Who are the Zhentarim in D&D?
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Episode 70! The Black Network, also known as the Zhentarim is a mercenary company founded by the wizard Manshoon!
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References:
AD&D - Ruins of Zhentil Keep Boxed Set - www.drivethrurp...
Grand History of the Realms - www.drivethrurp...
Lords of Darkness 3.5 - www.drivethrurp...
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting - www.drivethrurp...
Mysteries of the Moonsea - www.drivethrurp...
Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide - www.drivethrurp...
Faction Overview - dnd.wizards.com...
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Thanks to this video, I fully understand why in the Baldur's Gate game people initially thought the Zhentarim was behind the iron crisis.
honestly pretty legit theory
Was the iron crisis caused by the lord of Dis, the 2nd layer of hell, the one that can destroy metal with a touch? I can’t remember his name.
I'm about to run Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and this has been a God send.
Thank you.
New to DND stuff, but just wanted to share that i made up a motto for the Zhentarim in my campaign:
"Together we prosper! Surrender or suffer."
zzp
I'm (respectfully) stealing this for my game.
Members of the Lord's Alliance in Adventure's League can be lawful evil as well.
You are correct, thanks for the heads up!
Yes but don't forget the alignement of the Lords' Alliance is Lawful good. So if you are a faction agent you can't do what you want, you must follow the laws and the goals of your faction. As Faction agent you surely need to have a direct responsable for you and you have to act in accordance to the protocol of the faction, so you can't go around slaying and menacing people randomly. Is like being a policeman, you have to act in a certain way :D
Thanks a lot for your work Jorphdan, you're helping me a lot with mine campaign in 5e in Faehrun. Without you i would be lost.
Lawful Evil characters generally don't go around doing anything randomly, including slaying and menacing. ;-) By definition that would be Chaotic.
Yuan-ti PCs are required to be from Najara and be members of the Lord's Alliance. The most recent write-up talks about the (Naga) King of Najara trying to get the nations of the Sword Coast to recognize Najara as a true nation. Part of his efforts include sending Pureblood Yuan-ti out as emissaries, merchants, and potentially even infiltrators. PCs in Adventurers League are allowed to be Lawful Evil, but are still required to play nice with each other including PCs of the other factions.
Peter Count police man can do whatever they want in America lol
Yea like u know corrupted nobles
I have to say that this is the greatest list of informaiton for the forgotten realms playlist as I am working through my own campaign using your videos to create my notes for the players and gives me something to watch at work. keep up the good work
Glad it was helpful!
@@Jorphdan , It was insanely helpful and for the group I am working on using the information regarding Chult and MindFlayers to accomplish their long time plan of destroying the sun
Thinking of making an oath of vengeance paladin who had his beginnings in the zhentarim. Haven't worked out the detail yet, but something happens which made him turn his back on the black network and take up his oath.
I love your videos man, even though I've never played DnD you make the lore interesting to learn about.
Thanks :D
As always, I love your tendency towards edition neutrality, even if the 5e stuff sometimes throws me off (5e is very artificial in some ways, such as restricting organizations by alignment or having corporation-style bullet points of principles/rules/world-views).
Personally, I'd love to see something on the Purple Dragon Knights. I'm generally not a fan, but I also know very little about them. Either that, or a remake of/another Red Wizard vid that fits the current format; it would be very weird to have a collection of faction vids without a red wizard vid that fits with the others.
Shadow Thieves, maybe? Cowled Wizards could be interesting, too. Usually fly under the radar, but are a big part of Amn and the original Lands of Intrigue.
I remember when I was dm in a dragon heist game, and one of my players got an army of 120 thugs to raid Gralhund villa. Needless to say, most of it was reduced to splinters by the end.
Finally joined a group that uses this world and their factions, DM recommended these videos to catch me on the area. Playing a Rogue inquisitive, City Watch investigators, and sadly I got place in the group right before they are about to hand a town over to the Zhentarim.
Excited to see where it goes
Do you plan to go into any of the mercenary groups of the Forgotten Realms? Brilliant content btw man
Thanks! It's not something I've thought of, can you list off some of the groups you'd like to see and I'll do some research :)
I described the Zhentarim as the mob to my group this week. I know very little about them. Glad I wasnt off base hah.
Goddamn Zents (Spits on the ground)
"They offer escort services..."
WHAT?!
"...for caravans"
Oh.
This is a long thing, but this was a sweet plan that my friend and i came up with, supporting the zhentarim! 😬
Through the zhentarim me and another party member who are apart of them made a pathfinder guild which is an adventurer’s guild, working with local governments of each country and city to create adventuring licenses to make it illegal to not be apart of the pathfinder guild and get your reward as an adventurer. We and the governments of each country get 10% revenue from each reward adventurers gain in their adventures; the local government gets 5% while the zhentarim gets the other 5%. Once an adventurer goes up in the rank, like say the maximum rank, platinum rank they do not need to pay the tax anymore and go under the pathfinder guild’s initiation ceremony which is actually a spell to turn thes(hopefully powerful) adventurer into a sleeper agent for the Zhentarim.
