City-State of Waterdeep

Guilds

It was said that the Lords ruled Waterdeep but did not truly run it. This was quite true, in that there were a number of other factions who made up Waterdeep. The most noticeable were the guilds—powerful merchant and craft organizations that controlled much of the life-blood of the city. Once, the guilds ruled the city, and it almost destroyed itself in a series of internal commercial wars. No one wanted to see those days return.  

Nobility

A second important Waterdhavian faction was the local nobility. It consisted of 76 families of varying degrees of power, most of whom could trace their lines to before the founding of Waterdeep itself. Many powerful names came out of Waterdeep, including the Amcathras (whose scion became a Lord of the Shadowfell), the Cassalanters, wealthy moneylenders; as well as the Wands, a family of powerful and noble wizards.

Merchants

Third, a rising merchant class existed outside the standard guilds. These were caravan and coaster operators, and they used Waterdeep as a destination for their caravan goods. More shops offered a variety of different goods because of this growing group. The most notable of these new merchants was the retired wizardess Aurora, who established a magical retail organization to supply a wide number of patrons across the North with specialized items. This store became known as Aurora's Emporium.

Waterdeep maintained two separate armed forces, the City Guard and the City Watch. The City Guard served as Waterdeep's soldiery and its members staffed garrisons, road patrols, and watchposts, and served as bodyguards and gate guards. The Watch was the local police force.   Waterdeep had strong walls on its landward sides and was protected in part by Mount Waterdeep on the seaward side. Mount Waterdeep was studded with watch towers and defensive positions, and patrolled by special guard units on flights of griffons. Aside from this, Waterdeep also benefited from a large native population of the adventuring classes (including powerful mages, priests, and warriors) who were more than willing to deal with any and all miscreants who threatened their home city, and did so in the past. This often proved the City of Splendors' most potent defense.   The city also had the eight giant Walking Statues of Waterdeep. Seven of these statues could be animated by the Blackstaff of Waterdeep to defend the city, one was too damaged to be activated. These statues were extremely destructive, and only used to fend off armies or win otherwise impossible battles.

For the last several decades, stone was imported from the Amriel Mountains and the Dhenbadir Mountains for use in construction. This stone was magically transported becoming an expensive yet lucrative process for the masonry companies.   Within the last two decades, especially during the late autumn, wagons and carts could be found overcrowding the markets as foreign vendors attempted to sell as much as possible before returning home for the winter. This practice was largely ignored by the Guard, Watch, or guilds.   Waterdeep is also the largest Spelljammer port in Korrisia. Although welcoming to most of the spacefaring peoples, Waterdeep's laws required that all ships landed in the ocean several miles from the city and made their final approach by sea. Transgressors were punished with harsh fines and some even imprisoned. This rule prevented some types of ships from ever being able to reach and dock in Waterdeep, but was enforced to avoid mass panic from the population. These rules also applied to departing vessels.    Docking in the Port of Waterdeep incurred a fee of 1 copper piece pert 10 feet of keel length per week. Sages and traders from Waterdeep were eager to hear the stories of those who traveled far and wide through Korrisian Space and the crystal spheres.