Church of Sharess

The Church of Sharess was the main religious organization that oversaw the faiths of Sharess, Bast, and, among its elven members, Zandilar the Dancer.

Organization
Though the church maintained only a few temples, and those were largely found only in the biggest, most cosmopolitan cities, the church could claim to have a shrine in almost every festhall in Faerûn, and the clergy headed up the majority of the continent's escort guilds.

Activities
The clergy of Sharess typically ran a city's festhalls and temples (though there was not much of a difference between the two), offering varying pleasurable pursuits such as massages and/or baths, and organizing wild parties. Some priests entertained important local hedonists. Certain priests, known as indulgents, worked as mercenary spies and honeypots to extract information from targets. In Mulhorand, priests of Bast were more militaristic and fought against the Church of Set.

Rituals
The rituals of the church were little more than feasts, parties, and orgies that lasted longer than their usual fare. Earthly pleasures were more important to the church than spirituality and due to that, plus the relative age of the modern incarnation of the church, the clergy did not typically stand on ceremony, keeping their rituals fluid.

Celebrations
The festivals of the church were too numerous to list and varied from temple to temple. There were festivals for the turning of the seasons; the monthly rising of a full moon; even the rising and setting of the sun! All such events were considered an excuse for a Sharessan festival, and every member of the public was invited to participate. Collectively, these festivals were known as the Endless Revel of Life.

Above all though, the most extreme of these festivals was the one held on Midsummer Eve.

Base of Operations
The church was fairly decentralized, but the biggest temple that it operated was the Festhall of Eternal Delight in Calimport.

Dogma
The faith believed that life was to be lived to the full, and in fulfilling sensual desires, both their own and those of others, so that life was an endless revel. Moreover, the clergy held that what was good was pleasurable and what was pleasurable was good, and therefore should be found every chance one had. They encouraged one to try new pleasures and savor the old, to explore the infinite experience available to all. They exhorted each other to spread the bounty of Sharess, bring joy to those suffering, and share the endless revel of life with all.

Orders
The Eyes of the Evening were a secret society of werecats who served both Sharess and Selûne. Their goals and activities were only rumored however.

Classes
Priests of Sharess came in two main flavors: regular clerics made up roughly half of the church's clergy, with those who particularly enjoyed danger becoming indulgents. However, that half was dwindling in number in the face of the church's specialty priests, the sensates.

Those devotees of Sharess who did not join the priesthood, and instead venerated the goddess for her love of felines and prowess in battle, sometimes became celebrants.

History
The church was only a cult for the majority of the 14 century. Their goddess's affiliation with Shar until the Time of Troubles did them no favors as Sharran clergy would widely proselytize that Sharess was a precursor to their own dark mistress, causing the Sharessan priesthood to die off over a period of about six centuries. Once freed from Shar's influence during the Godswar though, her clergy was completely revitalized, spreading wide and far.