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 Thultanthar, 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.


 * Nightcloaks
 * Nightcloaks, formerly known as Nightbringers were a group of particularly debased followers of Shar who, until the Time of Troubles were a separate entity, but since then have been absorbed into the Church as specialty priests.


 * Beguilers of Shar
 * An order tasked with keeping the existence of the Shadow Weave secret. When Shar publicly revealed the Shadow Weaves existence, the order was dissolved and its members were ejected from the church.


 * Darkcloaks
 * Unusual among other orders in the Church, Darkcloaks are actually a compassionate group of oracles and care-givers who tend to those troubled souls who are emotionally damaged, often bringing the bliss of forgetfulness to soothe their pain. Their work has done much to present the church in a positive light to the populace, though too often the reaction is still negative. This order includes some of the few non-evil, non-neutral clerics in the Church.

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 and her sister Selûne coalesced out of the material of realmspace after it was created by Ao. They were incredibly close at first, so much so that they believed themselves to be the same being. They worked together to create the heavens and the planets and then created Chauntea to embody the planets and infuse them with life. Selûne lit the worlds while Shar coated them in shadows. Chauntea though claimed that Selûne's light was not enough for life to thrive like she wanted it to and begged the sisters for warmth. Shar and Selûne argued for the first time - Selûne wanting their realm to be filled with more life while Shar was happy with the state of things as they were. The two quarreled violently, creating Targus, Moander and Jergal in the aftermath. At an impasse, Selûne reached into the plane of fire and set the largest of the planets alight. Shar attacked again and tried to smother the flames but Selûne had torn off a part of her own body and hurled it against her sister. The raw magical power of Selûne's body punched a hole through Shar's and out of the two chunks of their bodies, Mystryl formed. Mystryl aligned herself with Selûne and, outmatched, Shar fled, vowing revenge against them both.

Shar brooded for aeons, striking against her sister whenever she saw the opportunity but unlike Selûne, Shar did not have allies. At least, not until she was courted by the shadevari - 13 chaotic lords of shadow who had witnessed the births of Shar and Selûne and much preferred Shar's ideal of a realm of darkness. They helped her grow stronger but then Azuth sealed her allies away in another crystal sphere, foiling her plans.

For roughly the next seven centuries, Shar returned to brooding until Ao forced her avatar to Toril during the Time of Troubles. Shar's power increased when she killed Ibrandul, though she lost the opportunity to also kill Sharess whom she had been slowly corrupting. Nevertheless in the wake of the Godswar, Shar was revitalized in a way she hadn't been before and began actively subverting Selûne and the new goddess of magic Mystra. Shar eventually made allies of Bane and a patsy of Cyric in 1374 DR. Together, their followers attempted to conquer Myth Drannor while the Church of Shar attempted to wrest control of magic away from Mystra through various means. Shar's plots were defeated but she did absorb most of the divinity of her son Mask.

11 years later, Mystra was dead at Cyric's hand and Shar combined the Plane of Shadow with the Negative Energy Plane to create the Shadowfell where she has ruled over darkness ever since.

Divine Realm
Shar's realm was originally on the Plane of Shadow and was a tower that had no obvious entrances called the Tower of Loss. She would trap those who enjoyed their freedom inside, savouring their despair at its loss though she would allow petitioners and visiting worshipers to freely come and go (perhaps to further torture the trapped ones).

When she created the Shadowfell, Shar abandoned the Tower of Loss and created a new realm in the Astral Sea, larger than any of the others there. Among the dark scenery, with its black sand and shadowy natural features, lie the Towers of Night. Her new abode, a more palatial one than her old home, is built atop the tallest mountain of this realm. Access to the Shadowfell is easy from here and she shares the realm with Talona, Sseth and Zehir.

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