Dread Shards

Overview
The Dread Shards are immensely powerful, highly unstable residue of Nexuth's belongings that got scattered all over the Ashfall site after the battle. Their existence was recently discovered by Darth Argehar and Darth Nidus.

History
Master Preserver Nexuth showed remarkable interest in Dread Power, even prior to his tragic contact with the six Dread Artifacts. Rumors had it that his several trips to the Dread Palace, very heart of powerbase of the Dread Masters, resulted in the acquisition of powerful materials, connected to the Masters themselves. Until Ashfall, no one seriously believed his claims, believing them to be mere rumors disseminated by Nexuth's associates to further raise the image of his power.

Long after the battle took place, driven by a strange premonition, Darth Argehar visited the site of the battle without even knowing exactly what he was looking for. As it turned out, among the numerous debris scattered across the Ashfall Pass, small fragments of some slightly larger objects emanating a dark energy were preserved somehow. Argehar managed to uncover one of them from the ground and took it with him to ''Preservator II. ''

Having no idea what he had actually found, Argehar turned to the mysterious, gloomy Darth Nidus for help in examining the strange object. Nidus' unique knowledge and insight allowed them to identify the found object as a mysterious Dread Shard, capable of influencing human minds in a frightening, warped way and completely twisting their true nature.

Knowing there was a high probability that the remaining Nexuth cultists would try to find the remaining pieces on their own, Sith Preservation made it a goal to find and neutralize each of them.

Properties
Dread Shards are made directly from former belongings of Dread Masters themselves, such as their thrones, jewelry or armor. Therefore, they are immensely saturated with their very raw power, which is felt strongly by people who are barely close to the Shards. Being in their vicinity causes a feeling of sudden, unidentified anxiety, even fear, which slowly begins to alter and corrupt every single thought of the target. There have been documented cases of sudden insanity and loss of control over their behavior by both Force sensitive and non-sensitive people who have experimented with their powers for too long.

Shards are capable of giving their user a short-lived, extremely powerful burst of dark energy, which can be used either to enhance an individual's already existing skills or to give them new ones, based on the Dread Master's own unique abilities.

Such use of their properties, however, has disastrous consequences - both for the body and the soul of the wielder. Continued use of Shards leads to above-average destruction of the user's body by the dark side and the power of Dread itself. The personality and mind of the individual are severely corrupted with no way to undo the process, or at least there is no known case of any successful restoration of a Shard's victim to their pre-existing state. The behavior of such an individual becomes unpredictable, decisions are irrational and dangerous, and the control over power and abilities gradually fades away, making the person extremely dangerous to themself and their enviroment.

Known sightings
Shard #1: Found by Darth Argehar at Ashfall Pass, currently in ownership of Sith Preservation

Shard #2: Found by the cultists at Ashfall Pass, taken away from them by Preservation's Stirke Team, currently in ownership of Sith Preservation

Shard #3: Confirmed to be in possession of the reborn Nexuth's Cult, whereabouts unknown