One of the foundations we have built our lives upon is the power of the nova shards. Is it not, then, strange how little we know about them? I, Giles Fero, will strive to record our basic knowledge of these great powers.
Nova shards are crystals formed beneath the surface of the earth that have reacted with the energy of the Nova. This is a completely natural occurrence. They are not pieces of the Nova itself as it was once believed. Any attempts at breaking off parts of the Nova have resulted in the immediate destruction of the tamperers. Shards do not have the same dangerous effect and can even be broken down to a fine powder.
Most of the things we know about the shards come from the writings of the Lantieb, an ancient race that once spanned the galaxy before their sudden disappearance. It is widely believed that the Lantieb’s destruction was caused by their misuse of the shards. For this very reason, experimentation with nova shards must be under the most extreme caution and regulation. This has lead to a great stagnation in the advancements of our technology. It was this fear that caused the fire of the great library of Gilcelrim where most of our knowledge about the shards were lost.
Shards of different types have unique abilities and we have only been able to identify a few. There is no way to know if we have discovered all of them or just the most obvious ones. The known shard types are:
Healing | Energy | Light | Heat | Shielding
Levitation | Entwining | Gravity | Atmosphere
It is possible to slightly alter the function of certain shards through a process called tuning. A novaborn feels the energy of the original shard and focuses it into a different path.