Dragonshards

Fragments of magically charged crystal, dragonshards are the fuel of arcane engines, the core of many magical items, and lifeblood of the Five Nation's economy. Found in three distinct varieties, they have been used by cultures across history, in everything from lighting the streets of Sharn to history's greatest works of artifice.

---

Eberron Shards

Also known as "bloodstones", these are the most common shard, usually selling for 20gp for a small splinter, up to 500gp for a full geode. They appear in reddish tones, most commonly a dusky pink with red veins within, and are founas clusters of prisms inside geodes.
They are used as a raw power source, an amplifier for potent magic, and to fuel the magic of spellcasters. In item creation, they work best as a source for passive abilities and to improve the effectiveness of an item. They have the broadest application, but are typically less potent overall. When ground to a fine powder, they are sometimes called residuum, and can act as components for spells or to fuel arcane engines.
They are found buried shallowly, ocassionally dug up during farming or construction, or found using divination magic. The swamplands of the Shadow Marches in Khorvaire have historically been one of the largest deposits, the local orcs and House Tharashk prospecting for the geodes in shallow marsh waters.

Siberys Shards

These golden, rounded crystals fall from the sky during meteor showers around the equator, and are believed to be falling from the Ring of Siberys that surrounds the planet. They are deep yellow in colour, with pulsing golden light within, and are usually found as rounded ovals or spheres, selling for between 50gp and 5000gp.
They have the strongest links to dragonmarks, information and the mind. They are a critical part of any magic items that interact with a dragonmark, such as the Wheel of Wind and Water that controls an airship. They can be used to create items that are much easier to produce than normal, but require a relevant dragonmark to activate, or that amplify the effects of a dragonmark. In other magic items, they can be used to record information or even replace a spellbook, in magic items that require fine control, or that have particular active abilities.
As they seem to fall from the Ring of Siberys, they are found almost exclusively near the equator and in no discernable pattern, making them the hardest to find reliably. Prospecting for the nations of Khorvaire is mostly done in northern Xen'drik, but they are also found in tropics of Aerenal, and presumably in northern Argonessen and south Sarlona.

Khyber Shards

Appearing as dark, facted prisms filled with cloudy smoke, they are found deep underground, emerging from where the underworld of Khyber presses against the surface. They are found in cool, dark colours ranging from royal blue to violet to black. A fragement to hold a sliver of elemental energy may start at 50gp, while a shard large enough for a major binding may be up to 5000gp.
They are typically used for the binding of extraplanar entities, most commonly elementals. All through the Five Nations, this is used to control the forces of nature, with everything from the conductor stones set to guide the lightning rail, to the fire elemental at the heart of an airship, to the water elemental used to pump water to the homes of the wealthy. Some say that even the demonic overlords were bound within them by the Silver Flame. They are often used in magic items, especially those aligned to particular elements or planes, that provide powerful ongoing effects, and in vehicles and arcane engines.
Locating khyber shards isn't as much of a challenge as retrieving them is. The most dangerous to uncover, they are found deep underground, especially in regions of geological activity. Mines that delve deep enough, geothermal vents and entrances to Khyber itself are the most common source, as well as the shallowest regions of Khyber that are still made of rock and dirt. Deeper than that, Khyber devolves into demiplanes and stranger places where not even the laws of nature can be counted on, let alone the presence of dragonshards.