Church of Shargaas

The church of Shargaas was the primary religious organization dedicated to the worship and service of the orc god Shargaas, The Night Lord. They were commonly called Shargassans.

Dogma
According to the dogma of Shargaas, the darkness was cold and everlasting, but the mantle of the black night provided cover for a hidden blade. It was the duty of his followers to eliminate all other races, and especially to go into the deepest tunnels and wage war against those intruding upon Shargaas's domain.

Despite being despised by most other orcs, the secret society of Shargaas was a dangerous hidden force in most tribes, for one of their mandates was, while silent and unseen, to cull the weak. Even orc chieftans were not exempt from the predations of Shargaas's followers, and the clerics of the Night Lord could strike fear into even the mightiest of them. Part of the culling of the weak included the elimination of chiefs perceived to be cowardly, weak, or ineffectual leaders, elimination being a stab in the dark. The failures of an orc warchief could be the doom of Shargaas's own followers, and so the eyes of any leader had to be watched for signs of weakness.

Activities
Much like with Gruumsh and Shargaas, the cultists of the Night Lord were sometimes called upon by orc chieftans to perform specific tasks when faced with foes that could withstand direct assaults. They acted as scouts and spies for orcish armies, though only under the cover of darkness, and worked on the margins of enemy forces to eliminate watchmen and prevent defense forces from mustering. In particular though, the cultists were sent to assassinate an enemy leader, kidnap an important individual as a hostage or swipe a valuable object. The cult leader would supply aid when asked for the price of something the group prized, such as food, tools, or slaves.

While most Shargaasan followers were forced to dwell far from the others, others remained with the main body, hiding their true affiliation while posing as ordinary warriors. These secret agents singled out the weakest warriors to strengthen the tribe as a whole and removed them based on the logic that a chain was only as strong as its weakest link, and a young orc that failed to show sufficient warrior talent would soon be visited by the cultists. Those forced into the deep darkness of the tribe would either be brought into the cult or Shargaas or sacrificed to the Night Lord.

Membership
Shargaas was worshiped as the patron of orcish (including half-orcs) bandits and thieves, and any among their kind that did their wicked work under the cover of darkness. The Night Lord was considered the patron of Underdark orc tribes, his own clans always dwelling underground.

Formally joining the cult of Shargaas demanded sufficient levels of dexterity and a purely evil alignment. Pickpocketing, hiding in the darkness, and assassination were skills that every follower needed to learn.

Classes


The priests and shamans of Shargaas were sneaking killers who constantly honed their skills, often supplementing their clerical skills by training as assassins, blackguards, divine seekers, rogues or shadowdancers.

Orders
Elite among the assassins and thieves of Shargaas's cult were the Red Fangs of Shargaas, who used a combination of intense training and magic granted by the Night Lord to perform covert operations. They saw through the darkness, quickly slayed unprepared foes, and could cast darkness without material components, a move known as the Veil of Shargaas.

Red Fangs rode an animal sacred to Shargaas, giant bats, with most enclaves having a rookery where such creatures were nurtured. By using secret tunnels in the back of orc layers (typically ending in a cliff face from the main lair), they conducted stealth raids and assassinations. The giant carnivorous bats silently entered enemy territory and echolocated hidden enemies, before swooping down, snatching the victims, and going back through the tunnels. Captives were either fed to a brood of giant bats or kept as slaves for work or barter.

Rituals
Shargaasan clerics prayed for spells at midnight, when darkness shrouded the world. The major holy days of Shargaas occurred during the new moon, when the sky was clouded and dark. Services in honor of the Night Lord cold be done anywhere, but during the monthly new moon ceremony, a grim event known as the Chant in the Abiding Darkness, the clergy of the Night Lord gathered under the dark sky to honor the Stalker Below.

Sacrifices to Shargaas took the form of stolen items, with supplicants to the faith being required to offer something during the Chant that was of great value to its original owner (preferably an enemy's heart). Orcs deemed unfit were also known to be sacrificed to Shargaas by being torn apart and devoured as tribute to the Night Lord. Afterwards, the assembled clergy would chant a series of ritualistic prayers, pledging their service to the Blade in the Darkness as his silent and deadly weapons.

Shrines & Temples
Shargaas was thought to lurk in the depths of the earth, deep underneath the caves of most orcs that dwelt on the surface-realm. As such, the outsider orcs of the Stalker Below dwelt in the deepest, darkest most isolated portions of a tribe's lair, away from the warhearth close to where the entrance to his realm was located. Altars of Shargaas took the form of bloodstained rocks.

Dress
The clerical raiment of Shargaas's faithful was red and black leather armor with leather caps worn on the head. Other forms of armor (like chainmail) could be used if silenced.

Magic
Clerics of Shargaas gained the ability to create continual darkness and cast a version of cloak of fear combined with the darkness spell (which the priest could see through).

Relationships
Shargaas was considered by most orcs to be a god of pariahs, weaklings, and other outcasts, those that for whatever reason (injury, infirmity, ineptness, malnutrition, or seniority) were unfit for proper roles in the tribe. While this was somewhat true for the followers of Yurtrus as well, who also joined the cult of their god to avoid daily shame, banishment, or death, those under Shargaas were even greater rejects, deemed unsuitable to serve as custodians of the dead. Even by the standards of their fellow orcs they were debased cultists, dishonorable skulkers in the shadows.

While the practice of culling the weak was normally accepted as necessary within orc tribes, speaking of it was taboo; orcs that disappeared were simply said to be "with Shargaas" and never mentioned again.