Sharess, Mother of Cats

The Dancing Lady, Mother of Cats

Faerunian Demigod

Symbol - Feminine Lips

Home Plane - Brightwater

Alignment - Chaotic Good

Portfolio - Hedonism, sensual fulfillment, festhalls, cats.

Worshippers - Bards, hedonists, sensualists.

Cleric Alignments. CG, CN, NG

Domains - Chaos, Charm, Good, Travel, Trickery.

Favoured Weapon - Clawed Gauntlets.

sharess (Shah-ress) is a radiantly beautiful goddess, rivaled only by Sune. Her voice is said to be a throaty purr & to give the listener the feeling he or she is being brushed by the softest fur or velvet when she speaks. She is a fickle, flighty deity, who prvents anyone from getting too close to her true spirit. She has the willful independence & pleasure-seeking nature common to felines & is constantly preening & grooming to maintain her appearance. She is often depicted (especially in Mulhorand, where she is known as Bast) as a voluptuous human female with the head of a cat. Sharess enjoys toying with beautiful mortals & she cannot resist casually flirting with anyone she encounters. However, when her ardor cools & her passion is sated, Sharess is easily distracted & quick to move on to new pleasures. She dislikes snakes intensely.

The Church of Sharess is casually organised, although it's members often work & play together. The clergy of Sharess often run festhalls in large cities, or directly serve decadent rulers. These festhalls cater to all the senses & include fantastic feasts, heavenly baths & massages & every other pleasure imaginable. Wealthy festhalls often employ one or two mid-level Sharesan & some Sharessan wander the countryside with Sharess' blessing, seeking new pleasing sensations to add to their repertoire.

Clerics of Sharess pray for their spells at dusk, when the lure of the night first beckons. The church of Sharess celebrates more festivals than possibly any other faith in Faerun. They are known collectively as the Endless Revel of Life. The daily rising & setting of the sun, the yearly passage of seasons, the appearance of a full moon, or nearly any other event is cause for celebration & wild revel to which the general populace is always invited. Each such festival has several outlandish titles & new festivals are added all the time as old ones are forgotten. Without comparison however, Midsummer's Eve is the time of greatest rejoicing among Sharess' faithful & an occaision for the most extreme pursuits of boundless pleasure. Many clerics multiclass as Bards.

History & Relationships;

Bast was a Mulhorandi deity who served as a patroness of cats & Anhur's lieutenant in the eternal struggle against Set. At the height of Mulhorand's second empire, when many beast cults were popular, Bast subusmed the portfolio of Felidae, a beast cult deity of felines, sensual pleasure & nomads. Struck by wanderlust, Bast travelled across Faerun, leaving numerous cults in her wake, many of which knew her as Sharess. Sharess eventually began to experiment with the darker side of pleasure & fell under the sway of Shar. She would have undoubtedly been wholly subsumed by the Dark Goddess if Sune had not freed her during the Time of Troubles. Since that time, Sharess has restored her ties of friendship with Anhur, Hanali Celanil, Lliira, Mili, Nobanion, Selune & Sune. She now works to oppose the evil of SEt, Shar & Loviatar, & Shar has never forgotten that Sharess escaped her clutches.

Dogma;

Life is to be lived to its fullest, in decadent sensual fulfillment of yourselves & others. That which is good is pleasurable & that which s pleasurable is good. Pleasure is to be sough tout at every opportunity & life is to belived as one endless revel. Spread the bounty of Sharess so that all may join in the endless revel of life & bring joy to all those in pain. Infinite experiences await those who would explore, so try the new as well as savouring the old.