Baldur's Gate
Demographics
75% humans
5% Halflings
5% elves
3% half orcs
7% half elves
2% gensai
3% orcs
2% dwarves
Government
Plutocracy (ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income), (helmed by the Council of Four and Parliament of Peers
Law and Order
Everyone in Baldur's Gate is expected to hew to common law. Murder, theft, assault, blackmail, and fraud all carry severe penalties. Patriars, the wealthy, and the we!J-connected are given much more leniency than commoners. A noble heir who steals from a shop might get away with a fine paid by a parent, whereas a commoner committing the same crime may be jailed or publicly flogged. Both the Watch and the Flaming Fist have the right to dispense immediate justice, should they witness a crime in progress. In unclear situations, or when a person of influence is involved, the accused is jailed until a trial can be set. Patriars and other powerful individuals are usually placed under house arrest, except in dire circumstances. Commoners await their trial in jail. On occasion, a vigilante or hired mercenary will break an accused commoner out of prison in order to ensure the accused's safety until the trial date. Minor crimes, such as creating a public disturbance, petty theft, or vandalism carry commensurate punishments. Time in the stocks, public humiliation, or a fine are the usual judgments. Some patriar families consider petty crimes to be worse than major ones-they are a sign that one can't manage one's baser instincts. Patriars have been known to pay huge bribes or promise outsized favors to protect a rebellious heir from being charged with a minor crime. Lawyers must belong to the Barrister's Guild to practice, and the associated fees means they prefer to represent wealthy clients. Poorer citizens often must throw themselves on the mercy of the courts, or scrape together what coin they can to hire an adventurer or mercenary to find evidence to support their plea. Of the city's nuanced and unreliably enforced laws, the following tend to be the most surprising to newcomers. Foreign Agents. While traders and visitors to Baldur's Gate are always welcome, spies and saboteurs are not. Legitimate foreign agents, such as ambassadors, are required to report to the High Hall for an elaborate series of interviews and licenses. Visitors technically should do the same, but the law is rarely mentioned at the city's gates and even more rarely enforced. What distinguishes a visitor and a foreign agent can be unclear, and if an individual doesn't have a license marking them as one or the other, any duke or peer can unilaterally change a non-citizen's status, effectively sentencing them to imprisonment or worse. Livestock Restriction. By tradition, Baidur's Gate bans animals larger than a peacock within the city walls. Visitors determined not to surrender their beloved pets (or valuable animals they intend to sell) sometimes arrive at the city with large peacocks in tow, to prove their furred companion meets the legal requirement. This has led to a burgeoning, noisy, and particularly cutthroat peacock-breeding industry in the Outer City. Most travelers pay to stable oversize animals, either in Outer City liveries or at ranches outside the city. Some animals are simply surrendered at the gate, though, becoming property of the Watch (in the Upper City) or the Flaming Fist (in the Lower City), or sold during monthly auctions.Defences
Flaming Fist mercenaries, the Watch
Industry & Trade
Commerce: Dyes, fish, imports from Chult, mercenaries, nautical supplies
With trade ways running north and south along the Sword Coast, a port on the Sea of Swords, and the Chionthar River leading inland, Baldur's Gate is perfectly situated for its role as a commercial hub. Craftspeople, merchants, traders, and smugglers all make a brisk living in the city, and many immigrants are drawn by the dream that anyone willing to work hard can be successful in Baldur's Gate. Baldur's Gate has plenty of exports, notably fish, fish glue, and sea salt, but its main economic force is trade itself. The city boasts multiple large and well connected trade guilds and a marketplace where wholesalers can exchange goods before moving up or down the Sword Coast.
The number of ships in port and traders making their way north or south mean that Baldur's Gate boasts one of the most expansive markets in the west. Coin trumps morals in Baldur's Gate, with profit being the ultimate good. As a result, nearly anything can be bought and sold in the city's shops, whether it be rare jewels, magic weapons, secrets, alliances, or even
murder. People visit the city seeking imports from Port Nyanzaru, verdigris-covered treasures dredged from the sea, blackmail information on political rivals, or custom-brewed poisons.
Though the city has laws regarding the sale of stolen property, smuggling, and contract killing, such crimes are rarely reported and even more rarely enforced. Unless the complainant is a patriar or other powerful individual, law enforcement lacks the time and interest to pursue those engaging in mutually beneficial transactions. The unwritten law is do nothing that interferes
with the city's economy and make your bargains in peace. Individuals who suffer due to morally questionable contracts must seek out private means of obtaining justice.
