblades and cause the engine to leave behind clusters of mines when used.
• Luminous Arc 2: Roland has a Lensman-style artificial crystal on the back of his hand. It turns witches into his magic-giving harem.
• Marvel Super Heroes uses the Infinity Gems as a gameplay element, with each Gem having a different effect (and some being enhanced on certain characters):
  • The Power Gem increases attack power. For Spider-Man and Psylocke, it also creates clones that can inflict additional damage (one clone for Spidey that flanks his opponent from behind, two for Psylocke that stand beside her). For Captain America, it provides an even more substantial attack boost. For Wolverine, it engages his "Berserker Charge" state which makes him stronger and faster.
  • The Time Gem increases movement speed. Hulk gains an even beefier speed boost, while Shuma-Gorath gains the ability to petrify their opponent.
  • The Reality Gem allows the user to throw projectiles with every normal attack. Blackheart also gains invisibility.
  • The Space Gem grants Super Armor. Magneto and Juggernaut both gain varying degrees of invulnerability.
  • The Soul Gem continuously restores health. In Iron Man's hands, it also gives his attacks an electric boost that saps their meter.
  • The Mind Gem continuously fills the user's Super Combo meter. Unlike the other Gems, it can only be obtained from Thanos by knocking it out of his possession.
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite brings back the Infinite Gems — now "Infinity Stones". They grant the player an additional ability each, as well as an "Infinity Storm" Desperation Move.
  • The Power Stone lets its users perform a hard knockback attack on command. Its Infinity Storm grants the player significantly-increased attack power and knockback.
  • The Space Stone lets the user move their opponent forward or back. Its Infinity Storm conjures an energy cage around the opponent that restricts their movement.
  • The Time Stone lets its users perform a Flash Step on command. Its Infinity Storm increases the user's movement speed and lets attacks combo into each other more easily.
  • The Reality Stone launches a slow-moving homing projectile on cue. Its Infinity Storm lets the user unleash ranged attacks with every attack.
  • The Mind Stone provides a special grapple attack that can stun opponents. Its Infinity Storm continuously fills the user's Hyper Combo Meter.
  • The Soul Stone creates a ranged attack that can sap some of the opponent's health. Its Infinity Storm summons both of the player's characters to the field to fight at the same time — and if one character had been KO'd before, they will be brought back into action with 10% of their health restored.
• Pick a Mega Man game. Any game. Especially during/after Mega Man X.
  • Special mention goes to Zero's "booblights".
    • Zero's Power Crystal also has his "Z" insignia plus a little relevance. It might be his weakness, as a flashback in X4 shows that Sigma couldn't have defeated him if it weren't for Zero convulsing when it was flashing.
  • The red one in X's helmet has a couple of functions besides looking neat. If his health is low, it blinks on and off while he's standing still. In X3, the level maps you can access after acquiring the helmet upgrade appear to be projected from the gem like a hologram. In terms of gems that are just there for show, many of X's special armors have ones in various spots. In particular, his Blade Armor from X6 has green gems on his arms, shoulders, chest, waist, and the tops of his leg guards.
• Metroid: Samus has a "Lensman" hand crystal on her non-cannon arm. In Metroid: Zero Mission, it corresponds to the Power Grip, and in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, the Grapple Beam is fired from it.
• The Minecraft mod Industrial Craft has two tiers of energy crystals, although they aren't shown on or in any of the machinery containing them. The first one is crafted from 8 redstone and a diamond and stores 100,000 energy units, or EU. Its upgrade, the "Lapotron Crystal" is crafted by surrounding an energy crystal with lapis lazuli and a few electric circuits, somehow allowing it to store 1,000,000 EU.
• Monster Eye: Owing to a mysterious virus from a crystal mine which exclusively infects animals turning them into hostile, rampaging beasts, most of the giant animal enemies have crystal shards on their bodies which drives them into attacking everything on sight. Giant Mook versions of regular enemies and all the bosses will even have shards of crystal growing on them - shooting these crystals are the only way to damage them.
• Ninja Gaiden: The Eye of the Dragon is a jewel said to contain a dragon's soul. It is used to transform the Dragon Sword into the True Dragon Sword.
