Sailor Crystal

Sailor Crystals are more advanced forms of starseeds. They come from planetary crystals. Sailor crystals represent a primal force in the universe that is at once both ancient and modern.

Sailor Venus' sailor crystal as shown in the manga.

Formation of Sailor Crystals

Planetary Crystals

While each starseed usually gravitates to a nascent life form, there are times when starseeds are attracted not to biological lifeforms, but the energy signatures of forming worlds. These seeds will rush by the billions into the cores of these forming planets, their energies combining under the gravitational pressure, merging and creating much larger, more powerful and complex crystals that form the hearts of these worlds. Intimately tied to their structures and unique energies like normal starseeds, they exist in a dispersed form, suffusing their planetary body.

Becoming a Sailor Crystal

When a compatible host body is conceived, which is very rare because their bodies would have to be almost totally in tune with the vibrations of their planet, the energy of the planetary crystal will gravitate to it and infuse it with planetary power. These individuals will then possess not starseeds, but sailor crystals. There can be more than one such person per planet because the energy of the planetary crystal cannot usually be safely contained by just one body. There is generally plenty left over.

The Power of Sailor Crystals

Sailor Crystals are more powerful than starseeds because they possess the capacity to resonate with and channel the energy of their host planet. They are also capable of not only perfectly recording the memories and experiences of their hosts, but their physical structure, as well. They give a body far greater strength, speed, endurance, and longevity, than otherwise conferred by a starseed, as well as enhanced traits in keeping with the attributes of the world that gave rise to them.

Interaction with Hosts

Their energies can either be fully manifested at all times, resulting in a being who is literally the living avatar of their world, or they can be partially or wholly suppressed, resulting in a being who superficially seems to be just like any other starseed-carrying individual. In the later case, there is a danger that when the sailor crystal is fully activated, the latent patterns of a past host body might overwhelm that of the new host, but this rarely occurs. In short, holders of a sailor crystal are virtually immortal, so long as their crystals are not destroyed. Their bodies may die, but upon the generation of a new suitable body, they are reborn just as before. Thus holders of sailor crystals who usually hold the potential to be the strongest beings on their own worlds have often been feared, revered, and even worshiped as gods.

Interactions with "Planet Powers"

Sailor Crystals act as receivers and attenuators for the energy of the planets they are linked to, of like a lens concentrating the light of the sun. How much power they can transmit to their host is defined by the inverse square law - the further away they are from their planet, the less energy they can wield - though with sufficient training and discipline the hosts can make incredibly efficient use of the energy they recieve, so they can still function effectively great distances away. When the hosts are on their planet, however, they are basically at god-level (see The Tyrant when she ensconced herself on Jupiter).

"Switching" Planets

In a manner similar to tuning a radio, with great discipline, training and assitance of a planetary senshi from the "new" planet a host wants to tune into, A host can physically alter the reception frequency of their Sailor Crystal so it draws from a new wellspring (see Sailor Europa "switching" to become the new Sailor Mercury).

Retaining the Power

If a host "stops" being a Senshi of a planet (for example if their child takes over), they still have the same ability to draw power from the planet and transform, though for cultural and convenience purposes they will usually drop the moniker of the planet they used to be a Senshi of. An interesting ramification of this is that since they are still "communing" with their planet, their memories and experiences will flow back to the planet, so in theory anyone drawing from the power of that planet could draw on their experiences and memories as well. A not-so-nice implication is that there exists the potential for "contamination" of the planetary memory, where someone attunes themselves to the planet, and uses their strength of will to merge their essence with the planetary crystal, thus "beaming" their essence to the other senshi of that planet and possibly overwriting or dominating their personalities and actions.

Note

This differentiation between sailor crystals and starseeds is not made in the anime, but is in the manga, where Sailor Galaxia regards starseeds as trash, but not sailor crystals, which she hunts ruthlessly.