Shoon IV

Shoon IV was the first necromancer emperor of the Shoon Imperium and the second-most evil and infamous of all its emperors. He was the only non-elf to ever succeed in designing a create mythal spell.

Personality
Shoon IV was arrogant, bold, and manipulative and had a famous bad temper. In his favor, he was also a master of domestic and foreign policy, because of his impressive foresight into such matters.

Possessions
Shoon IV possessed a pair of rings, Annulus Qysarus Major and Annulus Qysarus Minor. The former ring acted like a ring of spell turning; the latter as a ring of spell storing. If both rings were worn together, Shoon IV also gained the powers of a ring of vampiric regeneration.

His greatest magical work, rumored to include a create mythal spell, was called the Necroqysarus. It included twelve volumes of magical spells. It was lost to history after the fall of the Imperium.

Activities
Shoon IV was a wizard of ever-growing power. He amassed a vast amount of magical knowledge and artifacts in his thirst for power. Many evil magical artifacts were created during his reign, including Jaralth, Kuraltaar, and Morthinmar.

One of his most significant magical achievements was the invention of a spell to create a mythal. He was the only non-elf ever able to do so. Using its power, he surrounded the entire palace in Shoonach with a magical field that only permitted necromantic spells to work, and he cast similar fields around the necropolis of Debukkher within that city as well. He used undead in his armies, which greatly disturbed most of his nobles, who feared his reckless powers.

He gained his largest collection of magical artifacts when he slew the silver dragon Rhimnasarl and carried off the great treasures from her lair.

Politically, it was his reign that saw the Calishar Emirates evolve into what would soon become Amn. He made a treaty with Dalagar of Andlath&mdash;or perhaps magically coerced him&mdash;to build a trade route from Ormath to Athkatla. He was also influential in the rise of the demihuman realms of Tathtar and Meiritin, which he sought to exploit to his own ends.

For civic works, Shoon IV erected the two Sea Towers in the Nelanther Isles, which served as lighthouses for his fleet as they passed through those islands, and the Beacon Tower of Shoon, another lighthouse located on the largest of the Beacon Rocks off the coast of Samarach.

Relationships
Shoon IV was the grandson of Amahl Shoon V and the brother of Amahl Shoon VI. He had a single son, but that son married three separate times and produced many grandchildren for Shoon IV.

Shoon IV had a close relationship with the young Emyr, child heir of Tethyr, and the latter saw Shoon IV as a mentor.

Shoon IV made enemies with the great blue dragon Iryklathagra, triggering her hatred toward Calimshan that would last for centuries.

History
Shoon IV was born in the Year of the Murmuring Dead, 183 DR. Only fifteen months after his brother became qysar, Shoon IV assassinated him by arranging for a poisonous scorpion to find its way into Amahl's bed. In this way, Shoon IV became the next emperor in the Year of the Greengrass, 205 DR.

For nearly twelve years, Shoon IV had attempted to dispel Tethyrian riots and terrorist activities in Ithmong and the villages between it and Shoonach. In 231 DR, the emperor finally lost his patience and unleashed a horde of zombies, skeletons, and wights upon the rebels, created from dead slaves and villagers of Tethyr. This Death Parade attacked on the night of Marpenoth 30 and decimated all known rebels. In the morning, the undead were returned to death, but the fear of incident lived on among the populace of Ithmong and its vicinity.

In 236 DR, Shoon IV sought to destroy the silver dragon Rhimnasarl the Shining, because the dragon was strongly opposed to Shoonite rule. Shoon conspired with the blue dragon Iryklathagra and learned a way to defeat the great wyrm. However, Shoon betrayed Iryklathagra and defeated and killed Rhimnasarl before Iryklathagra could challenge the other dragon to a formal duel. He then kept all the plunder for himself. Enraged, Iryklathagra attacked Shoon and severely wounded him, but she was driven off and retreated to the Marching Mountains to patiently plan her revenge against the Shoon.

Two years later, when Elminster Aumar defeated the Mad Mage Ihundyl, who had previously conquered the halfling realm of Meiritin, Shoon IV reconquered that small country. Secret plans were uncovered, revealing that Ihundyl had previously conspired with many of the disgruntled nobles of Calimshan to attempt to remove Shoon from power. In retribution, Shoon IV ordered the deaths of 232 of the conspirators and their relatives for treason.

229 DR was the year in which Shoon IV succeeded in scribing his create mythal spell. During its casting, he survived the process by sucking the life forces from all the six other casters whom he had deceived into assisting him. Four of the assistant casters were elven sorceresses, and they were said to haunt the ruins of the Shoonach as banshees.

Shoon IV's decision not to interfere in the founding of the country of Tathtar proved problematic initially for his empire, as that young country tried to expand into Tethyr. It took Shoon IV ten years to force a peace treaty with them in the year 240 DR.

It was Shoon IV's intent to become a lich and rule in perpetuam. He sustained himself with magic until he had almost reached one hundred years of age. All of his heirs had mysteriously died off, with the exception of his great-grandaughter Munaa yr Oma el Shoon. Shoon formally named her as his heir, even though she was a woman and this angered his advisers, but he never expected her to actually rule. She in fact did, however, because, despite his great magical power, his transformation to a lich failed, and he died in 281 DR. Munaa took the name Shoon V and became the first empress of the Imperium.