• In Paladins, crystals are a main source of energy in the Realm, with even the smallest shards housing incredible magic power. Their discovery led to a Magitek revolution that transformed the Heroic Fantasy setting into a Dungeon Punk world.
• Some Pokémon have gems encrusted in them for show: Staryu and Starmie, Golduck, Persian, Espeon, Ampharos, Sableye, Vespiquen, etc. Suicune deserves special mention, as it has a big friggin' crystal encrusted in its head. There is also an attack called "Power Gem".
  • Pokedex entries for Staryu/Starmie claim that their crystal IS actually their eye, which is based on "compound eyes" of some real starfish.
  • Pokedex entries states that Gigalith has multiple red crystals sticking out of its body. These crystals absorb sunlight, which is then redirected into Gigalith's internal core and released as a powerful blast of solar energy. The solar beams themselves pack enough punch to obliterate a large mountain, even a dump truck as well.
  • Appropriately enough, Dialga and Palkia have a diamond and pearl on their bodies, respectively. The events of The Rise Of Darkrai are set off when Palkia's pearl is damaged.
  • Emerald from Pokémon Adventures has one on his forehead.
  • The crystal in Deoxys' body is actually its brain. In fact, as long as that is intact, it's still alive, considering its Healing Factor allows it to regenerate in the right conditions. Staryu and Starmie's center gems also share this same healing factor.
  • Each type has a gem that, when held by a Pokemon, powers up moves of that type.
  • Mega-Sableye gains a gem big enough to hide behind that turns him into a Stone Wall.
  • Sun & Moon added the Z Crystals, which allow every Pokemon to use a Limit Break for every type (as well as status moves with additional buffs and several species-specific Limit Breaks) once per battle. Necrozma is a powerful living crystal monster and believed to be the source of Z Power.
• The red crystals in the Raiden series. The Final Boss is typically a Cores-and-Turrets Boss powered by large versions of these.
• Timonium deposits in Rise of Legends look suspiciously like massive crystal formations. These crystals are used for EVERY RACE, including the non-technology based Alin. It is stated on the site itself that Timonium has incredible properties, including mystical ones (so presumably, Alin use it to power spells. Doesn't explain why the Hero Unit just use Mana instead.)
• Shantae: The Golem Mine boss has one on top of its head that it will try to conceal after some time. Attack it for massive damage.
• Sins of a Solar Empire has Crystal as one of it's three resources used by all of the 3 factions. The Advent are particularly fond of it.
• The Chaos Emeralds from the Sonic the Hedgehog games are the epitome of this trope. There are seven of them, and even a single fake Chaos Emerald can teleport. A single real one is all that it takes to essentially freeze time in a decently sized area. Two Chaos Emeralds are capable of opening a portal through time. And when you get all seven, it's pretty much the epitome of Super Mode. They can also be used as power sources by machines such as biplanes, and six or so of them can power huge planet-destroying cannons.
  • And then there's the Master Emerald, professional MacGuffin and the power source that keeps Angel Island a Floating Continent.
  • Sonic CD features the Time Stones, which are similar to Chaos Emeralds, save for that their function is explicitly stated as manipulating time. Naturaly, Eggman wants to snag them so he can rule over the past, present, and future.
  • Sonic Rush introduces the Sol Emeralds, a set of emeralds from the Sol Dimension which serve as the counterparts to the Chaos Emeralds. Just as Sonic can use the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic, Blaze can use the Sol Emeralds to become Burning Blaze.
• StarCraft:
  • The Protoss Khala relies on Khaydarin crystals, which can focus, store, and amplify their Psychic Powers and allows them to join minds. The pylons, the ones you need more of, are basically giant floating chunks of the stuff. The "minerals" that are harvested by all three races are also some kind of crystal.
  • Protoss units are also often adorned with power crystals. Starcraft 2 has some units, like the Warp Prism and Void Ray which are built around them. The fluff describes the Warp Prism as a "computer built into the lattices of a crystal".
