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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Parmandur" data-source="post: 8467821" data-attributes="member: 6780330">Weirdly enough, looking around it seems that Lore You Should Know, which landed way prior to Dragon Heist being announced, is the only real canonical source for that, which suggests to me cut material from the Waterdeep books Perkins was working on at the time: other sources just say that he died at 300+ years old after having used a lot of life extending magic and nobody has unsealed his Wizards tower, the original core of the settlement, since thst time. But, hey, Word of Perkins is good enough for me that the mastermind of the Waterdhelvian "constitution" is an ancient Lich.Try this concept on for size: Ahghairon is a super powerful, Lawful Evil with a capital L and capital E, long-lived, and hyperintelligent Wizard who doesn't want to die. He was the first Blackstaff, so let's suppose that the Blackstaff itself is his phylactery. What if the entire system of the City-State was designed to set up a stable, prosperous and fairly equitable society, therefore prosperous and highly populated. Then let us note that the laws of the City are strict and handled without corruption and quite quickly, including the death penalty. [Channeling some of my own anti-death penalty philosophy here] what if every execution in the city, even if justly administered, culminates in a legal ceremony that feeds the Blackstaff? Then Ahghairon sets up society in such a way that mighty heroes and do-gooders will defend The System that feeds his immortality without his needing to ever lift a finger? Ahghairon can do the math that statistically, in a society of a given population with certain laws, a predictable number of capital cases will go through every year. Ergo, Waterdeep is actually a conspiracy to feed an undead monster, who might be working even greater evil while Silverhand and other good guys ensure that his vitality is fed with souls...</blockquote>

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