Baldur's Gate

The Gate

Baldur's Gate, also called simply the Gate, is the largest metropolis and city-state on the Sword Coast, within the greater Western Heartlands. It is a crowded city of commerce and opportunity, perhaps the most prosperous and influential merchant city on the western coast of Faerûn. Despite its long-standing presence as a neutral power, the leaders of Baldur's Gate are members of the Lords' Alliance of powers in the west.

The strong peace-keeping force known as the Watch, along with the presence of the powerful Flaming Fists mercenary company, keep the city generally peaceful and safe. This inherent sense of security allowed the Gate to keep a tolerant and welcoming attitude towards outsiders, whether they are wealthy merchants, poor refugees or, as it historically attracted, less-scrupulous individuals such as pirates and smugglers.

Geography

Baldur's Gate is located to the south of the great city-state of Waterdeep, north of Amn along the well-traveled Coast Way road, that passed over the Wyrm's Crossing, through the Outer City and into the Gate proper. It is nestled on a stretch of poor soil, within a natural bay that forms on the north bank of the River Chionthar about 40 miles east from its mouth on the Sea of Swords.

As the minstrels of the 14th century described it, the city was a crescent moon that wraps around the great harbor, though in the last century that has followed, it grew well beyond that form. While the terrain of the Upper City is flat and level, the Lower City is built over steep bluffs that overlooked the Gray Harbor.

The region surrounding Baldur's Gate receives an abundance of drizzling rain and sleet with frequent-occurring fog that rolls through the city's streets. This excessive precipitation is well-mitigated with an advanced water system where underground basins collect the run off rainwater, maneuvering it through subterranean aqueducts that empty it into massive cistern beneath the Temples District.