Hey, guys. For my first blog post on the Game Ideas wiki, I've decided to talk about something present in my latest Game Idea, Zootopia Arena. These little items called Energy Crystals. Well, they're these little colored crystals that contain energy. There are nine known colors of Energy Crystals and each one packs a different type of energy. Eight of them pack elemental energies while the remaining color just packs generic, non-elemental. Here's a full list.
White - These crystals house generic, non-elemental energy.
Red - These crystals pack fire energy.
Blue - These crystals pack water energy.
Green - These crystals contain wind energy.
Brown - These contain earth energy.
Yellow - These crystals contain light energy.
Black - These crystals contain dark energy.
Silver - These crystals contain ice energy.
Light Blue - These crystals contain electric energy.
Both Stepps Industries and the Vulpai Zaibatsu use these crystals for their weapons and machinery. For machinery, these crystals are a power source, through and through. It's also the case for some of the weapons, such as Judy Hopps' gauntlets, but for other weapons, the crystals are used to enhance the weapons. Improve their capabilities. Nick Wilde's sword in Zootopia Arena is an example of this. There's red Energy Crystals attached to the hilt of the blade, one on the front and one on the back. All Nick has to do is touch one of these crystals and the sword's blade gets covered in red flames, turning it into a flame sword. To deactivate the flames, all Nick has to do is stop touching the crystal.
Now you're probably wondering how these crystals were discovered. Well, they were first discovered years ago back when Foxtrot, an isolated kingdom of foxes to the southeast, was still being built. A number of foxes dug up some Energy Crystals and research was done on them. The researchers found that the crystals all contained energy and so they decided to try using them as a power source. The results turned out exceptionally well and since then, Energy Crystals have been used as the primary power source for Foxtrot's machinery. It was later discovered that the crystals also held potential for weapons development when a fox scientist attached a red Energy Crystal to a ray gun. It was originally a generic ray gun that fired generic lasers, but the red Energy Crystal not only increased the gun's output, but also turned it into a heat ray. When the researchers showed these new developments, Valerie Vulpinstein, Foxtrot's queen at the time, decided to comission the scientists to develop more weapons that use Energy Crystals for the Foxtrot military. Because even an isolated kingdom needs a military force to defend the kingdom from threats.
A couple years later, more Energy Crystals were discovered in another location. Brandon Stepps, CEO of Stepps Industries, was getting ready to establish a new branch of his company in a city northwest of Zootopia. While in the city northwest of Zootopia, one of Brandon's employees detected a strange power source on an island just off the coast. Curious, Brandon and some of his employees went to the island to explore and try to find the strange power source. They discovered several Energy Crystals in a cavern and they were confirmed to be the strange power source. His curiosity piqued even more, Stepps decided to forget establishing his latest branch at the time in the city and moved it to the island. The scientists at the branch made pretty much the same discoveries as the Foxtrot foxes and thus, new weapons and machines using the Energy Crystals were developed by Stepps Industries. Many of these new weapons are being used by Stepps Industries' own private army right now.
Now you're probably wondering what the Energy Crystals have to do with some of the characters having powers. Well, see, about a year later after the Foxtrot scientists discovered the crystals' potential for weapons development, another Foxtrot scientist got a crazy idea. He wondered what would happen if they were to take the energy contained in an Energy Crystal and transfer it into the body of an animal. Like I said, it was a crazy idea, but they went through with it. They built a machine made to transfer Energy Crystal energy to the bodies of animals and then looked for volunteers to test it. A female red fox ended up being the first volunteer and she decided she wanted red Energy Crystals to be used for the experiment. The energy transfer ended up being somewhat painful, but it was still a success. So, what happened? The test subject found herself with the ability to control fire and she and the scientists were understandably stunned at the sight of the fox's new powers. They later tested it on other subjects using other Energy Crystals and those subjects also found themselves with newfound powers. Some got the power to control water, some got the power to control wind, and so on and so forth. Vivian Vulpinstein, who ascended as Queen of Foxtrot when her mother Valerie died of illness the month before, decided she wanted some powers too and also allowed the Foxtrot military to undergo the energy transfer experiments if willing. Which element did Vivian choose? Lightning. To be clear, no one outside of Foxtrot knows of the whole superpowers thing. At least not until the Vulpai Zaibatsu begins its evil plans. Then animals outside of Foxtrot will be seeing them with their own eyes.
I think that about covers everything, so I'll stop here.