Church of Shar

The Church of Shar was the organization dedicated to spreading the dogma and carrying out the wishes of the deity Shar. Although the estimated one hundred thousand worshipers of Shar can loosely be deemed members, its true membership consisted of the clergy of the church, who numbered around 3,500. The faith was forbidden in many areas of Faerûn which led to the church going underground, practicing in hiding much of the time. An element of fear was associated with the worship of Shar since many of her followers were willing to give their lives in her service.

Initiation
In order to become clergy within the church's organization, one underwent tests of faith and commitment which would be likely vile to any good-aligned being. Potential recruits incapable of murder were not admitted, and would likely be killed. After a few months of displaying their willingness to join, new recruits have likely committed many murders.

In order to become a worshiper of Shar, the tests were less strenuous, but nonetheless involve performing acts that would be considered deplorable by kindhearted individuals. Any betrayal of the faith resulted in the swift death of the formerly-faithful.

Hierarchy
The church was split into individual cells that operated independently from one another, with a temple or shrine of Shar as their focal point. Cells were linked under the leadership of a priest, who controlled a number of cells in a geographic area. Priests regularly communicated with one another, but rarely revealed truthful information to their inferiors.

As of, the highest ranking mortal member of the Church was high priestess Irtemara el Eradsari of the Temple of One Night in Calimport.

Factions
One faction of the Church of Shar was dedicated to eliminating any knowledge of the shadow weave that did not originate from the church itself. They believed that anyone outside the church with such knowledge was a threat to their security. They have been known to recruit adventurers for the purposes of eliminating the individuals in possession of such knowledge.

Activities
The clergy of the Church of Shar used corruption and subversion to spread Shar's faith, but were forced to do so in secret due to the prevalent banning of Shar's worship. They traveled in small groups or individually throughout Faerûn, often disguised as merchants or pilgrims to avoid detection. Their missions usually involve either espionage or outright murder.

Seemingly without pattern, Shar requested that her priests killed a certain person, usually a sorcerer or wizard who she deemed to have misused the Shadow Weave, while other times she forbade such acts against specific individuals. It is not uncommon for the church to make use of the Shadow Weave itself, although Shar holds onto the deepest and most powerful secrets of the magical force.

By revealing secrets, Sharran clergy will attempt to incite bitterness and jealously within individual, such as telling a woman that her husband is having an affair. These emotions are strongly embraced by Shar and highly increase the likeliness of a successful conversion.

Tactics
Learning from their Shadovar allies of Thultanthar, clergy of Shar employed simulacra made from the shadows of their victims. These shadowy constructs were then used in infiltration missions to ______.

Bases of Operation
Notable temples and holy houses to Shar included:
 * Dark Embrace, a relatively new but powerful temple in Amn full of priests dissatisfied with how the church is run in the south.
 * The Darkhouse, a secret temple built a lighthouse off the coast of Saerloon by the shade Kesson Rel.
 * Fane of Shar, the Lady's temple in the returned enclave of Thultanthar. The flying city was considered the center for Sharran worship throughout the 15 century DR.
 * House of Night, a secluded temple found deep beneath the Grinding Gulf cavern in Shadowdale.
 * Temple of Old Night, the former largest temple of Shar that held that distinction for a very long time.
 * Vanrakdoom, one of the sublevels of the dungeon complex of Undermountain, led by the death knight Vanrak Moonstar.

Other holy site no longer in used included:
 * Reign of Night, the most important holy site and center of faith for the church of Shar during the time of ancient Netheril, found in the town of Sepulcher.

Dogma
The intent of the Church of Shar was to spread the faith across Toril. This was achieved by undermining and corrupting individuals, governments and even other religions, causing them to be more likely to accept the views and dogma of Shar. Because the most valuable commodity to the clergy of Shar was their secrecy, information was closely guarded and only revealed when it was absolutely essential. The clergy of Shar expected that secrets were traded for similarly confidential information.

Attitude
The atmosphere of the organization was one of unwavering faith to its leader, Shar herself. Disobeying an order usually resulted in death. Although devotees were perfectly willing to give their life for Shar, she did not want to deplete the number of her dedicated followers.

Clerical Orders

 * Beguilers of Shar, an order tasked with keeping the existence of the Shadow Weave secret. When Shar publicly revealed the existence of the Shadow Weave, the order was dissolved and its members were ejected from the church.
 * Darkcloaks, unusual among other orders in the Church, the darkcloaks were actually a compassionate group of oracles and care-givers who tended to those troubled souls who were emotionally damaged, often bringing the bliss of forgetfulness to soothe their pain. Their work did much to present the church in a positive light to the populace, though quite often the reaction was still negative. This order included the few non-evil, and even morally good, clerics of the Church.
 * Nightcloak, Formerly known as Nightbringers, this group of particularly debased followers of Shar who were separated from the church, until the Time of Troubles when they were absorbed into the clergy as specialty priests.
 * Sisterhood of the Black Veil, is a small Sharran cell that operated under the guidance of the priestess Sennifyr in Hulburg.

