D&D General Any Realms-Heads Know About The Politics of The Sword Coast?

[Parmandur]

Yeah, I think that for this character to make sense, she needs to have a somewhat nuanced take on what needs to be removed from power.

The "Baldur's Gate expatriate who views all Lord's Alliance memberss as compromised" makes sense: the Lord's Alliance is pretty amoral.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Well we know a few things from the Masked Lords that would make good things to oppose:
1) Power can be bought. In Dragon Heist, Jarlaxle want to find the treasure to secure a spot in the Lords.
2) Anybody can be a Lord. You have Mirt and (IIRC) Durnan who are both ''somehow'' immortals and Masked Lord, making them rulers for ages.
3) Waterdhavian nobility is twisted. You have one noble family whose richesses come from dealing with devils, the Neverembers steal money from the coffers, one other is in league with the Zhents etc

 

[pukunui]

Older versions of Waterdeep made the city slightly grittier. Geographically it's loosely modeled after Lankhmar from the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser swords & sorcery stories by Fritz Leiber. Greenwood made it much more friendly, with a colorful high-fantasy setting. However, you could choose to make the place grittier by modeling it after Lankhmar.

It's a city of Thieves infested with crime. There's a powerful Thieves' Guild that tries to control all criminal activity. There are extremes of wealth and poverty. The nobles live in a district gated off from the rest of the city with lots of private security. In order to survive, most people are forced to engage in morally grey behavior. There's a street of the gods, where the gods regularly move up and down the street, based on how many worshipers they have. They constantly jockey for position to get into the fancier temples. If they run out of worshipers, they'll eventually get kicked so far down the street, they get kicked out of the city through the "gate of the gods".

The characters engage in intrigue, heists, stumble onto ancient eldritch magic (and horrors), etc.

You could probably crib some stuff from that setting, and plug it into Waterdeep to make the place more of a powder keg, where people are less secure, and are more likely to attempt a revolt.

You’ve basically just described Baldur’s Gate.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The "Baldur's Gate expatriate who views all Lord's Alliance memberss as compromised" makes sense: the Lord's Alliance is pretty amoral.

Very true.

Well we know a few things from the Masked Lords that would make good things to oppose:
1) Power can be bought. In Dragon Heist, Jarlaxle want to find the treasure to secure a spot in the Lords.
2) Anybody can be a Lord. You have Mirt and (IIRC) Durnan who are both ''somehow'' immortals and Masked Lord, making them rulers for ages.
3) Waterdhavian nobility is twisted. You have one noble family whose richesses come from dealing with devils, the Neverembers steal money from the coffers, one other is in league with the Zhents etc

Yeah I like that angle, especially since the DM is using Dragon Heist as a base for the start of the campaign.

You’ve basically just described Baldur’s Gate.

Yeah I may have her be from there, and have moved to Waterdeep shortly before the hag in trollskull manor tried to curse her.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

One of the Masked Lords is Omin Dran, who is basically a tyrant boss making pacts with the Nine Hells, so at least one of the city’s rulers are super shady.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

One of the Masked Lords is Omin Dran, who is basically a tyrant boss making pacts with the Nine Hells, so at least one of the city’s rulers are super shady.

Yeah, though to be fair, that's just one of his half dozen clones!

I won't say any more to avoid C Team spoilers.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So, I’ve kinda got the impression that the lands under the banner of the Lords Alliance are on the verge of developing into something like the various places IRL that went from many petty kingdoms and such into a nation.

If that is the case, it may be reasonable for someone to see Silverhand as a very dangerous figure indeed. She will outlive all other members of the Alliance, and IIRC is the head of the Lords Alliance?

I think that this is an interesting dynamic to dig into with a character.

It also seems like Neverember gave people a greater taste of what a world without the aristocracy might be like, even though he did what he did to line his pockets and stay in power, and now the aristocracy are reconsolidating their power.

A rebel with a plan for an elected central government and shared financial burdens to strengthen the economic prospects of the whole is, I think, a fun character, as well.

Who doesn’t like a well read and well spoken young revolutionary with a plan beyond tomorrow?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Who doesn’t like a well read and well spoken young revolutionary with a plan beyond tomorrow?

Oh yeah!

I'd pay good bucks to play a character in a Gangs of New York/Les Misérables version of Waterdeep!

 

[Parmandur]

So, I’ve kinda got the impression that the lands under the banner of the Lords Alliance are on the verge of developing into something like the various places IRL that went from many petty kingdoms and such into a nation.

If that is the case, it may be reasonable for someone to see Silverhand as a very dangerous figure indeed. She will outlive all other members of the Alliance, and IIRC is the head of the Lords Alliance?

I think that this is an interesting dynamic to dig into with a character.

It also seems like Neverember gave people a greater taste of what a world without the aristocracy might be like, even though he did what he did to line his pockets and stay in power, and now the aristocracy are reconsolidating their power.

A rebel with a plan for an elected central government and shared financial burdens to strengthen the economic prospects of the whole is, I think, a fun character, as well.

Who doesn’t like a well read and well spoken young revolutionary with a plan beyond tomorrow?

It's a interesting concept, but Waterdeepas written is probably balanced enough that they would be dismissed as a nuisance by most residents: there's food and money to go around, and diffused powers that are working in a balance. The DM could tip the town into a more Baldur's Gate-y direction on their own? Disempowrting the working class Guilds, or getting rid of the Druid supermarket that makes food abundant?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

It also seems like Neverember gave people a greater taste of what a world without the aristocracy might be like, even though he did what he did to line his pockets and stay in power, and now the aristocracy are reconsolidating their power.

Well, Neverember was Open Lord for a time, in addition to be Lord-Regent of Neverwinter, so he was pretty much THE aristocracy of two big cities for a time, not a great example of an aristocrat-less world.

Thing is, the politic world of the Realms are pretty much a weird status quo where there's no open war, barely no kingdoms or attempts to create some, all cities are pretty much self enclosed, stand-alone, stable city-states.

That's why I once had a plan to create a Faerun Year 1508 setting where there would be more large kingdoms, burgeoning republic and conflicts/war, like:

- The Deep Waters League, merging the Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate and other small sea-side cities as one kingdom, with the addition of the Rhuatym islands.

- Free Holds of the North, a rebel alliance of the Silver Marches' cities against the Hartsvale's Empire made of the conquered lands of the hold dwarven holds, ruled by the proclaimed half-dragon son of Klauth.

- Twilight Parliament of the Moonsheas, forming a democratic monarchy covering the Moonsheas Islands and their Feywild-only cities.

etc
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