These mysterious beings are natives of the Astral Plane. In that vast plane, accretions of metaphysical matter gradually accumulate and eventually coalesce into demiplanes. During this tumultuous process, sparks of living light sometimes shear off the newly formed planes, and these sparks of raw planar energy somehow transform into shining children. Every newly formed demiplane leaves a different mental imprint on its shining "offspring," making it easy for shining children to telepathically recognize their brothers and sisters. Forever trapped in apparently adolescent bodies, shining children dedicate themselves to scholarship and violence with equal measure in a futile effort to understand their roles in the multiverse and the burning injustice of their births.