• 1229 DR [Year of the Carrion Crow]

  • Manshoon of the Zhentarim is born to Harlshoon, the first lord of Zhentil Keep. »

  • 1261 DR [Year of Bright Dreams]

  • Manshoon claims his seat on the Zhent council. He then founds the secret organization of the Zhentarim. »

  • 1312 DR [Year of the Griffon]

  • Darkhold is seized by the Black Network (Zhentarim) lead by Manshoon. Fzoul Chembryl slays its lich-queen, Varalla. »

  • 1334 DR [Year of the Blazing Brand]

  • Manshoon and Fzoul, with the help of their beholder allies, become the new lords of Zhentil Keep. »

  • 1357 DR [Year of the Prince]

  • Shandril Shessair, a young maiden from Deepingdale, is pursued across the Dalelands and into Cormyr by both the Zhentarim and the Cult of the Dragon. Aided by the Knights of Myth Drannor and shielded by Elminster, the Seven Sisters, and Mirt of Waterdeep, she succeeds in fleeing from her pursuers into the Heartlands and slaying the dracoliches Rauglothgor, Aghazstamn, and Shargrailar (in the process doing damage to Zhentil Keep and the Citadel of the Raven).

    She later kills a clone of Manshoon, collapses Irondrake Rock, and slays the lichnee Iliph Thraun

    When hunted down soon after by more Zhentarim and Cult of the Dragon agents, she immolates herself in a conflagration of spellfire. »

  • Manshoon and Fzoul Chembryl take ill but are healed. »

  • 1361 DR [Year of Maidens]

  • When the followers of Cyric take control of Zhentil Keep, Manshoon quietly makes plans to relocate the Black Network's main base of operations to the Citadel of the Raven, secretly and gradually shifting supplies, personnel, and other resources to new quarters there. »

  • 1368 DR [Year of the Banner]

  • Nightal 27 Fall of Zhentil Keep
    Fzoul Chembryl reads aloud from the True Life of Cyric, revealing the dark god's betrayal of his faithful at Zhentil Keep. Xeno Mirrormane, High Priest of Cyric, is struck by powerful divine fire from Mask. The flames devour Xeno, then proceeded to do likewise to the temple of Cyric. Fzoul flees the falling city to Teshwave as Cyric-summoned giants, dragons, and other monsters sack much of Zhentil Keep.

    Lord Orgauth had only the small number of troops that hadn't fled the destruction and a few meagre reinforcements from Darkhold. Orgauth died during the siege but a pit fiend named Abarax that had been imprisoned by one of Orgauth's mages escaped from it's bonds and found Orgauth's corpse. The baatezu polymorphed into the fallen leader and effectively took up his life where Orgauth had left it.

    Abarax (as Orgauth) and his troops survived. He then summons the Erinyes Eshaeris to take the place of a courtesan named Desmonda who had disappeared during the siege. Together, they befuddled the remaining lords and took complete, unopposed control of the Keep. »

  • 1370 DR [Year of the Tankard]

  • The Manshoon Wars
    Fzoul Chembryl and Orgauth attacks Manshoon and Semommon. Manshoon is killed by Fzoul and Sememmon flees to Darkhold, severing the gates that link it with Zhentil Keep. Fzoul purges the Zhentarim of Manshoon's supporters, giving him control over most of the organization. Several clones of Manshoon awake at the same time and create havoc throughout Faerun. Fzoul and Orgauth take control of the Citadel of the Raven.

