Antarcticite

Normally, he is very quiet and stoic. When he speaks, he is straightforward and concise. He only rarely displays emotions, but this is rumored to be because he is deliberately hiding them and that his face would be very easy to read otherwise. On the rare occasions where he shows humor, he is still as deadpan as ever. His composure usually only falters under two conditions: first, when Gems put themselves in harm's way carelessly, second, when he is confronted by matters from his past, such as the subject of humans. These cause him great alarm. When he is angered, he is capable of tremendous unintentional destruction, shattering weak Gems with the force of his voice alone or cracking stone floors by walking over them. These emotional expressions never last long and he very quickly reverts to his relatively expressionless face. His composure usually only falters under two conditions: first, when Gems put themselves in harm's way carelessly, second, when he is confronted by matters from his past, such as the subject of humans. These cause him great alarm. When he is angered, he is capable of tremendous unintentional destruction, shattering weak Gems with the force of his voice alone or cracking stone floors by walking over them. These emotional expressions never last long and he very quickly reverts to his relatively expressionless face.

Otherwise, he is nonchalant and tolerant. He allows Gems without critical duties to do work on their own times, and is blasé about them prying into his past or secrets. Kongō seems cautious using his power as to not shatter the Gems, unless he decides to scold them for making trouble or putting themselves in danger.

He cares for the Gems considerably and blames himself when they are injured or taken away by the Lunarians. Kind and wise, he becomes sad when the younger Gems are sad. He only rarely demonstrates physical affection, such as hugging Antarcticite or patting other Gems on the head.

is the head of the Gems, acting as the teacher, protector, and father figure. He teaches the Gems about the current world and its history and decides the role suited for each of them. He has overwhelming offensive power and can disperse the Lunarians in one blow. He becomes incredibly intimidating when angered.

Every time the Lunarians appear, one Gem from a pair of the patrol will ring their school's bell. He and some (or all) of the Gems will go to the scene and disperse the Lunarians. Unlike the younger Gems, he can stay awake for a long time and doesn't require sleep, although he still rests during meditation periods, implying exhaustion. When angry, he can crack an entire building and his voice is able to shatter the weaker Gems in close range. Later, it's shown that he disperses the Lunarians by cracking his arm and using very tiny fragments of himself to attack them. Kongō takes the form of a tall, bald man wearing a Buddhist monk kimono and robes. He always wears a pair of white gloves and usually sports a black cloak when going outside. He is often shown with a somber expression, frowning with his eyes closed.

Much like the other Gems, who are covered in a white powder that imitates skin, he is also white in color, but his complexion seems to be part of his anatomy. It is unknown what his inner color is underneath the white surface. The volume 9 omake discusses this, where the younger Earth Gems ask what color he really is. He explains that while he cannot give out full details, he confirms that he does have some transparency. He's described as solid and heavy, as he is able to create trembles with his footsteps and crack pillars simply by dropping his head onto them when sleepy.

Once the special weapon is defeated, or the lower half of the central figure destroyed, the Lunarians will disappear.

The most common way the Gems defeat the Lunarians is by cutting them down with their swords. Other techniques include deflecting their own arrows or javelins back at them. Kongō is able to disperse them by using his hand to flick his own small shards at them, causing them to explode. Cinnabar also has a different method of fighting them by covering them with a torrent of the poison produced by their body. The Lunarians have been attacking and kidnapping the Gems for thousands of years. They seem to treat the Gems without concern as mere objects to be used for their own purposes, whether using them as decorations or grinding them into dust to be spread over the Moon. When Phos was on the Moon, they encountered several Lunarians who wanted to break them for the fun of it.

When they attack the Gems, they appear far in the sky from a black portal-like apparition called a "sunspot". According to Euclase, sunspots appear approximately once every three days for any season except winter. They only appear during sunny days, never at night or on rainy days, and only rarely during the winter as the sky is often cloudy.

From this sunspot, a cloud-like platform comes forth, carrying the Lunarians in a parade with one large Lunarian at the center surrounded by many normal-sized Lunarians. The appearance of the large central Lunarian varies each time but always has fancier clothing and headgear. They always carry a large bowl meant to hold captured Gems, and have a shining halo around their head. The normal-sized Lunarians act as the entourage for this central figure, playing instruments, waving poles and banners, or drawing their weapons. They are the ones who battle with the Gems and collect them if victorious. They have only been shown using ranged weapons such as bows and javelins. If the center figure is destroyed, the cloud and all the other Lunarians will melt and disperse. Their bodies and weapon are solid, but when destroyed will disperse without any remains. The Gems usually disperse them by cutting them with their swords, or even sharp parts of their own bodies that have been broken.

