Menlidus

Menlidus was a former cleric of Deneir, who led a group of reformed agnostics out of Spirit Soaring during the Spellplague.

Description
Menlidus was, for most of his life, a priest of Deneir. He was a deep thinker and experienced cleric, being more than ten years the senior of Cadderly Bonaduce.

The Spellplague
During the Spellplague in 1385 DR, he and four companions ventured out to the Snowflake Mountains from Spirit Soaring. He found that his magic backfired, and caused the death of a friend. Only he and a single other returned alive. Menlidus was injured and caked in blood, whilst his companion, Dahlania, had lost a leg, and was soon to be completely legless through amputation.

Rejection of Doctrine
Having seen his fellow adventurers die in front of his eyes, the life-long cleric of Deneir was full of rage, for his deity had not come to his aid. Many sources of arcane and divine magic did not function properly during the Spellplague, and often backfired.

Although he had experienced the Time of Troubles of 1358 DR, the Spellplague seemed far worse, and his calls were completely unanswered. Menlidus then dove deeply into philosophy: metaphysics, theology and the nature of the Weave. He came to the opinion that beings were just illusions, constructs of the mind, and that normal people only believed otherwise because the alternative was too painful to bear. He then considered that the gods themselves were just powerful creatures, which acted much like tricksters, using mortals for their amusement. He further made cases for the origin of magic, that both divine and arcane were the same, and both originated from the Weave, but had different labels. This touched Cadderly, the leading priest of Spirit Soaring, who had come to similar conclusions as a young, agnostic priest. Cadderly shook this thought away, but many other scholars of the cathedral believed in the words of Menlidus.

Fall of Menlidus
The next morning, many wizards, clerics, and others packed their bags and planned to head towards Carradoon, and then perhaps Cormyr. Cadderly tried to warn them that it was safer inside, but the group took their chances. Despite Menlidus's philosophical revelation, he still considered Cadderly and his family his good friends and even offered to look for his missing children during this time of crisis, when others dared not venture out. He suggested to Cadderly that they take leave of Spirit Soaring all together, and rally a larger force to take it back, but the head priest thought otherwise.

Some time after he departed, his band were overwhelmed by minions of the Ghost King, and they became undead. Cadderly was forced to kill them.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Ghost King