    A long-lost stasis clone of Manshoon awakens in the catacombs of Westgate as the Manshoon Wars begin. Prior to his awakening, this Manshoon clone had been abducted and drained by the Night King, a powerful vampire. As a vampire, the Manshoon clone hunts down and kills his creator, becoming the next Night King in turn. The Manshoon clone (now calling himself Orbakh) then sets about rebuilding the Night Masks to serve his ends, leading to rumors in Westgate that "the Faceless" has returned. »

  • 1373 DR [Year of Rogue Dragons]

  • Elminster secretly helps a small group of adventurers near Westgate at the Reddansyr Village, investigating the destiny of the clone of Manshoon, and unmasking the real leader of Night Masks of Westgate, the Night King known as "The Faceless" (the Manshoon clone, now known as Orbakh). »

  • 1479 DR [Year of the Ageless One]

  • The ruins of Tethgard is the site of a bloody battle between the trio of Elminster, Storm Silverhand, and the Simbul against a company of War Wizards and Purple Dragons seeking to take them into custody.

    After finally admitting that they needed help saving the Realms, and having run out of easy-to-steal magic items to feed to the Simbul, Elminster seeks to gain access to artifacts known to contain the spirits of the Nine - objects powerful enough to pierce the wards surrounding the royal palace of Suzail or, Elminster believes, to permanently restore the Simbul's sanity. He also sought to recruit the efforts of a descendant of his, Amarune Whitewave.

    During one of his excursions into the palace, Elminster's body was destroyed by Manshoon, who had secretly been peeling away the Old Mage's contingency spells over several years. However, Manshoon departed before he realized that Elminster had survived his body's destruction as a pile of magical ash. With the agreement of Amarune and the aid of Storm, Elminster's essence was transferred to Amarune's body with the aid of a spell the ex-Chosen discovered in a cache once belonging to Azuth. He now "rides the mind" of his great-granddaughter, able to control her body's movements when he wishes.

    The Simbul is restored to sanity when Elminster and Storm feed her a Blueflame item. After her mind was restored, she subdues Manshoo and charges both Elminster and Manshoon to work to gather all the Blueflame items together. After the Simbul teleports away however, Manshoon turns on Elminster and blasts his human form to ashes, but could not destroy him. »

  • Marlin Stormserpent, a young noble of Suzail schemes with Manshoon, whom Marlin thought was a palace courier named Lothrae, to acquire as many of the artifacts of The Nine as possible. Marlin's family owned the Flying Blade and his brother had the Wyverntongue Chalice.

    With both of the Blueflame items, he calls forth the spirits of Treth Halonter and Relve Langral (former members of The Nine turned into blueflame ghosts by Myrkul) and orders them to kill a rival noble. The two spirits cut a bloody swath through Suzail.

    Marlin flees Suzail when the War Wizards discover his hand in summoning the blue flame ghosts. He is slain by Cymmarraa at a hunting lodge and she takes his Blueflame relics.

    Before his death, Marlin frees Mirt the Moneylender from his decades long imprisonment in a Blueflame axe. »

  • The Simbul begins closing dimensional rifts created after the Weave's collapse during the Spellplague, aided by the power of the Blueflame items and Mystra's guidance. In one of the rifts, she's ambushed by a horde of demons and almost dismembered, but she manages to prevail by absorbing the power of Blueflame items into herself, destroying the demons and the rift but transforming herself into a being of pure silver fire.

    Several magically-dominated nobles are slain killing Lady Maratine Delcastle in Manshoon's attempt to get at Elminster. He is successful, and when Elminster calls him out, the Old Sage is nearly destroyed in the ensuing battle between himself, Manshoon's death tyrants, and Suzail's War Wizards. He is saved only by the timely arrival of the Simbul, who sacrifices herself by restoring the Old Sage to his original body and giving him her silver fire, at which point her body and soul dissipates into nothingness.

    Having absorbed too much silver fire from the Simbul and Manshoon, Elminster flees to Mystra and returns a large part of her divinity to her, returning a goddess of magic to the Realms. This event becomes known as Mystra's Return.

    Enraged at the death of his paramour and the countless others slain by Manshoon's machinations, and with a painful overabundance of Mystra's silver fire, Elminster tracks down and destroys Manshoon's body. In the process, he discovers that Manshoon is himself a Chosen of Mystra and that he does not have power enough to kill him. »