RFC: Iconic D&D Cities

[Gradine]

I'm trying to keep the numbers manageable; no more than one city per campaign setting because it's a campaign setting. Otherwise, we'd be getting arguments about the cities that matter in FR, or GH, or, well, yeah. I think most people agree that Waterdeep and the Free City are the iconic cities for those campaign settings.

As it stands, FR has 5 additional cities in the "other" (Shadowdale, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, Menzobarranzan, and Phandalin). Just short of half, and far more than any other source.

"Setting Agnostic" (3) City of Brass, City State of the Invincible Overlord, Lankhmar

GH modules (2) Satmarsh, Town of Hommlet

DL (1) Solace

EB (1) Stormreach

I'm open to replacing, say, Phandalin or Shadowdale with something else?

Oh, I get it. I'm just saying, any argument that Baldur's Gate is not, at worst, the 2nd most iconic Forgotten Realms city at this point in D&D's life-cycle strikes me as a little absurd.

I'd replace Shadowdale with Calimport, if nothing else. Phandalin sort of became the face of low-level FR in 5e, which was sort of the role of Shadowdale in editions past, so it'd make sense to axe one of those, and for me Phandalin wins on both recency and the FR-5e monopoly

I could write an essay on at least a dozen super interesting and fascinating Eberron cities but I'd hesitate to call any of those iconic outside of Sharn or Stormreach.

Edit:Maybe Thronehold? Or Graywall? Or Metrol?

 

[gyor]

If your replacing Shadowdale and Phandalin, I'd suggest Calimport and either Myth Nantar (you have a lot of human cities on the list, so city of Aquatic races would be cool) or Skuld (a city where a Pantheon of Gods live is cool, plus huge appeal to Egyptophiles).

 

[gyor]

Oh, I get it. I'm just saying, any argument that Baldur's Gate is not, at worst, the 2nd most iconic Forgotten Realms city at this point in D&D's life-cycle strikes me as a little absurd.

I'd replace Shadowdale with Calimport, if nothing else. Phandalin sort of became the face of low-level FR in 5e, which was sort of the role of Shadowdale in editions past, so it'd make sense to axe one of those, and for me Phandalin wins on both recency and the FR-5e monopoly

I could write an essay on at least a dozen super interesting and fascinating Eberron cities but I'd hesitate to call any of those iconic outside of Sharn or Stormreach.

Edit:Maybe Thronehold? Or Graywall? Or Metrol?

Phandalin is the farthest thing you can get from an iconic FR city, honestly they'd just forgotten it few would have noticed or cared. And it's a small village, not a city.

 

[Gradine]

Okay, so I'll make the case for Thronehold.

Thronehold is the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Galifar, which spanned (most of) the continent of Khorvaire, the primary setting for Eberron adventures. It was largely abandoned in the Last War that split up the kingdom, and it was chosen as the site of the peace talks to bring an end to the century-long war. The Treaty of Thronehold that resulted is a massively important document for the setting; it establishes the borders and boundaries of the recognized sovereign states on the continent, it set terms for limits on the army-building capacity of the Dragonmarked Houses, and it established the rights of sentient citizenship to all Warforged. It is the place where the Last War began and ended, two years before the traditional start of most campaigns, and which sets the stage for many country-wide politics and espionage campaigns (as opposed the city-based politics of Sharn).

One could make the argument that the treaty is more iconic than the city itself, but the city is quite interesting on its. It's been divided in four different zones amongst the remaining core Five Kingdoms (it has been likened to post-war Berlin) and definitely is a great setting for cold-war-esque espionage.

Metrol was the capitol of Cyre and thus the largest and most significant city within the Mournlands, which is in itself a pretty iconic location to Eberron. There's not been much published about the city itself though, at least not that I'm aware of.

Graywall gets special mention just because it's a favorite of Keith Baker's. It's a sort of gateway city to Droaam, the unrecognized nation of "monstrous" races. Baker often refers to it as "just like Casablanca but with trolls" which is cool enough for me.

 

[lowkey13]

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[Gradine]

Phandalin is the farthest thing you can get from an iconic FR city, honestly they'd just forgotten it few would have noticed or cared. And it's a small village, not a city.

I mean, by that measure, neither Shadowdale nor Barovia nor Solace nor the Village of Hommlet are exactly thriving metropoles either. They are iconic because they are the starting places of iconic adventures. Phandalin is exactly that for 5e FR for a lot of players, many of them brand new to the game.

Not that I'm necessarily against casting the whole lot so we can focus on locales that could properly be called "cities", but I'm not necessarily for it either. I'm largely ambivalent on that point, with a slight lean towards letting the villages and towns join the party too.

 

[Gradine]

(I wouldn't mind removing Shadowdale ... I was only including it because of Elminster ... is there some kind of consensus about Calimport? Gyor? [MENTION=57112]Gradine[/MENTION] ?)

I don't know... I'd certainly replace Shadowdale and Neverwinter first. I'm torn between between Calimport and Silverymoon. The I think the former is probably more iconic but we've also already got the City of Brass for genie-themed cities (not to compare the two cities beyond that admittedly superficial similarity) and Silverymoon is kind of the iconic fantasy elven city (that's still settled by Elves, pipe down Solace. And elf elves, Meznorabbeanbnenbnadfeasbn or whatever you're called. Be happy you're included at all).

Still, I think Calimport is probably more well-known so I'd start there, and then add in either Silverymoon or Thronehold (my vote would be Thronehold, but then I'm an Eberron-homer).

 

[Gradine]

Not that this really matters anyway, we all know some nonsense like Lankhmar is going to win this in the end, right?

 

[lowkey13]

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[lowkey13]

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