Looking for a Deity

[hexweasel]

I'm looking for a deity for a fun loving happy character that can get along with as many people as possible. 

Paladin of Tyr?  "Lets go smite some evil" 

Necromancer just made a giant skeleton? "Whatever makes you happy"

I was thinking a priestess of Sharess.  "Indulge your passions"

The page says they do not get along with Shar and Loviatar, but she's also chaotic good so I'm not sure who else she would not be alright with associating with.  Has anyone had any experience with playing a cleric of Sharess?  Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[DOT]

What race? There is a hin deity of friendship/hospitality?

[hexweasel]

I was thinking human or elf but I'm 'pretty' sure that all the elven deities are very much against lots of various things.

[malclave]

Sharess and Lliira are the obvious choices, as goddesses of hedonism and joy respectively. Sune and Milil might also be worth considering.

[hexweasel]

Lliira would be a great choice and the very first one I looked at but she's kind of opposed to violence and that's like ....70 percent of what we do on the server. Sune could work but in a love everyone kind of way.

[oldfog]

Tymora? She encourage people to take risks letting them rely on their luck. Could easily turn that to a joyful character that doesnt take life too serious.

[hexweasel]

Tymora is a great idea and I think she's really only opposed to Beshaba specifically. Maybe Sharr

[appleseedy]

remember that as the priestess of a "good" deity your pretty much opposed to evil

[winterglass]

Lliira's a good one, as is Tymora, and they avoid the weird and sketchy Happy Hooker schtick that comes with the territory with Sharess.

[lucesi]

Oghma perhaps? His followers can be of any alignment - the search for knowledge being above any other moral considerations.

[nemusator]

Isis. Nature's deity, patron of those in love, protector of marriage... It is incredible how much there is to research. As her religion spread, was the most spread religion before Christianity, the religion itself was constantly changing, in fact she was considered to be the Goddess of entire cosmos for a period. My character usually describes her as a mix of Chauntea and Mystra to present the basic concept before going into details...

With all that said... Whatever you do, don't research family relationships in terms of her close family relations to one another. I am serious, I had traumas for days.

[hexweasel]

Thank you for all the great ideas. Oghma looks great and you are right there are great RP reasons to join just about anyone. I didn't even think about Isis and I'll have to take a look.

[Andros]

I would say go with Oghma, it has the strongest domains of all the clerics and all the priests of Oghma I have seen always play the charming-carefree type

[Runa Rothgar]

Oghmanytes are straight up nerds..

[TrueBlueOriginal]

One of Sharess's major enemies is Set, who is known as the Defiler of the Dead. His clerics have a history of creating undead just to let them wander and cause mayhem.

So Sharessan faithful, even clerics that aren't good-aligned, tend to be opposed to the use and creation of undead. Not all Sharessan clerics are good-aligned, as her clergy can be NG, CG, or CN, but the opposition to undead stems as much from opposing Set and his ways as an opposed faith as from their deity's alignment.

If you're looking for a cleric character that can swing either way on the moral compass, to so speak, I'd recommend a Neutral-aligned deity rather than a good-aligned one. Oghma, who has been mentioned, is a pretty good choice since he's TN and his clergy, specifically, can be any alignment. (Unlike most clergy of TN gods that are restricted to having a neutral component to their alignments.) Oghmyte clergy of any alignment are opposed to dishonesty though, as part of the Oghma faith, so that's something to consider.

A LN cleric of LN Waukeen might also be an option. I've seen Waukeenar clergy that refused to discriminate against potential customers on the grounds of such "abstractions" as Good and Evil.

Also know that good-aligned characters may not be willing to associate with someone who openly associates with evil characters even if that character is not evil.

[sarkill]

Akadi is another good option. Although she's the primal goddess of wind, her dogma is essentially "do whatever you want", and she's a neutral deity like Oghma. If you didnt know, Oghma is an enemy of Cyric, Bane, and Mask, which are all pretty "common" evil dieties. I believe Akadi's only enemy is Grumbar, the god of earth, and probably the other elemental gods to a lesser extent. Akadi also has access to the travel and trickery domains which are good for power building as well, if you care about that.

[hexweasel]

TrueBlueOriginal you are playing Kira the established priestess of Sharess correct? Is there anything resembling a church or clergy on FRC at the moment? From the articles I have read ( and I am looking for more) I found this page. There seem to be a few different segments of Sharess and some have altering views on necromancy. It is my interpretation that some of the factions are much more dogmatic and seek out followers of Set and others are more whimsical and are potentially at risk of slipping away from the pure Chaotic Good.

amiawiki.shatuga.com/index.php/Sharess

And this funeral rite
Funerals

In some places in Faerûn, Sharessan funerals do not involve burial, interment in crypts or embalming. Instead, priests embrace the dead in a ‘last intimacy’ (that need not be more than a kiss while the cleric’s arms are wrapped around the body), and the corpses are then animated using a Firedance spell, to cavort in the air above a pyre which consumes them so that they "dance on air" as they crumble to ash.[14] This practice likely does not sit well with the Dancers of Sharess.

