Manshoon

Manshoon: Evil Wizard of Duplicity and Duplication

Manshoon is an evil, arrogant wizard who was an instrumental founder of the Zhentarim centuries ago. That Manshoon is dead, and the current Manshoon is one of the original's many clones. Being a magical copy rather than an original doesn't make Manshoon any less of a threat, as he's amassed mag ical skill and political influence he uses for his own gain. Manshoon considers the Zhentarim to be only one tool to amass personal power, and he casually sacrifices minions once they've outlived their usefulness. Manshoon doesn't care who suffers so long he's able to crush his many enemies and force his subjects into paranoid and eager obedience.

History: The original Manshoon was the undisputed lord of Zhentil Keep, where he honed the organization to suit his sinister will. He encouraged members to report on each other, punished discontent, and hoarded magical knowledge and personal secrets. The Zhentarim wouldn't have become the organization it is today—one where treachery and subterfuge are the order of the day-without Manshoon's formative influence. Manshoon made many enemies and sought to preserve his power by crafting several clones. A magical accident decades ago caused all his clones to activate at once and fight against one another in a devastating conflict called the Manshoon Wars. The original Manshoon and all but three of his clones were killed, and today only a single Manshoon is believed to be active in Faerün. Manshoon subtly cultivates this belief to keep his true forces hidden. Manshoon seems to be a young man, but he is significantly older than he appears, and his mind harbors the skills and knowledge of an even older version of himself. One of Manshoon's enemies, Halaster Blackcloak, removed Manshoon's left arm at the elbow. Manshoon now uses a mechanical prosthetic arm.

Personality: The Manshoon of today retains all his progenitor's arrogance and duplicity. Manshoon keeps several other clones at hand to activate if necessary. He also employs the Simulacrum spell to duplicate himself, his allies, and even his rivals. Manshoon knows that keeping people guessing about hidden identities makes them easier to manipulate. Manshoon usually wears a mask and concealing robes when meeting with others, even with loyal lieutenants and the Zhentarim's inner circle. Even his allies aren't sure when they're meeting with the actual Manshoon, a clone, or someone else in disguise, which is just as Manshoon prefers. Manshoon seeks power and is checked only by the many enemies who want to see him dead. He recently failed to seize control of Waterdeep in a clandestine coup. It's widely believed he's turned his attentions elsewhere, but another Manshoon clone lurks in that city, manipulating the Zhentarim behind the scenes to amass sufficient power to assault Undermountain and face his old enemy, Halaster.

Manshoon (pronounced: /mɑːnˈʃuːn/ man-SHOON) is the founder of the Zhentarim, also known as the Black Network, until he was "slain" by Fzoul Chembryl, his ally, and Lord Orgauth in 1370 DR. However, it transpired that Manshoon had created a dozen or more clones that the murderous duo then found themselves facing. Only three of these clones were known to have survived into the late 1370s DR and once more headed the evil organization known as the Zhentarim.

Personality: Completely fitting the archetype of the sly-tongued, sinister, and decadent master spellcaster, Manshoon ruthlessly crushes revolts within his own ranks of the Black Network, easily slaughters his rivals and weeds the weak out of the ranks of the young and ambitious by sending upstarts on nigh-impossible suicide missions. Hated and mistrusted by Fzoul, Manshoon manipulates him much as he does all others—remaining arrogant, untouchable in his power, and faintly amused by it all.

Relations: He has contacts with many creatures, mainly beholders, such as Xarlandralath and Xualahuu, some of whom hold much respect and loyalty to him. For example, Xualahuu is deeply loyal to him and tries to advance the Black Network's plots.

Early Life: Manshoon was born in Zhentil Keep in the Year of the Carrion Crow, 1229 DR, to Harlshoon, the first lord of Zhentil Keep. Manshoon, his brother Asmuth; and Chess, the son of their father's chief rival, Calkontor, were sent off together as adventurers to prove themselves worthy of being lords like their fathers. While his sons were away, Harlshoon was poisoned by Calkontor, but, with his dying breaths, he threw Calkontor out of a tower window. The trio's fathers' places were usurped by a pair of opportunists, Theilon Greencloak and Ulsan Baneservant, the deaths blamed on foreign assassins, while the unknowing lord-princes continued their adventures together. One such adventure was a quest to take a magical sword from a barrow, a goal shared by a trio of female Harpers. Asmuth was blinded and Manshoon had one of his hands blown off when he carelessly grabbed for the sword. Chess saved both of their lives, and the three fled when the sword animated itself, appearing to attack the Harpers. They came across a party of other adventurers and murdered them all in their sleep. Manshoon recovered a wand and a spellbook. He traded the wand for his hand to be restored but kept the spellbook as he secretly planned to study the Art, having been inspired by the magic of the sword. After a few more adventures they headed home, learning about their slain sires and their usurped positions in an inn somewhere in the Dalelands. Manshoon made sure his blind brother Asmuth fell off a bridge to his death before they returned to the keep where he and Chess planned to dispose of the usurpers. Meanwhile, Theilon Greencloak had gone to fight some mages in Thar and died in the conflict while Ulsan Baneservant remained in the keep. Manshoon and Chess were attacked on arrival by assassins acting on Ulsan's orders but were saved by Manshoon's magic. However, unknown to him, Chess defected in exchange for his father's seat on the council. It was, however a double cross: Chess, Manshoon, and their childhood friend Fzoul Chembryl killed the usurper. They claimed their rightful council seats and supported Fzoul's rise through the ranks of the Banite priesthood.

