The Nine

The Nine was a powerful, long-lasting band of adventurers that wandered the Realms for over thirty winters. The band maintained a subterranean stronghold, the Stronghold of the Nine, in the High Forest, on the banks of the Unicorn Run. Before they disbanded, they had links to the Harpers and the Lords of Waterdeep.

In 1337 DR (the Year of the Wandering Maiden), the Nine acquired the Crown of Horns. When Laeral Silverhand, the leader of the group, donned the headpiece, she descended into madness and the band fragmented into three warring parties.

Surviving Members
Laeral only kept regular contact with two members of the Nine after her enslavement and subsequent recue from the Crown: Thanadar of Dragonrock and Arnthiir Windrivv.

Most nobles of Cormyr had heard rumors that some of the Nine still existed in the post-Spellplague world, trapped in magic items, and could be summoned forth from those items by those who hold them - and know how to activate them - to fight as the item-bearers' slaves. By 1479 DR, only two of these entrapped spirits, known as Blueflame ghosts, had been discovered: Treth Halonter and Relve Langral, trapped in the Wyverntongue Chalice and Flying Blade respectively.

Manshoon claimed to know of the existence of six - maybe seven - items containing souls of the Nine.