Sharess

Sharess
Sharess (shah-ress) is a radiantly beautiful goddess, rivaled by none. She stands for passion and pleasure of all forms including the arts. She also takes great joy in the art of thievery and secrecy.

Personality
She is a fickle, flighty deity who prevents anyone from getting too close to her true spirit. She has the willful independence and pleasure-seeking nature common to felines and is constantly preening and grooming to maintain her appearance. Although she was originally a goddess mainly for deception and war, after the Era of Wars she dedicated herself to her aspects of passion and lust, now often referred to only by names involving those aspects of her instead of names like "The Huntress".

Sharess enjoys toying with beautiful mortals - male and female - and she cannot resist casually flirting with anyone she encounters. However, when her ardor cools and her passion is sated, Sharess is easily distracted and quick to move on to new pleasures.

She can see through the eyes of all cats at all times, her kiss can reverse a being's gender, and she can fall from any distance and land on her feet, unharmed. She shows her favor through the presence of cats, doppelgangers in pleasing shapes, dryads (or satyrs), good and neutral sirines, elven cats, and a few (very rare) nonevil succubi who act in accordance with her philosophy of life. She enjoys sumptuous jewelry, gourmet foods, and things of beauty and may grant a boon to anyone who sacrifices such things to her. She dislikes snakes intensely.

Relationships
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Avatar
Sharess' favorite manifestation is that of an unseen caress whose contact brings uncontrolled shuddering rapture and intensifies all pleasurable sensations. She can appear as any creature's most passionate desire through a sort of divine illusion. As the Lady of the Golden Heart, she manifests as a voluptuous, bronze-skinned human female with long wavy raven hair and the slitted green eyes of a cat. She dresses in provocative clothing ranging from that of a tawdry tart to a pampered concubine.

As the Feline Huntress, she is a huge tawny house cat with razor sharp claws, wickedly gleaming emerald eyes, and a sensuous aspect. When she assumes the form of Zandilar the Dancer, she is a beautiful and seductive blue-skinned elven woman dressed in layered gauzy outfits. She is also known to manifest as a pair of disembodied, floating female lips as big across as a human head. The sign of her presence may linger for days as a perfumed scent. Her voice is said to be a throaty purr and to give the listener the feeling he or she is being brushed by the softest fur or velvet when she speaks.

Philosophy
The Cleric of Sharess is the ultimate sensualist. She loves to feel and experience what life has to offer - textures, temperatures, tastes, smells, and pleasures. Massages and scratchings of both herself and others. She’ll walk naked into fierce storms to feel the rain or snow lashing her. She’ll try new cuisine with odd combinations of sweet and bitter tastes. Combing hair, stroking and grooming and other such activities are all things good clerics of Sharess do without hesitation or distaste. She may have sex in unusual places with partners of both genders and other than her own race and involving various kinks and positions - though not necessarily all together in the same encounters - simply for the experience.

It is important to note that clerics of Sharess are sensualists rather than hedonists - they want to experience pain and discomfort as well as pleasure, and aren’t primarily concerned (as a hedonist is) with maximizing their personal pleasure. A cleric of Sharess wants others around her to experience life to the full as well, and to maximize their pleasure and enjoyment of it. She is interested in getting them to “unwind” and “relax” and “try new experiences” - something as simple as a new sort of food, for example.

A cleric of Sharess is not interested in embarrassing or scandalizing anyone, nor will she want to offend against local laws or make things difficult for companions because of her behavior. This is where wisdom and understanding of others and consideration for their feelings comes in. She will not make overtures to those who don't wish it and will not be a constant tease or a flirt who bares herself to tempt others. She may offer to help a companion disrobe, wash his hair or scratch an itch, while making it clear that she intends no seduction by these friendly aids and going only as far in these activities as he wants her to. In another setting, with folk who enjoy such behavior, she may be the world’s wildest flirt. Clerics of Sharess enjoy a good drink but dislike becoming drunk, because it deadens their faculties for experiencing the world around them and their memories of having done so.

A cleric of Sharess is not ashamed of her body or natural processes - being drenched in the blood or fluids of an enemy won’t bother them, and sucking the poison from a wound or holding the innards of wounded self or ally in place won’t bring any distaste. If, for example, a Sharessan cleric feels an itch between her shoulder blades, she won’t hesitate to bare them and either ask someone to scratch her (perfect strangers if they seem safe, or a companion) or rub herself against a tree as a cat does. Many clerics of Sharess signal enjoyment of sensations by purring. Eating food off the bared body of someone else is a favorite activity, and in fact, some temple rites of Sharess involve having novice clergy dine in this way with another postulant of the same gender so that they’ll get over any difficulties with being unable to separate sensual pleasures from sexual matters.