Professional Guilds
Craftspeople and merchants organize in professional guilds and follow official charters. Unofficial guilds are technically illegal, but in the Outer City, such informal guilds are common. Most professional guilds operate in the Lower City, but prefer to provide their goods to the wealthy patriar families of the Upper City. Commoners grumble that they can't even buy from their own neighbors, with the choicest items and freshest food traveling up the hill. A laborer might toil all day at a fishmonger's shop, then be forced to take their pay to the Outer City and buy yester· day's catch from an unlicensed seller. In many cases, guilds intersect with crews. Such groups take an interest in their members beyond a professional level, working to assure that they're safe on the streets and at home so they can return to work the next morning. Those who mistreat a guild member might find themselves ostracized by all members of that profession, or even find themselves cornered by members of the guild's associated crew, their most menacing tools of the trade in hand.Infrastructure
Large Harbor, Large walls to separate the outer, Upper and Lower cities. Mechanical cranes to help unload large ships, paved roads in the city proper, in the lower city the houses are mostly squeezed together townhouses, in the outer, shanties and in little calimshan nice calimshite houses. In the upper city, the houses are still townhouses but much larger with their own gardens.
Assets
City Landmarks
Today, Baldur's Gate is split into three districts: the wealthy Upper City on the hills above the docks, the bustling Lower City around the harbor, and the lawless Outer City (which includes all neighborhoods outside the city walls). Regardless of what district one might be visiting, certain features are impossible to ignore, like the wash of Gray Harbor, the shadows of Dusthawk Hill, or the gates that contribute to the city's name. Important landmarks are marked on the large map of the city, which shows the entirety of Baldur's Gate and its immediate surroundings.The Gates
Nine gates separate the districts of Baldur's Gate, providing the only points of entry to pass from the Upper City to the Lower City, or from the walled city proper to the Outer City and the wider world beyond. Baldurians, particularly if they do not wish to reveal a crew or family affiliation to a potentially hostile audience, often describe themselves by the nearest gate to their homes. Terms like ·'Gondgater" and "Dragongater" are widely understood as neighborhood identities, and are also understood as a way of eliding more troublesome connections. The Watch guards gates leading to the Upper City. while the Flaming Fist oversees the rest. Guards assigned to Baldur's Gate and Black Dragon Gate stay at sharp attention and seldom accept bribes. Those assigned to the smaller and more secluded gates, however, can be less attentive, particularly when distracted by jingling coins. Anyone entering the city must pay a nominal entry toll of 5 cp. While this is a small sum, it ensures that the truly destitute remain outside, consigned to the slums of the Outer City. Beggars and refugees crowd at the fringes of these slums, typically around Black Dragon Gate and Basilisk Gate, pleading for money to pay the toll and hoping that the guards won't drive them off for annoying more prosperous travelers. When the city is not under lockdown, merchants pour through the external gates from morning till night, while peddlers, delivery carriers, and servants move in equally swift streams through the inner gates. Toll collectors work quickly but methodically to inspect incoming and outgoing trade goods, ensuring that commerce flows smoothly and the city gets its share at every turn. The city gates are closed at night. At dusk, the Watch evicts anyone from the Upper City who is not a patriar. bearing a patriar's livery or permission letter. or carrying a Watch-issued token. The enforcement of this rule is one of the means by which the Upper City reinforces its snobbery over the other districts. More than one Lower City merchant visiting an Upper City restaurant or theater near sundown has been embarrassed by a Watch member's loud, public caution that the gates are about to close. While being seen hurrying toward the gates is an obvious embarrassment, being caught and escorted out would be far more bruising- both to one's ego and body. The nightly closing of the gates ostensibly keeps the patriars safe. Closing off the Upper City pushes street crime into poorer neighborhoods, or out of the city altogether. In the Upper City, patriars can walk down alleys with relatively little fear, but beyond its well-lit streets and tightly watched gates, the other districts become much more dangerous after dark.Gray Harbor
