Shards
Shards are crystallized elements that typically form somewhere in the Nirakam system after someone has recited a verse.
Shards act as currency. They can be used to buy lodging, food, equipment, or to pay bribes, tolls, and taxes, etc. Each creature starts off with a number of shards equal to {Merchant skill * 20}. The inhabitants of the Nirakam system can also consume them as last-resort food source. They're not very nutritious, and those on a shard diet do not regain stamina, vitality, focus, fatigue or anything else that normally recovers over time. The Regeneration innate ability is the only exception to this. A native would have to consume {24 – {Survival skill / 8}} shards per meal to survive without normal food or water, making it a very expensive means of sustenance. Having just food or just water (but not the other), reduces the shard consumption requirement by half.
While Shards don't actually have an asset value, they do have weight, and a native can have as many shards as he/ve/she can carry. Shardstones are worth the same as 1,000 shards but are easier to carry. It is the same mass, just condensed into an easy to transport form, often a cube or ball.
100 shards weighs 1 stone.
1 shardstone weighs 1 stone.
Carrying Capacity
You are limited in the number of stones in weight you can hold. This is typically your Brawn multiplied by your Size. You are unable to hold more then this amount from either the awkwardness of the items your holding or the sheer weight of them.