Except in unbearably hot situations, a cleric of Sharess sleeping with someone will always prefer to do so in the nude, skin to skin, even if no sex is going to occur. While this does not mean she’ll insist on trying to sleep with a sick or wounded person when her presence will cause them discomfort, she isn’t embarrassed about climbing into bed nude with anyone or anything. Lonely half-orcs and the maimed and disfigured love clerics of Sharess. This also does not mean she’ll be foolish enough to deliberately go into battle nude or badly covered when armor is available, but in an emergency, she’ll snatch up useful items or weapons and not waste time on getting dressed.

Nor will she be foolhardy or reckless of the safety of others. However, if she is wounded in battle, she wants to feel the pain, even while she might desperately want and seek healing. Heat, cold, and floggings are usually experienced by novice clerics of Sharess who are merely trying to experience all things - sometimes the whip will be of stinging nettles, but the next time it may be made of feathers.

Clerics of Sharess always look on the bright side of things. If the party gets lost or drenched, it’s an opportunity to enjoy experiences they might otherwise have missed, not a calamity. In any group, she’ll notice the lonely or unhappy one and try to remedy that. When someone is confused or grieving or depressed, she’ll be the silent or gently comforting companion. She is the one who wants all of life, no matter how uncomfortable, to be enjoyed.

Followers
Sharess is revered by male and female professional escorts who take pride in their professions, the decadent rich, and those who seek only endless pleasure in life. In Gristly, she is also revered by those who combat evil and rewards those who work long and hard against it with occasional nights of wild pleasure to inspire them to further efforts. Sharess's faith is still very young and its ceremonies very loose and fluid, with long worship services that often resemble nothing so much as extended feasts and revels, heavy on the pleasures of the flesh and light on the teachings of the spirit. She is worshipped in large urban areas such as Rhios, but small shrines to the Goddess of Pleasure may be found throughout the Realms. There is also a small but significant number of elves and half-elves among her clergy, most of whom venerate her as Zandilar the Dancer. Many of her clerics are also train as bards. In North Auros, she is venerated by the group known as the Sisters of Sharess.

Organization
Her priests and priestesses are collectively known as Sharessin. Both male and female humans can be found in their ranks, but charismatic and physically beautiful women comprise the great majority of them. The church of Sharess is casually organized, although its members often work and play together. Many priests and priestesses of Sharess run festhalls in large cities or directly serve decadent rulers. Wealthy festhalls often employ one or two mid-level Sharessin, and some wander the countryside with Sharess's blessing seeking new pleasing sensations to add to their repertoire. Many professional escorts in major cities join formal or informal guilds led by her clergy.

Titles

 * Indulgent - A newcomer to the Temple, this person may be expected to participate avidly in rites and ceremonies out of sheer novelty and desire for pleasure.
 * Hedonate - Having attained a more refined understanding of doctrine, the Hedonate is motivated to further explore sensations with an eye to understanding the subtleties of perception. She understands that unpleasant sensations may be as important as pleasant ones. Most casual followers of the Goddess are not likely to progress beyond this rank.
 * Sensualite - The individual who has progressed to this rank has made a firm commitment to the Temple and devoted a significant portion of their time to Temple matters such as ceremonies and leadership roles. The individual explores the implications of doctrine and meditates upon the moral and practical consequences of the Sharessan way.
 * Sybarine - The Sybarine displays an advanced appreciation of the Goddess and Her way and a sincere and earnest devotion to the pursuit of sensual experience. She recognizes that all sorts of experiences are necessary for our growth and development and that excessive overindulgence may not be wise.
 * Voluptuar - One who has attained a profound level of understanding of the Goddess. This person is given to the indulgence of the appetites or senses as a means to happiness and fulfillment. Rather than being motivated solely by pleasure, those who have reached this rank are sensual in the strictest meaning of the term - they understand that not all experiences are necessarily pleasurable, but that all can be appreciated for the insights they afford.

