"Light is a window into life, and the creation of all things."

Shards are colossal godlike beings of energy and light created in the early days of the universe. Imbued with the raw power of creation itself, they roam the cosmos like walking worlds. Born from the titanic explosions of supermassive stars that reach the end of their life cycles, Shards will draw massive amounts of magical energy from the Astral Sea during their creation. But the exact process is largely unknown and not all supermassive stars create a Shard. Shards are easily some of the most powerful beings of the material universe but they are also clearly bound to the mysterious magical energy of the Astral Sea as well.
Shards oppose the darkness of the Ashen Ones with furious intensity and a cosmic hatred born of diametrically opposed forces and ideas. This has led to many unimaginably powerful conflicts where the space and the reality of the universe have been torn apart. Thankfully the relative scarcity and vast distances of space keeps such conflicts relatively contained and only one recorded event has taken place within the vicinity of Calera since the time of the first race. Shards, however, are beings of our universe and despite their vast power many times greater than a god, they are incapable of resisting the raw strength and malice of an Ashen One alone.
Few descriptions or knowledge of shards survive into the modern age of Calera, but each shard is said to have its own personality and appearance, although in most cases their "physical forms" are immense structures of swirling gases, primordial rock and dust with a central core of blinding light. On a few rare occasions however a Shard can change its natural form and interact with life on a smaller scale. They value life in all its forms and have at several points visited Calera, seemingly seeking to nurture life so that it can achieve its greatest potential. They view any kind of intelligent life to the ultimate purpose of the universe itself.

Humans are not aware of the presence of Shards. Their visits were long ago before even the ancestors of Humanity walked upon Calera. Even the ability to track Shards and their paths across the night sky has yet to be invented by even the most brilliant of Human scholars.