The Leadership of the Zhentarim
[An excerpt from the ongoing Metatext: Rebound by Iosefa Elgin, a scholar excommunicated from the Church of Deneir for her heretical attempts to reconstruct the Metatext, her god's annal of lost and hidden knowledge.] Despite their protestation to the contrary, it takes no keen eye to see echoes of Banite philosophy in modern Zhentarim practice - a strict militaristic hierarchy where all power flows from the top. Who occupies that position today is the matter of some speculation, for the Black Network's leadership was thought destroyed along with their headquarters at Zhentil Keep in 1383 DR. In the following decades, however, a new base of power began to consolidate at the fortress of Darkhold, far to the south. At its centre stands the Pereghost, an enigmatic armoured figure to whom the Zhentarim's rebirth is almost single-handedly attributed. Whoever their leader, it is clear that this new Zhentarim have not abandoned plans for domination so much as recalculated their approach. Where once their focus was on the subversion and conquest of nations, the Network of today is much more concerned with establishing their stranglehold on the market - a power which crosses borders that are closed to more conventional forces.