Westgate Timeline
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Westgate Timeline-349 DR Year of Bold Poachers A Netherese/Halruaan wizard by the name of Saldrinar of the Seven Spells, thought to be the creator of Saldrinar’s Slow Gem, uses a preset sequence of seven spells (so that the casting of one sets off the next) to destroy Kisonraathiisar, the topaz dragon ruler of Westgate, and win himself the throne as the city’s first human king. The death of Kisonraathiisar marks the beginning of a gradual southward migration of black dragons across the Lake of Dragons. The progeny of Thauglorimorgorus the Black Doom seek their own domains outside the lands claimed by the King of the Forest Country, in time giving name to the Dragon Coast among humankind.
King Saldrinar vanishes suddenly, leaving the throne of Westgate to his only apprentice, Mather, known posthumously as “Wyrmshroud.” -301 DR Year of Wafting Sorrows Mather Wyrmshroud dies defending Westgate from the concerted attacks of three black dragons from the lands of the Forest Kingdom. Glaurauth, a warrior who is Mather’s closest friend and the captain of the city guard, succeeds the fallen wizard-king. Known as “the Great,” Glaurauth becomes monarch of Westgate at a time when the city is still the northernmost human settlement in the western Inner Sea lands. 297 DR Year of the Scrying Orbs Thieves who manage to loot most of the royal treasury steal King Glaurauth’s regalia, the Crown and Scepter of Saldrinar. The king’s wizards pursue the thieves inland from their anchorage at what is now Procampur, but the wealth of Westgate’s monarch is eventually lost in Elvenblood Pass, located north of the Vast, when a horde of orcs falls on Glaurauth’s agents. 291 DR Year of Setting Suns King Glaurauth dies of heartstop. As his three offspring all died before reaching their tenth year, the aged monarch leaves Westgate's throne to his captain of the city guard, Thorndaer of the Golden Helm. 286 DR Year of Foul Awakenings Westgate falls during the course of a single night to a small army of elite mercenaries who emerge from catacombs beneath the city. By morning’s light, King Thorndaer and his entire family are dead, and King Orlak rules over the oldest port in the western Inner Sea region. Until the end of his reign, the Night King holds court only after the sun has set, is never seen during daylight hours, and always keeps his entire face (except his eyes) shrouded with a black-and-white-hatched porcelain mask, leading many to suspect (correctly) that the long-lived monarch of Westgate is a vampire. 153 DR Year of the Starry Shroud Proeskampalar, later renamed Procampur in the Year of Trials Arcane (523 DR), is founded by dwarves and quickly becomes an important trading partner of Westgate. 137 DR Year of the Blooded Sunsets A company of paladins from the Vilhon Reach in service to the Morninglord overthrows the Night King. Following the vampire’s destruction, the group’s commander, Dawnknight Gen Soleilon, is crowned king of Westgate. The Radiant King rules wisely for many years, rebuilding Westgate’s fortunes and establishing the Soleilon dynasty. The paladin-king’s most notable accomplishment is the erection of the city’s first stone walls and the construction of an extensive sewer system. Unbeknownst to the general populace, Westgate’s deepest catacombs remain home to at least a dozen vampires created by their former monarch. The undead legacies of Orlak war amongst themselves for nearly a year before a new Night King is chosen to rule Westgate’s underworld. From this day forward, the Argraal of Orlak and the Fangs of the Night King are held by the preeminent vampire “descended” from the original Night King. Any vampire that slays the Night King assumes the bloody chalice, the dagger with twin poniard blades, and the title. On those rare occasions when the Night King is not slain by a rival vampire, all of Orlak’s existing “descendants” war amongst themselves for the title until a single candidate reigns supreme (a feat most commonly achieved by killing all potential rivals and then creating a new group of servitor vampires).
