Dragon Shards
Dragon Shards are items that have a fragment of a dragon's soul bound to it when a member of one of the higher dragon races dies. Any item can potentially be a shard and one dragon's death may create more than one shard, depending on the dragon's power. However, dragon shards are, nine times out of ten, a piece of the dragon's body like a claw or scale. These shards are of great importance to the Dracon's and mages alike.
History
The Dracons, being a warrior and raiding culture that worshipped draconic, and thus dragon, imagery. Almost a millennia before the modern day, about 100 years after the human kingdoms first formed, a war waged on between the Sun Elves and Dracons. The Dracons performed a mysterious ritual that brought the dragons, seemingly out of nowhere, to the Ancestor Isles, where they waged war on all mortal races, excluding the Dracons. Dragonslayers, whom have been around for 200 years hunting lesser dragons, were called upon by the Sun Elves and Dwarves, two elder races, along side the Larrasu Order and the mortal armies of the human & catfolk kingdoms. Through this war, the mortal races discovered that higher dragons are an intelligent elder race of mysterious origin, not even the other elder races having known of an intelligent dragon race. In addition, they discovered that an imprint of a higher dragon's soul gets left behind when it dies, usually on part of it's body, like a claw or scale.
Significance
Dragon Shards are an alternative, albeit weaker, to Aetherium Gemstones. While Aetherium Gemstones allow mortals to channel the power of various deities to cast spells, a Dragon Shard draws on the soul fragment of a higher Dragon, who had the natural ability to use magick in it's most raw form, such as breathing ice or fire. It grants it's mortal wielder the ability to cast basic, fundamental spells in a similar fashion to the higher dragons but at a higher cost to the mortal's mind, body and soul than the Aetherium Gemstones.
Item type
Magical
Creation Date
Upon a higher dragon's death
Subtype / Model
Rarity
Extremely
Base Price
~10m gold pieces or more
I love these! They remind me a little of the Dragonmarks of Eberron!
Huh, never heard of those! Had to look 'em up. It was actually The Elder Scrolls that made me come up with this idea with how when a dragon died, it's soul would remain bound to it's remains unless a dragonborn absorbed it. Made me think, what if the soul was bound to a scale and someone used it as a source of magic?