TLDR: we created a way to profit, control, & create an information network on all(if not most) adventurers and their work, in turn making them effectively work for us & become sleeper agents when the time is right to declare war on another faction or even a country.
Well looks like I'll be joining the zentarim
Is Fzoul the current head of the Zhentarim? I was led to believe the Pereghost took the mantle as the only surviving leader after the Nethril attack.
Pereghost sounds interesting. According to the Forgotten Realms Wiki Fzoul is the current leader.
not sure wiki is up to date. as of 5e they are no longer an evil group....just ruthless and vindictive. SCAG talked about this a bit.
I think it helps characterise the faction more having the chosen of Bane as the head. The Pereghost is good for Dms as its an unknown person in skull armour so it could be anyone. Maybe they are building towards zhent civil war as I believe the Pereghost is a Cyric follower and Manshoon is floating around Waterdeep. Hopefully they will release some more detailed cannon about the factions in the current timeline.
matt parsons Skull armor? Makes me think of Sarevok from the Baldur’s Gate games
ah but in lords of darkness and the few other sources ive found. Its described as pale full plate with a skull helm. Or ash white armour giving him the appearance of an undead. I believe Sarevok had black or dark iron armour in keeping with the iron throne merc company he led.
But be interesting to think a bhal spawn being raised in darkhold that child escaped his creepy step dad and made his own merc company. Adopting the zhent mindset in an attempt to take over the sword coast.
I play in an adventurer's guild game, and they would make a cool faction for Forgotten Realms.
Purple Dragon knights or Cormyr video!!!
Only group that would take in my chaotic good goblin bard unfortunately.
My character joined The Zhentarim not realizing who or what they were. He's an eldritch knight who just wanted cool spells. Oh, and my group has both a paladin and a member of The Harpers. We sat there and argued about it for like two hours because I was hellbent on defending my decision.
Are there any major chaotic aligned factions? Or chaotics too opposed to being in any sort of organised group?
A Lawful Neutral P.C. could also work for them, as those characters are loyal to their cause.
Can you go into depth about the far realm?
Question: Who is the Pereghost? I always thought he would run the Zhentarim or at least the military arm of the Zhentarim, but he is not even mentioned in this video.
Thanks!!!
Have you done any Dragon Marked videos yet? The 13 houses are very interesting.
Not yet! But soon hopefully
Are there any ugolophs in the Zentarum? It seems like they think alike.
Huzzah my favorite bad guys !
NPH will not be silent.
best faction
I wanna Run a Party of Evil characters rising through the ranks of this amazing evil MOB :) Edit: Aah with a half elf tiefling warlock with asmodeus as his/her pact, or maybe they are a all tiefling variants warlock each for a devil Lord of a layer of nine hells ? Infinite possibilities, but i love the idea of an evil campaign seems so fun.
How about the Drow faction groups their are a couple but the main one is Bregan D'aerthe an elite drow mercenary group🕸🕷💯👍🏼
Love your videos but you didn't mention that minority followers of Cyric took over Zhentil Keep. Fzoul had to retake and rebuild it, and like purged the whole city or something. Or maybe the followers of Cyric burned it and purged everyone I forgot. That was in 3.5. great video though
But do the clones have to behead each other?
Hey im slowly waching all your vids. And if got a question is there any magic items that can give me a Better DC spell save so the enemy has too roll higher. Im trying to imprison a tarruasq
Oh Yeah and the vids are good.
Hand of Yartar video, please.
Start doing videos on non-human deities. You'll have a ton of videos to make!
Allies with beholders? Wait what?
Shya!
After binging first 74 episodes I am really looking forward to not ever again hearing that PH is silent. A way to make sure viewers won't subscribe to the channel.
This is outdated and inaccurate. Get a copy of the Sword Coast Adventures for 5e for the updated information on the Zhentarim. I think this is based more off of old content. The "hierarchy" set up is DEFINITELY older, set from right around the Godwar. The diagram used in the video is almost 30 years old, as that diagram is in my old 2e Forgotten Realms Adventures D&D book.
I'm currently Lords alliance. Lawful good paladin of torm, oath of devotion. I refuse to play with zhents, or evil or very chaotic players. There's lots of tables, it's nice
Even if the character is lawful good in the zhentarim?
That is somewhat nonsensical... "Joining is easy, you merely present yourself to a HIGH RANK official"... of a subtle group...
So you have to first find them at all, hope you wont get killed, and then just walk in right to one of the commanding officers? I dont see any security breaches here at all... -_-
I can't stand how you're mispronouncing Zhentarim omg
Oh no, how do you pronounce it
I looked up other videos and everyone says it like you. Its just weird to hear a word you've pronounced differently in your head for like 15 years haha
Actually the wiki says I am right and its "z-HENT-ah-rim"
There ya go. Sorry!! ^^;
Man, I've never pronounced it any other way. Emphasis on the HENT makes for a complicated word, but man, thanks for the heads up. Sounds a lot cooler, too.
First
DAMNIT!
Third!
Second!
*ninjaed :(