Baldur's Gate

[Gregorotto]

Music

Baldur's Gate at a Glance

Demographics: 125,00062% Human
19% Half-Elf
8% Halfling
5% Half-Orc
6% Other (approx.)
Political Structure: Officially, aristocratic council of 4 Grand Dukes; unofficially, plutocratic rule under the Flaming Fist
Gods of Note: Legally, any god can be found in the Gate, regardless of their proclivity to cause harm; most common deities are GondGod of craft and invention, TymoraGoddess of luck and fortune, UmberleeGoddess of the sea and storms, HelmGod of protection and vigilance, LathanderGod of the dawn and sun, WaukeenGoddess of commerce and trade, and the Cults of the Dead ThreeCults dedicated to Bane (Lord of Tyranny), Bhaal (Lord of Murder), and Myrkul (Lord of Death), called this because the three gods were killed during the Time of Troubles but invariably came back to life somehow

"Oh sing a song of Balduran,
Who founded Baldur's Gate...."
-The start of several ballads set in Baldur's Gate

The history of Baldur's Gate is long, complex, and meandering in the best storyteller's mouth. Once a hill giant named Lok's home, the village of Loklee joined with the haven called Gray's Harbor to become one of the most well-regarded ports of call on the Sword Coast. It was from here that the great explorer Balduran hailed, returning home a rich hero who had discovered the continent of Anchorome, and with this wealth he built the walls of what would come to bear his name: Baldur's Gate. Soon it devoured the surrounding hamlets and villagers, and after a tax revolt by pirates and smugglers, the city was renamed in honor of the disappeared Balduran. It was this same tax revolt that settled the system of dukes that rule to this day, and solidified the power of traders, both legitimate and illegal, as the power behind the Gate.

Legend says something else happened, long before any of this: that it was the site of what would become Baldur's Gate that Bhaal, Lord of Murder, committed his first murder as a mortal, thus setting a curse as deep as the Gray Harbor itself into the land. Forever would Baldur's Gate be cursed.

Baldur's Gate has long been one of the foremost ports of trade along the Sword Coast, its history trackable across two thousand years. Its rivalry with Amn and to a lesser extent Waterdeep (a much more amiable relationship) is legendary, and of late its rivalry with nearby theocracy Elturgard has become somewhat bitter. In the 14th century, the mercenary company known as the Flaming Fist became the foremost adventuring and later law-enforcement companies in the Gate, which was just as well: in the mid-14th century, an iron crisis on the border between Baldur's Gate's hinterlands and Amn to the south brought the two nearly to the doors of war, but a group of adventurers led by Adrien Abdel discovered the Iron Throne, a trading company in the Gate, was behind the iron crisis and part of a larger plot to revive the then-dead god Bhaal. Having stopped this plot, Abdel returned some years later as Balduran did to become a duke and later Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate, leading the city into a new era of prosperity, but also of darkness.

In the wake of the Spellplague, Baldur's Gate became a rougher, grittier city, one where murder ran wild in the streets and the criminal element became rampant. Few could say what it was, but during this time, traders became more prosperous and the gap between haves and have nots grew wider. As cities like Neverwinter, Waterdeep, and Calimport suffered, Baldur's Gate swelled with refugees as a stable haven in a sea of storms. The criminal element grew, until in the mid-1480s, when it was discovered that Adrien Abdel, the somehow still alive Grand Duke, was a son of Bhaal, and so was one of his fellow Grand Dukes. The two, the last remaining "Bhaalspawn," fought to the death in the sewers beneath Baldur's Gate, and whoever the victor was, they became the beacon which allowed Bhaal to return to life: the Lord of Murder returned in Baldur's Gate.

Since then, the Flaming Fist has become the de facto power in Baldur's Gate, with its leader, Ulder Ravengard, becoming the Grand Duke. Putting down revolts, coups, and worse in the decade since Abdel's disappearance, Baldur's Gate became a city on the edge. In the late 1480s, Baldur's Gate became a key member of the Lords' Alliance coalition that faced down the rise of the Cult of the Dragon, the chaotic fall of the giant's Ordning system, and chief in determining and solving the cause of the world-wide Death Curse. Yet in spring of 1492, the Year of Three Ships Sailing, a coalition to reestablish ties with Elturel traveled to the city when the Companion sucked Elturel into Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. With the coalition went Grand Duke Ravengard.

A refugee crisis now grips the Gate, with fears that whatever happened to Elturel could happen to Baldur's Gate. Can the city survive so close to the edge of chaos?

Baldur's Gate Map Key

Baldur's Gate is divided into three principle parts: The Outer City, the Lower City, and the Upper City. In essence, the division is simple to understand: the Outer City is the city beyond the grand walls, including both the eastern side of the city and the north section called Blackgate; the Lower City is the interior of the city that wraps around the Gray Harbor; and the Upper City is the walled city within the walls on the northern side of the interior city.

Outer City
The Outer City includes those regions not within the walls of Baldur's Gate, and includes a number of neighborhoods; on the North is solely Blackgate, while on the East are two sections. The southern-most and standalone is south of Dusthawk Hill, a mountain by proxy, while the rest are a series of small almost stand-alone towns from Rivington and Wyrm's Crossing to Stonyeyes and the Basilisk Gate. The Flaming Fist has little to no power here, leaving locals to create their own police forces and create their own laws, be they the walled community of Little Calimshan or the relatively lawless and gritty Blackgate. The Outer City is where the poorest languish, and the criminals are the most desperate: but disparate refugees and others take care of their own in the only ways they can.

Lower City
Surrounding Gray Harbor is the Lower City, the steep-set part of the city where all water runs off and then into the Sword Coast. The Lower City is the middle ground between the Outer City's lawless ruggedness, and the Upper City's opulence and lawful neglect of everything else. The middle class here thrives, and the wealthiest of the poor do their best to hold on to what little they have. Fortunes are made and lost in the Lower City, and life and death are just another commodity for sale: despite the presence of the Flaming Fist, the Guild and worse is rampant in the Lower City.

Upper City
Within the walls of the Gate is another city, having its own walls and sitting at the top of the hill Baldur's Gate sits upon; when it rains, the garbage of the Upper City rains down on the Lower and Outer cities. Baldur's Gate's nobles, called patriars, populate this section, as do its well-to-do shops and temples and the city's government. Protected by the Flaming Fist fiercely, patriars are the only citizens who wander without fear of a knife in their back every day, or so it seems: the intrigue in the Upper City reshapes the Gate every day.

Characters of Note

The Flaming Fist

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Other Denizens

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