King Gen dies in his sleep, leaving the throne of Westgate to his eldest child and only son. The reign of King Lemere I, known as the Merchant King for his unceasing efforts to promote trade, is notable for the rapid increase in commercial activity between Westgate and southern realms such as Tethyr and Calimshan. 74 DR Year of Splendor Marsember is founded (for the first time), and Westgate cedes its status as the northernmost port in the western Inner Sea region. Trade across the Neck and into the Lake of Dragons begins to slowly increase. Late in the year, King Lemere I dies of a wasting disease carried to Westgate by trade emissaries from the newly founded port of Marsember. The throne of Westgate passes to his only child, Crown Prince Lemere II. Within a year, the newly crowned monarch concludes a whirlwind courtship of Lady Lharida of Tethyr, the eldest child of Rhynnel Ithal, the head of Clan Ithal.
The crown of Westgate passes to the only son of King Lemere II, the four-year-old Crown Prince Ryndarth. The Boy King survives the tumultuous early years of his reign thanks to the wise regency of his mother, Queen Regent Lharida Ithal-Soleilon. 55 DR Year of Traitorous Thoughts Queen Regent Lharida consumes a virulent poison concealed within her supper during a state dinner with representatives from Tethyr’s royal court and dies immediately. Her only son, King Ryndarth I, takes up the mantle of leadership. Much of the Boy King’s reign is consumed with his fruitless hunt for his mother’s killer(s). Diplomatic relations with Tethyr collapse during his reign, although mercantile activity between the two realms continues to flourish. 29 DR Year of the Corpulent Mount Starmantle is founded, beginning a mercantile rivalry with Westgate that lasts for centuries. Despite the efforts of the rulers of both cities to crush their trade adversaries, the ensuing competition actually makes both ports wealthier by increasing the overall volume of trade passing through the Dragon Coast region. –27 DR Year of the Masquerade King Ryndarth I dies suddenly, as his heart stops one night while he is asleep. His eldest son, Crown Prince Ryndarth II, is apparently crowned king and rules Westgate unchallenged for nearly a year. Before the year ends, however, an army of Mulan mercenaries, led by Great Lord Ashtukzu of Unther, deposes King Ryndarth II. The Untheric noble reveals that his predecessor was actually a doppelganger who had secretly slain both King Ryndarth I and the Crown Prince and then assumed the identity of the latter. Best known for initiating the tradition of Masquerade Balls in Westgate, the doppelganger monarch is known posthumously as the Masque King. As monarch, King Ashtukzu I ignores Gilgeam’s orders to make Westgate a vassal state swearing fealty to Unther’s god-king, choosing instead to preserve the city-state’s traditional independence. The first king of the Mulan dynasty also is instrumental in improving Westgate’s trading ties with ports on the eastern Inner Sea.
Great Lord Thunn, nephew of King Ashtukzu I, arrives from Unther on a trade mission from Unthalass. Within a tenday of his arrival, Thunn’s uncle dies suddenly, several hours after naming Thunn his heir to the throne. King Thunn’s reign is marked by incessant civil strife as Westgate’s populace fiercely resists the usurper king’s efforts to impose the authority of Gilgeam on this distant port city. 4 DR Year of the Slaked Blade Ashtukzu II, son of King Ashtukzu I and a Turami noblewoman, besieges Westgate with a force of mercenaries from Alaghôn. The inhabitants of Westgate rise up in open rebellion, and King Thunn is drowned in the small river that drains into Westgate’s harbor and forever after bears his name. 37 DR Year of Dark Venom King Ashtukzu II is slain by assassins, although their employer is never discovered. The royal line of succession is thrown into dispute as the stepson and the illegitimate half-brother of Ashtukzu II battle for the crown of Westgate. After three months of civil war, both men are slain on the same night, mere hours after the arrival of a trade envoy from Unther, Great Lord Hurnmul. Fearing that Hurnmul seeks once again to impose Gilgeam’s will on the city, Westgate’s senior nobles blame Gilgeam’s agents for the king’s assassination and for fomenting the chaos that ensued. After a week of battles in the streets between the trade envoy’s “bodyguards” and the nobles’ private militias, Great Lord Hurnmul and his troops are driven from the city. Within the hour, the late king’s seneschal, Kergaard Twinblade is crowned as king of Westgate. King Kergaard is universally acknowledged as a weak king, wholly beholden to the nobility. His reign marks the beginning of a period of decline for Westgate as royal authority slowly unravels.
