Citizenry

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 Baldurians 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 Amn, 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 hide 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.

NOTEWORTHY LAWS

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, Baldur’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.

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. If 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 spend 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 mission of mercy has disappeared into the Lower City, never to be seen again.

PROMINENT PATRIAR FAMILIES

Below are the names of and a few details about many of the other patriar families in the city.
Belt owns horses for sale and exchange.
Bormul is related to the Bormul nobility in Amn and has interests in southern silver mines and vineyards.
Caldwell owns most of the city’s art museums.
Dlusker is nearly broke but maintains a textile mill in the Lower City and a few slaughterhouses in the Outer City.
Durinbold is related to Waterdeep nobility and owns large sheep herds.
Eltan has an ancestral link to the grand duke who formed the Flaming Fist, but sold its interests in the mercenary company to pay debts.
Eomane owns the most elite perfumery in Baldur’s Gate as well as fish- and whale-oil processors that make lamp oil.
Gist controls much of the city’s dye production.
Guthmere owns butchery and tannery facilities.
Hhune has ties to Tethyr nobility and the Knights of the Shield, as well as holdings in other major cities.
Hlath owns several cafes in the city and is awash in gambling debts.
Hullhollyn owns a merchant fleet and has a trade truce with the Irlentree family.
Irlentree owns a merchant fleet, has a trade truce with the Hullhollyn family, and has membership in the Merchants’ League.
Jannath owns tin and copper mines.
Jhasso is part owner of the struggling Seven Suns Trading Coster, a long-standing trade organization.
Linnacker collects income from gem mines in Tethyr.
Miyar supplies and repairs wagons and caravans, and has membership in the Merchants’ League.
Nurthammas invests in businesses involved in supplying ships for long voyages.
Oathoon imports wine and spirits.
Oberon owns most of the port’s dry docks.
Provoss is nearly destitute after losses to its cattle herds.
Ravenshade trades in inks, dyes, gems, and jewelry.
Redlocks has secretly financed piracy and smuggling for a long time.
Rillyn runs a sword-wielding school, creating new generations of soldiers, mercenaries, and leg-breakers.
Sashenstar owns shipping, mining, and textile operations, and has membership in the Merchants’ League.
Shattershield, a family of shield dwarves, is the only nonhuman family among the patriars and was instrumental in building the city’s original walls.
Tillerturn owns and leases out many buildings in the city.
Vammas controls the majority of trade from Chult.
Vannath fled the city of Neverwinter after the eruption of Mount Hotenow and married into the patriars to elevate their status.
Vanthampur specializes in civic engineering under the purview of family matriarch Duke Thalamra Vanthampur.
Whitburn owns the slate quarry east of the city.