Building the Zhentarim: Feeling exposed, Manshoon immediately set about creating a cabal of mages, his Black Cloaks, to protect him, recruiting Fzoul early on. Not long afterward, in the Year of Bright Dreams, 1261 DR, he founded the Zhentarim. However, knowing the priests would obey Bane over anyone else and assuming the wizards were just as ambitious as he was, Manshoon held little trust for any of his new allies. He sent out spies and was determined to raise his powers in the arcane far above anyone else in Zhentil Keep. Some of his spies returned from Teshendale talking of a flying hollow rock. Manshoon investigated personally, hoping to find powerful magic. Instead, he discovered the beholder Xantriph. The two canny individuals joined forces, claiming the rock was a conduit to the gods. Banite priests flocked to the place where Xantriph instructed them all to do as Manshoon commanded, joining the Zhentarim and leading them away from the decadent High Imperceptor of the church. However, in order to do this, Manshoon and his magelings had to pledge fealty to Bane, promising to lead the faith to even greater heights of power than the weakening High Imperceptor had. Furthermore, Manshoon promised control of the priesthood and Zhentil Keep to the beholders, or so it seemed. In secret, Manshoon embarked on another plan for his organization. Having little interest in empire-building, he set his Zhentarim wizards the task of establishing trade routes between the Moonsea and the untapped markets of the Sword Coast. This allowed Manshoon to further dream of advancing his skill in the Art while manipulating both the beholders and the church of Bane from behind the scenes. During this period, Manshoon developed his ultimate insurance plan, the notorious stasis clone spell.

The Clones and the Manshoon Wars: Over the years Manshoon died many times, always coming back in a new body in half a day. Elminster claimed he had personally killed twenty-and-one Manshoon clones by the Year of the Prince, 1357 DR. That was the year when Manshoon's next death occurred, during his hunt for Shandril Shessair's spellfire. Severely weakened by Elminster and Storm Silverhand, his contingency spell whisked him away to the last place he'd been teleported from—right in front of Shandril, who instantly obliterated him in revenge for the death of Delg Ironstar. The Black Network and Church of Bane widely believed that this was the last clone he had, until Manshoon eventually returned — again. In the Year of the Tankard, 1370 DR, Manshoon was "slain" again by Fzoul and Lord Orgauth, who then found themselves facing around a dozen clones that the wizard had created. Each of the clones was convinced that he was the real Manshoon and was inexplicably compelled to slay his rival clones. Most of these perished in the ensuing battles. The caches of magical items formerly hidden by Manshoon were scattered throughout the Realms. These conflicts were known as the Manshoon Wars. Three clones, who mastered this killing compulsion by means of spells and devices, survived, with the one that returned to the Zhentarim appearing to be 'the' Manshoon. One of the three remaining clones returned to the Zhentarim, conceding leadership to Fzoul and entering into some sort of accommodation with him. He served as a member-at-large, a free agent with the power and authority to direct Zhentarim assets as he saw fit. Used to ruling and manipulating from behind the scenes and relieved of responsibility of administering to the Black Network, the Zhentarim Manshoon seemed to have learned a lesson in caution and patience. By 1372 DR, he had redoubled his arcane research, seeking ways to transfer his consciousness from one clone to another at will. The second clone assumed a position of power among the Night Masks of Westgate, calling himself Orbakh or Orlak II. This Manshoon awoke at the beginning of the Manshoon Wars only to find that he had been turned into a vampire and was not in the stasis chamber with the rest of the Manshoon clones (or the stash of magic items he had left for himself in the event of his death). He hunted down the vampire who had turned him, the Night King Orlak, and slew him, taking the vampire lord's magic items and his title of Night King. Whilst venturing up to the surface to feed, he found himself in Westgate where the magic items influenced him to create some vampire underlings and, with them, he decided to take over and revitalize the Night Masks thieves' guild. Orbakh quickly took over the Night Masks as he arrived in the midst of a power vacuum left by the death of the guild's former leader. He restructured the guild to his tastes and planned to turn Westgate into the capital city of a vampire kingdom by wedding the last in the line of the defunct Westgate royalty. This plot never saw fruition, however, because of the intervention of the Spellplague. The third took refuge in Undermountain with Halaster. Although most believed the Manshoon Wars persisted only a few short, chaotic years, they were actually waged over the course of at least a century. The surviving clones became increasingly entrenched, hoping to outlast their foes.