More than half of Westgate’s inhabitants fall victim to a deadly plague spread by sailors from the Vilhon Reach, including King Kergaard, who dies without an heir. Hygaarth Croam, an itinerant priest of Ilmater, is instrumental in organizing the city’s priesthoods to combat the epidemic. By the first frost, the plague has run its course and Westgate’s surviving populace demands that the humble Hygaarth assume the mantle of kingship, thus establishing the Croam dynasty. Seeing the duties of rulership as another trial to be borne in the name of the god of suffering, Hygaarth rules ably for two decades until his death in the Year of the Mournful Harp (95 DR).
King Dalious Croam, after two short years on the throne of Westgate, sets sail for the eastern reaches of the Sea of Fallen Stars on an extended trade mission. The heirless king appoints a member of the city’s nobility as Croamarkh, a title that means “Voice of Croam,” to govern in his stead during his planned lengthy absence. The Errant King, as King Dalious comes to be known, never returns to Westgate, although the nobility maintains the fiction that Westgate’s absent monarch continues to wander the Realms long after he most certainly would have died of old age. For over a century, under the aegis of the absent Croam Dynasty, Westgate is governed by a series of Croamarkhs selected from the ranks of the nobility.
The eruption of Mount Ugruth in the Vilhon Reach indirectly leads to the fall of the Croam dynasty in Westgate and the end of the rule of the Croamarkhs. The volcano blackens the skies above Hlondeth with ash for months, leading the various churches of the city-state to conclude that the gods are displeased. In short order, House Gestin of Hlondeth loses its grip on power after more than a century of rule, replaced in turn by House Illistine of neighboring Chondath. This in turn leads to the abrogation of a treaty between the city-state of Hlondeth and the pirates of the Inner Sea that grants the latter group safe harbor. Before the arrival of winter, a vast fleet of pirates descends on Westgate, determined to seize it as their new home and replace their base in Hlondeth. The arrival of the pirates leads in short order to the death of the reigning Croamarkh and much of the city’s nobility. Thus began the reign of the Pirate Kings in Westgate, a period in which no less than 77 pirate lords rule the city in rapid succession. Some of the pirate lords reign no more than a few hours, and the longest-serving pirate king lasts only a little more than five years. One of the few whose name is not yet forgotten was Unamundass "the Butcher," a bloodthirsty rogue slain by an unknown wizard employing a spell known as Irithra's spelltouch. During this period, Westgate’s role as a trading hub declines precipitously, and much of the city falls into disrepair. 383 DR Year of the Quelzarn Tales first spread throughout the city of a sea serpent haunting Westgate’s harbor and sewers. The quelzarn, as the eel-like beast is known, becomes a nigh-legendary denizen of Westgate’s underworld and the favorite subject of bard’s tales. 429 DR Year of the Cat’s Eye Mulsantir Illistine, a Chondathan mercenary lord distantly related to the royal family of Chondath, overthrows the last of the Pirate Kings. Mulsantir’s expedition is backed by a consortium of merchants in the city of Chauncelgaunt (later Selgaunt) seeking to improve prospects for trade with lands to the south and west. Mulsantir besieges the city during the winter months, and wizards in his employ freeze Westgate’s harbor solid with ice. When spring arrives and harbor finally thaws, the pirates, greatly reduced in number, flee the centuries-old port, and Mulsantir claims the throne of Westgate. As king, the new monarch restores Westgate’s role as the preeminent port of the western Inner Sea. He does not accede to the commands of the merchants of Chauncelgaunt, but he does grant them very favorable trading terms. One unintended consequence of Mulsantir’s successful siege is that the surviving pirates need a new port to call home. Within a matter of months, King Duar of Cormyr loses the city of Suzail to Magrath the Minotaur, the most prominent of the surviving pirate lords. 