Reban - Concept of crystals

Right, I already presented the character that I decided not to go for, so now (after a long time) here's my final character: Reban.STORY

Basically the story around him is based similar to Belina's: On a steam-punk-like world (somewhere around 1800's) in a European-style map where countries are about to go into war, and for this machinery is one of the main weapons for the country this story is based (haven't given a name yet). So, because steam is the main source of energy, this country has been trying to develop secretly a new type of fuel that would maximize the power of his weapons, giving them an incredible advantage over the rest of the countries. This is where Reban comes into scene. From an unknown background, Reban is not only different in his skin colour, eye colour and shape of ears, but he also grows crystals out of his body (mainly forehead and back). This crystals change form and colour according to his mood but since everything part of his memory has always been in a laboratory (mainly in a tank) he know nothing about it and therefore he has no control over them. He learned how to speak, read and basic general knowledge from the scientist that have been taking care of him, but none of them stayed for long to establish an emotional bond with him. The story begins when Belina (I decided to use her in the story anyway lol ), daughter of one of the scientist goes to the laboratory with his dad, and finds that in the massive container (I'll give a better idea with some draws about this) there's a boy that looks about her age, all surrounded with medical probes and half asleep. She feels sorry about him, about how lonely he must feel, so she goes beyond the allowed area, and gets as close as possible to him. There's a connection between them, so she decides to get him out of there. By doing this, she creates pressure in the container that start braking up the glass and at the same time made Reban's behavior unstable. His crystal change and grow so much that make a hole in the container, so he jump out the latter and being surrounded by scientist that are trying to get him back, he jump through the big stained glass in front of him. He jumps straight into a river that's quite far down the cliff. This is where the story begins, because now he has to try to scape from the people who want to finish the experiments and find out about his origins while trying to blend into society.

INSPIRATION
I got the initial idea of crystals and the mystery/beauty around them when a friend from home told me that he had just been to this incredible Crystal caves in the north of Mexico, and after showing me some pictures I became obsessed with crystals, to the point of watching some videos of how crystals grown in fast motion.
There where so many of them that I liked the idea of giving them an emotion (kinda like the meaning that are given in some esoteric believing).
Also, the steam-punk idea came from the royal armory museum visit that we did (there are some pictures in my previous posts). So the idea of an industrial world taking over society to a different level than it really did. Mixing machines steamed-based causing a quick rust on most metals. Also, the size of them is bigger than electrical machines since they need a source of motion to work.
Buildings still with a Gothic/baroque influence and the use of still and glass to additions and modification is taking place.
Here's my mood board that can give a better idea of the dressing, architecture and some ideas for machinery:
Next post will be some of Reban's first ideas and the final concept, meanwhile hope you like the concept :)