Council of Zulkirs

The Council of Zulkirs, also known as the Zulkir Council, was an assembly of powerful wizards that ruled over the nation of Thay, and their ruling class known as the Red Wizards. They were anonymous to the Thayan people, held ultimate power and only competed with one another for authority and influence.

The zulkirs were extremely wealthy and many possessed what seemed like near-infinite resources. While they collectively ruled Thay, each zulkir had their own schemes, interests and various lusts for power and pleasure.

Organization
Each zulkir was extremely powerful mage who specialized in a specific school of magic, and were chosen from among their peers in the same order. They served for life, or in some cases well past it into undeath. In truth, a zulkir held their seat within the council until they were completely and utterly destroyed.

Competition between the Red Wizards for the title of "Zulkir" was extraordinarily intense, as it was the highest seat of power in all of Thay.

History
The Council of Zulkirs was established in the year 1030 DR, by the lich Ythazz Buvaar and the original Red Wizards that fought for Thay's independence a century earlier. The Red Wizards appointed eight representatives to the council, each of whom was a master in their respective school of magic. The zulkirs then selected the tharchions, rulers given absolute power over Thay's regional territories, who were beholden to the council's greater authority.

Some dissidents were displeased with this system of governance, and rebelled against the council, but were finally stamped out in the year 1074 DR. The council remained largely unchanged until the zulkir of necromancy Szass Tam, made a bold move for power in the late 14 century DR. By 1368 DR, the Red Wizards were divided into philosophically-opposed factions and council was divided. Szass Tam was openly opposed by the zulkir of evocation, Aznar Thrul and his fellow councilors Nevron and Lauzoril.

Rather than get bogged down in a lengthy political struggle, Szass Tam manufactured a series of conflicts in 1375 DR in an attempt to ascend as the elected High Regent of Thay. When all of the zulkirs, including his former allies, refused this proposition, the lich withdrew from the council. He then ravaged the nation with undead hordes, that began a civil war that divided his northern tharchs, from those in the south held by the council. The war raged on for a decade, and finally came to an end in 1385 DR, the year the Spellplague struck Toril. Szass Tam emerged as the victor, and the remaining former zulkirs fled Thay for the lands of the Wizards' Reach.

During his rule, Szass Tam appointed a number of powerful liches as the new Zulkir Council of Thay. While they all practiced some form of necromantic magic, they kept their role as supreme authority over the respective schools of magic within the Red Wizards. Even though they were superior to nearly all within the Thayan bureaucracy, they all remained subservient to the High Regent.

All the remaining zulkirs-in-exile were killed in 1478 DR while stopping Szass Tam's ultimate plan to perform the ritual of the Unmaking.