Sharn

The sharns were mysterious aberrations of transformed humanoids. The sharns were also called shiftshades, blackclaws, shimmershadows, skulkingdeaths, and fhaorn’quessir. .

Description
Sharns had large bodies shaped like teardrops with amorphous, hairless, and oily black flesh surrounded by a nimbus of purple light. Their massive black and silver bodies were lit by continual magical flares. They each had three huge, eyeless eel-like heads which only consisted of two nostrils and a large mouth with sharp fangs dripping saliva. All three heads were connected to a single 'trunk'.

Society
The sharns weren't very numerous. Their society housed a lot of political argument and social intrigue, and their power struggles, which were typically based on ideological conflicts, were near-constant. Furthermore, the sharns were noted to spend the majority of their time engaged in internal debates and experiments. Most of the elder sharns had phased out of existence.

Sharns lived in large clans, with each clan ruled by a council. Sharn clans usually avoided getting involved in the affairs of other creatures who lived nearby.

Ecology
Sharns were omnivores and their diet mainly consisted of animals, lichens, roots and plants. Sharns were asexual and reproduced via budding. Once a sharn reached a certain age, they created a bud from its own cells, which developed into a young sharn that resembled their parent.

History
The first sharns were the surviving citizens of the ancient dark elf and wood elf realm known as Miyeritar. Aryvandaaran historians discovered a familial link between the family of their ruler, Coronal Ivósaar Vyshaan, and the Olrythii, the ruling house of Miyeritar. Circa, the Vyshaanti began negotiating to annex Miyeritar peacefully, but the Miyeritaari resisted. Around, the powerful sun elf realm Aryvandaar began raiding along Miyeritar’s borders and interfering with its trade routes, and around Aryvandaar mounted an all-out invasion of Miyeritar, thus beginning the First Crown War. Circa Aryvandaaran forces had occupied Miyeritar, and by, while the Second Crown War was raging between Ilythiir, Thearnytaar, Eiellûr, Syòrpiir, and Orishaar, Aryvandaar had conquered Miyeritar, ending the First Crown War.

Dark and wood elf clans in Miyeritar continued to resist Aryvandaar, then called the Vyshaantar Empire, and around, during the Third Crown War, Vyshaan high mages produced a terrible magical storm called the Dark Disaster, or the Killing Storms, that hung over Miyeritar for months and laid waste to it, turning it into an infertile wasteland that became known as the High Moor. The fell magic proceeded unopposed because of a Vyshaantar assassination campaign that had killed many Miyeritaari high mages in the months before.

Three grand mages of Miyeritar — T’karon, Hamra, and Alunor — who would become known as the Three Watchers, devised the means to become sharns and transformed themselves and some willing citizens of Miyeritar into sharns in order to preserve their civilization in the hopes that it would one day rise again. The sharns from Miyeritar were the three grand mages and about eighty citizens, which included elves, dwarves, humans, and the guards and scouts of Miyeritar, the centaurs. The elves of Uvaeren also later became sharns. In Mirtul of the Year of the Normiir, the members of the Pentad Retreat also became sharns after the traitorous precept, the vampire wizard Palron Kaeth, used the orcs of the Everhorde to attack their hidden enclave. Survivors of other fallen civilizations had also become sharns over the years, notably from such places as Ammarindar, Ascalhorn, Eaerlann, and Netheril.

In the Year of Many Maws, the first recorded clash between the phaerimms and sharns occurred. In the Year of the Closed Scroll, the sharns finally defeated the phaerimms and imprisoned them behind the Sharn Wall beneath Anauroch, in the Buried Realms, which the phaerimms called the Phaerlin.

Modern Events
The sharns collected items of Miyeritar scattered all across Faerûn for a high magic ritual that would restore the high magic city of Faer'tel'miir, an ancient city of Miyeritar that was located on what is now the High Moor. The last time the sharns had acted with such purpose was when they constructed the Sharn Wall around the phaerimms. Usually, magical fields or internal conflicts among their collective mind made them act unpredictably or madly. On the Feast of the Moon in the, the malignant magic of the Killing Storms was cleansed from the area (the entire High Moor was gradually being cleansed of the corruptive magic, which would take centuries to conclude ), and the Library City of Miyeritar, Faer'tel'miir was restored and renamed Rhymanthiin, the Hidden City of Hope, through a High Magic Ritual.

Among the notable participants in the ritual were the three grand mages, many other sharns and the following:
 * The Chosen of Mystra: Khelben “Blackstaff” Arunsun, Elminster Aumar, Laeral Silverhand, Alustriel Silverhand, and Alvaerele Tasundrym the Silent Chosen.
 * Mentor Wintercloak, one of the Seven Wizards of Myth Drannor.
 * Ualair the Silent, Grand Mage of Myth Drannor, keeper of Uvaeren’s Secrets, and master of the N’Vaelahr of Myth Drannor.
 * High Mage Orjalun of Silverymoon.
 * The elf wizards Darcassan of Windsong Tower and Shalantha Omerdawn.
 * The arcanaweave Jhesiyra Kestellharp.
 * The gnome Parthar the Valiant (also known as Rhymallos the Hidden Eye), an unsung hero of Myth Drannor who took the form of a mezzoloth to infiltrate the Army of Darkness.
 * The wizard Malchor Harpell.
 * Syndra Wands, granddaughter of Khelben.
 * The Tethyrian wizard Lord Gamalon Idogyr, Count of Spellshire, Sage of the Royal Court of Tethyr, and great-grandson of Khelben.
 * Lord Maskar Wands.
 * Phaerl Hawksong
 * Luvon Greencloak.
 * The bronze dragon Essioanawrath the Elder.
 * The gold dragon Tlanchess.
 * The dragon called the Argentalon.
 * The tiefling mage Tulrun of the Tent.
 * The Mistmaster and his consort Azure.
 * The wizards and former members of the Zhentarim, Sememmon and Ashemmi.
 * Maaril, the Dragonmage of Waterdeep.
 * Nain Keenwhistler.
 * Several high-ranking clerics of Oghma: Fourth Reader Shaynara Tullastar of Candlekeep, Loremaster Cadathlyn of the House of Many Tomes, and Sandrew the Wise, lorekeeper high and ranking priest of the Font of Knowledge in Waterdeep.
 * Kyriani Agrivar, half-elf mistress of Selûne’s Smile.
 * Elsura Dauniir.

Khelben and Ualair sacrificed their lives to restore Rhymanthiin, and their spirits went to Arvandor, the elven heaven. Most of the sharns shed their skins, which become a part of the walls of the city, and returned to their original forms.

Some sharns of Miyeritar choose to remain sharns, for they knew that they would become drow if they relinquished their sharn forms (for they were still subject to Corellon's curse laid upon the dark elves). They remained Rhymanthiin’s defenders and worked against corrupt magic in the Realms. They could form from any wall or street of the city to apprehend malefactors due to the sharnstuff woven into the city. All former sharns and those who partook in the ritual were granted a home in the city. The new Rhymanthiin served as a center for magic, knowledge, lore, and the unity of different races, and those with malice in their hearts would not find their way there.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Blackstaff • The Sorcerer