Disgustedorite's Gem Anatomy Headcanon

HohkiTEC's Gem Anatomy Headcanon is a detailed headcanon created by HohkiTEC to explain the physical attributes of Gems. It is based entirely on observations of canon, with a few personal theories to fill in the gaps.

Introduction
Gems may be shapeshifting beings with bodies made of light projected from a magical gemstone, but they appear to be more than just shapes put together into a humanoid form to make cool designs. There is a consistency between the forms and gemstones of all different kinds of Gems--a sort of consistent anatomy for the species beyond just humanoid holograms that's too prominent to ignore.

This article will thoroughly describe and explain every aspect of Gem anatomy to the best of my ability.

The Gemstone
The true body of the Gem, the gemstone functions as the Gem's brain and as the projector for the Gem's physical form. The size of the gemstone in relation to the physical form does not appear to affect intelligence, unlike with Earth creatures and brain size; a Gem whose gemstone is no bigger than a fingernail can be just as smart as one with a gemstone the size of a basketball.

The Gemstone does not have the same function throughout it. This is proven by the fact that when a Gem is cracked, her form is not always affected the same way; even cracks that appear to be in the same place or the same severity have different effects, implying that different core features are being damaged. Further, shards often only form certain body parts--when alone, this is usually a limb, but when melded together into a cluster an assortment of different parts appear on the form. Theoretically, if the gemstone had the same function throughout, a cluster with enough shards would take on a perfect humanoid shape (albeit with a few messed up proportions), but this is clearly not the case. Thus, it's safe to assume that different parts of the gemstone control different things, much like the human brain.

Gems are also confirmed to have DNA, which is presumably contained within the gemstone. This explains why Gems have specific features in their physical forms, which I will get to in the next section.

So, based on this, I have constructed an idea of what the inside of the gemstone is like and what can be done to the gemstone before it can be considered shattered. To the right is an illustration of the cross-section of a gemstone, color-coded for convenience; in reality, this gemstone would be a solid color all the way through. The golden band around the gemstone is a decoration or brace, which I believe might serve to hold the gemstone together in the event that it's broken.

The outermost layer, in red, is plain rock; it serves as a shell protecting the inside, and any bit chipped off of this layer probably won't project a physical form.

Everything below the outer layer can glow to project a form, and can be used to process information. The area colored in purple will only produce arms or legs when splintered off.

The area colored in blue is where memories are stored. They're written from the inside out, much like on a disk or a hard drive; this means there's much less risk of losing memories from an injury or crack. The memory layer varies in size, and in an especially old and wise Gem it could theoretically extend all the way to the outer shell.

The layer in the center, colored in cyan, is the core. It's where all the DNA is stored. It contains all of this Gem's instincts, all the default attributes of her physical form, and everything she was made to do. It also serves as the core processing center for the Gem, though to be able to think much beyond her instincts she would need the entire gemstone to be intact. If you were to cut this out of the gemstone, while the Gem who forms from this wouldn't really have much thought or personality and would likely have a horrible dim mess of writhing body parts for a physical form, she would know what she was made to do and would still attempt to do it. A Gem who's been cracked can't be considered shattered unless the core is broken.

The exact location of the layers would be in the center on most Gems; however, we've seen Gems in the show like Bismuth who have abnormal gemstone shapes, and the location of the core would be harder to pinpoint. Logically though, it would still be located within the thickest or sturdiest portion of the gemstone.

With all this in mind, it's likely that it's possible to re-cut a younger Gem to a different shape at the cost of the protective shell of plain rock, but I personally would not recommend doing this.

The Physical Form
(to be written, will finish today)