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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11830 Posts |
 Posted - 21 Oct 2021 : 12:58:20
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quote:
Originally posted by The Masked Mage
quote:
Originally posted by DeBasilisk
For what it’s worth, Ed Greenwood did designate Shar as one of the only four “Greater Goddesses,” in Dragon Magazine 54, 1981, on par with Chanteau, Mystra and Sune (page 8, “Down to Earth Divinity). It seems fair to say that even if she wasn’t envisioned as the big bad, she was at least one of the bigs from early on. And actually, you could say she was the big bad in one respect, since out of the four greater goddesses she was the only one with an evil alignment (NE).
Except even way back then you also had Bane, Myrkul, and Talos as "big bads" and Lathander, Oghma, Silvanus, Tempus, and Tyr as other greater gods. And none of those seemed too worried that Shar was trying to destroy them and everything else.
Shar was Darkness and Loss and Forgetfulness... none necessarily "big bad" especially when you read her "bio"
SHAR This goddess 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.
There is nothing really big and bad about that. She is actually more like the goddess of an odd form of emotional closure :P
At one point in 2e, when skills and powers came out, I came up with an idea that I threw into the history of Sleyvas. I had always had him as an anti-hero who turned dark because his wife had been killed by a paladin on accident while chasing a criminal in the marketplace. I added in that he had been cheating on his wife at the time, and that he'd gone to the temple of Shar to reveal his "dark secret" to try and relieve himself of this burden of loss. I want to say that I then wrote up a spell for that church, that if they know someone's deep dark secret that they can utter this spell and they become immune to that person's magic temporarily. It's a hidden spell that they use to either force someone to go do some dark act out of fear of the church, or serves as a means to protect the church from someone who might "wants to make sure his secret can never get out" later.
In that way, it gave their priesthood a really neat nuance. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Why didn’t Shade return to Faerun sooner?
