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Hello everybody Jorphdan here the PH is silent.
Let’s talk about Manshoon and the Manshoon wars.
Probably recognized as one of the potential villains in Waterdeep Dragonheist, Manshoon
has an interesting history within the Forgotten Realms.
Manshoon is a mage, an arch mage, very powerful.
He was born in Zhentil Keep in 1229 DR.
His father Harlshoon was the first lord of Zhentil Keep.
When he became of age Manshoon along with his brother Asmuth, and the son of Harlshoon’s
rival named Chess, left Zhentil Keep to prove themselves.
While away Chess’ father Calkontor poisoned Harlshoon, but Harlshoon with his last breath
threw his attacker from a tower.
Who ended up dying from his fall and Harlshoon died from the poison.
Hearing of this news the three wished to return home and take their place in Zhentil Keep
as was theirs by birthright.
Manshoon knew that two brothers couldn’t hold the same seat, so after his brother Asmuth
was blinded in a battle with the Harpers he conveniently arranged for him to fall off
a bridge.
With Asmuth dead Manshoon was able to return to the city and oust the others that had taken
over the council.
Manshoon returned to Zhentil Keep in 1260 DR along with Chess.
They found the keep in control of Lord Baneservant, Ulsan Baneservant.
Chess feigned loyalty to Ulsan and with the help of a young priest of Bane named Fzoul
Chembryl they killed Ulsan and claimed their seats on the council.
With this act Manshoon became the lord of Zhentil Keep.
Manshoon knew there were others out to get him, to take his position of power.
Or perhaps he was simply paranoid, nobody will know for sure but it caused him to create
a secret Black Network called the Zhentarim.
This was a network of spies throughout Zhentil Keep, the Moonsea, and the rest of Faerun.
These assassins and spies protected Manshoon and aided him by bringing information.
Also due to his paranoia he crafted a spell that would create clones of himself.
So in the event of his death he could live on.
But so paranoid about dying he was he ended up creating nearly 40 clones, I believe, spread
out across Faerun.
The number of clones changes from source to source but it’s safe to say there were plenty.
Then in 1370 DR Manshoon’s ally and cleric of Bane, Fzoul, along with Lord Orgauth ganged
up and killed Manshoon.
Suddenly all the clones activated at once.
Fzoul and Orgauth were expecting perhaps one clone to awaken, but all of them was quite
the surprise.
It’s not known if the clones were scheduled to awaken if Manshoon died or if someone else
had awakened them.
Regardless the clones rose and immediately set to kill one another.
The problem with this spell is if you make more than one clone they immediately hate
one another and try to kill them to be the only living clone.
Suddenly Faerun was ripe with powerful evil archmages that were all convinced they were
the real Manshoon.
This time in history was known as the Manshoon Wars.
Reports of 12 Manshoon clones ripped one another apart in Zhentil Keep.
The good thing is the clones only grew paranoid and insane the closer they were to other clones.
Getting in a radius of about five miles from other clones would start to feel this madness
of trying to find the clone and kill it.
To be the last standing Manshoon, the quote “real” Manshoon.
However the clones had similar thoughts and would often come up with the same idea.
For example there were two clones that woke up in the Dalelands and independently decided
to visit Elminster to probably attack him.
The closer these clones got to one another the more insane they became.
Until Elminster himself heard a noise outside his door only to open it and find two piles
of ash where the two Manshoons had destroyed one another.
One Manshoon was taken in by Larloch the Lich.
When this clone did not wish to dive into the process of becoming a Lich he was killed
by Larloch and raised as an undead servant.
Currently there are three known Manshoons still existing within Faerun.
One went back to Zhentil Keep and is just under Fzoul who now controls the Zhentarim.
This Manshoon had little interest in running Zhentil Keep and was perfectly fine working
with and taking direction from Fzoul.
This clone spends most of his time studying the clone spell trying to perfect it and possibly
remove the insanity that comes with numerous clones.
The second Manshoon lives in Undermountain, underneath Waterdeep.
He offered himself as a willing pupil to Halaster the Mad Mage.
Halaster gave him no entry into Undermountain but Manshoon was persistent and eventually
was allowed to stay.
His goal was to rule Undermountain and usurp Halaster, unfortunately for his plans the
spellplague occurred and caused much chaos within Undermountain.
The blue fire tore apart Manshoon’s mind.
Sometime during his stay in Undermountain Halaster caught him and amputated his left
arm at the elbow for reasons unknown.
This part could not magically be regrown for some reason so Manshoon crafted a mechanical
arm.
He then went to live in Waterdeep.
His goal is to somehow overthrow the Masked Lords and become the Open Wizard King of Waterdeep.
This Manshoon favors the Simulacrum spell to take care of his day to day activities.
You’re more likely to run into his Simulacrum than the cloned Manshoon.
Finally the last remaining known clone of Manshoon adopted a different name; Orbakh.
This clone was attacked by Vampires and became a vampire.
The Night King Orlak found the clone and forcibly changed him.
Now a vampire archmage he quickly overtook his attacker and adopted his name and title.
Manshoon became known as Orlak II for a while, then finally Orbakh.
He rules over the Night Masks of Westgate.
It is rumored that he has left the Night Masks and hopes to regain control of the Zhentarim
and possibly Zhentil Keep.
Thanks for watching everyone!
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Manshoon is featured in the adventure Waterdeep: Dragonheist as one of the potential villains.
I find him fascinating and how cool would it be for one of your PCs to run into yet
another clone of Manshoon within the Forgotten Realms.
Take care everyone and I’ll see you next week with another episode of Forgotten Realms
Explained.