- standard shard improvements, in their hiergamemmon entry and tooltips, say they provide essence bonus
- quest for a compass says it gives sight when completed, and then awards a compass you have to consume - it is not clear the compass must be consumed
- notable location that rewards a mana tablet - why not give the user mana instantly? Mana is global, after all.
- the health of randomly generated units (clicking "new" when in unit design window) differs from that of the basic peasant and pioneer when I play New Pariden

Also, take a look at this map, and the starting position: the AI was unable to build a town or even leave the place, because shard spawns were boxing him in. 

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5498/elemental1290202991.jpg