Some thoughts on using Shardminds in Dark Sun

So I'm going to be running a Dark Sun campaign in a few weeks or so, and most of my players have gone through the character creation process. I allowed (for some reason) one of my players to play a shardmind. For those unfamiliar with shardminds, they are (under 4th edition fluff anyway) pieces of a gate to the far realm that has been broken, and feel some intense obligation to fix the gate by joining back together OR kill every other shardmind in a belief that this will fix things. As well, they don't need to eat or drink.

This doesn't really work in Dark Sun.

So I've modified (read: butchered) their background. In my Dark Sun setting, they are essentially giant spellshards (A Dark Sun alternative to spellbooks; they're easier to hide than weighty tomes.)  that contain ancient defiling magic of such potency it will fry a continent.

This opens up a lot of avenues for character development, plot hooks, motivations, etc.

In this setting, they are used politically in a similar fashion to how nuclear weapons were during the cold war; as deterrence. The sorcerer kings hoard them, and are loath to let anyone get their hands on one. Many small conflicts the sorcerer kings have participated in since the dawn of the Red Age have been to keep these from falling into the hands of rebel political groups and other city-states.

Another thing they may contain (rather than apocalyptic magical power) is pre-Green Age knowledge of magics and psionics, in addition to histories of peoples subjugated by the sorcerer kings. Things that if learned, could upset the balance of power one way or another.

The only way to harness this power is to sacrifice a shardmind in a 13-day long ritual under a new moon. Obviously a sentient spell container is going to be a bit hesitant about this whole thing, and the shardmind's creators took this into account when they made their creations. Thus they created 7 obsidian stones that when used correctly could control the shardmind's body. These have long since been lost in the dust that now covers the lands.

The bonds holding the magic within the shardminds have weakened somewhat over the millennia, and when they exert more control over their inherent psionic abilities, these bonds weaken further, allowing them to draw deeply from this well of chaotic power within their own bodies.

They still don't need to eat or drink or whatever, but they are pretty distinctive, and they're always being hunted by various agents of the sorcerer kings. I feel this balances out their lack of need for basic needs.

Oh, I've also sort of combined them with the Nerras from Monster Manual 3 as one race, so they have all manner of distinctive appearances, from crude mirrored humanoid shapes with no heads to shapes closer to a man's, but with harsh and crystalline features.