The Western Heartlands of Faerun form an extensive area of
wilderness, hundreds of miles of open countryside dominated by several large
city-states. The most famous and storied
of these is the great port city of Baldur’s Gate. From its position on the
River Chionthar, Baldur’s Gate is the largest beacon of civilisation between
Waterdeep and the kingdom of Amn and acts as a vital trading post. Everything
is for sale in Baldur’s Gate, including adventure, trouble and morality.
Note: Baldur’s Gate’s fortunes differ significantly at
different points in the history of the Forgotten
Realms. This description explores the city during the “classic” era of Forgotten Realms history, just prior to
the highly ill-conceived event known as the Spellplague, regarded as non-fanon
by many fans and players in the setting.
Location
Baldur’s Gate is located close to the north-western coast of
the continent of Faerûn. It is located on the wide and deep River Chionthar,
approximately twenty miles upriver from where it flows into the Sea of Swords.
Technically the city is not on the Sword Coast itself, but its position as a
major port and one of the few waystops north of Amn makes the difficulty of
beating upriver to the city generally worthwhile.
The city is also located on the Coast Way, a vital trade
artery along the west coast of the continent. The Coast Way extends south
through the towns of Beregost and Nashkel into the Kingdom of Amn and thence to
the rich southern kingdoms of Tethyr and Calimshan. The Coast Way eventually
terminates at Calimport, the largest city in Faerûn, some 1,000 miles to the
south, and continues to Waterdeep, the City of Splendours, located about 480
miles to the north-west. The Coast Way takes a massive detour to the east to
avoid the Troll Hills and Trollbark Forest north of the Winding Water, an area
infested with monsters. The Coast Way runs a dangerous gauntlet between the
Troll Hills and High Moor to the north on its way to Waterdeep, so trade
caravans usually travel well-armed.
Physical Description
Baldur’s Gate surrounds a significant inlet of the River
Chionthar. With tall hills to the east hemming in the city’s walls, the city
resembles a crescent moon with the bay forming the gap in the circle. Districts
within the city include Bloomridge, Twin Songs and the Port District.
The most notable feature of the city is arguably Black
Dragon Gate, built by Balduran himself, a formidable gateway and mini-fortress
which has never fallen in battle. The city core contains the High Hall (or
Palace of the Grand Dukes), the High House of Wonders (a huge temple to Gond,
God of Artifice and Invention), the Water Queen’s House (a rare temple to
Umberlee, the capricious Goddess of the Sea) and the Lady’s Hall (a temple to
Tymora, Goddess of Good Fortune). Temples to Ilmater, Helm, Lathander and Oghma
can also be found within the city centre.
The city’s primary defensive bastion is the Seatower of
Balduran, located on an island in the harbour.
Population
The population of Baldur’s Gate varied according to the
season. In 1372 DR the city’s permanent population was approximately 42,100,
but at the height of the summer trading rush this could more than double to
around 86,000. During the height of the trading season, it’s not unusual to see
extensive tent cities and ad hoc markets springing up outside the walls.
Government
Baldur’s Gate is ruled by the Council of Four, also known as
the Four Grand Dukes. As of 1372, the Four Grand Dukes are Eltan, the leader of
the Flaming Fist Mercenary Company; Belt, a poweful warrior-priest; Liia
Jannath, a wizardess; and Entar Silvershield, the city’s richest merchant. The
Council works closely together to keep trade flowing through the city and to
ensure threats are dealt with quietly and efficiently.
Baldur’s Gate is also part of the Lords’ Alliance, an
alliance of city-states in north-western Faerun designed to resist the
corrupting influence of the Black Network of the Zhentarim, the rulers of Amn,
the Red Wizards of Thay and other potential enemies. Although the Alliance is a
powerful force in resisting such enemies, it has no say over the internal
running of the city. Other members of the Alliance include Waterdeep,
Daggerford, Neverwinter, Mirabar, Gundarlun and the newly-founded Kingdom of
Luruar in the Silver Marches, centered on the great city of Silverymoon.
