#a sermon for the church of Sharran/Dark Justiciar Shadowheart simps | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

random-introverted-blog · 5 months

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Guys, our blog is growing, I'm so proud of us.

We must spread the gospel of Dark Justiciar/Sharran Shadowheart. I mean, yes, we all adore the fluffy and sweet nature of Selunite Shadowheart, my heart melts and eats that shit up but there's a wealth of untapped potential for Sharran Shadowheart and the fanfiction/Shadowheart fandom are cowards and scared of her power. To that end, I am providing the following information that you may have seen in that meme I posted a little bit ago. There will be spoilers. I'll mark these red as best I can.

First off, she has access to memory magic.

Modify Memory is the first spell that comes to mind though it's limited to 10 minutes of memory. Also, the range of time is decided by the level you cast the spell. You need to cast it as a LEVEL 9 SPELL to be able to have full access to their memory, with level 8 being within the last year. I have no doubt Shar has better usage and can grant more flexibility to her followers if you go by what Viconia did to Shadowheart. Repeatedly.

On that note, she can manipulate/edit memories as well. Modify Memory doesn't mean total erasure after all, but that is something its capable of.

Memory suppression is potentially different, and Shadowheart says suppressed specifically. She also says that her memories will be restored to her after she completes her mission, but I'm not sure if she ever does, actually. If someone has dialogue or a clip of her saying she does after a full Sharran Shadowheart playthrough [including her parents] then I'm interested in being proven wrong.

She is Shar's Chosen [CANONICALLY THE FAVORITE PRINCESS OF A GOD GUYS]

That's not a title/position to scoff at.

When you take Dark Justiciar Shadowheart to the cloister for her coup attempt, she informs the entire place that Shar now uses the wound on her hand to funnel her power into her.

She doubles down on this after she kills her parents. When she rises from the floor and is all agog (thanks Astarion) she says Shar's power is at her fingertips. She could very well be speaking metaphorically, but Shar backs this up, saying prior, and I quote, "It is done. And done well. They are with me now, in my endless dark. And from them, you can draw endless power." I haven't had the time nor the full courage to get far enough in a DJ playthrough to confirm if she gets any cool powers like Ascended Astarion does. Far as I can tell from googling around, she doesn't.

It's not mentioned in the epilogue, you don't see this power the same way you see Ascended become Batstarion. But the point remains. She stands at the helm of Shar's church.

Deception, secrecy and infiltration, oh my

Shadowheart comically has a -1 to her charisma rolls, but canonically she is an expert at lying and hiding secrets. If you try to pry her before she's ready to tell you about Shar, she will pretty expertly thwart you before you can get too far along. While that's moreso her being a prickly asshole to shrug you off her and less cunning, it's still a testament to her ability to bunker down on things she can't/won't talk about.

So imagine my surprise when I realized people were sitting on the fact that Sharran/Dark Justiciar/Mother Superior Shadowheart has a cult of people obsessively devoted to secrets and deception and manipulation at her disposal, under her command... And not a single soul is considering the yandere/obssessive implications. The limits to this are almost endless. Shar is a narcisstic goddess but we're talking fanficition/fanart guys, we create our headcannons under creative license. If we wanted canon, we'd just play the game again.

The Church of Shar is big on indoctrination and has no shame and virtually no limits on how far it will go to achieve this

This, roped in with memory magic, can be a DEVASTATING combination. I've touched on the memory part already in Flickers of Loss where the reader had some of her memories suppressed and the gaps were padded with Sharran brainwashing.

Do even a fraction of reading on the Forgotten Realms wiki for Shar's church and you find out pretty quick that some of her followers probably didn't (initially) choose her.

Due to the perception of Shar's church among most folk of the Realm, open recruiting for new members was not an option. Novitiates of the faith—whether they served as spies, agents, or clergy within the temples—were brought aboard individually, a process that sometimes took an inordinate amount of time. Sharran clergy often sought out secrets held by prospective members, and manipulated them to secure desired converts.

If we're saying Tav completed a full Sharran playthrough and Shadowheart is Shar's Chosen, that Tav saved Baldur's Gate, then converting them would make a lot of sense to Shar. And Shadowheart has said herself, "rules aren't meant to be broken, but they are intended to be bent." She can justify many acts as service to Shar, to manipulate a conversion from Tav. Few finer torments, after all...

In I Want To Live, by Chapter 8, Shadowheart has successfully abducted Emily, and obviously has a twisted obsession with her. Why isn't Shar striking Shadowheart across the face for turning her attention, even slightly, away from her? Because Shar wants a conversion from Emily, and is allowing Shadowheart to use any means necessary to get it. Shar wants what she wants, and so long as she gets it, she doesn't really care how (she'll make a show about it, sure, but in the end its narcistic theatrics)

Shadowheart is still a terrible Sharran [This whole segment is epilogue spoilers]

She's knowledgeable, absolutely, but she fails to apply that knowledge. Often. It's part of why Viconia had such an issue with her. Not only was she grooming her own replacement, but her replacement was, in her eyes, an incompetent fool.

In the epilogue, we see this trend continue. Romanced, she's like "yeah we can't officially be together but I'm totally down bad to show you my PRIVATE WINE CELLAR" guys please I'm begging yo—

If you try to lowkey brush her off by saying "you're not the same woman I fell for" she will come at you with "yeah, but there's still something of me you want to pursue, right? Right?"

Non-romanced, she basically implies that Nocturne has become this. "Yeah, I'm playing favorites and I dare them to call me out on it, they won't because I'm built different and they're scared of me and they should be because I'm playing favorites and they're not my favorite and—"

If you ask her to take leave from her duties, she doesn't rebuke you for suggesting it HOW DARE YOU SPEAK SUCH HERESY MY LIFE IS FOR THE DARK LADY TO DECIDE. Nothing like that. She just says "would that I could, but this is my life now, sooo..."

If you ask her how running the cloister is going, she will go off on a rant. "All-consuming. Endless decisions to make, underlings jockeying for your attention, threats from the outside, threats from the inside... there's times I miss when it was just our little group against the odds. Simplicity is a luxury that has drifted out of my reach, I'm afraid. But at least for tonight, I can have a taste of how it used to be."

And if you tell her you're living a quiet, peaceful life, she says, "I won't pretend I'm not a little jealous. Lady Shar is a demanding mistress - as is her right to be - but a little calm and solitude would be a tonic."

She's unhappy, and she does a poor job concealing it. She wishes she had more freedom to pursue her heart's desires. Calm, peace, friendship, intimacy.

So all she needs is an excuse/exemption from Shar to pursue Tav. All she needs is Shar to let her off the leash. And even if Shar doesn't, I'm pretty confident that this woman will comb and rake through scripture to find the vaguest of loopholes to have Tav.

Conclusion

You guys are cowards and are too intimidated to write Dark Justiciar Shadowheart. She's definitely more complicated to write because of her religious beliefs and the restrictions therein. She's not as simple to write as Ascended Astarion, a man who is beholden only to his own ego. But there is plenty to scrounge up to justify and headcanon a fanfiction or fanart of Dark Justiciar Shadowheart being yandere and obsessed as well, and a pretty believable one at that. You just have to be willing to put in the work.

If I think of more to add, I'll probably add it as an edit.

Now go forth, my fellow Dark Justiciar Shadowheart simps! Take this sermon and manipulate convince the nonbelievers of our truths!

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