Post-Spellplague: When Returned Netheril learned of the Zhentarim's alliance with the phaerimm, the shadovar destroyed Zhentil Keep, killing the Zhentarim Manshoon. The one in Undermountain appeared to have died during the events of the Spellplague itself. Now only the vampire Manshoon known as Orbakh remained. He was now the Night King, leader of the Night Masks and a powerful vampire. The Fire Knives though, purged Westgate of vampires. Retaking his original name, the last Manshoon clone relocated to the haunted castle of Stormwatch, and rebuilt the forces of the Zhentarim, adding his own undead thralls to those few living Zhents that remained. Stormwatch and Darkhold were the main bases of these forces, but not having the resources to rebuild the organization to its former glory, the Manshoon's new Zhentarim was now merely a mercenary company, bolstered by priests of Cyric from Darkhold. Decades after the collapse of the Weave and the devastating effects of the Spellplague, the vampiric Manshoon began plotting to take rulership of Cormyr. To this end, he slowly began collecting information on items rumored to contain the spirits of the Nine. Known as blueflame ghosts, combining their power was rumored to be strong enough to breach the wards protecting the royal palace of Suzail. He also began to use his powerful mental techniques on the lowly and powerful alike, enslaving some, making others mind-thralls to be used or discarded as needed (without the person being any the wiser), and spying on the nobility and palace staff. Manshoon also began to slowly whittle away at Elminster's defenses, killing an ally of the Old Sage's or removing one of the many contingency spells still tied to him whenever he felt like having some fun. Finally, in the Year of the Ageless One, 1479 DR, he took revenge upon Elminster for the foiling of so many plans and the destruction of so many clones. Manshoon, using the body of a beholder held in mind-thrall, unleashed magics strong enough to reduce Elminster to dust. He departed, however, before discovering that Elminster survived as a pile of magical ash. Manshoon continued to plot his overthrow of the Obarskyrs. He followed Elminster to the Simbul's cave in Shadowdale with the intent of killing Elminster. However, Elminster and Storm Silverhand were able to restore the Simbul's sanity, and she forced Manshoon to yield and promise to work with Elminster to recover blueflame items. After the Simbul teleported away, Manshoon once again blasted Elminster's human form to ashes but couldn't destroy him. Later, after Mystra's return around 1480 DR, Elminster regained his original body and destroyed the vampire Manshoon for good. However, Elminster knew that Manshoon was ready to awaken a new clone.

Post-Second Sundering: Although intending to continue where his former clone left off, the new Manshoon, a vampire again, continuously found himself thwarted, from even attempting to begin his schemes, by the newly returned Mirt the Moneylender, though the two of them regularly met for drinks and passive-aggressive conversations in Suzail, Cormyr. When the events in Myth Drannor led to a disturbance in the Weave in the Year of the Rune Lords Triumphant, 1487 DR, the vampire's guard dropped momentarily. With Mirt's help, he was arrested by War Wizards in Memories of Queen Fee. In the Year of Dwarvenkind Reborn, 1488 DR, Manshoon, now no longer interested in direct confrontations with the Sage of Shadowdale, was caught alongside several other archwizards inside a spellstorm in Cormyr for the purpose of making a bid for the legendary Lost Spell. However, aside from an "alliance" made with Malchor Harpell (at the indirect request of Elminster and Mystra), Manshoon eventually left empty-handed. By 1492 DR, the Undermountain Manshoon had resurfaced in Waterdeep, having survived the Spellplague and his clash with Halaster Blackcloak. During the latter battle, Manshoon's left arm was severed and proved impossible to magically regenerate, forcing him to use a metal prosthetic instead, while the original was kept and reanimated by Halaster. The ancient archwizard had infiltrated Waterdeep years before and had been hiding out in Kolat Towers ever since, plotting to replace the City Watch with Black Network mercenaries that were loyal to him alone and to rule Waterdeep as Wizard-King.