  • This gets amusing in Starcraft 2, when a Protoss crystal is brought on board the Hyperion and studied in its lab. The crystal grows and eventually begins emitting a lot of power, but the lab tech cannot figure out where said power is going. Turns out the crystal had tied itself into the ship's power grid without anybody noticing, and is now helping to regulate the ship's systems and keep them all at optimal performance levels. Also, it's probably sentient.
• In his teaser trailer for Street Fighter V, Charlie is seen with a glowing, bright green crystal embedded in his forehead.
• In Strife the Evil Empire Religion of Evil runs their technology with crystals. Have fun blowing them up.
• Synergism: Crystals multiply Coin production depending on how many of them you have.
• In Tales of Symphonia, Exspheres are crystals that can be used to power machinery, and also enhance people's fighting abilities if equipped properly. Just sticking it on the skin has a rather different effect, though...
  • Many of the later Tales Series games include these, usually enhancing each characters abilities, though some cases are more relevant to the plot than others. They're usually assumed to be naturally occurring crystals that just sort of appear in the world. They never are, and are usually either Powered by a Forsaken Child or some form of Lost Technology.
  • Tales of Vesperia has Blastia, specifically the Blastia cores. While Blastia is mainly used to augment each character's abilities, they're also used to power ships, barriers, and even act as mundane objects like thermometers or light sources.
  • Tales of Xillia has Lilium Orbs, which are, again, used by the characters to enhance their abilities, though they carry very little plot significance. There are also spirit fossils, used to power weaponry and flying vessels.
  • Tales of Graces has Cryas, which are used to transport water, heat buildings, and so on. There are also three massive Cryas known as the Valkines Cryas, which are generally used to power each nation's massive capital city by itself.
• The Legend of Heroes Trails Series takes place in a world where people rely on "orbal technology" which uses septium crystals as a power source comparable to electricity. In addition to providing people with "modern" conveniences such as domestic appliances and artificial light, orbal technology is used to power airships as well as the "battle quartz" that enable your characters to use arts akin to magic spells.
• In Treasure of the Rudra, each of the heroes chosen by destiny gets a jade lodged into their forehead. The impact ends up killing one of them and sending him straight to the afterlife.
• Twisted Wonderland: Subverted as magical stones aren't so much a power source as it's health protection for the magic users. Use of magic produces blot, and the stones are necessary to keep the blot collected there instead of directly in the person's body.
• Used as a power source for the ATACs of Vanguard Bandits. They're small enough to fit in your hand, but large enough to power a machine larger than a house.
• In A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky, a small stable saecelium crystal can power a droid effectively indefinitely.
• The Nazi plot in Wolfenstein (2009) revolves around the so-called Nachtsonne Crystals found near Isenstadt, Germany. Interestingly, the crystals themselves hold no intrinsic power, but are instead used as "lenses" for the Black Sun energy leaking into our universe. The Nazis harvest the energy, storing it in special barrels, which they use to fuel various crystal-based contraptions. Different crystals have different results: some slow down time, while others are used to create Some Kind Of Forcefield or activate the Thule Portal.
• Naaru Magitek in World of Warcraft seems to rely on these, at least judging from the amount of large crystals in the Tempest Keep instances. The Naaru themselves seems like sentient PowerCrystals / Energy Beings. The draenei use a lot of their crystals too.
  • Un'goro Crater has Power Crystals of various colours scattered around the zone, as well as pylons that give various buffs when you bring crystals of correct colour to them. Several other magical crystals appear in the game too. Un'goro's crystal pylons are part of a huge homage to Land of the Lost (1974).
  • Kael'thas Sunstrider in Magister's Terrace has a huge demonic crystal stuck in his chest.
  • Let's not forget the Jewelcrafting profession, the whole point of which, besides creating wearable stat-enhancing rings, necklaces and trinkets, is the cutting of gems able to enhance the stats of weapons and gear you socket them into.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, people with the right aptitude can resonate with Core Crystals, which bonds them with a Blade that serves as a combat partner and companion. If the Driver dies, then any Blades with whom they're in resonance reverts to their Core Crystal form to bond with a new Driver, and loses all memory of their prior life. Additionally, while in resonance, each Blade has a crystal embedded into their body, which, if destroyed, kills the otherwise immortal Blade off permanently.