History
The history of Baldur’s Gate dates back to the adventurer
Orluth Tshahvur. In 227 DR he founded the short-lived kingdom of Shavinar at
the mouth of the River Chionthar. He built a crude keep near the site of what
is now Baldur’s Gate and attracted settlers to the town with a promise of
freedom and mutual defence against marauding monsters and bandits. He gained a
boon when a skilled Calishite shipwright arrived in the settlement, leading to
a shipbuilding and repair yard springing up. The village became known as Gaeth
(the local Thorass word for “rivermouth”) but, despite its good fortune, it was
slow to grow. By Orluth’s death in 242 DR, the population was only 120 but the
wider realm of Shinvar extended almost 100 miles upriver and as far north as
the Troll Hills, where Orluth had built watchtowers to keep an eye out for
trolls. Orluth’s son Arlsar, neglected his father’s achievements and was
murdered in 256 DR by merchants angered by his incompetence.
There were several attempts to hold Shavinar together, the
most notable being Arlsar’s youngest son Kondarar who had magical backing.
Under his rule Shavinar began to grow again…but it was swept away by a troll
horde in 277 DR. Gaeth was destroyed along with the rest of the realm.
Still, the realm’s existence did confirm that the location
was a viable one for a port and over the next eight centuries several attempts
were made to establish another settlement in the region. However, this always
failed because the cost of building a wall around the port – which due to the
geography required a very large one – was ruinous.
This situation was finally broken circa 1050. A great sailor
hailing from the region, Balduran, took his ship, the Wandering Eye, across the Trackless Sea in search of new lands.
Against the odds, beyond Evermeet he found a rich new continent, Anchorome, and
found many riches there. He returned home, laden with gold, and paid for
massive stone walls to be built around the nascent settlement on the site of
ancient Gaeth. The port was named Baldur’s Gate in his honour and Balduran
briefly stayed to rule and help the city become more established. However, he eventually
could not resist the call of the sea and returned to Anchorome. He was killed there
by the natives circa 1068, although some conflicting rumours suggest he
actually returned to Faerûn but his ship was smashed to pieces on the coast
south of the city. This rumour is considered fanciful.
Despite Balduran’s death, the city he left behind prospered.
This was helped by the rise of Waterdeep to the north, and the presence of two
new rich trade ports to the north saw trade start to flow up the Sword Coast
from the rich southern kingdoms of Amn, Tethyr and Calimshan. The growing city
was threatened in 1235 when the Black Horde, the largest orc horde in recorded
history, rampaged down the Sword Coast. Both Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate were
besieged, but their walls held and the ports remained open, preventing either
from being starved out. The Black Horde itself fragmented due to a lack of food
and supplies and eventually dispersed.
Circa 1350, the fighter Eltan founded the Flaming Fist, a
mercenary company rooted in honour and order. The mercenary army, noted for its
discipline and its success in resisting border incursions from Amn to the south
and repelling monsters and trolls to the north, soon became the de facto police force of Baldur’s Gate
and Eltan ascended to the rank of Grand Duke.
In 1358 the Time of Troubles (or Avatar Wars) wracked
Faerûn. Bhaal, God of Murder and Patron of Assassins, did battle with the
nascent demigod Cyric on Boareskyr Bridge a couple of hundred miles north-east
of Baldur’s Gate. Bhaal was defeated and slain, but upon his death his essence
was split between several mortals, the so-called “Bhaalspawn”. Ten years later,
in 1368, one of these offspring, Sarevok, instigated a plan to kill the other
Bhaalspawn and reunite Bhaal’s power in himself. To this end he allied with the
Iron Throne criminal organisation and a band of doppelgangers to topple the
Four Grand Dukes and seize control of the region. However, another Bhaalspawn
thwarted his plans and killed Sarevok, preventing Bhaal’s return and restoring
peace to the region.
