Waterdeep
Rising from the shores of its deep harbor to ring the great mountain standing tall out of the Sea of Swords is Waterdeep, the City of Splendors and the Crown of the North. To all of Faerûn, this great metropolis stands as the pinnacle of what a great city might be, in wealth, influence, and stability. Here, the citizens work, the nobles sneer, and the great masked lords plot and scheme, all while merchants dance between them to collect their coins and continue profiting as best they can. Waterdeep’s shops and merchants offer goods of every sort from every corner of Toril, and even the rarest of items can be procured, given sufficient coin and patience. Adventurers lacking one or the other can very easily find all manner of employment, from simple escorting of caravans, to guarding nobility, to investigating a ruin or rumor of monsters anywhere in the North.
Though it has stood for hundreds of years, Waterdeep is only now returning to its status of a century and a half ago. The recent disruptions began when the gods walked the Realms and slew each other before the eyes of mortals, until they walked back to their divine domains through the very streets of Waterdeep itself. Decades later, more deities began dying off, magic failed, and all manner of catastrophes started altering the very nature of the city. Lord Neverember wasted the city’s navy and then, instead of rebuilding it, hired sailors out of Mintarn (and profited from the endeavor).
Now, the City of Splendors is on the mend. The harbor has been cleared of the broken ships that made up the former district of Mistshore, and Waterdeep again has its own navy. The city’s Guard (its army), Watch (police force), Navy, and it famous Griffon Cavalry are all being reformed, but all of that might be a matter of years in the settling. A plague chased most residents out of the Warrens and Downshadow, and living or digging below the city’s surface has been deemed illegal except by those authorized by the lords to do so. Somehow, even the air seems fresher. In the words of one wise moon elf matron (whose status as my aunt has positively no bearing on her wisdom), “Waterdeep is back to where it was when I was a lass.”
Perhaps most surprising of the newest developments is the return of Laeral Silverhand to Waterdeep. Long thought dead, she reemerged only recently, and swiftly rallied the masked lords to support her supplanting of Dagult Neverember as Open Lord of Waterdeep. Very few remember Lady Laeral from her previous time in the city, but those elves who have been living in there for the last century claim she is more reserved than she once was. The new Open Lord doesn’t speak of her family — any mention of her children, her late husband (the fabled Blackstaff, Khelben Arunsun), or any of her famed sisters is cause for her to cut short whatever conversation may be in progress at the time. Her relationship with the current Blackstaff, Vajra Safahr, is cordial, but the two are seldom seen in one-on-one conversation, and most think that Lady Laeral has little to learn from a mage who isn’t nearly her equal.
As always, the Open Lord is selected and supported by several masked lords, who bear masks, robes, and amulets to disguise themselves when publicly sitting in judgment or council, and who make policies for Waterdeep. Every Waterdhavian has suspicions as to whether this or that influential citizen is or isn’t a lord of the city, and some are willing to make their beliefs public, but few who are confronted in such a way have ever claimed to be a lord, and none of those have also produced proof of that assertion.
Not hidden at all are the other lords of the city — the nobles of Waterdeep, whose high-nosed behavior and heavy-handed spending establish fashion in the city, which in turn creates trends all across the North for clothing, weaponry, favored trinkets, music, and any other preference that can be changed at a whim by those with enough coin to afford the expense. More than seventy-five noble families call Waterdeep home, representing between them all manner of business interests, rivalries, and internal strife.
Being a noble carries with it a great deal of advantage. Operating from one’s place at the head of the economic and social hierarchy, a noble can easily lift a mediocre craftperson out of obscurity, dash the hopes of a wealthy merchant of ever securing another contract within the city, or provide the backing an ambitious adventuring band needs to find fame and great wealth. The only true competition nobles face is from one another. Such rivalries are the source of much gossip and intrigue as the nobles of Waterdeep always try to maintain at least a veneer of civility in their squabbles.
Although they seldom agree on much, one matter that all the noble houses see the same way is that their status should not be tainted by newcomers, and certainly not by anyone so brightcoin as to purchase one’s way to a noble title. When during Lord Neverember’s tenure it became legal for impoverished houses to sell their titles, and thus allow others to become noble, many leaders of the old-blood houses were apoplectic, particularly after some purchasers lost all their coin and sold their titles again within a season or two. Open Lord Laeral Silverhand has, to the relief of those leaders, seen the folly of this decision, and gathered enough support among the Lords of Waterdeep to not only reverse it, but to restore titles and lands to noble families who lost them through folly. The change has won her much support among the nobles. Now Zhents and Thayans and Baldurian merchants have coin enough to buy property within the city, if they choose, but that is no reason to award them noble titles and legal rights, instead of merely a mansion, for doing so.