Monastic Orders

 * Order of the Dark Moon, Shar's secretive monastic order tapped into the shadow weave through their powers of sorcery.

Military Orders

 * Dark Justiciars, an honorary order or secret society within the priesthood of Shar. It was rumored that in order to gain admittance to the order of the Dark Justiciars, a priest of Shar had to have killed a priest of Selûne.

Allegiances
The Church of Shar occasionally worked together with the Monks of the Dark Moon but Shar preferred that they work independently. The church employed the services of undead, evil humanoids and young evil dragons if they could be bribed or coerced into service. Talona would ally with Shar, but only if the aim was causing harm to their common enemy Loviatar. Shar and Cyric remained on cooperative terms.

Enemies
The Church of Shar was generally opposed to any good-aligned religious orders, but particularly despised the deity Selûne. Members were dedicated to hurting Selûne and her worshipers as much as possible and even suspended other activities to pursue opportunities to strike at Selûne.

History
The worship of Shar dated back to when mortals first appeared on Toril. After Shar's acquisition of the cavern portfolio from slaying Ibrandul during the Time of Troubles, she gained the worship of subterranean beings such as goblins, kobolds and troglodytes.

Some time after the, thieves working for the church stole a copy of the Book of Black and the original Leaves of One Night from the Dark Diviners of Windsong Tower, the latter of which reportedly included a great weakness of the Lady of Loss.

War and the Weave
To further the Lady's goal of replacing the Weave of Mystra with Shar's own Shadow Weave, her clergy attempted to create dead-magic zones all across Faerûn.

In fall of the, clergy led working from a false temple of Mystra in Wheloon took over the Lost Refuge in the Vast Swamp, and reopened an ancient portal linking Faerûn to the Shadowfell. Operating from within the Shadowfell's Black Rift, Esvele Greycastle and the black dragon Despayr, led a group of Sharrans in a ritual tear apart the Weave itself using practitioners of the Art afflicted by the shadow shard. They were ultimately unsuccessful. Shar's dragon was defeated, but Greycastle continued on the Lady's work.

These years saw increased Sharran manipulation in politics of Faerûn. In Marpenoth of 1374, Shar's Nightseer Rivalen Tanthul orchestrated the Sembian Civil War by assassinating the Overmaster Kendrick Selkirk of Sembia, and using the ensuing power vacuum to ignite conflict between Ordulin and Selgaunt. He installed Thamalon Uskevren II as the new Overmaster of Sembia, and eventually transformed the nation into vassal-state of returned Netheril—an empire reborn in the honor of Shar.

Rivalen Tanthul was not the only prominent Sharran priests to spark spur and take advantage of war in the Heartlands. Months later in the, Esvele Greycastle of Sembia forged an alliance with the drow of House Dhuurniv along with Fzoul Chembryl and the Army of Darkhope. She supported the Zhentarim during their army clashed with the forces of Myth Drannor during the Cormanthor War, and aided the church's new allies during their attempted takeover of Shadowdale.

As drow raided Shadowdale and the Zhentilar occupied the realm under the guise of providing military aid, Esvele Greycastle worked with the lich Alokkair and the Shadovar emissary Irphiina of Thultanthar to complete the Rite of Unwinding with in her underground temple. They attempted to nullify the Weave in an ever-growing expanse—without actually destroying it—thus allowing the Shadow Weave to become the dominant source of arcane power in the Realms. Just as in the Vast Swamp however, Shar's servants were thwarted by a band of meddling adventurers.

The church's attempts to control, manipulate, or even destroy the Weave would not be thwarted. Later that year clerics of Shar and their Thulanthan allies broke into the Windsong Tower and stole the Quess'Ar'Teranthvar, an elven artifact that was in fact one copy of the fabled Nether Scrolls, and stashed it in close proximity to a Shadow Weave node in Anauroch for safekeeping. Unfortunately for the clergy, the Heroes of Shadowdale dissolved the Quess'Ar'Teranthvar and Shar's faithful were dealt another defeat.

By that time however the Sharran church had shared their secret of dampening the Weave with their allies in Thultanthar. The Shadovar arcnaists utilized Thultanthar's mythallar to nullify the Weave over much of the Anauroch desert. This granted the Sharran arcanaists a tremendous edge over other powers in the region, including dragons, djinn, and otherwise powerful beings native to the desert.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Mistress of the Night • The Twilight War (Shadowbred, Shadowstorm, Shadowrealm) • The Godborn
 * Video Games
 * Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate