the shardborn story (rewritten lost the chapters of the first try)

Long ago, when the gods shattered the heavens to end a war of light and shadow, shards of their broken power fell to the world below. Those struck by the divine fragments were forever changed — gifted and cursed in equal measure. Their descendants are known as the Shardborn: marked by glowing veins of crystal and burdened with a madness that grows each time they use their power.