Temples
Her temples are typically constructed to resemble elaborate festhalls, with graceful, fluting pillars, octagonal domes, great halls sculpted to resemble forest glades, secluded nooks, bathing areas in natural mineral springs, great banquet halls, and richly scented massage parlors. Most are guarded by staunch fighters and even exotic sentient monsters who are sworn to protect all revelers who partake in the name of Sharess. The festhalls cater to all the senses and include fantastic feasts, heavenly baths and massages, unique experiences such as flight, and every other pleasure imaginable.

Dress
A sensate of sharess typically wear some sort of outer garb, that even when it covers her from ankles to the throat (usually it will bare rather more) will have slits or unbuttonable darts or the like so it can readily be hiked up or parted. If she has to sit on a stone wall or tree bough she’ll be able to arrange her clothing so that her bare skin is in contact with the surface. Some clerics of Sharess of high-rank wear garters (bands wore tight and high up on the thighs) adorned with burrs, thorns, patches of silky fur, and so on - not because they are masochists or secret worshippers of Ilmater, but for the ongoing sensations. Such garments are kissed reverently when put on and taken off because they are in themselves offerings to the goddess. Sharessin will not usually wear underclothes except for “play” purposes.

Dogma
Sharess' priests are expected to live their lives in the decadent sensual fulfillment of themselves and others. Pleasure is to be sought out at every opportunity and life is to be lived as one endless revel. Initiates to the faith are taught;

"Life is to be lived to its fullest. That which is good is pleasurable and that which is pleasurable is good. Spread the bounty of the Goddess so that all may join in the Endless Revel of Life and bring joy to all those in pain. Infinite experiences await those who would explore, so try the new as well as savoring the old."

This philosophy has since been expanded on by many High Priestesses to include the following:
 * Pleasure is the gift of Sharess and free to all, so bring happiness to all those who seek it, and joy to all those in pain.
 * Life is an endless revel, so seek out pleasure at every opportunity, savoring the old and sampling the new.
 * A life without pleasure is a life not lived, for pleasure is the path through life, and pain the door to death.
 * There is no limit to the Goddess' blessing, so let none restrict your freedom to enjoy her bounty.
 * A pleasure shared is a pleasure doubled, but to take without consent is the worst of thefts.

Ceremonies
The church of Sharess celebrates more festivals than possibly any other faith on Malero. They are known collectively as the Endless Revel of Life. The daily rising and setting of the sun, the yearly passage of seasons, the appearance of a full moon, or nearly any other event is cause for a celebration and wild revel to which the general populace is always invited. Each such festival has several outlandish titles and 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's faithful and an occasion for the most extreme pursuits of boundless pleasure. Clerics of Sharess pray for their spells at dusk, when the lure of the night first beckons.

Marriages
Sharess doesn't particularly mind who gets married (in other words, beings of the same gender, beings of different races, beings already married to others, beings very closely blood-related to each other - all sorts of unions are okay, as well as the more traditional 'male and female of the same race' pairings), so long as love and passion (demonstrated physically, through lovemaking) exist within the union, and that both partners of the union be 'unjealous' enough that both partners in the union will be free to flirt (including at least kissing and caressing) with other beings not part of the union. Sharess (and therefore her church) doesn't much care about the married or unmarried state of persons indulging in lustful practices. However, performing short-term marriages wouldn't be a clerical policy for them, except perhaps to indulge wanton faithful desiring the thrill of turning a marriage ceremony into a debauchery.

Funerals
Sharessan funerals do not involve burials, 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 burned, typically with the spell Burning Hands or something similar. The ashes are then spread around the air via some sort of wind channeling spell.

Major Centers of Worship

 * The center of Sharess's faith is the Festhall of Eternal Delight located somewhere only known to the most devout in Myralwin. This temple is as extravagant as possible, bordering on obscene even. Dark marble columns, jutting spires, crystalline statues in enticing poses and vast, landscaped atriums decorate this sprawling complex. The temple baths are legendary for their recuperative powers and skilled masseuses, and the temple flowers are carefully selected for the reputed aphrodisiacal properties of their scents in some rooms and their calming or soothing properties in others.

Affiliated Orders

 * Eyes of the Evening
 * Sharess is reputed to be served by a secretive sisterhood of female werecats known as the Eyes of Evening. These unique followers are the chosen elite, gifted by both goddesses with the ability to assume the form of ordinary cats. An Eye of the Evening delights in all forms of physical pleasure yet maintains the quiet elegance of a feline. She is soft-spoken and patient, but always a cunning and dangerous opponent. One does not become, or train to be an Eye of the Evening, they are simply chosen. The aims and goals of this mysterious fellowship are unknown