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.

Etymology
Members of the church knew each other as Dark Followers, but were often referred to by others as Sharrans.

Dogma
A commonly known belief held by Shar's clergy was the edict that they "quench the light of the moon" by defeating the faithful of Selûne at every opportunity. All her followers were directed to never hide from the light and always take action while under the protection of darkness. According to some sects within the church, Shar actually desired her faithful destroy all the deities of the multiverse, and undo existence itself.

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.

Chronology
The church of Shar maintained an alternate Roll of Years that corresponded to that written by Auguthra the Mad, known as the Black Chronology.

Organization
The church of Shar was entirely decentralized, split into individual cells that operated independently from one another, led by a single priest with a temple or shrine as their focal point. Cells were linked under the leadership of an overpriest, a single individual that coordinated the activities of numerous cells, and controlled the information held by the priests within.

Nearby cells often worked either in concert with or opposed against one another, ultimately fulfilling Shar's will in either circumstance. Two cells of competing ideologies that formed within a given region could each view the other as heretical while still both playing a crucial role in Shar's plans. Whenever one cell completed or failed in their goal, were discovered and driven from a city, or otherwise fall from Shar's grace, another would be poised to take its place.

Titles
The church of Shar utilized a number of different titles for its clergy. Circa the mid–14 century these included:
 * Flame of Darkness, an archpriest or direct servant of the Lady of Night.
 * Nightseer, the overpriest for the faithful within a given realm.
 * Darklord/lady, a senior priest that led a single cell.
 * Hand of Shar, an experienced priest that led Sharrans in battle or on quests for the church.
 * Watcher, the lowest-ranking order of the priesthood.
 * Adept of the Night, the title given to novice priests and priestesses.

Around a century later, the titles were simplified to include:
 * Dark father/mother, leaders within the faith, with the suffix abbot or abbess
 * Dark brother/sister, fully-trained clergy members.
 * Initiate, novice members of the church.

Classes
The church of Shar comprised clerics, crusaders, mystics, and the order of specialty priests known as the nightcloaks. This group of Shar's "nightbringers" previously served a different role outside the clergy, but were brought within the church's embrace circa 1364 DR.

Admittance
Due to the perception of Shar's church among most folk of the Realm, open recruiting for new members was not an option. Novitiates of the faith—whether they served as spies, agents, or clergy within the temples—were brought aboard individually, a process that sometimes took an inordinate amount of time. Sharran clergy often sought out secrets held by prospective members, and manipulated them to secure desired converts.

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—often involving violence against the supplicant's own loved ones. 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.

Factions
Because the church was fractured into smaller cells, it was very common for different sects of the Sharran faith to emerge, each often associated around strong and charismatic priest that led a given cell. In some cases these became 'heretical' in the eyes of rival cells, creating conflict and strife between clergy members.

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
With the intent of spreading the faith of Shar across the breadth of Toril, her clergy utilized corruption and subversion to undermine powerful individuals, governments and even other religions to the point of collapse. Shar's priests often revealed their closely held secrets, inciting bitterness, jealously, and desperation within others, emotions that were strongly embrace by the Lady of Secrets. In doing so they realigned the lives of the faithless so they were best prepared to embrace the comfort of the Lady of Loss, all but ensuring a successful conversion.

The Sharran faithful often embarked on missions of espionage or outright murder in order to fulfill the Lady's will. On some occasions Shar's priests were directed to murder spellcasters that she deemed were guilty of misusing the her own source of magic. Other times they were directly forbidden from dispensing this form of punishment, seemingly without reason or pattern.

Rituals
Every night priests of Shar performed the Nightfall, a ritual in which they received instructions from the goddess and one that held special meaning on nights of a new moon. All the faithful were required to perform this ritual once per tenday.

The Kiss of the Lady was considered the most important rite of the faith, one in which her priests reveled in ritualistic murder and other horrific deeds. It was not held regularly, only when decreed by the leaders of certain influential sects of the church.

Celebrations
To maintain secrecy, the Sharran church only held one holy day on the Calendar of Harptos, the Rising of the Dark held on the night of Uktar 30 and early morning of Nightal 1. While others were distracted themselves by paying tribute to the dead, clergy members used the time to perform their darkest rituals and receive instructions of the faith for the upcoming winter. Recognition of Shar's holy day extended even beyond the world of Toril, as ceremonies of the Rising of the Dark were also held on the Plane of Shadow.