The Gems usually cut the central figure horizontally, splitting the top from the bottom. When sliced like this, the inside of the center figure can be seen. It is often hollow with multiple petal-shaped holes, much like the inside of a lotus root. Normally, the Lunarians will disappear once the center figure is cut like this, but more powerful Lunarians have appeared as well. Instead of dispersing when the central figure is cut, these new types will release another weapon from its holes. These weapons are forged from captured Gems and can range from anything like gem-tipped arrows, gem-tipped crushing devices, and even explosive gem bombs.

The Lunarians are humanoid in appearance, and their body emits light, their body is stated to be colorful, switching between all 7 colors of the rainbow, when they come to the Land their clothing has a Buddhist motif, with flowing fabric, and pearls as adornments, they keep their hair in a high bun, and have blank eyes. On the moon, they look much more like what a regular human would look like, several of them wear normal clothes, their eyes look normal, and they all have rabbit ears.

In some colored illustrations, some lunarians on the moon are depicted with other pastel colors as oppose to their rainbow effect surface stated on Life and Culture, its unknown wheter they are supposed to look like that, or have any control over that aspect of their bodies.

In the various animated versions, they are portrayed with white skin and orange or pink shades on their clothing and accessories.

According to various legends in the series, the planet on which the story takes place (presumably Earth) was visited by six meteors, which broke the planet six times, creating six new moons. While it can be assumed that the Lunarians reside on the original moon, this has not been explicitly stated. It does not appear that anything lives on the other six moons, as Aechmea was able to build a home for Cairngorm for complete isolation on another moon.

The Lunarians are the spirits of humans who have remained trapped in this existence since they cannot pass onto the next world. Prince Aechmea implies that the Moon is where unpurified souls eventually wander to until they can be cleansed with prayer and move on. He states that the Lunarians have been trying to pass on for tens of thousands of years, though presumably souls have resided on the Moon while humans and other animals still existed far before that as well. On the Moon, they have built a small civilization consisting of at least one town-like structure where they reside. This structure contains many facilities such as factories, gardens, laboratories, and places to dine.

For thousands of years, the Lunarians have travelled to the Land to attack and kidnap Gems. At first, they tried to persuade the Gems to cooperate but that did not work so eventually they decided to grind all captured Gems to dust and spread them over the surface of the Moon. They plan to do this for a very long time until the Moon shines with the Gem's shards. They have also kidnapped all of the Admirabilis and use them as cattle. Larger Admirabilis can be seen grazing on the Moon's surface, eating up sand to build their shells.

Due to the fact that Antarcticite is usually the only Gem active during the winter other than Kongō, it is likely that they don't have many interactions with the other Gems. One of their duties is to ensure that the other Gems sleep peacefully, and that includes putting sleep-walking Gems back to rest. Phos managed to stay awake during winter to help out Antarc, so it could be assumed that at some point in the past, other Gems may have done so as well. The Gems are also known to fall into hibernation later or wake up earlier than each other, which may also imply that some of them have interacted with Antarc during that small window of time.

Nonetheless, Antarc seems to be fairly familiar with the other Gems. They knew enough about Phos to agree with the others that Phos never did anything useful. Antarc initially did not want to partner with Phos, preferring to work alone. But after partnering with Phos, they started advising them and teaching them many things in order to get Phos to improve. When Phos fell into the water and lost their arms, Antarc showed grievous concern and immediately jumped into the sea to look for them. Antarcticite's affection for Kongō is one of their defining attributes. When a new type of Lunarians attacked and managed to break off their hand, Antarc became enraged, unwilling to part with any of their memories of Kongō. Before they were abducted by a second vessel of Lunarians, their last words to Phos is to keep Kongō company so that he wouldn't be lonely during the winter.

Antarcticite is a perfectionist who acts like a soldier, marching and speaking with extreme formality, giving them a cold, almost apathetic aura. They are used to working alone, as all the other Gems hibernate during the winter when there is not enough sunlight to feed them and keep them active. Though they become partnered with Phos, they have difficulty working with another Gem and often end up doing most of the work. They are similar to Bort in being very blunt and judgmental, but deep down they are soft and kind. They point out the flaws in Phos, stating that the latter should do more than they can do in order to improve.

They are very fond of Kongō to the point of breaking their usually formal appearance in order to embrace him in a hug. They do not like to openly show this softer side though, blushing when they requested a hug in the first place, and being extremely embarrassed when caught in the act afterwards.

