Manshoon

For years Manshoon was the lord of Zhentil Keep and leader of the Zhentarim. Completely fitting the archetype of the sly-tongued, sinister and decadent master spellcaster, Manshoon ruthlessly crushed revolts within his own ranks of the Black Network, easily slaughtered his rivals and weeded the weak out of the ranks of the young and ambitions by sending upstarts on nigh-impossible suicide missions. Hated and mistrusted by Fzoul, Manshoon manipulated him much as he did all others - remaining arrogant, untouchable in his power and faintly amused by it all.

Manshoon was born in Zhentil Keep in 1229 DR to Harlshoon, the first lord of Zhentil Keep. Manshoon, his brother Asmuth and the son of their father's chief rival, Calkontor named Chess were sent off together 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 father's places were usurped by a pair of opportunists (and blamed on foreign assassins) while the lord-princes continued their adventures together. One such adventure was the 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 their lives and the three fled when the sword animated itself, appearing to attack the Harpers. They came across a party of 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, secretly planning to study the Art, inspired by the magic of the sword. After a few more adventures they headed home, learning about their sires and their usurped positions in an inn somewhere in the Dalelands. Manshoon made sure his blind brother Asmuth fell off of a bridge to his death before they returned to the keep where he and Chess planned to dispose of the usurpers. One of them had gone to fight some mages from Thar and had died in the conflict while the other remained in the keep. The two were attacked by Banite priest/assassins upon their arrival but were saved by Manshoon's magic. However, unknown to him, Chess would defect 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.

Feeling exposed, Manshoon immediately set about creating a cabal of mages, his Blackcloaks, to protect him, recruiting Fzoul early on. In 1261 DR, not long afterward, he founded the Zhentarim. Knowing the priests to 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 came out 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. With the Banites taken care of, all seemed well, but although many things went well for Manshoon's Black Network, many things went wrong as well.

In 1370 DR, Manshoon was "slain" 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.

Three clones, who mastered this killing compulsion by means of spells and devices, survive with the one that returned to the Zhentarim appearing to be 'the' Manshoon. Used to ruling and manipulating from behind the scenes and relived of responsibility of administering to the Black Network, he seems to have learned a lesson in caution and patience. He has since redoubled his arcane research, seeking ways to transfer his consciousness from one clone to another at will.

The clones

One of the three remaining clones returned to the Zhentarim, conceding leadership to Fzoul and entering into some sort of accommodation with him. The second clone assumed a position of power among the Night Masks of Westgate, calling himself Orbakh. The third took refuge in Undermountain with Halaster.

The Zhentarim Manshoon is a powerful lieutenant of Fzoul. He serves as a member-at-large, a free agent with the power and authority to direct Zhentarim assets as he sees fit, this was strange as the original Manshoon and Fzoul barely tolerated each other.

Orbakh 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 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 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. He left this action too late though.