No. Like has been told to you several times by several people, Shar is not some unknown deity from a completely different part of the world. Knowing about Shar and what she wants to do with the world is not some esoteric knowledge you only find in forgotten tomes after devoting your life to studying weird religions. It's not something you have to try hard to "keep straight in your head" -- it's something people see in the moon every day. When children ask why the moon comes and goes parents tell them the story of Selune and Shar. You can't weasel your way out of this by going "oh but the world has SO MANY religions" -- even if it does, this is how they believe in Faerun, on the Sword Coast, where we are and the game takes place.
Quite frankly, it's not us who are examples of rigid thinking and not understanding how the world or people works. It's you.
Nonsense.
First of all, in regards to "has been told to you several times..." none of you are final authorities. Each of the several people you mention has tried to present fiction as fact, and not even in a convincing manner. This is a discussion, and from my point of view, you have been told several times. See how that works?
Again, this is nothing but obfuscation for the tired and weak assertion that onyx equals Shar. Consider the following quote one of your several people made:
Originally Posted by Ragitsu
In order to satisfy my peculiar curiosity, I searched for "onyx" in the three AD&D 2e deities book (arguably the definitive sources on the gods despite their age) in regards to evil deities. Three instances of onyx turned up in Faiths & Avatars: Mask (Neutral Evil), Myrkul (Neutral Evil and dead) and Shar (Neutral Evil). One instance of onyx turned up in Demihuman Deities: Vhaeraun (Chaotic Evil). One instance of onyx turned up in Powers and Pantheons: Velsharoon (Neutral Evil) is noted to be fond of black gemstones, Eshowdow (Chaotic Evil) and Set (Chaotic Evil) considers black gemstones sacred. Basically, a self-professed priest wearing prominent onyx jewelry should at least be given a sideways glance by anyone that hasn't been residing under a rock.
Take two seconds to really think about this. Seriously. Actually think about what's being said here.
A player reads 2nd edition Ad&d deity books. Therein, the player finds the word "onyx" or "black gemstones" in the listings of seven different dark gods.
And then we get the absurd logic jump.
Nowhere does it say that only evil people wear onyx. Nowhere does it say that good people refuse to wear onyx. Nowhere. It literally doesn't say that people look "sideways" at other people who wear onyx. Nowhere. Not a single place does it say any of that.
In fact, in another location, it says that onyx is known to help with the pain of childbirth.
In other places, onyx is on random treasure generators, listed as onyx. As a percentile number chance to get onyx as a monetary treasure reward.
So. Nowhere does it say anything about people not wearing onyx or being suspicious of their neighbors wearing onyx...
But for some spectacular reason, we have an echo chamber here full of (maybe five, lol?) people who INSIST that this is the case, and they can't even begin to imagine otherwise.
Yes, that's rigid thinking. That's a complete inability to realize that, to the average person in the setting, a cigar is often just a cigar, and onyx is just onyx, not a dead-give-away.
Which, I add yet again, is further in evidence by the fact that no one in the setting *treats* it as a dead-give-away. Because it's not. Because the only people convinced otherwise are the ones here who have literally convinced themselves, leaning entirely on supposition and hindsight.
