Express Helpline- Get answer of your question fast from real experts. Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It was originally created by author and game designer Ed.

• Faiths And Avatars 2nd Edition Pdf
• Faiths And Avatars 2nd Edition Pdf

Shar (/ˈʃɑːr/SHAHR),^[1] also known as Mistress of the Night, Nightsinger, Lady of Loss, or The Darkness, is a fictional deity in the Dungeons & DragonsForgotten Realms campaign setting. She is the evil counterpart to her twin sister Selûne, and presides over caverns, dark, dungeons, forgetfulness, loss, night, secrets, and the Underdark. Shar is an ancient goddess, formed together with her sister at the beginning of time, out of the empty nothingness that existed before gods or mortals. Among her array of twisted powers is the ability to see everything that lies or happens in the dark.

Shar is a Neutral EvilGreater Power whose symbol is a black disk with a deep purple border. Her divine realm in 2nd edition was the Palace of Loss on the Gray Waste; in 3rd edition the Palace of Loss was in the Plane of Shadow, and in 4th edition her realm is the Towers of Night.

• 1Publication history
• 3Shadow Weave

Publication history[edit]

Ed Greenwood created Shar for his home Dungeons & Dragons game, set in Greenwood's Forgotten Realms world.^[2]

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977–1988)[edit]

Shar first appeared within Dungeons & Dragons as one of the deities featured in Ed Greenwood's article 'Down-to-earth Divinity' in Dragon #54 (October 1981). Shar was introduced as Mistress of the Night, The Lady of Loss, goddess of darkness, night, loss, and forgetfulness; she is a neutral evil greater goddess from the plane of Hades. According to this article, Shar 'is said to be darkly beautiful. She is often worshipped by those made bitter by the loss of a loved one; in her dark embrace all forget, and although they forever feel loss, they become used to such pain until they consider it the usual and natural state of existence. Shar battles continually with Selune, slaying her often (i.e., every new moon), and is worshipped (or paid lip service by) all surface-dwelling beings who dislike light. Those who make or take disguises worship Leira, but those who seek only to hide or bury something pay homage to Shar.' Shar is described as one of 'The Dark Gods' of evil alignment: 'Shar is allied with Myrkul.' Shar is commonly worshipped by neutral evil thieves and clerics.^[2]

Shar later officially appeared as one of the major deities for the Forgotten Realmscampaign setting, in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set's 'Cyclopedia of the Realms' booklet (1987).^[1]

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989–1999)[edit]

Shar was described in the hardback Forgotten Realms Adventures (1990),^[3] the revised Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1993) in the 'Running the Realms' booklet,^[4] and Faiths & Avatars (1996).^[5] Her clergy was further detailed in Warriors and Priests of the Realms (1996),^[6] and Prayers from the Faithful (1997).^[7]

Her role in the cosmology of the Planescape campaign setting was described in On Hallowed Ground (1996).^[8]

Shar's role in the ancient history of the Realms is described in Netheril: Empire of Magic (1996).

Her relationships with the nonhuman deities in the Forgotten Realms was covered in Demihuman Deities (1998).^[9]

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition (2000–2007)[edit]

Shar appears as one of the major deities of the Forgotten Realms setting again, in Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (2001),^[10] and is further detailed in Faiths and Pantheons (2002).^[11]

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008–2013)[edit]

Shar's story is detailed in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, and her dogma is presented in the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide for this edition. Shar is the instigator of the cataclysmic events that led to the changes between the 3rd and 4th editions in the Forgotten Realms. Shar supplied Cyric with the power to finally slay Mystra in the hopes that both the Weave and the Shadow Weave would come under Shar's control. The plan backfired, as Mystra's death caused all magic in the Realms to go haywire in a cataclysm known as the Spellplague. Though Cyric was imprisoned for his crimes, Shar escaped judgement. Even though the Shadow Weave is no more, Shar retained her power with the return of Netheril. The ancient empire was restored by the Shadovar, and Shar is the only goddess whom the revived Netherese allow to be worshipped in their territory. Shar's archenemy is still her sister, Selune.^[12]

Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition (2014–)[edit]

In the 5th edition of the Player's Handbook, Shar appears as part of the core pantheon of the Forgotten Realms setting and her suggested domains for clerics are death and trickery.^[13] She is more detailed in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.^[14]

Clergy[edit]

The clergy of Shar is a secretive organization that pursues subversive tactics rather than direct confrontation with its rivals. In addition to her clerics, Shar maintains an elite order of sorcerermonks who can tap Shar's Shadow Weave. Among her worshipers are the Shadovar (the citizens of Shade Enclave—a floating city which is home to the survivors of ancient Netheril who fled into the shadow plane before Karsus's folly). Shar holds power over all who use the Shadow Weave, a creation that has made her the eternal enemy of the goddess of magicMystra. A terrible war brews between the two powerful deities. Shar's agents work to murder Selune's avatars whenever possible.

