The "Crystal Temple" is the base of the Crystal Gems. The house portion first appeared in the Pilot, while the interior rooms of the temple didn't appear until "Together Breakfast".
Description
The Crystal Temple is a sacred place where the Crystal Gems live. It is their base from which they plan how to protect humanity. Inside, the Temple itself is composed of several cavernous rooms- all connected through the Crystal Heart.
Built over the entrance of the Temple is a beach house which serves as Steven's home. From camera footage in "Lion 3: Straight to Video" and a flashback in "Story for Steven", the beach house is a fairly recent addition to the Temple. According to the extended version of the theme song, shown at Comic Con in 2015, the beach house was built by Greg Universe around the time when Steven was old enough to play the ukulele. The beach house was probably built to give Steven a comfortable home as Rose's room was inaccessible at the time.
The statue on the face of the Crystal Temple has eight arms; four of the arms are spread out, the other four converge around the Temple's entrance on the figure's navel. Of the four spread-out arms, only the top-right arm still has an intact hand and the broken-off remains of the other hands can be seen sticking out of the beach sands in front of the Temple. The statue's remaining hand is currently used to launder Steven's clothes, with a washing machine installed upon it and clothes lines strung out between the fingers, and can be accessed via Warp Pad. The method in which the washing machine gets it's power is unclear, described only by Garnet as "magic".
The Temple gate inside the beach house is able to open into different places within the Temple. This is shown when Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven each open the same gate into different rooms. Pearl even stepped out of Amethyst's room, and almost immediately reopened the gate into her own room. The way the door opens depends upon the room it is being connected to. For example, Amethyst's door has a curved line, while Pearl's is a straight vertical line with a circle around the star on the door. Only a Gem that is able to utilize their power can open the gateway.
On the Temple Gate, the star with gems corresponds with the members of the Crystal Gems. The pink gem belongs to Rose Quartz, the cream gem belongs to Pearl, the purple gem belongs to Amethyst, the red gem belongs to Ruby, and the blue gem belongs to Sapphire.
Seen in "Story for Steven", prior to the events of the show, the Temple once had a fence surrounding the entire area. The reason for its removal is currently unknown, but it most likely got removed because of Greg Universe having to come and meet Rose. In the same episode, Greg drives through the fence, suggesting this to be the reason.
Known Rooms
- Pearl's Room: Filled with many waterfalls, one of which leads to Amethyst's room. Pearl's items are stored within the waterfalls.
- Amethyst's Room: Filled with giant purple crystals and piles of junk. Puddles in the room lead to various other parts of the Temple. One hallway from Amethyst's room leads to the burning room (the "Secret Team" utilizes this). Another leads to a space-like room with floating rocks. This eventually leads to the Crystal Heart.
- The Burning Room: This room is connected to a vein from the Crystal Heart. Defeated, corrupted, and shattered gems remain in bubbles here. The Burning Room is opened byGarnet.
- Rose's Room: A chamber filled with pink clouds which grants any wish to whomever has the Rose Quartz gem. A vein from the Crystal Heart passes through the room.
- Dungeon of Trials: By adjusting the metaphysical properties of the Temple, the Crystal Gems were able to make a customized dungeon containing three chambers constructed by each of the Gems to test Steven by simulating the challenges of a real mission. Steven finds out that the challenges the Gems put up were all rigged, as to not let anything happen to him.
- Amethyst's Chamber: The first chamber upon entering the room is Amethyst's chamber. It leads to Pearl's Chamber. It features a run-away boulder and a vine to cross a bottomless pit. By entering the hole the bolder comes out of, the user can bypass all of the chambers.
- Pearl's Chamber: The second chamber is Pearl's. It leads to Garnet's Chamber. Her room is a puzzle, involving the floor tiles and musical note patterns.
- Garnet's Chamber: The third chamber is Garnet's and at the end is the final door. It features spiked columns that rise and fall from the ceiling, and fire that bursts from the cracks of stairs.
- Congratulatory Pad: Upon exiting through the final door, Steven is then greeted by Gems who congratulate him on completing the dungeon.
Trivia
- The Crystal Temple is referred to as the "Crystal Palace" in the Pilot.
- In the Pilot, the doors to the Gem's bedrooms are located outside, and there are multiple, one for each Gem.
- The Crystal Temple has Ruby and Sapphire's gems on the hands, hinting at their existence as two separate gems before their official debut.
- Their gems were also present on the Crystal Palace in the Pilot.
- It is dangerous for Steven inside the temple, since he has not yet learned to control his gem powers. However, as he becomes more adept at using his powers and being more careful, he is able to travel through the rooms with more care, as seen in "Reformed". Steven also is able to control his mother's room with more ease, as seen in "Open Book".
- Ruby and Sapphire's rooms have yet to be seen, however, it is unclear if they themselves have separate rooms, or if only Garnet owns a room - as she is technically the one living there.
- It is unknown what Garnet's room actually looks like.
- Guy Davis championed the idea of the temple's double head. [1]
- The Beach House (Steven's Room) was not always there. It was built sometime subsequent to Steven's Birth, as revealed in "Lion 3: Straight to Video".
- As shown in "Keeping it Together", Sapphire's gem on the right arm of the Temple is actually a Warp Pad.
- Each of the Crystal Gems has a room which reflects how their real life gems are formed. Pearls are formed in water, hence her room has waterfalls. Amethysts form in geodes, so her room resembles a giant Geode. Garnets are formed under high heat and pressure, and her room contains a lava pool. The only exception to this is Rose Quartz's room.
- Yet, rose quartzes are known to be very cloudy gems; meaning that they are not as transparent as others.
- The Crystal Temple appears to be a fusion of the Crystal Gems; Pearl's gem is on the forehead, Ruby and Sapphire's gems on the hands, Amethyst's gem on the chest, and Rose Quartz's gem in the stomach. This is also notable, due to the resemblance to Alexandrite.
- In "Together Breakfast", Pearl mentions that the Crystal Heart is connected to the most dangerous parts of the temple.
- Although one of the temple's detached hands (notably the left hand on the sand) was partially disintegrated and sliced in "Gem Glow", it continues to be unbroken throughout the series. This is possibly a continuity error.
- A screen was recently added to the front window.
- In "Bubble Buddies" and "Ocean Gem" there is a sword seen on the ground of the sea. The sword appears to be the weapon of the Temple
Gallery
Concept Art
