Cycle of Night

The Cycle of Night was the recurrent destruction of stars and planets across the cosmos, as carried out by the goddess Shar. The phenomena was a subject of some debate among Sharran scholars and other sages of the Realms.

"It's all ending. This world. The gods. Their Chosen. They scramble to grab at phantasms. The Cycle of Night is already begun and it can only end one way. There's nothing left to do now but play our parts."

- Rivalen Tanthul, 1384 DR.

Description
When carrying out the Cycle of Night, Shar would conjure a shadowstorm that would engulf an entire world, causing all life upon it to wither away. The act was even capable of "killing" the star around which a planet orbited.

One Sharran relic from the continent of Faerûn on Toril, the 7 century book entitled The Leaves of One Night, was closely linked to the Cycle of Night. The book spoke of a moment in Shar's existence that was both that of her "greatest triumph" and "greatest weakness". Some Sharrans believed believed the former referred to her consumption of the world Toril, while others believed this was an incorrect interpretation of their goddess' will.

One Faerûnian sage theorized that Shar's Cycle of Night was an act of self-preservation, as her existence was fed by suffering, loss, and oblivion.

Location
The only recorded or witnessed instances of the Cycle of Night occurred on the worlds of Ephyras and Toril, the latter of which was contained within one city in the nation of Sembia.

Activities
Repeatedly throughout history, Shar designated a divine being on a world that would herald its annihilation by her will. When the moment of destruction arrived, Shar consumed the divinity of her herald and exterminated all life upon the planet, leaving it barren and desolate for all time.

Outcome
As a result of Shar's ravenous consumption, the multiverse was dotted with instances of oblivion, where life and civilization once existed. According to some records, billions of individuals had died from her consumption of entire worlds.

Ephyras
One world that Shar was said to have destroyed was that of Ephyras, a planet that was much older than Toril. At a point after the Cycle was completed, but before the planet was entirely annihilated, it remained as a barren and cold husk of the world which it once was. Wild magic permeated its surface, and it's star remained dying, yet not entirely snuffed out.

Toril
The earliest record events surrounding the Cycle of Night on Toril occurred 700 years before Dale Reckoning on the Calendar of Harptos. Augathra the Mad began having terrible visions about the future, a number of which were related to Shar. Her prophetic dreams were inscribed within the Book of the Black and the Black Chronology—an alternate timeline adopted by the church of Shar—was formed.

Hundreds of years later, in the, The Leaves of One Night was recovered by Shar's followers. The book allowed them to initiate the rites necessary to prepare Toril for Shar's consumption.

By the following year, Shar was poised to initiate the Cycle of Night on Toril, using the divinity of her son and herald, Mask the God of Thieves. Unwilling to play his role in Shar's scheme, Mask hid away portions of his divinity among his two chosen, Erevis Cale and Drasek Riven, and had another part stolen by Shar's own chosen Rivalen Tanthul. After her prophet Kesson Rel and his acolyte Elyril Hraven initiated the shadowstorm, Shar appeared within the Torillian city of Ordulin, ready to consume the world, she became unable to devour Mask's divinity and the Cycle of Night was halted. For over a century, Shar was frozen as the supernatural phenomenon known as the Ordulin Maelstrom, bound to her holy book, The Leaves of One Night, until the three semi-divine chosen could be slain and cycle resumed.

The Cycle of Night on Toril could only be stopped entirely when all the beings that possessed Mask's divinity were slain within Shar's presence, and her herald Mask was reincarnated as a god. Unfortunately, Erevis Cale's portion of godhood had been claimed by the archdevil Mephistopheles, and Rivalen Tanthul rededicated himself to completing Shar's cycle.

In the, the returned Erevis Cale and his son Vasen ventured to the Ordulin Maelstrom to finally end the Cycle of Night. They arrived at their destination at the same that as Mask's other chosen Drasek Riven, who had drawn Mephistopheles from Cania in the Nine Hells with him. Rivalen attempted to force Vasen to read from The Leaves of One Night and complete the Cycle of Night, but the younger Cale resisted, and turned the power invested within The Leaves onto Shar. Erevis severed the divine essence from Mask's vessels, and the God of Intrigue was reborn in the body of Drasek Riven.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Shadowrealm • The Godborn
 * Sundering series (The Sentinel, The Herald)
 * Sundering series (The Sentinel, The Herald)