Shadow Weave[edit]

An artifact of Shar's creation, the Shadow Weave is a polar opposite of the Weave, the source of almost all magic in the Forgotten Realms. Few practitioners are even aware of the Shadow Weave's existence, and fewer still attempt to tap into it as a source of power.

Orders[edit]

• Shar has a secret order called the 'Dark Justicars'. In order to gain admittance to the order, a priest of Shar has to have killed a priest of Selûne.
• Shar's secretive monastic order is referred to as the 'Order of the Dark Moon'. They tap into the Shadow Weave through their powers of sorcery.
• The Avatars of Shar, or the 'Nightbringers' are the elite Sharran forces. They are spirits that infest hosting bodies, possessing them and using the bodies as puppets. Once one is infected with a Nightbringer, that person fuses to being as one with the Nightbringer gaining the strength and beauty of Shar. Only females are selected as hosts for the Nightbringers. Though their (Nightbringers) numbers were large within the Avatar Wars, their numbers fell to the hundreds in modern-day settings of Forgotten Realms campaigns
• Unusual among other orders in the Church, the 'Darkcloaks' were actually a compassionate group of oracles and care-givers who tended to those troubled souls who were emotionally damaged, often bringing the bliss of forgetfulness to soothe their pain. Their work did much to present the church in a positive light to the populace, though too often the reaction was still negative. This order included some of the few non-evil, non-neutral clerics in the Church.^[6]:103

Literature and games[edit]

• Mistress of the Night (2004), by Don Bassingthwaite and Dave Gross is the second book in the Forgotten Realms series, The Priests. It is about the worshippers of Shar.
• In the computer game Baldur's Gate, a drow cleric named Viconia DeVir is a priestess of Shar. The character can join the party. Viconia also can join the party in the computer game Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. She follows Shar as her personal deity after she renounced Lolth and was exiled from the Underdark.

Legacy[edit]

The cave-dwellingsnail species Gastrocopta sharae was named in part after the Forgotten Realms deity Shar.^[15]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abEd Greenwood, Jeff Grubb and Karen S. Martin (1987). Forgotten Realms Campaign Set. Wizard of the Coast. ISBN0-88038-472-7.
2. ^ ^abEd Greenwood, Dragon magazine #54 - 'Down-to-earth divinity' (October 1981)
3. ^Grubb, Jeff and Ed Greenwood. Forgotten Realms Adventures (TSR, 1990)
4. ^Ed Greenwood (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. ASIN B000K06S2E.
5. ^Martin, Julia, and Eric L. Boyd. Faiths & Avatars (TSR, 1996)
6. ^ ^abTerra, John. Warriors and Priests of the Realms (TSR, 1996)
7. ^Greenwood, Ed and Stewart, Doug. Prayers from the Faithful (TSR, 1997)
8. ^McComb, Colin. On Hallowed Ground (TSR, 1996)
9. ^Boyd, Eric L.Demihuman Deities (TSR, 1998)
10. ^Ed Greenwood; et al. (2001). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Wizard of the Coast. ISBN0-7869-1836-5.
11. ^Boyd, Eric L, and Erik Mona. Faiths and Pantheons (Wizards of the Coast, 2002)
12. ^Cordell, Bruce R., Ed Greenwood, and Chris Sims. Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. (Wizards of the Coast, 2008)
13. ^Jeremy Crawford (2014). Player's Handbook. Wizards of the Coast. p. 294. ISBN0786965606.
14. ^Steve Kenson (2015). Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. Wizards of the Coast. p. 36. ISBN9780786965809.
15. ^Salvador, Rodrigo B.; Cavallari, Daniel C.; Simone, Luiz R.L. (15 February 2017). 'Taxonomical study on a sample of land and freshwater snails from caves in central Brazil, with description of a new species'. Zoosystematics and Evolution. 93 (1): 135–141. doi:10.3897/zse.93.10995.

Further reading[edit]

• Reynolds, Sean K., Duane Maxwell, and Angel Leigh McCoy. Magic of Faerûn (TSR, 2001).

External links[edit]

Faiths And Avatars 2nd Edition Pdf

• Sneak Peek: Shar by Sean K. Reynolds, Wizards of the Coast designer

Faiths And Avatars 2nd Edition Pdf

Faiths & Avatars is an Advanced Dungeons & DragonsForgotten Realms campaign expansion book.