• The core of the Weather-Control Machine Napishtim in Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, which also summons smaller attack crystals. Also, the elemental crystals of Kefin in Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand.
• Zone of the Enders. The more of them your Orbital Frame has, the stronger it's likely to be.

Web Animation

• Strong Bad of Homestar Runner has a "blue diamond kinda thing" on his forehead which gives him the power to pop caps off of things.
• RWBY: There is a crystalline substance known as Dust which was pivotal in humanity driving out the Grimm and establishing society. By the beginning of the series, the Schnee Dust Company led by Weiss' father Jacques Schnee have a monopoly over Dust distribution throughout the world of Remnant. Dust not only powers people's weapons, but also acts as fuel for vehicles and ammunition for firearms. It can be woven into clothing and be directly fused with a person's body (though that is extremely dangerous). Hazel Rainart is able to fuse Dust into his body without feeling the pain due to his Semblance Numbing Agent making him unable to feel pain.

Webcomics

• Aurora (2019): Lacrimas are crystals inscribed with magic runes and used to store large amounts of elemental energy. They're typically used to produce a specific magic effect on demand, with their runes restricting the ways in which their stored energy can manifest — for example, a fire lacrima can be "programmed" to only release light without heat and serve as a light source or a life lacrima meant for medical use to only regrow lost tissue — but ones without these limitations are essentially limitless spell batteries and potentially very dangerous things.
• Avania: Giant crystals would appear to be the energy source for Demonian Magitek equipment. Dialogue implies that they function similarly to electrical capacitors.
• Castoff: Mages wear these as necklaces to serve as power source/amplifier/indication (the bigger the stone, the stronger the mage), Bag of Holding, communication device and collapsible armour for Magic Knights. The colour of the stone matches the owner's aura. They're prohibitively expensive (mined in the elven lands, which causes political tension). Also, only the authorised Guards are allowed the most powerful faceted gems - everyone else has to do with cabochons.
• Crystal Heart has the eponymous ancient crystals that can be transplanted into humans instead of their former hearts. They give their bearers special powers, for example mind reading or manifesting and controlling a rope made out of force.
• Heroine Chic: Geordie and Zoe use an "Eternity Stone" to transform into superhero alter egos Valiant and Gilded Lily. The stone they use is part of a set of eight similar stones, which the villain Excelsior wants to collect for his own nefarious purposes (a shoutout to "Infinity Stones" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe).
• The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: "The jewels act like evil Frosty hats!"
• Kong Tower: Tim has a small one worn as a necklace that gives him his low-level telekinetic abilities, and only works with him. He apparently inherited it from his uncle, how he got it remains unstated.
• Marooned: The Mindstones grant Psychic Powers, do Power Makeovers, and might be sentient.
• Phantomarine: the titular Phantomarine is a glowing mineral used in the beacons of the Lighthouse Road — its perpetual light creates a barrier that repels seaghosts. It has a related substance called Revenite that provides similar protection, but requires an electrical current to glow. Pavel was given a lantern with a piece inside, which should be impossible because all of the Phantomarine in the world was supposed to have been used to make the Road.

Web Original

• The cybaspheres from the web fiction serial Dimension Heroes prove to be invaluable trinkets that give the Dimensional Guardians the power they need to defeat the more powerful opponents they face.
• The crystal from The Quest. It allegedly grants you every super power there is, and gives you control of an army of some kind.
• There are power gems in the Whateley Universe: Nightgaunt has two on his belt that he uses to shadow-walk; Splendor has several that she bought using daddy's money so she could have superpowers. It is mentioned that Mad Scientist types and wizards can with great effort and expense create 'cultured' power gems, a less potent but still useful form of the other type.

Western Animation

• An episode of The Adventures of Puss in Boots features the Lorenzo Lapis Lazuli, a blue crystal capable of firing powerful cutting blasts. Because of this, Puss later uses it as a weapon to help him battle a powerful evil wizard, where it also demonstrates the ability to create Deflector Shields and Containment Fields.
• In Adventure Time, "Crystals Have Power".
• The Dragon Prince: Callum magic uses the nature surrounding him as sources; during Book One, he gets his hands on a Primal Stone, an orb that allows him to freely cast magic that uses the Sky as a power source. In the Book Two episode "Breathe", he learns to do it without the Primal Stone, which was thought to be impossible for humans by many.
• In Futurama, Al Gore's head offers a bag of "moon sapphires" to the first scientist who can solve global warming once and for all. According to a dark wizard in the audience, they could be used to open the Gate of Kerash. What the Gate is and why a dark wizard would want it open are left to the audience' imagination, but it's presumably magical.
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe had a few examples. The most famous of which was Count Marzo's amulet which he needed to access his empowered form. It was strong enough to let him challenge Skeletor.
• Two of the Doomsday Devices in Inspector Gadget were exactly this, notably the Weather-Control Machine in "Weather in Tibet", and the satellite-killing laser in "The Ruby".
• The Mega Man (Ruby-Spears) animated series had shrink rays powered by red jewels, though Dr. Light found a way to alter them to do the polar opposite.
• The main plot point of "Dressed to Kill", an episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot, was that an extremely powerful crystalline substance was being used in Brit and Tiff's commissioned clothing designs, giving them abilities that they would abuse inevitably.
• My Little Pony:
  • My Little Pony 'n Friends: The Heart of Ponyland is a large multicolored crystal from which all of Ponyland's magic originates.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In general, crystals and gems are strongly associated with magic within the series' world.
    • The Elements of Harmony, some of the most powerful magical artifacts in the series, take the form of golden necklaces (and one "big crown thingy") each encrusted with a large jewel resembling its bearer's Cutie Mark^note so a star, a diamond, a lightning bolt, a butterfly, an apple, and a balloon for Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie respectively, although when wielded by Luna and Celestia in the past they resembled plain-cut gemstones. The Element of Magic, specifically, is alongside the Dazzlings' crystal necklaces among a category of things that aren't depowered in the transition to the human world in Equestria Girls. The former suffers a change in magical properties and becomes able to respond to any wielder, rather than the bearer it originally attuned to.
    • The Alicorn Amulet, an Artifact of Doom that corrupts the wearer, is encrusted with a large, blood-red gem. Similarly, the necklace that Twilight later dons in her rematch against Trixie features what appears to be an emerald; when it is revealed that the necklace is fake, this trope is invoked when the jewel promptly falls off and breaks.
    • The Crystal Empire, in the far north, depends upon the Crystal Heart, a large, magical heart-shaped crystal which protects the Empire against threats and the arctic cold when powered by the crystal ponies' happiness.
    • In a more Mundane Utility role, orange-red crystals are sometimes seen being used instead of fire. Numerous fireplaces in the in-universe story in "A Hearth's Warming Tale" are filled with such crystals. In "The Crystalling", Sunburst's home includes a cauldron warmed by a cluster of glowing crystals arranged like a fire pit. A similar arrangement appears in "A Health of Information", where Meadowbrook and her mother use it in lieu of fire to heat their cauldron.
  • My Little Pony (Generation 5): One of the primary differences between how magic works in G5 versus G4 is that is presence centers on three crystals, one for each pony type, being assembled and active. As long as harmony exists among the pony races, the crystals are fused into a single glowing, floating gem, and sustain the magic of the world.
• PJ Masks:
  • In the Season 2 episode "PJ Power Up", it's revealed that there is a crystal statue resembling the 3 animals that the heroes get their powers from hidden in HQ. When it gets knocked off it's spot, the heroes instantly lose their powers. And when they put it back in place, not only are their powers restored but they get some new ones as well.
  • Another example, also from Season 2, is the Harvest Moon crystal, which is first seen in the Moonstruck two-parter. It can give Luna Girl a massive powerboost when combined with her wand.
• Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders uses them as Transformation Trinkets. And just about everything else, for that matter.
