The Secret History of Zhentarim

The driving force behind the founding of the Zhentarim was the wizard Manshoon, whose thirst for power, domination, and rulership al¬most matched the hunger of the beholders for the same.
Manshoon began his quest for power by back¬ing up his older, louder, far less subtle older brother, the warrior Asmuth. Foreseeing a long, bloody, and probably losing battle if Asmuth tried to violently forge the strongest faction among many in Zhentil Keep, Manshoon decided on an¬other road.
While he and his brother allied with Lord Chess and through that individual sought the loyalties of many lords and wealthy rising mer¬chants of Zhentil Keep, Manshoon privately met and made common cause with the beholders who had come to dominate the local church of Bane. The beholders promised him that if he and the “magelings” (young, ambitious wizards whom Manshoon commanded) helped the beholders wrest the Banites away from the nominal head of the church, the decadent High Imperceptor, the Banites would join the Zhentarim and win






Manshoon the lordship of Zhentil Keep. To ac¬complish this, Manshoon and his magelings were to personally pledge fealty to the god Bane, and promise the Lord of Tyrants that he would trans¬form the faith into a far greater power than it had waned into under the High Imperceptor.
Manshoon would get the title and the power he craved, and the beholders would get the power they’d ached to wield for so long. The beholders would dominate not just a priesthood, but also the most powerful city-state of the Inner Sea North and a rich mining power that would be swiftly built into a military juggernaut able to defeat any foe in the field—or so Manshoon promised.
Secretly, Manshoon didn’t want the cares and pressures of ruling an expanding empire. Ambi¬tious rivals such as Fzoul or the beholders could take over, and Manshoon could skillfully ma¬nipulate them into believing they had duped and bested him to do so. He would even serve some¬one who rose past him, so long as he got ample opportunity to pursue his most cherished dream.
More than aught else, Manshoon desired to increase his personal magical might so he could dominate wizards and sorcerers. He considered mighty wielders of the Art as superior beings to the “common cattle” of humanity. To rule them is to rule the best—and thus to be the best. Man¬shoon wanted to achieve a life of relative ease and luxury, to spend his time crafting ever stronger spells, and so make himself the greatest, most famous wizard ever. To do that, he would need great wealth to afford all he wanted for spell crafting. He preferred not to suffer the endless interruptions and perils of hiring out his magic to others to raise funds—in such pursuits he would come into frequent contact with adventurers and mercenaries who might kill him, steal from him, or gain a hold over him.
Enter the central goal he set for the Zhentarim wizards: to establish the shortest trade route link¬ing the Moonsea with the rich markets of the Sword Coast lands. Finding and controlling bet¬ter trade routes than those of all his rivals would become the daily work of his magelings, as he set them tasks that would test them, weed out the fools and the undisciplined, and force them into rivalries that would keep them at each other’s throats rather than plotting against him.
With the aid of his notorious stasis clones— at least a dozen of which still survive, scattered across other worlds and dimensions—Manshoon intended to outlast those foes he couldn’t outwit or destroy. To guard against Mystra and Azuth foiling his ambitions with their dictates, Man¬shoon sought the personal patronage of Bane, and won it.
Though his fortunes have risen and fallen with Bane’s, ever since, the two have aided each other effectively. Bane’s return was rooted in creatures readied by Manshoon’s magic. In gratitude—and from a desire to maintain one of his most useful mortal pawns—Bane has rescued Manshoon time and time again.
There are many accurate accounts of Man¬shoon’s angry, fearful, or reckless behavior—but all those from the later 1400s DR are due to the insanity aroused in Manshoon clones when mul¬tiple are awake and active at the same time. What some sages have called “the Manshoon Wars” did not span just the few wild years most believe to be the case, but lasted for more than a century. During this entire time, a Manshoon clone ruled the city of Westgate and headed the Night Masks as Orbakh the vampire, and other Manshoon clones were on the loose elsewhere in Faerun— every last one of them less than sane, and acting accordingly.
Manshoon’s earliest and least powerful sur¬viving clones are more dangerous than his later, more magically accomplished selves. This is true because the early clones retain more of his calm, cold calculation, his freedom from loving or hold¬ing anyone in friendship, his clearest and most ruthless thinking . . . and his fiercest ambition. The older Manshoon was increasingly tempered by life, as his most hated rivals Szass Tam, Khel- ben “Blackstaff” Arunsun, and Elminster Aumar all were. He was mellowing, and starting to feel and pursue other interests aside from the drive for ever more powerful Art and the acquisition of wealth necessary to get that mightier magic.