Tactics
Because the Sharran faith was banned in many cities throughout the Realms, clergy were forced to act in secret under the cloaks of secrecy and darkness. They often traveled in small groups or individually throughout Faerûn, often disguised as merchants or pilgrims to avoid detection.

Priests of Shar formed an intricate network of agents to maintain communication with one another, but often withheld crucial information and rarely revealed truthful information to their inferiors. Each member of the clergy had their own role to play in Shar's all-embracing plans for existence, and they were only given the minimum necessary information to fulfill their role.

Magic
It was not uncommon for priests of Shar to utilize the power of her Shadow Weave for spellcasting. Despite this, Shar held onto the deepest and most powerful secrets of the magical force as her own.

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 ______.

Regions
As the ancient faith of Shar dated as back back as the empire of Netheril, it spread across Faerûn and Sharran cells appeared in cities far and wide. Calimshan emerged the preeminent place for Sharran worship throughout the Lands of Intrigue. The presence of the powerful Old Night sect allowed the faithful to gather, share information, and coordinate with one another with relative ease and security.

Shar's worship took root in the region of the Underdark known as Great Bhaerynden, in the depths beneath the Great Rift. A Sharran cell was formed by an unlikely group of disaffected gold dwarves that were exiled from the dwarven kingdom.

Influential cells appeared throughout the cities and realms of the Western and Eastern Heartlands, such as Iriaebor, Daggerford, Wheloon in Cormyr, Shadowdale in the Dalelands, and many cities across Sembia. In fact the Sharran faith became the de facto state religion of Selgaunt, Urmlaspyr, and Saerloon throughout much of the 15 century DR.

The true heart of Shar's church during the Era of Upheaval however was the enclave of Thultanthar, the flying city of ancient Netheril that returned to Faerûn after centuries in the Shadowfell.

Places of Worship
Within her temples the Lady of Loss was often represented as a black sphere haloed in purple flames or a beautiful, black-haired woman with an unnerving smile.

Notable Shrines & Temples

 * Dark Embrace, a powerful Amnian temple founded by dissatisfied Calishite priests during the early 14 century.
 * The Darkhouse, a secret temple built off the coast of Saerloon by the shade Kesson Rel, that held a portal leading to the Adumbral Calyx in the Shadowfell.
 * Dome of Night, the Lady's temple in the returned enclave of Thultanthar, 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 oldest and most influential of Shar's temples—found in Calimport— was a destination for Sharran pilgrims from all across the Realms.
 * Vale of Whispers, while not a temple per se this ancient cave was a holy site to Shar, and the placed where all the secrets ever spoken in the Realms were stored.
 * Vanrakdoom, one of the sublevels of the dungeon complex of Undermountain, founded 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.

Dress
Priests and priestesses of Shar preferred garments of black highlighted with purple. Ceremonial dress included long-sleeved, deep purple robes worn over black clothing, with a black skullcap worn atop the head. Priestesses with black hair abstained from wearing the cap, as their natural tresses were seen as a natural blessing by the Lady of the Night. They often adorned themselves with jewelry made of obsidian, onyx, purple jade, or amethysts.

A specific type of enchanted flower known as a camellia of the Black Lady was soemtimes worn in the hair of Sharran devotees, used to inflict the Lady's vengeance upon a victim of their choosing.

Spells
Spells unique to the Sharran faith included armor of darkness, creature of darknes, darkbolt, and whip of Shar.

Relics
Relics of the Sharran faith included:

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 secret order of Sharran champions that gained admittance with the slaying Selûnite priest or priestess.

Allegiances
Sharran cells 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.

The faithful of Talona allied themselves with Shar's Dark Followers, though for a time only while focused on harming Loviatar, as did followers of Sseth,

Shar and Cyric remained on cooperative terms.

While the church always acted in secret, its members managed to infiltrate or otherwise corrupt powerful institutions across the Realms, including the noble Moonstar family of Waterdeep,

Enemies
The Sharran church was generally opposed to any good-aligned religious orders, such as the Mystran Guardians of the Weave, but particularly despised members of the Selûnite clergy, like her Silverstar priests or the Order of the Blue Moon. The Sharran and Selûnite faiths fought an ongoing war with one another in both ideological and literal terms. Sharran clergy always took opportunities to inflict pain upon the Selûnites, even in lieu of their other duties to the church.

Across Faerûn the Sharran church was opposed by myriad groups and organizations sought to defend their realm from its influence. Notable among these were the Fellowship of the Purple Staff in Turmish,

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.

