The mouth speaks!

"Mangar..."

Mangar the Dark is a terrible wizard and archmage who long ago took over the streets, businesses, and civilization of the city called Skara Brae, turning it into a dark and evil-filled domain. He cast a spell of eternal winter to trap it and its inhabitants within its walls. Creatures spilled into the streets and took over the dungeons below and castles and towers above.

Mangar's minions include the likes of Mercenaries, Dwarves, Samurai, Ghosts, Evil Eyes, Basilisks, Hobbits, Bandersnatches, Soul Suckers, Ghouls, Spectres, Wraiths, Vampires, Demons, Dragons, Ancient Enemies, Balrogs, Liches, Giants, and Demon Lords and Vampire Lords.

Like Kylearan, some of Mangar's magic training has been leaked into spellcasters' repository of knowledge, to use against him. Certainly not an easy task to learn, and even comes with some risk, but a student of sorcery can choose to learn¹:

• MIJA - Mangar's Mind Jab. A concentrated blast of psychic energy directed at one target, but multiplied by the skill level of spellcaster.
• MIFI - Mangar's Mind Fist, this strong mind jab packs an extra strong punch.
• MIBL - Mangar's Mind Blade is an extra strong, devastating sweep of psychic energy that targets every enemy on the battlefield.
• MAMA - After many years of study, Mangar's Mallet was deemed safe enough for only the most skilled of archmages to attempt - an apocalyptic force of destruction is cast against all foes on the battlefield.

One time, Mangar was nearly defeated by Lord Garrick. Garrick's journal documents his and his party of fighters' attempt to reach and thwart the wizard.

It isn't to be tolerated! I refuse to kneel to the evil that has made its home in Skara Brae. All of the brave knights who protect this town have vanished, leaving frightened serfs, women and children to face unprotected the hordes of strange beasts and ruffians that now inhabit the streets. My brave party and I can do little to reduce their seemingly infinite numbers. We must destroy the wizard Mangar, surely the source of the evil invasion, and of the ungodly and impenetrable winter that imprisons Skara Brae.

At the end of his journey, Garrick bestowed the remaining life force of his party on Isli to render her invisible, and able to escape with the journal from the dead end at which they were trapped with hordes of minions still swarming to attack -- and Mangar gazing on.

After Mangar's inevitable defeat by the legendary heroes to follow, the townspeople danced in the streets with happiness, and the great festival filled all with an overwhelming joy of life and renewed hope for the future². But beneath the streets of the distant town of Tangramayne, an eerie message could be found scrawled on a wall³ reading "Mangar was here..." However, no one knows who actually wrote this...

After Tarjan's untimely destruction of Skara Brae following Mangar's defeat, Mangar's personal staff was discovered - but taken, it's believed, to the parallel land of Gelidia, just like the crystal sword. The Staff of Mangar⁴ is able to demonically possess its target, makes its wielder harder to effectively hit, and cuts the effort of casting spells by half. A weapon to be coveted, to be sure.

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Tales of the Unknown

Footnotes

1.  In the spellbooks of Bard's Tale 1 - MIJA is earned at Sorcerer level 1, MIFI at level 2, MIBL at level 5.
   In BT2 and BT3 - MIJA is earned at sorcerer level 1, MIBL at level 5, MAMA at Archmage level 7.
2.  Bard's Tale 3 Manual
3.  Map: Bard's Tale 2: Dark Domain 2
4.  Library: Bard's Tale 3: Items

Related links and further reading:

• Mangar the Dark @ Bard's Tale Wikia

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