Magimorphic Rocks
MAGIMORPHIC ROCKS
As was just explained in long and boring detail, the Oaxacuoia sheds scales of magical compounds that eventually find their way to the surface of Magicalena. Once in a rare while, when the weather is just right, the silty residue of magic can build up into a thick layer as it mixes with powdery ash and sand collected in mountain catch-basins. The conditions have to be very specific though. If there have been many warm days with fluffy cumulus clouds floating placidly by - growing fat with condensation - that then get crashed into by a sudden arctic air intrusion next to a mountain that causes a dramatic updraft at hundreds of miles an hour, a truly scary storm results. If the cold front lasts long enough, assailing the one side of the mountain long enough while simultaneously a warm front of corresponding wind pressure persists on the other side of the mountain, all of the precipitation will fall on the peaks until the storm is completely exhausted. Running down, water mixed with low concentrations of magic catches in cauldrons. When the storm finally ends, the water eventually gets absorbed and evaporates, and what is left is a fine sediment of magic and a bunch of rocks that broke away and were carried along by the heavy rain.
Ok, so a quick geology lesson. On Earth, there are three ways that rocks are formed. The first is through volcanic reaction. That's called igneous rock formation and produces some shiny black, very uniform rocks like obsidian that chip easily and can be fashioned into tools. Or, you can get a seam of agate when quartz rich liquid stone cools very slowly between layers.
The next is metamorphic. These rocks were all once igneous or sedimentary rocks that underwent additional heat and/or pressure. You can't have pressure without heat, but you can have heat without pressure, thanks to volcanoes (or dragons). For example, through the pressure of plate tectonics or as volcanic intrusions push past and over limestone - heating it until it becomes something completely new - it is reborn as marble.
Most rocks you'll pick up belong to the third group: sedimentary. Although sedimentary rocks compose only 5% of the Earth's crust, they're the dust (alluvium) that covers the surface. Sandstone, limestone, and chert are examples and so are sedimentary evaporites like gypsum and rock salt.
There are the usual three ways rocks are formed on Magicalena plus a fourth one called magimorphic. When in enough concentration and with nothing else to bond to, magic forms into pure evaporite crystals. When there is other organic chemistry to fuse with, magic has a similar metamorphic power to heat and pressure. Except that it's also magic.
Long before wizards began harnessing the rather limited latent energy all around them, Oaxacuoia scales had formed rich veins through the hearts of the mountains. And where the mountain cauldrons concentrated the magic, congregates formed into living stone, golems capable of walking the world.
It's true that magic has an intelligence to it, but it generally only heightens the attributes that are natural to the creature it inhabits (and it has a true neutral alignment). Maybe we'll get into how bacteria influence animal behavior at some point, because it's not unlike that, but for now let's just say that golems aren't particularly quick thinking. They're even slower about it than trees. Trees have their seasons, but rocks are on geologic time. That is, unless they're motivated by the right spell from a powerful wizard. Then they can do things pretty quickly and suddenly have lots to talk about...