Shardminds

Shardminds are a transformed race of halflings that was created at the time of the Planar Clash. When the Elemental Planes crashed into the Material Plane, the Planar Pillars shattered and shards of them were embedded in the inhabitants of a massive clan of halflings and granted them magical gifts.

The Planar Clash
When the Elemental Planes crashed into Alandor, the splinters of the collapsed Planar Pillars rained down among the cracks and were flung to the ground.

The Planar Pillars are not necessarily physical and as they rained down, they "pierced" several large clans of halflings. It was strange, as several humans, gnomes and others resided in the same area, but only the halflings were affected by the pieces.

All affected woke up to magical power flowing in their veins. They had to go through extensive training to get used to it.

Integration into Halfling Society
Though shardminds almost seem to require travel and exploration, they do not wish to be alone, seeing themselves as simply an extension of their halfling brothers and sisters.

The other halflings has no problem with letting shardminds into their society, as all of them had belonged to one family or another and still did. They had not changed, in their eyes.

Other races were suspicious of the sudden magic, but the halflings did not care. Shardminds are explorers by nature and therefor you would only find a small amounts of them among Harber land, instead opting to travel with the Halfhills.

Names
Shardminds are essentially magical halflings, and pass on the tradition of the same names, though their family names might take on more spiritual and magical traits.

Family names: Fadeleaf, Wardenstone, Banehand, Thawfeet, Fadewalker, Emberrock, Breezeflute

Appearance
With the same basic appearance as halflings, shardminds look little different.

Like halflings, they look like small humans, reaching up to only around the 1 meter. Their skin colour ranges from tan to pale and have hazel or other dark eyes.

The biggest difference between halflings and shardminds, is the presence of the magic that manifests itself. Practically bursting at the seams with unreachable ancient knowledge and planar magic, it influences their look: some shardminds' skin grows rough and alike bark in colour, some's hair burns a bright red and almost flames at the tips, some shine in the sun or glow in the dark: it manifests itself differently depending on the individual and their magic.

Shardmind males don't grow beards, only a fair amount of stubble. Because of this, they rarely ever grow mustaches either.

They like to wear simple, comfortable and practical clothes, favouring bright colours.

Age
There is no record of any Shardmind ageing after the Planar Clash, and none report feeling like they are ageing either. It seems those who were imbued by the Planar Pillars do not age. There is no record either of Shardminds giving birth, either to and with halflings or other shardminds.

They are a mystery.

Personality
Shardminds are filled to the brim with magic and are practically bursting with it. Something within them, whether they were Harbers or Halfhills, changed from the shards of the Planar Pillars: a wanderlust without measure. Previously completely untaught in magic, shardminds travel to find out more about the subject they had never had any interests in.

Other than this, their temperaments seem to be the same as those of halflings: joyful and curious.

There is, however, something within them that feel like a missing puzzle piece. They are forever in search for something to fill it with.

Trivia

 * It is unknown whether shardminds are infertile or not, or if they would give birth to halflings or other shardminds
 * Though they could simply be considered a subrace of halflings, the access to magic and the lack of ageing moves them into a new and evolved race
 * An approximate of 20,00-40,000 shardminds seem to be wandering Alandor