One of the largest and deepest harbors on Faerun's western coast, Gray Harbor is also one of the busiest. The city's independence and general laissez-faire attitude toward the types of goods and people flowing through its port- so long as the government gets its cut-means that the harbor throngs with both honest captains conducting forthright trade and pirate crews looking to fence their wares. Plenty of sailors also make their homes nearby in the Lower City. The harbor's most immediately striking feature is its machinery, with dozens of enormous cranes and countless powered scoops and cargo carts dramatically accelerating the loading and unloading process. Though designed by the Church of Gond, these marvels are run by the Harborhands, the most powerful crew in the city thanks to the dockworkers' ability to shut off the city's economic lifeblood with a strike. Managing the whole affair is Harbormaster Darus Kelinoth, a lawful neutral male human noble who runs the port's operations and taxation from a small, heavily fortified brick building set well apart from other structures. The port itself is a tangle of piers, floating docks, and anchorages, from the massive Freighter's Finger pier catering to the heaviest barges to the more ordinary slips at Northtree or Commonsdock. Not actually attached to shore, the chaotic Flotilla is the city's cheapest long-term moorage option, where boats are welcome to raft together around common anchor buoys, and where some houseboats haven't moved in generations. A special division of the Flaming Fist called the Gray Wavers patrols the harbor, yet it's no secret that the more expensive docks are safer than the budget options. Sailors and even whole ships have been known to go missing in Gray Harbor, and while some assume such disappearances are the result of local shore-based pirates, others speak of Ol' Cholms, a mysterious sea beast capable of dragging ships down to the river's lightless bottom.Dusthawk Hill
East of the city, high above the scattered slums and cut-rate inns that stretch along the trade road, rises the steep yellow granite of Dusthawk Hill. This cliff-skirted hill is one of the last known refuges of the Chionthar dusthawk (use the hawk statistics). a once-common raptor whose numbers precipitously declined over the last century as regional turmoil and the ever-spreading slums outside Baldur's Gate consumed its habitat. Local legend holds that the dusthawk was Balduran's favorite hunting bird, and that the Chionthar population is descended from his own personal hunting hawks. When the dukes of Baldur's Gate realized that the dusthawk was on the verge of extinction, they declared the hill, which included both the hawks' cliffside nests and their hunting grounds, to be off limits to unlicensed hunters. Despite the fences and cliffs that cordon off most of the hill, trespassers remain common, the demand for dusthawk hunting birds having exploded among the wealthy. Many in the Outer City resent the hill being turned into private land. Several camps and slums were cleared as a result, their dwellers losing everything. The homeless resent the patriars for being willing to spend money giving hawks a home, but not them. Others resent the Flaming Fist guards who keep them from trapping on the hill. Stringy rabbits and scrawny quail made poor meals, but they were meals, and now many hunters have none. Rumors hold that werewolves lair in the sea caves under Dusthawk Hill, pretending to be ordinary smugglers-or ordinary animals- while plotting against the city. Whenever a grisly murder captures Baldurians' imaginations, someone is always quick to claim chat it must be one of the Dusthawk werewolves who did the deed.Guilds and Factions
The Guild, neighborhood crews, trade guilds
Citzenry
The citizens of Baldur's Gate include many races and ethnicities. Though prejudices can exist among certain residents, Baldur's Gate as a whole is a diverse and unprejudiced- if not welcoming city. Many of the patriar families of Baldur's Gate can trace their lineage back for generations, but a significant portion of Ba1durians were not born in the city. Most citizens began their lives in Tethyr, the North, the Western Heartlands, or other communities along the Sword Coast. Baldurians born in Arnn, the High Forest, and nations bordering the Inner Sea are less common, but still present. Rarely, travelers from as far away as Chult, Mulhorand, or Luiren decide to follow the flow of trade and settle in the city.Commoners and Crews
Baldur's Gate can be a rough place for ordinary folk. Among the twisting streets of the Lower City, commoners have significantly fewer rights than patriars, with only the brusque mercenaries of the Flaming Fist to keep them safe. Even worse off are the poor residents of the Outer City, many of whom aren't recognized as citizens. With the Flaming Fist too eager to punish criminal behavior by drubbing both accuser and accused, it's important that common folk have someone to watch their backs. That's why the people of Baldur's Gate created crews-collections of like minded folk who band together for mutual protection. Depending on the crew, this protection can range from taking someone's side in a tavern brawl or guarding each other's shops to price fixing or inter-crew loans. Crews were the first to institute the common practice of burl. Under this system, anyone seeking shelter and safety-usually those fleeing from the Flaming Fist or some other danger- can approach a house or shop and give three sharp knocks followed by a heavier one. The residents are then obligated to take that person in and bide them. This applies even to members of opposing crews, though anyone requesting sanctuary from a crew other than their own incurs a debt, both personally and on behalf of their crew. Abusing someone who's granted burl is grounds for immediate expulsion from one's crew, and such "drowners" are universally shunned. The dozens of crews calling Baldur's Gate home are as different in attitude and approach as the city's residents. For instance, everyone in the Lower City knows that if you need cheap muscle, you hire members of the burly Porters' Union or Stonemasons' Guild, and not even the Flaming Fist would willingly pick a fight with the blood-spattered Butchers' Block or the mercenaries and "security consultants" of the Bannerless Legion. Other crews, such as the Scribes and Sages or the Honorable Order of Moneylenders, would