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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9021263" data-attributes="member: 6801060"><p>Waterdeep's harbor is one of the finest on the planet. It's huge, deep, and protected by islands as natural breakwaters. A port was going to develop there no matter what simply for that alone. The harbor is just a few miles from the mouth of the major river of the north, the Dessarin, which flows into the sea in the middle of a swamp, physically precluding it from either having a deep harbor or the ability to have any decently-sized population center. So of course the trade coming down the Dessarin either unloads at Zundbridge and goes overland a few miles to the excellent harbor a few miles away, or goes there by sea (which is riskier, as river barges aren't terribly sea-worthy, which is why the waterborne trade can't go directly from the Dessarin and far out to sea to such places as Baldur's Gate; conversely, sea-going craft have too deep of a draft to travel up the shallow Dessarin). And trade there is in plenty; the various dwarven holds to the north - Mirabar, Mithral Hall, Citadel Adbar, and so on - produce huge amounts of fine-quality ore, gems, and metal, while the human cities produce various other goods, including lumber. All these cities need food and finished goods they don't produce on their own, but can be imported from points further south. Waterdeep stands at the nexus of all that trade. The Heartlands don't come into play in this at all - Waterdeep is rich from trade between the North and points south along the coast; Baldur's Gate is rich from the trade from Waterdeep (and other points north and south along the coast) and the Heartlands.</p></blockquote><p></p>

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