At least one of his early clones foresaw the mess of the Manshoon Wars and hid himself very well, returning to stasis enclosed within multiple ward spells so as to survive the fray. That clone still sleeps in hiding, and will emerge after all other Manshoons have fallen. 
Seeking the Best Routes
Getting rich by control of that “shorter, cheaper, faster, and all ours” trade route betwixt the Sword Coast and the mineral wealth of the Moonsea is what the Zhentarim were originally all about.
At least, that’s what they were all about once Manshoon consolidated his political hold over Zhentil Keep.
Hence their creation of what some call the Black Road, a route up the valley of the Tesh from Zhentil Keep and across the perilous desert of Anauroch.
If the Zhentarim suffer the loss of one end of their cherished route, their first reaction—so as not to stop the flow of trade, and therefore in¬come—is to change the route. In the long run, they would seek to reestablish the best route, since alternative routes are longer, slower, and more expensive.
The worst fallback route—which they use for a trickle of goods to keep the path open, just
in case, is through Tilver’s Gap and the Stone- lands. For this passage to handle the full traffic the Zhents want to move, the Brotherhood would have to establish dozens of legitimate costers to perform carriage through the Dales, and strengthen Darkhold to better defend the western end, bringing caravans onto existing roads at vari ous points near Corm Orp.
Two more desirable alternatives both begin at the Citadel of the Raven and require hewing a safe route through the Border Forest to reach Anauroch. From there, the Zhents would spend a lot of coin sending caravans carrying only fire¬wood, food, and water out into the desert to dump at specific sites before returning. In this manner, they would establish a series of “water and warmth” way stops across the frigid desert. Thanks to the cold, spell-controlled rothe (or, as a less desirable alternative, caribou) would be the beasts of burden instead of horses, because breed ing enough sled dogs or training wolves would take too long. 
A wise Zhent commander would run the route along those three isolated peaks, Azirrhat being the most easterly, and use the heights as navi¬gational aids and signal beacons. This icy route would damage some trade goods, and could reach the western edge of Anauroch at either end of the Far Forest. Which end of the Far Forest is cho¬sen would depend on how fiercely Llorkh is held against the Zhents. The river Delimbiyr would be their first choice to continue onward, since it would allow them to use their existing agents in Loudwater and elsewhere who represent the west¬ern end of their present route.
If they can’t use the Delimbiyr, then they would have to travel the harder way: west across the headwaters of the Delimbiyr and along the southern edge of the Nether Mountains to the valley of the Rauvin, and down through the Silver Marches.
The best Zhent strategy would be to establish all of these routes, but heavily use only the one that proves to have the lowest losses of men and cargo, turning to the others if the prime route is threatened by rivals or blocked by some natural occurrence.
While Manshoon was in charge, the Zhents did just that. Later, under Fzoul Chembryl, the Zhents started to try to accomplish all sorts of things at once, and although they seemed every¬where and more powerful, they became far less effective at actually finishing anything they set out to do.
Increasingly, as time passed, personal ambition on the part of most Zhents led to infighting that was likely to flare into open brawling whenever failure was perceived.
Zhent Battle Tactics
In the field, Zhent forces in the mid 1300s DR were commanded in many different ways as various commanders—some far from compe¬tent—sought to impress their superiors or just win the day dramatically, by trying new maneuvers.
So aside from obvious responses, such as rushing to contain intruders or trying to surround foes, an adventuring band encountering Zhents would sel¬dom see the same tactics twice.
Mounted Zhent road patrols near Voonlar or Yulash set out with at least twenty Zhentilar war¬riors, sometimes accompanied by up to four raw
recruits, learning on the job. These warriors were commanded by a priest, who was sometimes ac-companied by an underling, and a wizard of lesser stature than the priest who sometimes had an ap-prentice along. If neither the priest nor the wizard had a lackey, they were instead accompanied by at least one mounted crossbowman of skill.
Priests on missions—either in Zhentil Keep, another Zhent-dominated urban setting, or out in the countryside—traveled in groups of five or six, along with their errand runners and whatever number of Zhentilar fighters the priests deemed necessary for their own safety. In determining the strength of their guard, they tended to be more cowardly than bold.