Demographics
Given its size and influence, Waterdeep was a cosmopolitan city with a diverse population of citizens. While humans comprised the majority of its populace, it was home to large number of elves, predominantly moon elves, dwarves, lightfoot halflings, and gnomes.
Defences
Waterdeep maintained two separate armed forces, the City Guard and the City Watch. The City Guard served as Waterdeep's soldiery and its members staffed garrisons, road patrols, and watchposts, and served as bodyguards and gate guards. The Watch was the local police force, acting as a constabulary within the city.1 More delicate missions taken in the name of the City of Splendors were handled by Force Grey, an elite force of a dozen or so skilled spellcasters and cunning warriors.64
Waterdeep had strong walls on its landward sides and was protected in part by Mount Waterdeep on the seaward side.65 Mount Waterdeep was studded with watch towers and defensive positions, and patrolled by special guard units on flights of griffons known as the Griffon Cavalry.66
Aside from this, Waterdeep also benefited from a large native population of adventurers that were often more than willing to deal with any and all miscreants that threatened their home city.67 Notable companies that arose to aid Waterdeep in times of peril included the band of heroes that slew the first Xanathar,68 the all-halfling group known as the Defenders Three,69 the Dawnbringer Company,70 and perhaps most famously, the Company of Crazed Venturers.71
The city was also home to the eight enormous Walking Statues of Waterdeep. Seven of these statues could be animated by the Blackstaff of Waterdeep to defend the city, while one was too damaged to be activated. These statues were extremely destructive, and only used to fend off armies or win otherwise impossible battles.72
The city was protected against attacks from dragons by a powerful mythal known as Ahghairon's dragonward.
Industry & Trade
The city was the hub of trading from the mineral-rich lands to the north, the merchant kingdoms of Amn and Calimshan to the south, the kingdoms of the Inner Sea to the east, and the sea kingdoms and traders to the west. Waterdeep's authority extended between 30 mi (48 km) to 40 mi (64 km) from its walls.1
As of the early 1370s DR, stone was imported from Mirabar via Luskan for use in construction, having been magically transported. This was an expensive process.32 During that time it was witnessed that wagons and carts overcrowded the city's markets as foreign vendors attempted to sell as much as possible before returning home for the winter. This was a practice ignored by the Guard, the Watch, and the guilds.33
The city was also the largest spelljamming port of Faerûn. Although welcoming to most spacefaring races, Waterdeep's laws required that all ships landed on the ocean several miles from the city and made their final approach by sea. Transgressors were punished with harsh fines and imprisonment. This rule prevented some types of ships from ever reaching Waterdeep, but was enforced to avoid mass panic from the population. Departing vessels were subject to the same rules.8
Docking at Waterdeep's port incurred a fee of 1 cp per 10 feet (3 meters) of keel length per week. Sages and traders from Waterdeep were eager to listen to stories from wildspace and traded on all the products the city had to offer.
Infrastructure
Transportation
Waterdeep was characterized by its broad and busy streets and boulevards. Its heavy traffic, a constant during all day and most of the night, was monitored by the traffic wardens of the City Watch. The streets were kept well maintained and signaled by the Scriveners', Scribes', and Clerks' Guild, who manufactured and installed labels and signs in all intersections.74
Public transportation was available in Waterdeep through several options:
- Drays were large, two-floored collective carriages that held a large number of seats and traveled through preset trajectories along the main boulevards. Fares varied between 2 and 4 nibs.74
- Hire-coaches were two-wheeled, two-seat carriages that could be called and dispatched to specific locations. Hire-coach drivers roamed the city streets in search for passengers, who could call a free coach with a shout. Fares, agreed upon in advance, rarely exceeded 6 shards.74
- Carriages were luxury vehicles that could accommodate up to 8 passengers comfortably. Prices varied, but usually carriages and their respective drivers and servants were hired for an entire day.
Districts
Waterdeep has long been divided into several large regions called wards. To locals these are essential to Waterdeep, but outsiders often lose track of which ward they’re in or what a ward’s name signifies. The names of the wards suggest the contents of the buildings and the character of the activity in each one, but no laws exist that restrict a given activity or class of people to any specific ward.
