Shar (SHAHR)

Shar is a deeply twisted and perverse being of ineffable evil and endless petty hatred and jealousy. She rules over pains hidden but not forgotten, bitterness carefully nurtured away from the light and from others, and quiet revenge for any slight, no matter how old. She is said to have the power to make her devout followers forget their pain, yet what occurs is that they become inured to the loss, treating it as a common and natural state of being. The basic inanity of life and foolishness of hope are the cornerstones of Shar's being. She revels in the concealed, in that which is hidden, never to be revealed. She can always clearly perceive every being, object, and act performed within darkness. In temples, representations of the goddess are either a black sphere outlined in racing, magically animated flames of purple or paintings of a beautiful human with long, raven-black hair dressed in swirling dark garb. She smiles coldly and her large eyes have black pupils and are otherwise solid purple. Shar is the mortal enemy of Selune and battles her ceaselessly on many planes through mortal worshipers and servitor creatures. The undying enmity between the two goddesses is older than recorded time.

Tenets of Faith

Dark Followers (the faithful of Shar) are instructed to reveal secrets only to fellow faithful and to never follow hope or turn to promises of success. They should quench the light of the moon (the faithful of Selune and their holdings, deeds, and magic) whenever they find it and hide from it when they cannot prevail. Above all, the dark should be a time to act, not to wait. Faithful of Shar are not supposed to hope and are therefore forbidden to strive to better their lot in life or to plan ahead except in matters directly overseen by the clergy of the Dark Goddess. Consorting with beings of good alignment who actively serve their deities is a sin unless undertaken to take advantage of them in purely business dealings or to corrupt them from their beliefs into the service of Shar. Devotees of Shar must not speak out against clergy of the goddess, nor interrupt their devotional dances for any reason. Lay worshipers must prove their faith by obedience to the clergy and by carrying out at least one dark deed ordered by a priest of Shar every year—or bringing at least one being to believe in, and worship, the Dark Goddess. The lower clergy of Shar must obey their superiors in all matters, short of following orders that will lead to their own death—Shar desires to gain followers, not lose them. To win new followers and to keep the faithful truly loyal, clergy must see that some of the dark desires of worshipers are fulfilled (such as the elimination of business rivals).

Worship

As so many devotees of Shar keep their faith secret (and this secrecy is encouraged by senior clergy), the Sharran faith has no set holy days aside from the Feast of the Moon. To Dark Followers (the faithful of Shar) this holiday is known as the Rising of the Dark. They gather on it under cover of the more widespread venerations of the dead to witness a blood sacrifice and learn of any plots or aims the clergy want them to work toward during the winter ahead. The most important Sharran ritual of worship is the Coming of the Lady, the coming of darkness. Clergy hold this ritual every night. It consists of a brief invocation, a dance, a charge or series of inspiring instructions from the goddess spoken by one of the clergy or by a raven-haired female lay worshiper, and a revel celebrated by eating, drinking, and dancing together. Every congregation must carry out some significant act of vengeance or wickedness in the Dark Lady's name. The most important ceremony of the priesthood of Shar is the Kiss of the Lady, a horrific night-long revel of slaying and doing dark deeds in the name of the lady that ends with a feast at dawn. Kissmoots are scheduled irregularly, whenever the priests of Old Night decree. Increasingly the rival clergy of the Embrace have been proclaiming that this ritual be celebrated at different times than those decreed by the temple of Old Night.

Symbol: Black disk with deep purple border
Divine Classification: Goddess
Portfolio: Caverns, dark, dungeons, forgetfulness, loss, night, unrevealed secrets, the Underdark
Domains: Death, Trickery
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Home Plane: Night's Tower
Worshipers: Anarchists, assassins, avengers, monks, nihilists, rogues, shadow adepts, shadowdancers
Cleric Alignments: CE, LE, NE