  • Robert Mandell, creator of Princess Gwenevere, is the king of this Trope as far as American animation. In his other series, Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, Starstones and Psychocrystals were dark twins of the Riders' jewels.
• Subverted in Sheep in the Big City, where the new military superweapon has to be powered by the titular sheep: It is a laser cannon with a sheep-shaped slot at the top.
• In She-Ra: Princess of Power, He-Man's sister She-Ra's sword was identical to her brother's except for a large jewel in its hilt. While it's being a true power crystal may be up for debate, She-Ra's version of the transformation sequence did tend to focus on it as projection the power that empowers Adora.
• The Lightstar Crystal from Skeleton Warriors, which not only served as the main power source of Luminicity, but when broken, empowered individuals based on their alignment. A force of good would receive powers such as flight or blasts of light energy, a force of evil would become a titular Skeleton Warrior with near-complete immortality, and more morally complex figures such as Grimskull would receive the ability to travel through shadows.
• Diamonds are the power source of Crazy Stunts' pistols in Skysurfer Strike Force.
• In The Smurfs episode "Handy's Window Vision", the Smurfs discover a magic crystal that can transmit images exposed to it unto a bunch of smaller crystals that act as receivers, thus becoming their latest invention, the window vision. Gargamel, however, sees the crystal and uses it as part of his Smurf Smasher machine.
• Sofia the First have the amulet of Avalor, a necklace that have a purple(later pink)gemstone, which can grant powers or enchantments according to the actions of the wearer. to this date, sofia have animal talking, shrinking, and shapeshift into magical beings or animals between her powers thanks to her amulet.
• Song In The Sky has a city floating in The sky powered by a crystal. The protagonist says that the city has only one months' left worth of power, and it took the city six months to find its last crystal. So if its crystal runs out of power, the city will likely fall.
• Star Wars Rebels, "Path of the Jedi": Ezra's reward for passing Yoda and the temple's tests of intent is a kyber crystal, which he uses as the core to his very own lightsaber by episode's end.
• The Crystal Gems from Steven Universe get their powers from the gems embedded in their bodies. They use them to materialize their weapons, and also to activate their technology (like the crystal laser cannon seen in the second episode). Magic crystals are also seen on occasion, such as the crystal shards that bring garments to life in "Frybo". It's later revealed, or rather clarified, that the gems are the Crystal Gems: that their "bodies" are really humanoid constructs projected from their gemstones, which can regenerate over time if damaged so long as their gemstone remains intact. This makes them, and the entire Gem species in general, a race of living power crystals. And those magic crystals may also be gems as well, considering in "Secret Team", another group of Gem Shards like the ones in "Frybo" manifest as bunch of hands and feet when accidentally released from their bubble, and the gem powering a magic mirror in Pearl's possession turned out to be Lapis Lazuli.
• Storm Hawks features a world where everything is powered by crystals, and there's a crystal for every effect imaginable: hypnosis, explosions, "nitro-boosting" carriers, powering energy swords and boomerangs.
• An episode of Teen Titans (2003) had Doctor Light kidnap a girl that could turn into indestructible crystal, to use her as a focusing lens for his superpower machine.
• There are 16 different crystals with unique powers in Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic.
• In Thunder Cats 2011, the Eye of Thundera in the hilt of Lion-O's Sword of Omens is an Amulet of Concentrated Awesome, a gem that allows the sword's chosen wielder to access "Sight Beyond Sight" and turns the weapon itself from a powerless but elaborate dagger into a crackling Sword Beam-shooting longsword when Lion-O utters his By the Power of Grayskull!. Big Bad Mumm-Ra claims former ownership, and really wants it back. In "Journey to the Tower of Omens" its revealed that the crystal is actually plundered Imported Alien Phlebotinum the Warstone, which Starfish Aliens used to power a Wave-Motion Gun. As of "Legacy", three more crystals exist, once used to create Adaptive Armor, and Mumm-Ra and the Thundercats are in a race to gather them.
• Transformers:
  • From the end of Beast Wars up to the end of Beast Machines, Transformers toys had 'spark crystals', which were translucent plastic gems that had the faction symbol of the character in them. The Transmetal II Blackarachnia toy was special, since it had a spark crystal which could be flipped to display one of the two main faction symbols, reflecting the character switching sides in the cartoon.
