The City of Splendors

Overview

If Neverwinter is the Jewel of the North, then Waterdeep is the crown that outshines it. Called the City of Splendors, it is the largest, richest, and most influential city on the Sword Coast — a place where merchants, adventurers, nobles, and spies from every corner of the world mingle.

For the people of Leilon, Waterdeep is less a destination and more a dream: a city too vast to comprehend, where every alley could hide a wizard and every banquet could change the fate of kingdoms. To the Vexmoors, Waterdeep is both threat and opportunity — a marketplace vast enough to save their house, if only they can gain a foothold.

Reputation

• Among Sailors: Waterdeep’s harbor is the busiest on the coast, a forest of masts where fortunes are unloaded daily. Sailors speak of it with awe, and of the harsh discipline of its harbor patrols.
• Among Leilon Folk: It is a city of myths. To them, Waterdeep is where heroes go, where coin flows endlessly, and where a single mistake can mean vanishing without a trace.
• Among Nobles: It is the center stage of politics. Titles mean less than influence here, and the most cunning survive. To play Waterdeep’s games is to risk everything for the greatest prize.

History in Brief

Waterdeep has stood for centuries as the Sword Coast’s greatest city. Its might does not rest on kings or armies, but on its ability to attract trade, magic, and ambition. Its ruling body — the Masked Lords of Waterdeep — keep the city’s politics a mystery, their identities hidden behind veils of secrecy.

For outsiders, what matters is simple: Waterdeep endures, grows, and consumes all who fail to master its currents.

Leilon’s Connection

• Trade: Waterdeep is the largest potential buyer of feystones. Wizards, alchemists, and guilds hunger for resources like those of Fort Leilon, but gaining steady access requires Vexmoor to navigate Waterdeep’s labyrinth of guilds and merchants.
• Politics: Where Neverwinter might punish or exile, Waterdeep entangles. A deal made in its halls can reshape fortunes in Leilon overnight.
• Perception: Miners in Leilon speak of Waterdeep as if it were a myth — a place of endless towers, dragons perched on roofs, and markets overflowing with wonders.

Current Perception

To adventurers, Waterdeep is the greatest prize on the coast, a city where even the smallest band of heroes might earn fame or ruin. To the Vexmoors, it is a dangerous hope — the one market large enough to restore their house, if they can survive its politics. To the Fey and sea elves, it is simply another human sprawl, sprawling but temporary, a bright flame burning against the tide.

Local Sayings

• “If you can’t find it in Waterdeep, it doesn’t exist.”
• “Waterdeep makes kings of fools, and fools of kings.”

Law and Religion

Religions

Waterdeep recognizes and registers nearly every major Faerûnian faith, but temples and shrines must be chartered with the city registry. Major registered temples include:

• Mystra (Lady of Mysteries)
• Tyr (God of Justice)
• Lathander (Morninglord)
• Selûne (Moonmaiden)
• Tempus (Lord of Battles)
• Tymora (Lady Luck)
• Oghma (Binder of What is Known)
• Gond (Wonderbringer)
• Chauntea (Great Mother)
• Sune (Lady of Love)
• Corellon, Moradin, and other major racial deities
• Umberlee (Queen of the Depths) — tolerated due to necessity for sailors

Faiths associated with tyranny, murder, or undeath (Bane, Cyric, Myrkul, Shar, Talona) are technically proscribed, though secret cults persist.

Rights & Codes

Improving Standing in Waterdeep

• Joining the Watchful Order → Spellcasting LT → DT (defensive spells permitted; travel magic regulated).
• Merchant’s Guild membership → Trade G → T (guild backing allows tariffed trade instead of monopoly).
• Noble birth → Status C → N (nobles judged by peers or the Lords).
• Owning a Beast License → Beasts E → U (exotics permitted without harassment).
• Adventurer’s Charter → Status C → A (adventurers judged by special councils).