#shevarash

[loredragonoftheforgottenrealms]

Imagine escaping your oppressive theocracy, braving the tunnels of the Underdark, fighting or fleeing countless monsters, finally making it to an entrance to the surface…only to murdered by these guys.

I understand that this to prevent raids, but everything I’ve read about these guys tells me they wouldn’t bat a single eye at killing a lone drow. Like these guys barely let the Eilistraeen Drow live.

[findingtarshish]

More drow thoughts abound. If El were ever to ascend to true godhood, it would likely be by killing Shevarash

Her portfolio would obviously be vengeance, but that's taken, and she still blames him for the death of her mother. Moreover, she blames her father for allowing it to happen and not punishing his divine lackey.

What would be more fitting than for the new goddess of vengeance to slay the old one as punishment for the thousands of innocents slain in his name?

[missrosiewolf]

-aggressively sips orange juice-

So! What happens when you take an Edgy That Guy and ascend him into Godhood?

You get Shevarash, the elven god of revenge, loss, and hating drow.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: This dude needed therapy, not godhood. Fenmarel, for some reason, decided that it would be a good idea to help the most Anti-Drow elf to ever exist to become a god and it is because of this mindset that Shevarash has very few allies. He is so fucking focused on his tireless and unending crusade on the drow that only like-minded individuals will put up with him, such as Psilofyr and Callarduran Smoothhands.

Because let's be real: this man lives and breathes hatred. That is all he is now. Whoever he was before he became this person, this hunter obsessed with eliminating the drow is gone, destroyed during what is called the Dark Court Slaughter.

For those who are not familiar with this event in FR history or don't know what it is, the Dark Court Slaughter was an event that took place on Midwinter's Night in -4400 DR. It was the longest, darkest night of the year and an army consisting of Drow and Duergar swarmed out of the Underdark; the army overran both the dwarven realm of Sarphil on the southern shore of the Moonsea and the Elven Court at the heart of the great forest of Arocar. Countless lives of elves and dwarves were claimed that night, including most of the assembled leaders of the Fair Folk and the Stout Folk who had come to court to reestablish their long-standing alliance.

Among the few survivors was Shevarash but among the dead was his family. With grief and anger in his heart, Shevarash swore an oath to Corellon to become the hand of the Seldarine against drow to seek vengeance for the loss of his family.

(Demihuman Deities, p. 157)

And that is how Shevarash, likely once as carefree as most elves, became an agent of revenge. It's an oath he kept too. I would say that he became the greatest enemy the drow had because he was, for the remainder of his mortal life, relentless in his pursuit of the drow. He raided their underground cities, destroyed their shrines dedicated to their gods, and slew their priests.

However, Shevarash stories ends like many stories of revenge: his death. Shevarash was slain by a horde of myrlochar (soul spiders) after killing High Priestess Darthiir'eigg Aleanrahel and six of her consorts circa -4070 DR — 330 years after the Dark Court Slaughter. So ended the mortal life of Shevarash the Black Archer

But then Fenmarel decided to help him achieve godhood. Now Shevarash is the Night Hunter and Arrow Bringer. Fun fact: Corellon is the one who determines whether or not someone can join the pantheon, soooo they absolutely okayed Fenmarel's decision to help Shevarash undergo apotheosis. They okayed the most Anti-Drow elf to ever exist...becoming a deity.

Despite the fact that Corellon has TWO dark elf children (three if we count Vandria) and one of them is supposedly the favorite child (Eilistraee) because here's the thing: Shevarash (in his mortal life) hunted all drow, not just Lolthite drow — though Lolthites were his primary target. It didn't matter if you were Lolthite, Vhaeraunite, Eilistraean, Kiaransaleen, whatever — if you were drow, then you were his enemy. However, that changed once he became a demigod.

(Grand History of the Realms (2007), p. 27)

Yes. Eilistraee and her worshippers at one time, pre-godhood, were among Shevarash's targets. Demihunam Deities even states that it was only until recently (full disclosure: DD is a 2e Advanced Dungeons & Dragons accessory for the Forgotten Realms so by recently I'm guessing it's referring to 1370-1371. Either that or the late 1360s) that she managed to work out an some kind of truce with this guy.

(Demihuman Deities, p. 11)

An uneasy truce. Uneasy truces are typically truces that will only last a certain albeit unknown amount of time and given this is the Seldarine and fucking Shevarash — it likely would not take much to break this truce.

Not surprising given that Shevarash is not only the most Anti-Drow Elf to ever elf, but he also did hunt Eilistraee's followers in the past likely during his mortal life) — which, as Grand History of the Realms points out, is something he no longer does as he no longer considers Eilistraee and Eilistraeans to be among his prey (likely due to the fact that once he ascended he became aware that Eilistraee is nothing like her mother and brother). So both sides are likely tense from this history and while she may not be counted among his 'prey' anymore, that does not mean he likes her or even that she likes him.

