Evil twin
Shar is the goddess of darkness and caverns in Faerun and the twin sister of the goddess of light, Selune. She is a secretive and manipulative mistress, operating in the shadows to accomplish her goals. She is also the creator of the Shadow Weave which was a counterpart to Mystryl’s weave (though both weaves were destroyed during the spellplague). Shar’s followers can be identified by the symbol of a black disc with a purple rim around it.
Information About Shar
| Characteristic | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Shar |
| Titles | Mistress of the Night, The Nighbringer, Nightsinger, Singer of Eternal Night, Dark Lady, Dark Goddess, Lady of Loss, Goddess of Loss, Mistress of Pain, God of Thieves, Greater Power of the Gray Waste |
| Domains | Darkness, Loss, Night, Secrets, Forgetfulness |
| Gender | Female |
| Pantheon | Faerunian |
| Alignment | Neutral Evil |
| Symbol | Black Disc with Purple Rim |
| Abode | Towers of Night (formerly the Tower of Loss) |
| Allies | Talona, Vhaeraun, Bane, Cyric |
Personality
Shar would present the form of a beautiful, dark-haired woman with pale skin. Her hair would always flow as if caught by the wind, regardless of the weather. Behind her beauty is a cold, harsh god who feels great grief and emptiness inside. She presents herself to her followers as a healer and while she does heal, more often, she prefers to let her followers remain in their grief-stricken state, using those emotions to drive her followers towards actions that will accomplish her desires.
In reality, while Shar has built a large group of followers, her main goal is to eradicate all life itself (including herself), recreating the emptiness of the void that existed before life. Her followers are simply a means to an end in her schemes. She treats them with callous disregard, though will empower them to help them aid her. She is a deeply perverse and sadistic individual that inspires such feelings in her followers.
History
Creation
Shar began life from the primordial essence that has always existed back when Ao first created the universe, when it was still empty. She formed alongside her twin sister Selune. They were both beautiful and near identical apart from their hair; raven-black for Shar and silver for Selune. They considered themselves so similar that they operated as a single entity being named the two-faced goddess or the sisters-who-were-one. Despite their single-mindness, they were also polar opposites, but more in the sense that they complemented one another with different aspects of their person, one for the dark and one for the light.
Together, they created Abeir-Toril and the other worlds of the universe as well as forming the goddess Chauntea who brought life to the worlds they’d created. Shar brought with her the darkness to the worlds; giving night, shadow and the underground areas. Selune brought light to the world but there was no warmth or heat. Chauntea asked that they provide warmth to allow life to grow on these worlds and this request is the one that brought the great divide between these 2 sisters.
This divide turned into a full-blown conflict between the 2 sisters whose struggles gave rise to the original gods of magic, murder, death, disease, war and many others. Selune chose to ignore her sister’s desires and reached out into a plane of fire, wounding herself in the process, but allowing her to create a sun from which heat could be provided to the planets of the universe.
Shar was furious and began to blot out the light and warmth of the sun but Selune, desperate to protect the life she had created, tore out a portion of her own essence, nearly killing herself in the process, and hurled it at Shar. This essence bonded with a portion of Shar’s own essence creating Mystryl, goddess of magic. She was born of both light and dark but initially sided with her creator, Selune and balanced the scales of the conflict with Selune, severely weakened. In time, she was able to negotiate a form of peace between the 2 sisters in which light and dark were able to have their way upon the planets.
Ultimately, life was protected, but was forced to struggle for that life. Shar remained embittered, vowing to bide her time and take her vengeance. Selune remained weakened, though her powers would be regained somewhat over the ages. She was strengthened by allegiances with other gods including her children and those of other realms.
The Dawn War
The dawn war was a time when the primordials chose to attack realmspace. During this time, Shar and Selune put aside their personal differences to fight together against the primordials. They were eventually successful with the assistance of other gods.
The Time of Troubles
During the time of troubles, magic went wrong and the gods were forced to live among mortals. At first, Shar came to Waterdeep in the appearance of her sister, Selune where she roused the faithful of the Temple of the Moon (worshippers of Selune) in honour of herself as Selune. When Selune arrived at the temple as Luna, Shar turned the worshippers against Selune causing her to be attacked and captured. Shar sought to turn her mad before intending to kill her sister.
Shar managed break Luna’s mind and will, confusing her into thinking that Shar was in fact Selune and that she was simply a deluded priestess. Luna came to worship Shar as Selune and became a member of the fanatical Selunite order, the Lunatics.
Shar’s deception came back to bite her when she was an honoured guest at castle Waterdeep and 3 members of the Dark Army of the Night (Shar worshippers) attempted to kidnap the one they thought was the avatar of Selune on behalf of Shar. Shar defeated them but had her temper exposed when Kyriani confronted her. Though she defeated Kyriani, the conflict brought doubts in the minds of the nobility who had known Selune to be a compassionate goddess.
Luna was finally convinced of her identity and able to gain access to her true powers when her friends Timoth Eyesbright and Onyx the Invincible infiltrated the temple and were able to eavesdrop on conversations that brought them the truth of the situation. Luna was rescued, convinced of the truth and Shar was defeated, leaving Luna able to step back into her true role.
Shar’s Realm
Shar originally dwelt on the Plane of Shadow inside a tower known as the Tower of Loss. There was no obvious entrance into the tower, but Shar took joy in trapping hapless victims there and seeing their despair as they struggled to find a way to escape. She would allow worshippers to enter the tower, allowing them free passage in and out of the tower. Many of these worshippers also became torturers of those that were trapped.
Later, Shar created the Shadowfell which became her new domain within the Astral Sea. It is a dark, featureless land with black sand and a mountain upon which was built the Tower of Nights. She rules from this tower alongside other gods such as Talona, Sseth and Zehir.