Antarc starts training Phos the next day, starting with attempting to have Phos to break an ice floe, to which Phos nearly does, doing the footwork entirely correct, but ends up cracking when trying to destroy the ice floe with their sword. Antarc also shows them the other chores they have to do, including shoveling snow and making sure the gems and Kongō don't sleepwalk in the school.
Phos ends up being useless at helping Antarc, ending up sawing a small piece of an ice floe while Antarc effortlessly smashes multiple ice floes, that is until the ice floes suddenly asks Phos if they're okay. Phos is quickly startle, and shouts to Antarc that they can't take it anymore and that the ice floe talked. Antarc brushes it off as something normal, explaining that because ice floes are minerals just like the gems, they can hear faint whispers, or sounds that resemble words, but Phos rebuts, giving multiple examples of ice floes speaking in clear sentences.

Phos and Antarc then go to Kongō. Kongō states that albeit they can "talk", it doesn't mean that the ice floes are sentient. The ice floes will, however, amplify the anxieties to those who listen, Kongō describing them as the "dregs" of ancient lifeforms. Antarc then starts reporting about Phos, mentioning that while they're doing better than expected, they wish for Phos' arms to match the strength of their legs.

Antarc and Phos are then seen walking through the snow, with the later barely able to stand up, crawling through the thick snow. Once Antarc and Phos reach their destination, Phos sees the strange ice formations and instantly screams Lunarians, but Antarc corrects Phos, calling the "Lunarians" ice floes. Antarc continues on, explaining that ice floes form when the sea freezes and the microflora from the seafloor harden into shapes similar to Lunarian vessels, but recalls one time when Kongō called the ice floe "sinners". Antarc tells Phos to ready themself as a loud shriek suddenly resounds, high pitched enough that Phos visibly cracks. Antarc explains that that unpleasant sound is what happens when the ice floes scrape against each other, which disturbs the gems' sleep, and so must be smashed. Antarc unsheathes their sword, and goes ahead and effortlessly smashes one of the ice floes, then tells Phos to do the same, to which Phos replies that they can't possibly do that.

Antarc and Phos return to the school at night, where Phos is seen leaning into a bowl of jellyfish to attempt some light absorption, and Antarc is checking the supplies on the shelves. Phos starts making excuses, saying that all they have is their legs, but Antarc refutes that by mentioning that they themself are not complete, and would easily get crushed by the ice floes if they fall into the ocean. Phos doubts Antarc, saying that Antarc just wants to get rid of them to have Kongō all to themself. Antarc tells Phos (after a half-hearted threat to break them) that the only thing low hardness gems have is their courage, and without that they're nothing. Phos says that they can only do things they can do, to which Antarc controverts saying that they only "try" the things that they can do. Phos says if they can do it, they will do their very best. Antarc rebuts that, saying they'll never be able to do anything else, to which Phos sits in silence.

Antarcticite is first seen crystallizing inside a rectangular box next to a pile of clothes. After fully crystallizing and wearing the winter uniform, Antarc goes to greet to Kongō and reports they are in perfect condition. Kongō apologizes for how Antarc must spend every winter alone, but Antarc refutes that, telling Kongō that they don't feel lonely. Antarc starts to blush a bit, and asks Kongō for "the yearly custom", which is just a simple hug. While Antarc embraced Kongō, they notice Phosphophyllite hiding behind a pillar. Antarc screams at Phos, wondering why they're awake. Phos tells Kongō that it was hard to sleep, and if it was possible to stay awake this winter. Kongō agrees, telling Phos that they will pair up with Antarc. Antarc instantly refuses, calling Phos useless, but quickly shuts up once Phos asks about the "yearly custom".

Antarc starts insulting Phos inside the school, wondering why, the last gem that wakes up every year, is not hibernating with the rest of them gems. Phos, looking tired from all the insults, quickly dashes forward with their agate legs to show Antarc their speed. Antarc correctly guesses the mineral the legs are made out of, and asks if they've been in battle. Phos tells Antarc that they've been in battle, but when it mattered the most, they were unable to run. Phos continues, saying that they hated the fact nobody yelled at them. Since they heard that just staying awake in winter is tough, they wanted to push themself a bit further. Antarc, pitying Phos, decides to have Phos help Antarc on the job, but warns it will be tough. Phos reluctantly agrees, wanting to push themself even further.

Antarcticite has a white color scheme, they wear a white version of the winter uniform, which includes white shorts and a vest over a short-sleeved shirt along with a black tie. They wear black curved top-line ankle boots with stiletto heels and short black gloves. They have narrow eyes.

Their hair is styled very short, with their bangs being made of longer strands with one long prominent one being in their face generally. Their hair is parted to their right with side swept bangs.

Unlike the other gems who use an ordinary sword, Antarc's blade is saw-like with sharp teeth for cutting into ice. They also have stiletto heels on their boots to help in this endeavor. They also use the sword as a snowboard during fighting.