[Wylan]

While a lot of adventurers often follow a single deity. There really isn't anything that says you HAVE to pick just one. My character is a great example of this. Wylan legitimately worships multiple. Sharess, Tymora, Ellistraee, and Fenmarel Mestarine to name a few. His worship of them isn't just lip service either. He -is- actually polytheistic. So that is always an option

[Masterbard Alyster Darkharp]

Jul 27, 2020 9:52:11 GMT -5 Wylan said:

While a lot of adventurers often follow a single deity. There really isn't anything that says you HAVE to pick just one. My character is a great example of this. Wylan legitimately worships multiple. Sharess, Tymora, Ellistraee, and Fenmarel Mestarine to name a few. His worship of them isn't just lip service either. He -is- actually polytheistic. So that is always an option

This right here. Most of the people of Toril are polytheists. Including my character. I serve most devoutly, Oghma, but also pay tribute as the time is right to all other deities, each in their own place.

[Fluffy the Mad]

Jul 27, 2020 9:52:11 GMT -5 Wylan said:

While a lot of adventurers often follow a single deity. There really isn't anything that says you HAVE to pick just one. My character is a great example of this. Wylan legitimately worships multiple. Sharess, Tymora, Ellistraee, and Fenmarel Mestarine to name a few. His worship of them isn't just lip service either. He -is- actually polytheistic. So that is always an option

While polytheism is expected and regular, most characters have a PATRON deity, the one they serve above the others. That's why we have a selector available and only a one-string slot for it. This is the deity that accepts them after death, provided they've at least loosely followed their tenants and been a faithful follower.

[TrueBlueOriginal]

Jul 27, 2020 9:46:04 GMT -5 hexweasel said:

TrueBlueOriginal you are playing Kira the established priestess of Sharess correct? Is there anything resembling a church or clergy on FRC at the moment? From the articles I have read ( and I am looking for more) I found this page. There seem to be a few different segments of Sharess and some have altering views on necromancy. It is my interpretation that some of the factions are much more dogmatic and seek out followers of Set and others are more whimsical and are potentially at risk of slipping away from the pure Chaotic Good.

amiawiki.shatuga.com/index.php/Sharess

And this funeral rite
Funerals

In some places in Faerûn, Sharessan funerals do not involve burial, interment in crypts or embalming. Instead, priests embrace the dead in a ‘last intimacy’ (that need not be more than a kiss while the cleric’s arms are wrapped around the body), and the corpses are then animated using a Firedance spell, to cavort in the air above a pyre which consumes them so that they "dance on air" as they crumble to ash.[14] This practice likely does not sit well with the Dancers of Sharess.

Kira is technically a bard/rogue/divine champion of Sharess, though she considers herself more "priestly" than most clerics of Sharess that she meets.

I'd be reluctant to go by the Amia Wiki as a source. However, it does link some of its sources in the page. The funerals thing looks like something Ed Greenwood wrote directly on Candlekeep, so no doubt at least some Sharessans do it, I guess. Far be it from me to question Ed Greenwood, but it's still not official. (If you're not aware, Ed Greenwood is the creator of the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, and a major contributor to later editions of the setting as well.)

There are at least two major sects of Sharessans (besides those Mulhorandi that straight-up still worship Bast).

There are Sharessans that follow the Celebrants of Sharess. This sect is strongly good-aligned. The Celebrants of Sharess are militantly Chaotic Good (and most have the Celebrant of Sharess exalted prestige class that has a CG restriction from Player's Guide to Faerun) and are the primary sect to follow Sharess's dogma and outlook since the Time of Troubles (1358 DR). It was in 1358 DR that Sharess was nearly subsumed by Shar and rescued by Sune. It was then that Sharess re-affirmed herself as a good deity and re-allied with a bunch of other good deities. The Celebrants of Sharess, and other adherents to this branch of the faith, see Sharess as a force of Good in the world, and actively oppose Evil.  Celebrants of Sharess are exalted and take exalted vows.  One of the vows Celebrants of Sharess take is to never touch dead flesh, which they consider impure, so they're all vegetarians.  Most of their followers aren't that rigid though.  (Oddly enough, the Celebrant of Sharess exalted prestige class is a spontaneous arcane caster class with a Sharess-only patron restriction, so even they're not clerics.)    

There are also Sharessans that follow the "traditional" clergy of Sharess. The traditionalist clergy still see Sharess as a goddess whose main focus is hedonism, even at the expense of others. They consider themselves adherents of a self-indulgent faith, and as such they are primarily Chaotic Neutral in alignment. The older branches of the faith follow the CN aspects and they are not strictly in keeping with Sharess's current dogma.  The traditionalists are primarily clerics that share their beliefs with those clerics that were around prior to the Time of Troubles. 

One thing I asked when the shrine of Sharess was added to FRC was that it not include an NPC Sharessan. In part I was concerned about how such an NPC might act, and what edicts it might make, but also it means that Sharessan PCs aren't beholden to answer to a singular authority, and no specific version of the faith is the "official" version. In this way, Sharess is allowed her full Chaotic nature because every Sharessan character varies in how the faith is interpreted.

That having been said, my Sharessan will definitely tell everyone the -right- way, and will be disappointed in those who don't share her views.