Solithar Shards were pieces of the archmage Solithar's greatest creation: the Far Soul. When it shattered, during the Cataclysm, its pieces scattered across Al'tehrun and beyond. They took on many forms, changing into what most suited its wielder.
Solithar Shards were capable of many great magicks, but their connecting thread was that they all held a fragment of the power of the Far Soul: creating sapient beings. They did so in somewhat different ways, but the power to copy or create another being always manifested somehow.