 Shar | |
|---|---|
| Alias(es): | Mistress of the Night, Lady of Loss, Dark Goddess |
| Power: | Greater deity |
| Pantheon: | Faerûnian pantheon |
| Symbol: | Black disk surrounded by a lavender halo |
| Alignment: | Neutral evil |
| Cleric alignment: | CE, NE, LE |
| Portfolio: | Caverns, dark, dungeons, forgetfulness, loss, night, secrets, the Underdark |
| Worshippers: | Anarchists, assassins, avengers, monks (Dark Moon), nihilists, rogues, shadow adepts, shadowdancers |
| Canon NWN2 domains: | Darkness Evil Knowledge |
| Other canon domains: | Cavern |
| Favoured weapon (NWN2): | Short sword |
| Canon favoured weapon: | Chakram - "The Disk of Night" |
| Allies: | Talona |
| Enemies: | Selûne, Mask, deities of light and fire such as Lathander and Kossuth |
Symbol of Shar
After Lord Ao created the universe, the swirling chaos coalesced to form twin deities; Selûne, a being of light and creation, and Shar (Shahr), a power of darkness and destruction. Shar's existence, paradoxically, is tied to the shrouded nothingness that existed prior to Ao's act of creation.
Loss is the nature of Shar. One of the Dark Gods, she is a deeply twisted and perverse being of ineffable evil and endless petty hatred and jealousy. She rules over pains hidden but not forgotten, bitterness carefully nurtured away from the light and from others, and quiet revenge for any slight, no matter how old. She is said to have the power to make her devout followers forget the pain, yet what occurs is that they become inured to the loss, treating it as a common and natural state of being. The basic inanity of life and foolishness of hope are the cornerstones of Shar's being.
Shar is the mortal enemy of Selûne and battles her ceaselessly on many planes trough mortal worshippers and servitor creatures. The undying enmity between the two goddesses is older than recorded time.
Like Mystra (who was part of Selûne's essence at the beginning of time) Shar provides a conduit that enables mortal spellcasters and magical crafters to access the raw forces of magic. Unlike Mystra's Weave which is freely accessible and generally unbiased towards good or evil, law or chaos, Shar's Shadow Weave is tainted by the darkness which is Shar, and the goddess exercises a much tighter control about who uses the Shadow Weave and for what purpose.