Shar

Shar (pronounced SHAHR ), the Mistress of the Night, was the goddess of darkness, and the caverns of Faerûn, as well as a neutral evil greater deity. Counterpart to her twin Selûne, she presided over caverns, darkness, dungeons, forgetfulness, loss, night, secrets, and the Underdark. Among her array of twisted powers was the ability to see everything that lay or happened in the dark. Shar's symbol was a black disk with a deep purple border. Shar was also the creator of the Shadow Weave, which was a counterpart and to foil the Weave, controlled by Mystryl and her successors, before both of the Weaves fell into ruin during the Spellplague.

Worshipers
The clergy of Shar were a secretive organization that pursued subversive tactics rather than direct confrontation with its rivals. In addition to her clerics, Shar maintained an elite order of sorcerer monks who can tap Shar's Shadow Weave. Among her worshipers were the Shadovar of Tultanthar, who fled into the shadow plane before Karsus's Folly. Shar also held power over all who used the Shadow Weave.

Orders

 * Dark Justiciars
 * The Dark Justiciars was 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.


 * Order of the Dark Moon
 * Shar's secretive monastic order was referred to as the Order of the Dark Moon. They tapped into the Shadow Weave through their powers of sorcery.


 * Nightbringers
 * The Nightbringers, or the Avatars of Shar, were an elite Sharite force. They were spirits that infested hosting bodies, possessing them and using the bodies as puppets. Once one was infected with a Nightbringer that person fused with the Nightbringer, gaining the strength and beauty of Shar. Only females were selected as hosts for the Nightbringers. Though Nightbringer numbers were large within the Avatar Wars, their numbers fell to the hundreds by the Era of Upheaval.

Relationships
The creation of the Shadow Weave made Shar the eternal enemy of the goddess of magic, Mystra. This resulted in the brewing of a terrible war between these two powerful deities. By her very nature, however, Shar was opposed to powers of light, the unsecretive Shaundakul, and her own sister. Her only frequent ally was Talona.

Those who believed in the Dark Moon heresy believed that Shar and Selûne were two faces of the same goddess.

History


Shar was the dark twin of Selûne and she battled her sister since shortly after their creation. Their primordial feud resulted in the creation of many other deities. Rather than overtly confronting other deities, Shar sought to gain power by subverting mortal worshipers to her faith. After the death of Mystra at the hands of Cyric, Shar sought to gain control of the Weave but lost control of both the Weave and the Shadow Weave as both collapsed. Shortly thereafter, Shar also removed herself from the Palace of Loss in the Plane of Shadow, now located on the Shadowfell, to her new astral dominion of the Towers of Night.

Dogma
"Reveal secrets only to fellow members of the faithful. Never follow hope or turn to promises of success. Quench the light of the moon (agents and items of Selûne) whenever you find it, and hide from it when you cannot prevail. The dark is a time to act, not wait. It is forbidden to strive to better your lot in life or to plan ahead save when directly overseen by the faithful of the Dark Deity. Consorting with the faithful of good deities is a sin except in business dealings or to corrupt them from their beliefs. Obey and never speak out against ranking clergy unless it would result in your own death."

"Love is a lie. Only hate endures."

Novels

 * Mistress of the Night (2004), by Don Bassingthwaite and Dave Gross. It is the second book in The Priests series.
 * Shadowrealm (2008), by Paul S. Kemp