Ive been told I look a lot like Claudio Sanchez so picture that
That's actually better if you're rocking Sanchez' hair.
mmm. I seem to recall an old 2e adventure that had spelljammer's secretly landing in or near Waterdeep. So maybe they do?
mmm I think there's a bit more than that. Just off the top of my head what about GauntleGrym's mines and it's magical forge that can forge legendary weapons. There's plenty of stuff out there and as I said once before, ore, forests, etc are worth quite a bit. Add the fact that things like rye that can be grown and harvested early before other warm season grains make good trade . Eventually.....whether it's a hundred years or 400 years someone will build a power base there. Trade with Gauntlegrym alone could probably support a large City State. And it doesn't have to be humans or elves. Orcs could forge a nation. Drow could pop up city states supported by the underdark. A flight of dragons could secretly support some noble family, (or be the noble family) and found a base of power. Lot of moving parts in that region. One falls it automatically makes someone else stronger. Or something totally unexpected could happen like Giants marching from the north and founding a giant kingdom. If you look at real world history Rome almost fell to Athens before it ever got started. Only because Athens fell to disease while at war with Sparta did Rome rise. And where we have nothing but desert and scrub is where Rome's second greatest enemy Carthage stood. No one in the world would imagine forming a kingdom or powerful country there. But It stood for over 700 years. That's the difference between conquerers and everyone else. They see money and power the rest of us see old trees and problems.
Those crafting capabilities aren't exclusive to water deep. Thay and silvery moon both have high end crafters arcanists enchanters and so on. As to the resources, most of those are pretty common and things like skilled labor transport networks etc can be just as important as proximity for things like lumber. Water deep's bigclaim to fame is that it's surrounded by a lot of dirt farmers and barely functioning economies. It's not uniquely advanced once you look past water deep getting lauded for things and recognize that those things exist elsewhere in places that an actual government along with higher technological/education standards. Even relatively recent stuff like the thay chapter in frcs puts the disparity to shame. Think it was older stuff that had the humans winning a slow burn war of attrition against elves& dwarves being consumed culturally and kinda enslaved for their crafting/enchantment skills where the gap is even eider
never said they were exclusive to anyone. But things change cities, kingdoms empire's and other powerful groups rise over time even in places people think aren't good places to do so. If proximity were that important to lumber Africa and the America's would never have been places the British trade company did business with over those resources. And Waterdeep is closer to the lumber than London was to those sources of lumber. I only mentioned a few of the resources mentioned in all the supplements over the years. Mithral mines being one of them. But my point that was obviously lost is that in a place where there is a power vacuum eventually someone or something will eventually fill that void. There have been kingdoms that produced mostly grain and foodstuffs for export, throughout history. By that measure there is plenty in the sword coast to keep a kingdom funded assuming good leadership and enough power to maintain some stability. (always the problem in the sword coast from 1st to 5e). I think some here are so attached to the wilderness that was 1st to 5e that they are irrationally arguing why it could never happen. I've never argued it has to happen but given enough time without outside influences beating it down, I still argue over time it is something that becomes more likely as the world around it becomes more civilized and more knowledgeable. All those monsters won't be nearly as scary with victorian level magictech. Which unless I've jumped threads in my mind was the original premise of this.
