Blackwater, Private Military Company or Blackwater PMC is a mercenary company based in Westgate on the Dragon Coast. They are often said to operate under the authority of the Night Masks or Fire Knives, but this claim is unproven and Blackwater continues to operate legally within the Dragon Coast.
Members of Blackwater are typically ex-military, usually serving in local militias or in the standing armies or navies of Sembia or Cormyr (the Purple Dragons), others were often pirates, privateers, or law enforcement. Their racial breakdown is overwhelmingly human and half-orc, though dwarves, dragonborn, hobgoblins, shifters, and goliaths are all represented. The group is unaligned, but many of its members have good or evil outlooks, and the majority of them pray to Tempus, the Lord of Battle.
In 1385 DR, shortly after his assassination attempt, Reardon Cormaeril of Eveningstar (who has long denied ties to his great uncle Lord Targeth Cormaeril of the Fire Knives) contracted with Blackwater to provide 300 men for his personal security detail. Customs officials in Marsember believed that 300 armed men seemed excessive to protect one family in a village of 1,000, so they filed a report with officers in Suzail who sent investigators to Eveningstar to mediate the trade dispute.