Contents[edit]

Faiths & Avatars lists, ranks, rates, explains and details everything about the gods in the Faerûnian pantheon, even those who have died.^[1] The book provides 45 detailed descriptions, and four new priest sub-classes. Each god has a description, statistics, and personal history, as well as a description of its Avatar - the god's manifestation in the mortal world and the form that adventurers would be most likely to encounter. The faiths section of each god details that god's church structure, dogma, day-to-day activities, major centers of worship, affiliated religious orders, priestly vestments, adventuring garb, holy days and important ceremonies.^[1] The book offers specific extra spells to the followers of the various gods, which reflect the individual god's nature and spheres of influence.^[1] The book's last ten pages outline four priest sub-classes: crusaders, monks, mystic and shaman.^[1]

This book contains an exhaustive list of all the Lesser through Greater human gods and their churches. The supplement provides numerous spells and special powers for clerics of each different faith. Faiths & Avatars details the clergy, the ethos, and important information to depict the Faerûnian pantheon in a campaign setting.

Publication history[edit]

The book was designed by Julia Martin with Eric L. Boyd,^[2] and additional design by Ed Greenwood, L. Richard Baker III, and David Wise. Cover art is by Alan Pollack, with interior illustrations by Earl Geier and color plates by Victoria Lisi and Ned Dameron.

This book is first in a series of sourcebooks about the Faerûnian pantheon, followed by Powers & Pantheons and Demihuman Deities.

Reception[edit]

Trenton Webb reviewed Faiths & Avatars for Arcane magazine, rating it an 8 out of 10 overall.^[1] He declared that 'Julia Martin and Eric L. Boyd deserve medals for what they've achieved with Faiths & Avatars. They probably also deserve professional psychiatric help for even attemption to codify and clarify the twisted theology of Abeir-Toril. The resultant work is exhaustive. It's also exhausting.'^[1] He found that the book 'ignores the non-human deities, but by the time you've waded through this weighty work you'll be glad it does'.^[1] He referred to the god descriptions, the new sub-classes, and the '(hilarious) ninepage cleric fashion show' as a 'guarantee of value'.^[1] He calls the introduction 'remarkably concise (if somewhat brain-mangling)' and says that the book then 'dips straight into what makes each god worth worshipping. This is no Deities & Demigods-style glorified Monster Manual - in which the gods were dismissed with single paragraph descriptions, a pretty picture and an outrageous set of stats - but a collection of information so thorough that it makes your brain hurt.'^[1] Webb calls the gods' personal histories 'deadpan [..] telling which gods they hate, who they support and how much attention they pay to their followers. All very solid, and just what you'd expect.'^[1] Regarding the avatars, he says: 'Oddly, these are short descriptions but, since they're backed by the in-depth god info, there's more than enough information here to create truly terrifying encounters for those characters who are sufficiently cocky (or stupid) to tackle deities head-to-head.'^[1] He goes on to say: 'It's faith, however, that really makes gods great and this book good. Ordinarily, playing a cleric character is difficult because there's precious little rules-based help in AD&D for those trying to take their characters beyond the role of magical nurses. The only experience most of us have of religion is the modern Christian model, which is of no use when your day-to-day activities include direct physical violence. It's even less help when your priest worships a god who personifies evil, cruelty and downright nastiness.'^[1] Webb commented that with the faiths section for each god, 'Faiths & Avatars provides players with loads of inspiration and plenty of guidance for roleplaying'.^[1] He called the sub-classes the 'final accomplishment of Faiths & Avatars', but felt that they were 'almost dismissed in an appendix-like form', saying: 'Although these descriptions are a little too concise for their own good, the sub-classes they deal with are welcome additions that work well with the Faiths & Avatars system. It's especially nice to see the return of the Oriental Adventures-style monk.'^[1]

Aside from the sheer size of the subject matter, Webb outlines what he considers two major problems with the book: 'Functionally, the print's too small and the background tints are too dark, which makes reading a chore and cross-referencing difficult. In addition, it's stylistically po-faced, overly pious and almost puritanical about the subject matter. There's no excitement or enjoyment to be had here.'^[1] He goes on to say that 'Faiths & Avatars is scarily serious and seriously scary. Personally, I'd be terrified of implementing it in a campaign for fear of having missed some vital link and consequently undermining both my campaign and the Faerûnian pantheon. But if you've got powerful characters running around one of the Forgotten Realms you'd be doing your players a disservice if you didn't toy with this hi-octane, high-power playing aid.'^[1] Webb concluded by saying: 'Reading Faiths & Avatars is a real struggle, but you'll plough on because the ideas are good, the research thorough, and because it offers a lot to any Forgotten Realms campaign. Faiths & Avatars is the bible for the Forgotten Realms. Unfortunately, just like many real-world religions, it takes itself far too seriously.'^[1]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^{abcdefghijklmnopq}Webb, Trenton (June 1996). 'Games Reviews'. Arcane. Future Publishing (7): 64–65.
2. ^Ryan, Michael G. (December 2000). 'Profiles: Julia Martin'. Dragon. Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast (#278): 20–21, 24.