Shardmind

by WoTC official artwork, used under fan policy

Shardminds are the mineral or crystalline cousin to the Warforged, created by mages combining necromancy (in the truest sense of creating/animating life) and other forms of magic such as evocation or conjuration to imbue nonorganic structures with life.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Shardminds are crystalline creatures consisting of hundreds of small shards of crystal assembled into humanoid form and animated by a force of pure psionic energy.
Shardminds choose their forms to mimic the shapes of humanoids; some take on forms that seem more masculine, while others appear more feminine or androgynous. A shardmind’s animating force glows dimly from within each of its component shards, emanating most brightly from where the eyes of a natural humanoid would be. This inner light sheds dim light in a shardmind’s space, but a shardmind individual can squelch the light with in an instant — in order to hide in the dark, for example.
The crystalline fragments making up a shardmind’s body are in constant, silent motion, almost like the circulation of blood. When a shardmind is stunned or unconscious, it might lose control of the tight mental reins that keep its body in humanoid form, a few shards slipping free into orbits around its body until the shardmind regains control.
Due to the lack of blood or typical vital organ structure, Shardminds are immune to disease and extremely resistent to poisons; they are only impacted by poisons with acidic components to them, as they are more succeptible to acid damage or, really, anything that could impact inorganic structures. (Other examples include fire and spells like Shatter.) They are also resistant to cold damage up to a certain point; once structrual damage (akin to frostbite) would take place, they are as succeptible as any living creature.
As a defense mechanism, Shardminds can occasionally (once per long rest) react quickly to attacks by separating themselves into many smaller shards that can then move out of harm's way (up to half movement speed as a reaction before reforming on their next turn). They are resistant to all damage in this state.

Genetics and Reproduction

Shardminds do not reproduce in any sort of normal sense of the word, though they hold the belief that when one Shardmind dies/is destroyed, the spark of consciousness animates gem or mineral shards in another place of the world.
This is difficult to prove conclusively as there are some that believe Shardminds can be created naturally, but Shardminds unclaimed by mages could simply be the result of irresponsible arcanic research that no one has been bold enough to claim.

Growth Rate & Stages

Shardminds tend to be created fully formed, but there are ways Shardminds can increase or decrease their size by gaining or shedding crystalline mass. This can be through injury or arcane procedure and tend to be permanent, which makes them as close to "growth stages" as Shardminds tend to get.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Shardminds do not require much of the hallmarks of a living being. Their crystalline bodies require no sustenance, and they don’t breathe. They don’t need sleep, though they must still keep their body at rest to regain spells or recharge energy. (Incidentally, they are immune to any magical sleep spells.)

Biological Cycle

Shardminds take careful stock of their body regularly, and the ones lucky enough to have ethical mages as their creators (or, as the Shardminds prefer to call them, "enablers" as they believe these mages only provide the final step to the creation process and that their spark existed well before any experiment or ritual) are provided potions and chemicals to preserve and protect their bodies.
Over time, however, they will start to erode, little pieces chipped or rubbed off and not recovered, until finally (could be hundreds of years later for a careful Shardmind) their body has lost enough of its mass for the force at the center to no longer be able to reanimate, recombine.
Shardmind and mage alike continue to research ways to rejuvenate and reattach pieces to prolong the life of the Shardmind, but thus far nothing definitive has been found.

Behaviour

Shardminds are thoughtful, intelligent, even charismatic creatures that gravitate toward higher knowledge and understanding over violence or frivolous action. They are generally consumed by this goal, often being aloof or naive to other concerns of the world as a result. Some of them feel a desire to be included by the Warmhearted Cold Metal organization but others eschew the notion as frivolous and unnecessary.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

More than one mage has been tried in the court of their peers (or killed by their test subject) for creating and then attempting to subjugate a Shardmind, keeping them as a research subject and attack dog that ended up being much smarter than anticipated.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Shardminds are living creatures only in the loosest sense that they have sentience and awareness. They are unable to feel pain or cold/heat, although they are aware of physical damage to their structures and react accordingly. They are also subject to psychic and psionic damage and react to it as a flesh-bound creature would physical pain. They are able to sense their surroundings without the use of physical eyes or ears but tend to be unaware of nonabrasive soft touch.
Shardminds have no physical mouth and use telepathy to communicate with those near them.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

It does not occur to all Shardminds to even take a name before they begin interacting with other races, at which point they often take on a name using the local customs, one given to them by others, or a self descriptor. Shardminds, made up of crystal, lack gender and names given by other races are typically based on their self-expression or physical appearance.

Gender Ideals

Shardminds have no concept of gender inherently and could be described as agender by default. However, they may adopt gender identities based on the culture they are "born" into or embed themselves in, adopting the roles and manners of said gender, in a way mirroring or emulating their peers they identify with.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Shardminds inherently speak Deep Speech and Common, along with whatever the native tongue of their creator is and they also are adept at picking up new languages.

Common Dress Code

Shardminds do not typically wear clothing as they have no external sex characteristics that needs censoring and when their shards separate during attacks or defensively the cloth would be shredded anyway. Some may prefer adornments when in situations where they would not need to worry about combat, but it's purely based on their choice.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

When a Shardmind senses it is nearing its end of life, it will grant a shard of its body to each of the people it grew closest to during its life, as a sort of memento. The shard will stop emitting a glow once the Shardmind passes, but it will always contain a minute trace of psionic energy and the Shardminds believe this is evidence of their continued existence in the world, a gift to those who they loved.

History

Shardminds are a relatively new species in the land of Ostelliach, only possible either before The Breaking or after the Finite Architects provided the instructions for the Godcrafting that enabled reconnection to The Web. They are the result of extremely complex rituals combining necromancy with other magic such as evocation to imbue inorganic material with life, and as such, are inherently magical creatures only possible with connection to The Web.
Shardminds began appearing more "regularly" (though still uncommon or rare) around 435 AB, as more magical practitioners had completed their Godbreakings and information about the process was distributed.
For a few decades, Shardminds were created with relative reckless abandon. However, eventually enough incidents of Shardminds turning on their creators or innocent bystanders along with the growing conversations triggered by the rise of Warmhearted Cold Metal caused this unethical trend to curb in favor of discussions of the ethical creation of Shardminds.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Shardminds tend to be aloof and prioritize logical thinking, which works well with some species and puts others off. They feel a general kindred spirit with Warforged, and hold an understandable disdain for anyone who treats either species as items rather than entities.
Shardminds tend to gravitate into groups of their own species if at all, or live solitary lives; many of the vestibules of the Scriptorium Soiram are host to Shardminds content to spend their days there with little outside contact at all.
When Shardminds do feel emotion, it tends to come on as an unfamiliar, overwhelming rush to them: anger, passion, protection, confusion. They rarely feel fear and have a peaceful nihilism to their worldview, feeling death/unbecoming is simply an inevitable stage for them to encounter sooner or later. However, when they form attachments to others, they can become extremely protective, displaying a loyalty that flares up as red-hot anger quickly when their loved ones are endangered.
Romantic relationships are rare but not unheard of in Shardmind culture, either with others of their species or with another species. Sexual relationships are inherently an impossibility due to the lack of compatible anatomy with Shardminds (and a lack of that drive for them as well).

Origin/Ancestry

Thaumaturgic creation

Lifespan

200-400 years

Average Height

6'0" - 6'10" and Medium sized

Average Weight

Generally lighter than other humanoids of their height