But, what I really made this thread for was to ask one question: would Shar ever ally herself with Devils? I kind of wanted to take Bael Turath, the ancient source of Tieflings in the standard 4e D&D settings, and place it in Chult. Specifically, I wanted to take the ruins of Harrack Unarth and place them in Chult, use them as a gateway to the Sunderheart Domain of Dread from Chult. VorKragal I would place as ruins on the Peaks of Flame, the ruins in which house the doors which Dendar the Night Serpent will prophetically break out of when the world is ending. Of course I would aesthetically reflavor all these elements as being heavily "Aztec" in flavor. But my point, Dender and Shar seem easy to tie together. One is the godess of shadows, the other will eat the sun and bring shadow to Toril. They seem fairly obviously aligned. But, Dender is a primordial. The primordials are elementals. Demons are elementals as well. This means that Dender is likely a form of demon no? With demons waging a blood war against devils, I am not really sure if it makes sense to both have a devil and Dender allied to Shar. However, with Tieflings making a pact with a Devil, I sort of require the devilish element to seamlessly mix the elements of Bael Turath I want to mix into old Chultan lore.
Does it make sense that Shar, a plotter, would ally herself with both a Devil and Dender?
Thanks for your input in advance.
would Shar ever ally herself with Devils?
-Yes. Why wouldn't she? Her ultimate goal is Sphere-wide destruction. To accomplish that goal, things must be done. Shar doesn't hold any special kind of enmity against Devils, anyway. And, personally, I think Shar is better as a Lawful Evil deity, which would bring her one step closer to those Lawful Evil Devils.
It was a story that Elric wasn't even in (in an Elric novel, no less) in which a couple of other characters had to travel through a plane of 'ultimate Law' to reach the Grey lords (neutral-types).
That plane was filled with nearly nothing, and the one being there was trying to 'disbelieve' in the little that was left, so it would all disappear in the ultinmate expression of law.
So, Moorcock agrees with you, LK (boy... does THAT ever sound wrong..) - NOTHING is the ultimate state of Law.
So yeah... Shar wouldn't care who she sided with, as long as everything goes Ka-blooey in the end.
-A gate to the Far Realm could, in theory, destroy much of Realmspace. It wouldn't accomplish Shar's goal, however. It'd be trading in one thing for another. Within Realmspace would exist these Pseudonatural Far Realms creatures, not the ultimate nothingness that Shar longs for and works towards.
She beileves that she and her followers can defeat the Pseudonatural creatus, avoiding her people doing the dirty work.
She has an alliance with a Far Realms entity.
It's a good way for people to forget about her and her plots that have become somewhat "in the public's eye"/
Note: Sorry about the bad spelling and whatever else. I am on some medication right that that is making me a little light-headed, and confused ever-so=slight.y
But, Dender is a primordial. The primordials are elementals. Demons are elementals as well. This means that Dender is likely a form of demon no?
No. :P
The primordials even predate both the Abyss an demons, though some demon lords were once primordials who, eventually, became corrupted by the vile energies that exist in the Abyss.
With demons waging a blood war against devils, I am not really sure if it makes sense to both have a devil and Dender allied to Shar.
There is no Blood War in the 4e FR anymore. And in core there's currently a truce between the devils and demons.
The only thing I can think of as a reason for her doing so would be to put the cosmos 'out of balance' - by pouring more of one alignment on top of a sphere then any other, you create a situation in which the Universe attempts to correct itself. The precedent for that is in the Planescape material - when one of the 'Border Towns' becomes too much like the Plane it borders, it slips into that plane (and a new border town is then created).
This is why all worlds need to be kept in state of balance, with equal parts of Law & Chaos, Good & Evil. Too much of any one and the Plane begins to merge with the closest-aligned Outer Plane.
Now, what you can say is that by Shar throwing Realmspace out-of-balance, it would cause Ao to hit the 're-boot' switch... thus bringing everything back to the way it was at the very beginning.
And this time, Shar has no intentions of losing to her sister.