In the, the Waterdhavian cell of Shar's church led by Vanrak Moonstar enjoyed a significant victory when hey slaughtered nearly all the inhabitants of the Selûnite High House of Stars in the city.

During the early 1370s DR, nearly every Sharran cell across the Western Heartlands came under the influence of the Lady's divine disciple, Damian Krale. The imposing cleric was hand-picked by Shar to carry out her secret plan for the region, known only to him and a handful of local head priests.

Circa the, _____

That same year the former chosen of Mask Kesson Rel—an otherworldly, quasi-divine being interred within the Shadowfell—emerged as an emblematic savior of the Sharran faith in Sembia within the Eastern Heartlands. It was believed by the increasingly-influential sect in Saerloon that Kesson Rel alone could bring upon Shar's Cycle of Night over Toril.

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.

After Shar killed Ibrandul during the Time of Troubles in the, the Dark Lady assumed his divine portfolio and gained the power to take on the form of his avatars. Ibrandul's followers unknowingly offered their worship to Shar in his place, in effect growing the number of her "faithful".

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

Shadows Over Sembia
"When the moon's light is stricken form the Night sky, Lord Volumvax will stand trimumphant with the blood of Selûne on his hands. His is the foresight needed to plunge Toril into the Eternal Dark..."

- Temple credo of the Darkhouse of Saerloon.

In Marpenoth of the, a mere few of Shar's servants operating independently of one another orchestrated the Sembian Civil War and laid the path for the church to take hold of the entire realm. In service to Lord Volumvax (an alias of the shade Kesson Rel) Shar's erratic priestess Elyril Hraven assassinated Overmaster Miklos Selkirk, and with the guidance of Shar's Nightseer Rivalen Tanthul, and installed her aunt Mirabeta as Overmistress in Ordulin. Rivalen meanwhile ingratiated himself with Thamalon Uskevren II of Selgaunt, and forged an alliance with the reborn nation of Netheril in north Faerûn. The Nightseer drew Mirabeta and Ordulin's army into battle at Selgaunt and defeated them with the aid of the returned enclave of Sakkors.

Unbeknownst to Rivalen, Shar's will directed Elyril to recover and read from the Leaves of One Night in Volumvax's name. Using the holy Sharran artifact, Elyril opened the Shadowstorm over Ordulin during the Rising of the Dark and rew the pocket plane known as the Adumbryl Calyx from the Shadowfell, granting Kesson Rel and his army of shadows admittance to Faerûn.

After their shared victory at Selgaunt, Rivalen manipulated Thamalon II into seizing the position of Sembia's Overmaster for himself, and over time, transformed the nation into vassal-state of the returned Netheril.

War and the Weave
Just as war and the Shadowstorm wreaked havoc across Sembia, Sharran clergy working from a false temple of Mystra in Wheloon carried out Shar's will in neighboring Cormyr. Shar's faithful took over the Lost Refuge in the Vast Swamp and reopened the Dusk Lord's Passage, another portal that linked Faerûn to the Shadowfell. Operating from within the Black Rift of the Shadowfell, Esvele Greycastle and the black dragon Despayr, led a group of Sharrans in a ritual that would tear the Weave apart, 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.

In Uktar, 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.

Months later in the, the drow of House Dhuurniv launched raids against 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 arcanists 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.

Second Sundering
By the, the Sharran faith was the de facto state religion of the Empire of Netheril and many cities in state of Sembia. Prince Rivalen emerged as Shar's greatest champion in the Realms and wielded power equivalent to that of an exarch.

Members
The veneration of Shar appealed to people of many different occupation across the spectrum of classes in society, all linked by one or more of a few shared characteristics: jealousy, desperation, scorn, a thirst for power, and secrecy. It often attracted individuals compelled in life to conduct business under the blanket of darkness, people required to perform grim deeds in their line of work, as well as those that yearned to hold a place power and influence in the world.

Individuals suffering from intense feelings of grief, resentment, or loss were often targeted for recruitment by Sharran clergy, and brought into the Sharran faith for succor and comfort. While they were not always true believes, petitioners that had their minds altered or memories taken from them also appealed to Shar in the hopes of mental recovery.

Shar was also worshipped by subterranean humanoid species or more monstrous creatures that hated the light, such as goblins, kir-lanan, along with others native to the Shadowfell, like the shadar-kai and the krinth.

Notable Sharrans

 * Alorgoth, the Bringer of Doom that spread Shar's faith throughout East Faerûn.
 * Shadowheart, a brainwashed half-elf that was targeted for conversion into a True Soul by the Absolute.

Appearances

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