Shard Shards were a silicon - based species native to the planet Orax , who took the form of irregularly faceted cylindrical crystals thirty to forty centimeters in length . Faint pulses of light — thought signals propagating through their " brains " — could be seen inside their bodies . Shards were immobile in their natural state , but could be installed in specially modified droids . Society and culture . Shards on Orax lived in large clusters of crystals which grew among the planet ' s many hot springs . These colonies consisted of hundreds or thousands of individual Shards , each connected in a group mind via their natural electromagnetic communication abilities . This electromagnetic sense was the only one the Shards possessed naturally . Shards reproduced by growing new Shards directly off an adult Shard , and could live for millennia before succumbing to natural erosion . As expected of a long - lived , unmoving species , Shards were patient , spending all of their time in slow , contemplative thought . Political decisions were made by mutual consensus , which sometimes took centuries to reach . History . Human colonists on Orax took a long time to discover that the Shards were sentient . When they did , they developed translator units which allowed the crystalline aliens to translate their electromagnetic pulses into audible speech ( and vice - versa ) . Curious about other worlds , some Shards volunteered to be detached from their colonies and attached into specially modified droids . The Shards began to trade mineral rights for access to droids and computer technology , which their electromagnetic sense allowed them to understand instinctively . Shards in droid bodies , disconnected from their group - mind , became insatiably curious , and almost intoxicated by the new sensory experiences . Individual Shards began understanding the ideas of limited time , thinking and acting much faster than their counterparts in the group - minds . Some of the Shards remaining on Orax regarded this as a corruption of their traditional culture , while others welcomed the knowledge gained from Shards who eventually returned to their colonies . When the Shards made contact with the Galactic Republic , it was in the last few decades of its existence . Many of the Shard ambassadors were murdered soon after the Galactic Empire arose . Orax became a mining center using slave labor , and many Shard colonies were destroyed . In order to keep surviving offworld Shards away from their home , all droids were banned on Orax . During the Galactic Civil War , the Shards allied themselves with the Alliance to Restore the Republic in order to free their homeworld . They often worked as droid and computer technicians for the Alliance . Though inorganic , some Shards were Force - sensitives . These Shards , installed in droid bodies , formed the Iron Knight s , an offshoot of the Jedi Order . Ilum , a survivor of the Jedi Purge , and Ilum ' s daughter Luxum , who fell to the dark side of the Force and was killed by the Yuuzhan Vong , were among them . Another knight named Firkrann was killed during the Clone Wars by General Grievous . The Shards should not be confused with the Tsil , another crystalline sentient species similar in appearance and in certain other characteristics .