Banu Manizheh e-Nahid, usually referred to as Manizheh is the main antagonist of The Daevabad Trilogy by SA Chakraborty. She is the unseen, overarching antagonist of the first novel, one of the two main antagonists of the second novel, along with Ghassan al Qahtani, and the main antagonist of the third novel. She is a power hungry Daeva who will stop at nothing to achieve her goals.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Manizheh grew up in Daevabad, along with her brother Rustam and her friend/lover Kaveh. She was a member of the Nahid family and was in charge of the infirmary. She, along with all of the Daeva faction, were severely persecuted by King Khader al-Qahtani. Khader would regularly torture Rustam to keep her in line.
As children, Manizheh, Rustam, and Kaveh stumbled across the slave vessel of Darayavahoush e-Afshin, the legendary warrior. Little did they know that the vessel was planted there by the Ifrit. Manizheh spent her life trying to free Dara in order to use his power.
After Khader died, his son Ghassan came into power. He was in love with Manizheh and wanted to marry her, thinking it would unite the al-Qahtani and Nahid family. She refused and tried to kill him. In retribution, he had Rustam tortured.
Manizheh and Kaveh had a child together named Jamshid. Kaveh tried to make sure Kaveh's true mother was not known to anyone, although Ghassan secretly knew anyway. When her brother Rustam had a daughter with a Shafit woman, Manizheh wanted to kill her as a blood sacrifice. Rustam fought her off and was killed. However, the girl, Golbahar, was hidden in Egypt. Golbahar was later named Nahri.
Manizheh faked her death at the hands of the Ifrit. Secretly, she was plotting with the Ifrit to form a Daeva army and conquer Daevabad. The Ifrit wanted her help to remove Suleiman's "curse" and become more powerful. With the help of the Ifrit, she managed to resurrect Dara.
Conquering Daevabad[]
After Dara was killed by Alizayd, who was possessed by the Marid, Manizheh managed to resurrect him again. Dara became her general and together they formed a Daeva army. Knowing that Dara and the other Daeva liked Nahri, Manizheh claimed ot be Nahri's mother. After Dara captured two Geziri soldiers, Manizheh experimented on them to create a poison which would kill all Geziris. She gave it to Kaveh, claiming it would only kill Ghassan.
Since Dara was no longer a mortal Daeva, Manizheh needed a way to get him into Daevabad. She and Dara murdered a worshiper of the Marid to get their attention. Since the Marid had killed Dara, they were forced to obey him. They came up with a plan to use the Marid lake to break into Daevabad.
Manizheh gave the poison to Kaveh, which he unleashed in the Geziri palace, killing over a thousand Geziris. While that was happening, Dara and his army attacked Daevabad via the lake. After Nahri and Ali managed to take Suleiman's seal from Ghassan's corpse, Manizheh tried to manipulate Nahri into giving her the seal. Nahri refused and gave the seal to Ali instead, and the two of them escaped via the lake. Once the seal left Daevabad, all magic was lost
Ruling Daevabad[]
Once Daevabad was controlled by Manizheh, all of the Djinn tribes refused to submit to her rule. Manizheh tried to threaten the tribes into submission, but they didn't budge. She then asked the Ifrit to teach her their form of magic, in exchange for Nahri's true name, and all of the slave vessels the Daeva had collected.
Manizheh and Dara tried to make a deal with Muntadhir to help negotiate with the Daeva nobles and the Djinn tribes. However, Muntadhir was secretly scheming with the Daeva nobles to overthrow Manizheh. In an attempted coup, Dara was poisoned and Kaveh was killed. The Ifrit and Manizheh managed to stop the coup and save Dara. In retribution, Manizheh murdered hundreds of Daevas from the noble families and enslaved them to the Ifrit. She also re-enslaved Dara and forced him to destroy the Djinn districts, killing countless more poeple.
When Narhi, Ali, and Jamshid attacked, Manzheh tried to stop them. She gave Nahri over to the Ifrit and tried to turn Jamshid to her side. However, Jamshid refused and Nahri escaped. Dara, realizing how evil Manizheh had become, tricked her into undoing his slavery, and then killed her.
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 Villains
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Darayavahoush e-Afshin | Ghassan al Qahtani | Manizheh | ||