Bast
Patroness of Festhalls, The Festhall Madam, The Lustful Mistress, The Tawny Temptress, Succubus of Sensation, Mother of Cats, Feline of Felicity, Foe of Set (a.k.a. Sharess, the Dancing Lady)
Bast, was the Mulhorandi goddess of festhalls, hedonism, sensual fulfillment, and lust. Passionate and willful, The Dancing Lady had the independent and hedonistic temperament of a feline, and encouraged her followers to spread pleasure to all. She was also known in the Faerûnian pantheon as Sharess (pronounced: /ˈʃɑːrɛs/ SHAH-ress)
Divine Domains
Chaos, Charm, Envy, Good, Lust, Pleasure, Sloth, Travel, Trickery, War
Artifacts
Favored weapon: A great cat's paw (claw bracer)
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Cat or Feminine lips
Holidays
Midsummer's Eve
Physical Description
Body Features
Bast was often depicted as a beautiful, voluptuous woman with the head of a cat, especially in Mulhorand. She was constantly grooming herself to ensure her appearance was always up to standards.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Sharess was originally known as Bast, a Mulhorandi power who was the patroness of cats, and Anhur's lieutenant. During the Second Mulhorandi Empire (beginning −1048 DR), she subsumed the portfolio of Felidae, a beast cult deity of felines, nomads, and sensual pleasure. Struck by wanderlust, Bast traveled across Faerûn leaving many cults in her wake. During these travels, she also subsumed the divinity of Zandilar the Dancer, a goddess of the Yuir elves, gaining that goddess' portfolio of intense passionate love.10
After Myth Drannor fell, she began to experiment with the darker side of pleasure and fell under the sway of Shar, and became known as Sharess. During the Time of Troubles, Sune freed Sharess from Shar's influence, when the latter tried to assassinate Sharess, as she had Ibrandul due to her reluctance to be completely dominated by the goddess of shadow. Sune doused Sharess with a chalice filled with waters from Arvandor's Evergold that restored Sharess' beauty and willpower, giving her the will and the edge to rebel against her mistress.10
After that, Sharess spent much of her time in Arvandor, frolicking and pursuing pleasure in all of its forms, despite the warnings of her deific allies and the offers made by Shar, and guarding herself from Loviatar.10
After the Spellplague of 1385 DR, Sharess became an exarch of her ally Sune.7 However, she lost many of her temples and public veneration during the Second Sundering.17 After the Mulhorandi rebellion of 1486 DR,1819 she gained many mulhorandi followers, who began to worship her as Bast once more.
Social
Mannerisms
Bast/Sharess was an innate flirt and loved toying around with beautiful mortals; once she had her fill, she swiftly moved on to other sources of pleasure.
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