Ah, but it isn't. Shar's symbol is supposed to be well-known in Faerun; feared and hated by most good citizens. If a character encounters another character who is wearing a big ginormous black circle on their chest and shoulder pads and on a circlet on their forehead, and they say, "I'm a cleric," I think it's pretty obvious who that person is a cleric of.
Now, if Shadowheart wasn't wearing a ginormous black circle on her chest and shoulder pads and circlet, and she was just wearing the same armor without all that stuff, no one would think she's a servant of Shar. But, come on, it's like a big freaking target on her screaming, "Hi, I'm a Sharite cleric." It'd be like someone wearing a cross on their chest, shoulder pads and forehead and then someone later going, "Holy Cow! What? You're a Christian? I had no idea. Huh? Seriously? You're a Christian Priest? Whoa!"
I think you're underestimating how incredibly generic a black circle is, to start. It's not the same thing as a cross in a world where that's the symbol of the biggest religion in the world, consisting of over 2 billion people.
But also, there aren't any black circles on her shoulder pads. Not on the actual armor she's wearing in the game. I believe you're thinking of her artwork depiction.
And the one on her chest isn't just a black circle. It also has what looks to be a gold filigree design in the middle of it.
As for her circlet, how many pieces of jewelry do you think have black circle designs? Every piece with a black pearl. Every piece with onyx. You're just not being realistic about it, in my opinion. If you found a black onyx ring in some treasure loot, your first thought probably wouldn't be that it came from a worshiper of Shar.
Again, and this is just my opinion, but I strongly feel like this is an example of people feeling clever after the fact, saying they would've known.
It's like, if you find a chair with intricate leaf symbols carved into the armrests then you would think it was a design. You wouldn't think a druid made the chair. Until it was later revealed that a druid made the chair. And then there'd be a certain percentage of people jumping up and down assuring everyone they knew all along, 'cause of the leaf designs on the armrest, of course!
Shrug. Just my opinion. But people sure do seem to be a lot more observant in hindsight.