  • You can do a lot of things with Allspark fragments in Transformers: Animated. Overload factory equipment, turn regular vehicles into Transformers, bring Transformers back from the dead, power bombs, and putting your Forgotten Superweapon back online is a snap!
  • In many Transformers continuities, though probably most prominently (first?) in Beast Wars, raw Energon — fuel for Transformers — is depicted as taking a crystalline form.
• Trolls from Trollhunters are able to harness the power found in magic crystals for a number of uses. The Trollhunter in particular is able to equip the gems into the amulet and bestow onto them new weapons and abilities.
  • The Triumbric Crystals are all crystals that originate from Gunmar in one form or another. When possess by the trollhunter, they give the wielder enough power to kill Gunmar himself.
    • The Birth Stone was a crystal that originated from the Heartstone that Gunmar was born from. Found in Gatto's Keep, the Birth Stone gives Jim a pair of daggers that can combine into a boomerang.
    • The Killing Stone was harvested from Gunmar's first kill, the Wumpa King, creating a shield for Jim.
    • The Eye of Gunmar was literally a stone harvested from Gunmar's right eye. Combined with the Birth Stone and Killing Stone, the Eye bestows Jim a black and red armor that could supposedly kill Gunmar. It is unknown what kind of power the Eye has on its own.
  • Jim was able to use a gem found within Angor Rot's right eye to counteract Angor's mark on him, allowing him to use the Sword of Daylight against him.

Real Life

• Semiconductors, mainly silicon, germanium, and various metalloid or nonmetal compounds called III-Vs, are functional crystals whose electronic properties make them extremely useful in a whole lot of roles. This includes use in electronic logic components like diodes and transistors, optical devices like LEDs and lasers, and — in a case of literally being power crystals — solar cells. Every integrated circuit (including your computer microprocessor and memory chips) is essentially a semiconductor crystal, that's been grown, cut, processed in a kind of arcane technological rune magic, and programmed, giving it the ability to create... all this. Although they have the same microstructural shape as diamond, most of these crystals don't actually look that pretty. But they are powerful.
• Quartz crystals, a form of silicon dioxide, essentially the stuff of sand. When under pressure it produces an electrical current and it can be set to vibrate to fairly precise frequencies which led to its widespread use in governing electronic clocks, and generating signals for synchronous electronics (basically all modern digital systems).
• Tourmaline crystals, like quartz, have the property of "piezoelectricity": when compressed, they develop electrical charges at the ends.
  • This is used to make lighters, although friction-based lighters are more common.
    • And for all of the above, you can thank Pierre Curie, Marie Curie's husband, who did the initial research on this with his brother Jacques. As teenagers.
• Sapphires and rubies (more rarely, diamonds) are commonly used as bearings in high-quality machinery, including mechanical watch parts. Because of their extreme hardness, they can grind for years and years and not wear down.
• Solid state lasers. Confusingly, these aren't the same as semiconductor lasers, instead having a (somewhat) transparent ion-impurity-laced crystal as the lasing medium with an external light-based power source (another laser or a flashlamp) instead of direct electronic power (usually). Indeed, the first laser ever built was a ruby laser, and today sapphire and garnet lasers are indeed pretty common for various applications.
• Some New Age and Feng Shui practitioners believe that certain types of crystals have special magical properties. This leads to "crystal healing" with placing various minerals on a person's body, and putting crystals in water which is then treated like holy water (eg, used for rituals). Some people even "charge" their crystals by exposing them to sunlight or moonlight.
  • It gets a bit extreme for some New Agers, who warn that even small quartz crystals emit such powerful energy that they will burn your hands. Somewhere, A Geologist Is Laughing. Of course, they are, as mentioned above, pizoelectric, so they'll emit electricity if given a good thump.
• Science may have finally caught up to science fiction in a big way as scientists at the University of Bristol have apparently figured out a way to turn nuclear waste into man-made diamond batteries that can generate a small electric current for longer than the entire history of human civilization!

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