In 1361 word arrived in the city that Captain Cordell and
the Golden Legion of Amn had discovered a new continent far to the west, across
the Trackless Sea. They had named this continent Maztica and toppled the evil
empire that had dominated the land, as well as founding the new town of Helmsport
to help exploit this new continent. The Council of Four realised that Maztica
was likely associated with Anchorome and dispatched an expedition to stake out
their own claim to the land. This expedition confirmed that Anchorome is the
continent to the north of Maztica (with Maztica as a subcontinent or region of
Anchorome rather than a geologically separate landmass) and founded Fort Flame
on the coast of the continent in 1364. The local jungle elf tribes attacked
Fort Flame several times but were repulsed.
In 1369 the Fifth Serôs War, also called the Sea War, raged
when the sahuagin minions of Iakhovas the Taker attacked the city (and most of
the coast of Faerûn). They were defeated and forced out of the city thanks to
the Flaming Fist and the city’s wizards and priests.
As of 1372 Baldur’s Gate appears secure, having averted the
threat of war with Amn to the south and increased its dominance on Sword Coast
trade. Baldur’s Gate’s ambition seems to be to surpass Waterdeep to the north
as the greatest city on the coast. Some have speculated that the Gate may try
to expand into a nation or at least a more formal alliance, comprising all the
lands between the Troll Hills and Cloud Peaks and incorporating settlements as
Ulgoth’s Beard, Candlekeep, the Friendly Arm Inn (located inside a massive
fortress) and Beregost, but if so this ambition has not been realised so far.
Origins and
Influences
Baldur’s Gate is part of the Forgotten Realms fantasy world, originally created by Ed Greenwood
in 1968 and then developed as the setting for his home Dungeons and Dragons campaign from 1976 onwards. The world became
better-known when Greenwood began writing for Dragon Magazine in 1978, often referencing his home campaign in his
articles. In 1987 TSR, Inc. released the Forgotten
Realms campaign setting, marking the first appearance of Baldur’s Gate in
print. The city first appeared in a novel in 1990, when R.A. Salvatore set part
of The Halfling’s Gem (the concluding
novel in The Icewind Dale Trilogy)
in the city.
Baldur’s Gate received little more attention in the second
edition of the Forgotten Realms campaign
setting (1993) but it was expanded greatly by Ed Greenwood in Volo’s Guide to the Sword Coast (1994),
a sourcebook which provided the first canonical map of the city itself. He
detailed much more of the city’s history, geography and power groups.
In 1995 the video game company Interplay bought a licence to
release games set in the Forgotten
Realms setting and using the Dungeons
and Dragons rules from TSR. After a couple of disappointing titles,
Interplay partnered with a new Canadian game development studio called BioWare
to develop a D&D game. They considered several settings, including
better-known Realms locations such
as the Dalelands and Waterdeep, but ultimately settled on Baldur’s Gate as the
city had just enough background to be interesting but enough blank spaces they
could fill in with new information.
The resulting video game, Baldur’s Gate, was released in 1998 and was a smash hit, setting
BioWare on the path that would eventually lead them to the Mass Effect and Dragon Age
franchises. This game began a series which continued with Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999), Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000)
and its expansion Baldur’s Gate II: Throne
of Bhaal (2001) (although only Baldur’s
Gate itself was set in the titular city). It also inspired a spin-off
console game series, comprising Baldur’s
Gate: Dark Alliance (2001) and Baldur’s
Gate: Dark Alliance II (2004). In 2012 Beamdog released Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition which
updated the game for modern PCs and added a new expansion, Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, in 2015 (although this
expansion is not set in the city itself).
Baldur’s Gate III: The
Black Hound was in development at Interplay when the company went bust in
2004. Despite the name, the game would have been set in the Dalelands with no
connection to the earlier series by plot.
More recently, Baldur’s Gate was explored in both the 4th and 5th edition
campaign settings for Dungeons and
Dragons. The former saw the Forgotten Realms destroyed in an event known as
the Spellplague, with Baldur’s Gate emerging as one of the few settlements to
flourish following the cataclysm, becoming larger and more powerful than
Waterdeep (a move motivated, it was believed, to cash in on the name
recognition of the video games). 5th Edition has undone many of the
impacts of the Spellplague, but Baldur’s Gate retains its place as one of the
most prominent cities in the setting.
Most recently, the city is the focus for the Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate board game
(2017), a variant of the classic Betrayal
at House on the Hill board game.
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