Shar

"Nightsinger"
Pantheon:	Faerûnian
AoC:	Dark, night, loss
Symbol:	Black disc with a purple border
Home P/L/R:	The Gray Waste/ Niflheim/The Palace of Loss

Shar is a twisted power, one who deeply enjoys inflicting the pain of loss on her followers. She's petty and jealous, and she believes in nursing indignities until they become - in her own mind at least - major slights. Shar claims to help her believers forget the grief of loss, but the dark of it's that she simply makes them accept pain as a standard state of existence. Sure, they hurt less, but only a leatherhead would say they're better off.

Shar teaches her followers that life is pointless and foolish, that they can expect nothing good from the world and therefore should expect nothing from themselves. In short, she's a power of hopelessness and the damping of creative fire, and so she stands in direct opposition to Lathander.

The deity's realm is said to be a single tower rising above the gloomy gray of Niflheim, a tower without windows or doors. Few visitors can figure out how to gain entry or exit, but Shar's petitioners and proxies can come and go as they please. The only sods confined to the palace are those who'd miss their freedom the most; that way, Shar can feel their pain more keenly.

Chant is that some of Shar's proxies have discovered the worship of the Cerilian power Nesirie, Lady of Mourning, who offers healing. A few of these proxies have hidden themselves away in Nesirie's realm to soothe the pain inflicted on them by Shar. But most of the bloods, still loyal to their goddess, are outraged, and report the berks who turn stag. Shar's annoyed that Nesirie dares heal grief, and plans a way to destroy or subvert the Cerilian.

It's also well known that Shar and Selûne are bitter rivals. Folks can't seem to say what sparked the feud, but it's gone on for longer than mortals can remember, and the two work constantly to undercut each other. Truth is, their hatred might stem from nothing more than the simple fact that Selune represents the mystical aspects of the night, while Shar embodies its bitterness.

Mask, the pantheon's god of thieves and shadows, would like to establish an alliance with Shar, but he keeps his distance - he's already lost some of his portfolio to Cyric, and he fears that Shar'd compound that loss by subsuming him entirely. Finally, Shar is said to be feeling out Kelemvor's feelings toward an alliance, but hasn't committed herself one way or another toward the new power.

Recently, a cloud has been seen drifting over Niflheim. This cloud is reported to consist of a thousand and one shadow creatures. It seems that this cloud thinks and acts as one entity, and people say that its a proxy of Lady Loss, maybe even acts as her right hand. The locals call it the "Hand of Darkness".

On the Prime world of Dhearonitiar, Shar is known as Lady Darkness, or Shassalar.

A few years ago, the shadow guardian of Dhearonitiar returned in the name of Lady Darkness to protect her Prime. Dark sorrounding the case suggests it has something to do with an occurance in Darkwater's Dragon Tower around the same time, involving a group of adventurers led by a mad mage.