never dream of getting their hands dirty, while the Apothecary Alliance and Brethren of Barbers don't need to throw a punch to strike fear into rivals. From carpenters to grocers, the Forgeworkers' Lodge to the Wisewoman Weavers, nearly every profession offers some access to a crew. And not just legal professions, either; the Revelers' Union, made up of night-workers who sell drugs, companionship, and other recreations, is one of the most powerful in the city, thanks to the information it gathers from its clients. Some crews are simply neighborhood-based, their association based on territory rather than trade, such as the Right Pashas of Little Calimshan, the Crossed of Wyrm's Crossing, the Gravemakers of Tumbledown, or the Bloomridge Dandies. By far the most important crew to travelers, however, is the Gateguides. Made up primarily of teenage lantern bearers, the Gateguides earn a living hiring themselves out to newcomers to show them the ropes of the city, help make connections with other crews, and offer some degree of collective protection.Patriars
Patriars are the elite upper class of the city, a rank defined largely by money and lines of vague, increasingly inconsequential heritage. Many nobles claim generations of lineage, dating to the earliest days of Baldur's Gate. Their money funds industries and lines political pockets, but their names allow them to wield influence throughout the city. Some patriars are economically-minded individuals who rise early and spend their days in meetings and negotiations. They fund expeditions into dangerous locales and hire explorers to map uncharted territories. Other patriars manipulate the city's power players through diplomacy and intrigue. They spend their days flitting from theater performances to private balls, while quietly making and breaking the alliances that underwrite the city's structures. Patriars live and work in the Upper City. Their manor homes employ dozens of servants, along with contingents of personal guards. The wall surrounding the Upper City as well as the constant presence of the Watch- which exclusively patrols that district- goes far toward assuring their security. As a side effect, it also means many patriars go months without engaging with the city's common folk, their insulation leading to the spread of divisive rumors. Patriars know the danger of the other districts, where their wealth is a lure and their names carry no weight. Patriars who have to travel the Lower City always do so with guards, and still risk robbery or worse violence. Many patriar families hire proxies to carry out their business in the Lower City or Outer City. lf circumstances force patriars to visit the Outer City personally they typically travel in disguise, paying adventurers or mercenaries to protect them without drawing the attention of a uniformed personal guard. Among the common folk and criminal element of the city, patriars have a reputation for callousness. Common wisdom holds that patriars are out of touch with everyday life and value citizens' lives cheaply. For some nobles , this assessment holds true . These patriars are class-conscious dilettantes who s pend their money on frivolous bets, debauched entertainment, and risky business ventures. For this callous lot, the common people are nothing more than fools to be bilked, clods undeserving of comfort and wealth due to their lack of comfort and breeding. For a few patriars, though, the inequality of Baldur's Gate is a serious concern. Blocked by a corrupt government and uncaring peers, these civic-minded nobles use unorthodox channels to distribute aid. They quietly fund vigilante action that protects the vulnerable groups.They stage robberies on their own property and secretly send the "stolen goods" to sick houses and charities. These patriars know that to act openly is to invite scorn from their peers, which may edge them out of alliances and deals that could strengthen their standing. Worse, it makes them targets for corrupt elite who prefer the city's divisions as they are. Some good-hearted but naive patriars have been known to venture into the Lower City and even the Outer City to volunteer with the disadvantaged or share their wealth. Even in disguise, though, these nobles are usually quickly identified and become targets of the Guild or other criminals. More than one patriar on a miss ion of mercy has disappeared into the Lower City, never to be seen again.Religion
Baldurians are permitted to worship whatever deities they wish, so long as they refrain from violent acts and practices that disrupt trade. While multiple temples rise within the city walls, hundreds of tiny shrines sit along the twisted streets of the Outer City. In the city proper, worship centers around a handful of well-known and generally respectable deities. Most established temples, with clergy and daily rituals, are in the Upper City, which precludes commoners from worshiping after dark, when only residents are allowed to remain in the Upper City. Since most commoners work during the day, their faith usually becomes secondary in their lives. Ostentatious adherence to religious rituals is seen as a privilege of the wealthy. Some Baldurians even think outwardly displaying one's faith is a sign of pretentiousness and insincerity. Among the many deities worshiped in Baldur's Gate, a handful hold particular prominence.Geography
Baldur's Gate is built on level ground on the River Dessarin right where it feeds into the ocean.
Alternative Name(s)
The Gate
Type
Large city
Population
125,000
Inhabitant Demonym
Baldurians
Included Locations
Owner/Ruler
Comments