They, at best, tolerate each other from what I can tell.

(not even gonna lie. I would not at all be surprised to learn if Shevarashans are still terrorizing Eilistraeans in some capacity despite this uneasy truce)

Is this truce still a thing in the current edition? I don't know because I don't where Shevarash and Eilistraee officially stand in the new edition in relation to each other. I can't tell you whether or not that truce is still on-going. It'll have to be up to individual interpretation.

My personal belief / interpretation is that this uneasy truce is likely fractured, perhaps severely so. With the return of the Dark Dancer and her brother, Eilistraee and Vhaeraun have achieved a new understanding of each other — as a result, they have a friendship and a truce (though their followers still get into conflict from time to time. Understandable, a long history of both sides hating each other and fighting each other isn't going to go away in a single night). Which is a problem for Shevarash because even though Lolth and her followers are still Shevarash's number one target, the rest of the Dark Seldarine (sans Eilistraee) is still very much his enemy. Vhaeraun is still his enemy. Shevarash's followers still hunt down Vhaeraunites. Shevarash, as mentioned in the screenshot I shared from p. 27 of the Grand History of the Realms, is now more able to hunt Lolth and Vhaeraun directly thanks to his becoming a demigod.

I can't see Shevarash at all accepting Eilistraee's newfound friendship with her brother due to his history with the drow and his mission. Eilistraee, for her part with this new friendship and truce, I think would protest against Shevarash still hunting her divine twin and his followers. Given what I know of Shevarash, I do not think he would see this as anything other than an incentive to return to crusading against Eilistraee as well. He is a very angry deity, consumed by hatred — he's not going to look at the nuance at the situation. Likely, he'll read this as Eilistraee as turning traitor, becoming corrupted, etc. etc. Because to him...drow are bad. It doesn't matter who they worship, in his eyes drow are bad. For Shevarash, there is no nuance. It's black and white, as clear to him as night and day.

He might tolerate the drow worship Eilistraee and he might tolerate Eilistraee herself...but that means nothing when he will eventually resume being hostile toward Eilistraee. And he will. It's not a matter of if, but when and it won't take much. Will he resume hunting her? Possibly, especially if she decides to break ties with the Seldarine.

I did have a section written up about the elven group who are disguising themselves as drow and raiding surface settlements (thank you lawful-evil-novelist for that bit of lore!). but upon further reading, I learned Champions of Ruins doesn't, unfortunately, definitively state that the group is Shevarashans. Only that they're a very anti-human group called the Eldreth Veluuthra, who are conducting these raids in hopes of increasing hostilities between humans and drow. The book further states that even though they worship the Seldarine, the good-aligned deities of the pantheon want nothing to do with them so as a result no cleric of the good-aligned elven gods are part of the group.

So it's up in the air if these particular EV raiders are Shevarashans (his alignment is listed as chaotic neutral; it's possible he didn't write them off completely unlike his good-aligned peers) or not.

[that-spider-witch]

Shitty D&D character idea: An elf who used to be an Oath of Conquest Paladin of the god Shevarash... until one day he realized his Church’s ultimate goal was one of complete genocide of all drow elves, whether they had individually done anything wrong or not. This shakes him to the core, and he starts to doubt his Oath and his God for allowing these extremists to do these actions in His name.

In a wild series of events, he then saves a young drow thief from his Church after finding out he was just an urchin stealing to eat and both of them end up taking refuge in Rilauven to escape from them, breaking his Oath and becoming an Oathbreaker Paladin who serves Vhaeraun afterwards.

[dnd-homebrew5e]

A commissioned warlock subclass for @fahrai! Enjoyed making this subclass with a little kick on how it works. 

If you enjoy my work and would like access to exclusive content --- My Patreon!

[loredragonoftheforgottenrealms]

Okay, if the god of “what if we just killed them all in a religious crusade?” Gets the Chaotic Neutral alignment, then so should Vhaeraun. The only divine domain he has that’s actually significantly worse than other CN gods is “evil activity on the surface” which is to stupidly vague to be a divine domain. I’m calling Ao and filing a complaint.

[missrosiewolf]

(Demihuman Deities, p. 157)

Disclaimer: this is not part of my overall Shevarash long post. I'm just sharing some things about Shevarash.

Yeah. Outside of the Seldarine, this man does not have many allies (and idk how many of those deities he considers a friend) and gee. I wonder why.

It couldn't possibly be because Shevarash lives and breathes hatred.

It couldn't possibly because hating and killing drow is his entire personality.

Like:

He sounds so...exhausting to deal with honestly.

[missrosiewolf]

No but seriously how the fuck is Shevarash still a member of the seldarine.