Baldur's Gate
Andwe Cururen in a report to the mask lords of Waterdeep on their trade partner, Baldur's Gate:
"Even the most hardened adventurers watch their steps in Baldur's Gate, where lives hold prices in copper and greed proves deadlier than dragon fire. Baldur's gate has a reputation for being a rough place, where crime and opportunity walk hand in hand, and where anything can be bought, sold, or seized at swordpoint. If something can be given a price, it's for sale somewhere in Baldur's Gate. Drugs and poisons sit on shelves alongside tinctures and remedies. Trade goods from Chult, mechanical wonders from Neverwinter, tomes of magic from Calimshan, and the most believable counterfeits of each can all be found in the city's stalls. One must be wary in dealings with Baldurians in mercantile matters. Everything is on sale in the city, but one could easily lose their coin...and life...if they aren't careful. Baldur's Gate is a nest of vipers."
On the Coast Way, some forty miles upstream along the River Chionthar from the Sword Coast, lies the bustling city of Baldur's Gate. Home to tens of thousands, the harbor city has poor soil, but its sheltered bay, well away from the tides that batter the coast, make it an ideal location for trading goods from locations to the west in the Sea of Swords, inland along the river, and up and down the coast. Baldur's Gate is a place of commerce, and the city enjoys great success handling the coins of other powers and making them its own.
History
Founding:
Centuries ago, the hero Balduran spent years questing in lands across the Sea of Swords and beyond. When finally he returned to his village of Gray Harbor, he brought fantastic wealth with him, much of which he gifted to friends and family. These boons greatly improved Gray Harbor's fortunes, launching businesses, expanding its docks, and seeing the creation of a defensive wall around the town. In honor of their heroic patron, the citizens came to call one of their wall's passages the Baldur's Gate. Within a generation, though, the gate became synonymous with the community, and the settlement of Baldur's Gate began appearing on maps of the Sword Coast.
The city's surprising growth attracted all manner of people. Peasants affected by raiding and war, farmers rendered penniless by famine and drought, pirates seeking a neutral port - all types saw a chance to put their mark o the rapidly growing community.
Bringing Order to the City:
As the city swelled, questions of law and taxation arose. The community's eldest families - largely those wealthy enough to afford homes within the city walls - came to be known as patriars and grew wary of the influx of strangers settling beyond their walls. The creation of various additional taxes on trade an travel led to violence breaking out between the Upper City - behind the original walls of Gray Harbor - and the Lower City, build on the slopes leading down to the Chionthar River. Patriar houses were ransacked, family heirlooms were lost forever, and heirs were kidnapped, never to be seen again. Gold flowed like blood as families and guilds hired mercenaries to protect them. Only the election of a new group of rulers - known as the dukes and, collectively, as the Council of Four - put the matter to rest. These elected rulers have been a part of the city's governance ever since.
Another pillar of order in Baldur's Gate formed when the adventurer Eltan, a noted warrior raised in the area, returned home from exploits abroad. Seeing the chaos that had splintered his beloved city, Eltan united the city's independent mercenary companies under a single banner, that of the Flaming Fist. Eltan used the mercenaries to quash what pockets of disorder he found, punishing lawbreakers for their crimes. Though plenty of theft, blackmail, and assassination continued behind closed doors, the founding of the Flaming Fist marked a new chapter in the city's story.
Today:
Theoriginal wall ringing the Upper City still stands, and a second defensive wall now rings the Lower City. The Outer City, a collection of hastily made structures and shantytowns, runs along the River Chionthar.
While the Outer City might seem the most lawless, every district of Baldur's Gate has its own threats. In the Upper City, patriar families and government officials jostle to secure their positions. Many are not above using private agents to acquire blackmail material, sabotage public appearances, or even frame innocents to secure power. The victims of these plots, and officials who want a fair and honest legal system, must resort to hiring their own agents to unearth conspiracies, break out unfairly imprisoned citizens, and obtain evidence the Flaming Fist cannot.
Military
Defense of the Upper City is handled by the Watch, the official constabulary of the city's elite. Their duty is to defend the patriars and enforce their laws, and little else. For the rest of Baldur's Gate, security is enforced and order maintained by the Flaming Fist mercenary company, a supposedly neutral force which is free to fight in external conflicts, so long as it doesn't side against Baldur's Gate. By tradition, the highest officer of the Flaming Fist is one of the city's dukes, and Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard fulfills that tradition proudly. Membership in the Flaming Fist is fairly easy to achieve, and adventurers with much experience swiftly advance in rank (and, consequently, political influence) once they become permanent members. Many ranking officers are former adventurers who have "retired" to military life.
Religion
Baldur's Gate houses temples to Gond, Tymora, and Umberlee, with countless shrines to many law-abiding faiths. Sadly, cultists of the Dead Three - Bane, Myrkul, and especially Bhaal - also infest the city and its underworld.
For centuries, Baldur's Gate has had a storied connection with the dark god, Bhaal. Perhaps the most dastardly conspiracy of the God of Murder involved his death and resurrection during the Time of Troubles. While in mortal form, Bhaal foresaw his own death. To counter this end, he conceived multitudes of offspring, plotting to have them resurrect him. They actively hunted and slew each other, with the survivors collecting ever more of Bhaal's godly essence. These plots came to naught due to adventurer interference, but Bhaal's faithful have menaced the city every since.
Just a few years ago, the city saw the terrifying return of the Lord of Murder. Following a number of deaths, one of the city's dukes, Torlin Silvershield, was revealed as the Chosen of Bhaal, and underwent a monstrous transformation, turning many citizens into bloodthirsty killers and inspiring a riot and much death before finally being put down by brave adventurers. Even now, murderous echoes ripple through the city and beyond, and reports of explainable, gruesome killings flow out of Baldur's Gate.
Trade & Transport
Baldur's Gate proudly trades with any and all, and treasures and goods from around the world flow through its merchant stalls. Locally, the city's patriar merchant families make a rich trade in dyes, fish, mercenaries, nautical supplies, and exotic imports from the jungles of Chult far to the south.
In both the Upper and Lower cities, the underworld is controlled by a shadowy group known merely as the Guild. The dukes don't acknowledge the power of this group in any meaningful way - at least not publicly - but try (at least nominally) to curb its influence where and how they can. Too many gangs to count claim territory in the Lower and Outer City, and all of them seem to owe allegiance to the Guild. Efforts to destroy the guild have thus far failed, due in part to the inability of outsiders to identify a clear leader of the group, but in no small measure to the shameful lack of effort on the part of the rulers of the city to protect its people.
Type
Geopolitical, City-state
Alternative Names
Gray Harbor
Demonym
Baldurians
Leader
Head of Government
Government System
Plutocracy
Legislative Body
Baldur's Gate is rules by the Council of Four, dukes who vote among themselves on matters of law and policy for the city a single grand duke is chosen from the four, and is empowered to break ties when the council is deadlocked. The current Grand Duke is Ulder Ravengard, who is joined by Dukes Thalamra Vanthampur, Belynne Stelmane, and Dillard Portyr, the former grand duke, who ceded the post to Ravengard after the city's recent troubles. Below the council sits the Parliament of Peers, a group of about fifty Baldurians who meet daily (though almost never in full number) to discuss the future of the city and recommend actions for the dukes to take on all matters, great and small. At any given time, roughly one-quarter of the peers are powerful members of Lower City society, with the rest drawn from Upper City's noble families, called patriars.
Subsidiary Organizations
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Notable Members
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