Castle Ward. As the name indicates, Castle Ward contains Castle Waterdeep, Piergeiron’s Palace, and many other public buildings of the city. This ward is home to mainly the wealthy or influential who can’t count themselves among the nobility. Other structures are taken up by educational or religious concerns that primarily serve the city at large, not the residents of the ward.
Dock Ward. Most of the city’s harbor area is located in Dock Ward, as are the businesses and warehouses that depend on the city’s newly restored harbor. It’s a crowded neighborhood of many winding streets, where folk are comfortable making deals that might in other places provoke the displeasure of the law.
Field Ward. Of relatively recent vintage, the Field Ward stands between the inner and outer north walls of the city (an area formerly used as a caravan grounds). This ward grew up in a messy, unregulated fashion and is home to many of the poorest residents of the city.
North Ward. Home to many noble villas, townhouses, and a great many inns, North Ward is the neighborhood of the respectably wealthy.
Sea Ward. Those whose fortunes are on the rise build their homes in Sea Ward, and they join many long-established noble families in residence. This area in the northwest of the city is home to much of the city’s wealth, the location of the grandest villas of the city’s noble families (except for those in North Ward).
Southern Ward. Stables, warehouses, and shops related to overland trade dominate Southern Ward. Most residents are hardworking folk that load and unload caravan carts, and otherwise perform low-paying work.
Trades Ward. A narrow slice of land between the Castle Ward and the City of the Dead, Trades Ward is the center of commerce for the city, with most of the smaller transactions and respectable trade taking place here.
City of the Dead. The city’s walled cemetery, the City of the Dead is the only place in Waterdeep where it is legal to bury the deceased. It is used by many citizens as a public park during the day, a lovely green space of pretty mausoleums and grand statues in which to escape the city’s hustle and bustle.
Undercliff. While not considered by many to be a ward of the city, the little villages and many farms that sprawl across the land east of the city were lawfully incorporated into Waterdeep when it moved a barracks and training facility to the area.
Guilds and Factions
Guilds
It was said that the Lords ruled Waterdeep but did not always truly run it. This was quite true, in that there were a number of other factions who made up Waterdeep. The most noticeable were the guilds—powerful merchant and craft organizations that controlled much of the life-blood of the city. Once, the guilds ruled the city, and it almost destroyed itself in a series of internal commercial wars. No one wanted to see those days return.
In addition to the standard professional guilds, such as Bakers, Carpenters, Jewelers, and so on, there were other more prominent guilds. Some examples include
Arcane
Blackstaff Tower: The home of Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun and Laeral Silverhand and an academy of arcane apprentices.1
Eltorchul Academy: The magic school of Lord Thesp Eltorchul.2
Enclave of Red Magic: The Red Wizards of Thay use the Thayan Embassy in the Castle Ward to conduct their trade, via a portal to this enclave in Skullport.2
New Olamn: A bardic education centre formed after Iriador "Garnet" Wintermist's anger at the Harpers' deviance from their original ideals.4
Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors: Originally formed to provide protection for weaker spellcasters against people opposed to magic, now serves as the largest arcane school in Waterdeep.
Criminal
Agents of the Eye / Xanathar Thieves' Guild
Black Boar Tribe
Plague Rats
Savants of the Dark Tide
Shadow Thieves
The Unseen
Secret Organizations
Harpers
Knights of the Shield
Kraken Society
Red Sashes
Moonstars
Nobility
A second important Waterdhavian faction was the local nobility. It consisted of 76 families of varying degrees of power, most of whom could trace their lines to before the founding of Waterdeep itself. Many powerful names came out of Waterdeep, including the Amcathras (whose scion became Lord of Shadowdale the Cassalanters, wealthy moneylenders; as well as the Wands, a family of powerful and noble wizards.
To view a full listing of the established noble houses, please visit <ARTICLE>
Merchants
Third, a rising merchant class existed outside the standard guilds. These were caravan and coaster operators, and they used Waterdeep as a destination for their caravan goods. More shops offered a variety of different goods because of this growing group. The most notable of these new merchants was the retired wizardess Aurora, who established a magical retail organization to supply a wide number of patrons across the North with specialized items.
Adventurers
Lastly, a
large host of adventurers flooded the city at any given time, some of whom established themselves as citizens of good standing and remained permanently. With the exception of Force Grey, secret societies such as the Harpers and the Red Sashes made up the closest thing resembling official organizations that drew from the city's resident adventuring population.
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