Shast

Shast is the Phaelist goddess of desire, romance, and fertility. She is often depicted as a beautiful (and usually nude) young woman; though, in certain contexts, she may be depicted as a beautiful and somewhat androgynous young man, and some accounts describe her as a strong and powerful male figure (though no physical representations of this form are known to exist). Even when portrayed as a masculine figure, however, Shast is always referred to as a 'she'. While common worship and reverence of her generally focuses on her governance over sexuality, romance, and fertility, religious texts that mention her tend to focus almost entirely on other desires that she oversees.

Like many of the gods of Phaelism, Shast was worshiped on Veşti and parts of northern Prindern for centuries before Lophael, and had a mystery cult arise around her worship. The earliest recorded mentions of her, dating to the -18th or -19th century Reformed, indicate that her shrines were mostly placed in open fields, in the hopes that she would bless the crops that grew there. Women who had difficulty having children are recorded to have slept nude at the base of these shrines overnight, then spend the day preparing herself and praying, before going home and laying with their husbands in the hope of becoming pregnant that night. There are some indications that worship of Shast would, on select holidays, become a frenzied orgy in the field surrounding the shrine - however, there are no first-hand accounts of this, and the accounts that do exist may have been attempts to discredit the people who attended the shrines.

The first recorded direct mention of the Cult of Shast is in a letter dated to the middle of the -15th century and written in modern-day Rigvar, in which it is listed as one of the local religious orders that were involved in a proposed expedition to some unclaimed land to the north. Within a century, however, the body is described as being a "lustful, power-hungry, immoral pack of thieves" and appears to have gone largely underground. They occasionally pop up in records throughout history, but most of their history is known only to initiated members.

Teachings Shast is primary focused on seeing desires fulfilled.