When sallying forth into known battle rather than patrolling, Zhent forces were smaller than three patrols combined. These Zhentilar troops were composed mainly of fighters and bolstered by a handful of magelings, each of whom was ac¬companied by at least one personal bodyguard from among veteran Zhentilar crossbowmen. Priests of Bane magically observed from a safe distance, guarded by their own (stronger than the wizards’) bodyguards, and with defensive spells prepared. Their task was to observe and report back, fighting only to win free of enemies.
If the foe is deemed formidable, such as veteran adventurers would be, a “snake” force was also deployed. This group was composed of a trio or a quintet of experienced Zhentarim wizards with full battle-spells ready, usually accompanied by a few magically controlled monsters. This force waited in concealment—magical or natural—until it was magically directed from afar by the force commander to emerge and attack the enemy from behind once the foe was engaged with the Zhenti¬lar troops.
The magelings accompanying the Zhent warriors could use any sort of spell, including experimental disasters. They hurled their magic recklessly; they were out to prove themselves and cared little for the defense of items, territory, or their fellow Zhents. They cared a lot for the de¬fense of their own persons, however, and if the battle turned against their side, they would flee, ignoring any orders to the contrary.
(As a DM, I have always used core rulebook arcane spells for Zhentarim mages, but tweaked every last one slightly, in terms of the appearance of the unleashed magic, its area of effect, or its
material components and casting details. This technique keeps players guessing and roleplaying rather than running their characters in combat on the basis of what they know of spells from the rulebooks.)
The experienced Zhentarim wizards in a snake force wore magic rings to teleport themselves out of danger, and attacked in coordinated unison, seeking to strike hard, do damage, and get out, rather than to rescue Zhents or win the field.
They heeded Manshoon’s orders to harry enemies through repeated fighting, wearing them down rather than doing anything overly risky or heroic in trying to destroy all foes as swiftly and deci¬sively as possible.
The watching priests were usually far enough from the main fray to be able to flee easily. If they were chased by a determined enemy, their retreat was through an area where more powerful Banite clergy could ambush their pursuers with multiple magical attacks.
A Zhent force that knew it was going up against particularly persistent foes would often send monsters against them first. Once the enemy was bloodied, but before the foe defeated the beasts, veteran Zhentarim mages would attack with a construct, and finally with their spells. Zhentilar troops then charged in to prevent the enemy from reaching the wizards.
Manshoon often sent Zhent forces (in particu¬lar ambitious magelings) up against tough foes as a means of testing them. If they were weaklings, they were better gone, but if they succeeded, they eliminated or weakened those foes and be¬came more experienced, confident, and useful to Manshoon.
Zhent Garrisons
During the time when Manshoon led the Black Brotherhood, Zhentarim strongholds, storage caches in caverns and old tombs, and Zhent- allied naga lairs were usually guarded by helmed horrors, because casual intruders were more likely to be more terrified of them than of any human. Secondary guards, in Zhent fortresses and warehouses, were often banelar nagas or dark nagas, with bored, resentful “duty wizards” as backup. Duty wizards are Zhentarim mages as¬signed to such duties as punishment, or because they are out of favor. The backups always had
some means, from message pigeons to magic, of reporting attacks on the stronghold—or other in-teresting events—to other Zhents elsewhere.
No foe of the Zhentarim should ever expect to raid or overwhelm and seize a Zhent-held build¬ing or even a roadblock without other Zhents knowing about it. Getting the word out right away is a firm, standing order from Manshoon. And after a few Zhents died slowly and painfully as lessons to others, that order rose to supersede any fears of consequences that might lead a Zhent to be slow to report.
The Right Air of Menace
The Zhentarim have achieved a lot through in-timidation, but they are far more than jackbooted thugs who turn cowardly when faced with real resistance. They have their spies, and they often make uncooperative people “go missing” rather than showing up to publicly butcher them or to set their homes on fire. Sometimes they magically assume the likeness of someone they’ve killed or taken captive, to hide in plain view and to lay blame on that person for something the Brother¬hood did. Sometimes they leave false messages or “dropped items” to be found, to mislead others. Never forget that some Zhentarim are very smart.
The Black Brotherhood long ago realized that a fearsome reputation can cow people into doing what you want them to—if you make the right examples of a few, and spread (and steer) pre¬cisely worded rumors so the populace takes your hints and outright directions—better than the most exhaustive policing and patrolling can. Folk will even eagerly do things if you can make them think what they’re doing was their own idea, or is a clever dodge around detested taxes or rules. Why get a sword rusty killing a farmer, when he could work hard feeding you for years to come?
All Zhentarim can act like menacing butchers, but most of them are far more than that.