452 DR Year of the Rolling Heads Myntharan the Magus, one of the many courtiers fleeing the collapse of the Shoon Empire for the Inner Sea region, arrives in Westgate, at the time ruled by King Mulsantir Illistine II. Before year’s end, the Magus King is firmly ensconced on Westgate’s throne, and his unfortunate predecessor’s skull is affixed to the end of the Maguscepter of Myntharan. In the decades that follow, King Myntharan assembles the largest army ever seen along the Dragon Coast in his bid to form the realm of Mynth with Westgate as its capitol. At its greatest extent, Mynth encompassed the Dragon Coast from Starmantle to Teziir, skirting the northern edge of the Gulthmere Forest and the Lake of the Long Arm. 480 DR Year of the Winter Sphinx King Myntharan’s attempted conquest of the entire Dragon Coast comes to a sudden end along the eastern shore of the Lake of the Long Arm in the Battle of the Winter Sphinx. The Magus King is slain and his army defeated by a disparate array of forces assembled under the command of Lyonarth, a white-furred androsphinx from Nathlekh, City of Cats. Lyonarth claims Myntharan’s crown, although the Maguscepter is not recovered, and the androsphinx rules Westgate wisely for many years thereafter. 614 DR Year of the Shattered Scepter Nessmara, a lamia noble skilled in the Art who dwells amidst the ruined city of Illimar in the Gulthmere Woods, recovers the broken fragments of the Maguscepter. Once reassembled, the sentient scepter twists its mistress’s desires towards its own ends: ruling the city of Westgate. 615 DR Year of the Lamia’s Kiss The Winter Sphinx of Westgate falls to prey to the charms of Nessmara, who has assumed the guise of a gynosphinx using the powers of the Maguscepter. Within a fortnight, Westgate has its first queen in nearly two centuries. 616 DR Year of the Ensorceled Kings A visiting wizard from the north, who identifies himself only as the Handweaver, is one of many individuals granted a public audience with the monarchs of Westgate on Midsummer’s Day at the annual Commoner’s Court. Despite numerous wards protecting the monarchs, the Handweaver’s spells shatter Queen Nessmara’s charms, revealing her true nature to all. The ensuing combat pits the aged androsphinx king of Westgate against the lamia noble, resulting in both of their deaths. The death of the Winter Sphinx and his unmasked mate throws Westgate into chaos, disrupting trade and undermining the profits of the city’s merchants accustomed to over a century of relative stability. Most expect the Handweaver to proclaim himself the city’s next king, but the wizard, who many suspect to be an avatar or proxy of Azuth, demonstrates no such intentions. After several months of instability, a group of prominent merchants approaches the Handweaver regarding the empty throne. The sorcerer declines their offer, suggesting his most senior apprentice might be more suitable. Before the year’s end, Farnath Ilistar has been crowned king of Westgate, and his mentor, the Handweaver, has vanished from the city. 710 DR Year of the Toppled Throne A gate to the Abyss opens above the palace of Westgate, and a large host of tiefling warriors flee through it, hotly pursued by a small company of tanar’ri. Much of the royal palace is destroyed in the resulting conflict, and King Thartryn Ilistar I perishes under mysterious circumstances during a fiery blaze. Although the fiends are eventually banished back to the Abyss and the gate closed, the bulk of the tiefling army survives the battle, in far better shape than the city’s own forces. Within a fortnight, the leader of the tieflings, Iyachtu Xvim, seizes the throne of Westgate and the surviving scions of the royal house of Ilistar are driven into exile. Once the throne is his, the Fiend King imposes his draconian rule over the entire city, a reign of tyranny in keeping with his claim to be the Son of Bane.
On the eve of Greengrass, the reign of the Fiend King comes to an abrupt end following the sudden appearance of the Handweaver in the throne room of Westgate. The legendary wizard and the king claiming to be the Son of Bane battle from dusk to dawn, laying waste to a great swath of the port city, as sheets of brilliant green flame race through entire city blocks. The Handweaver never emerges from the wreckage but, although his body is never found, few believe the sorcerer to be dead. King Xvim emerges from the ruins of his palace bearing horrific wounds and proclaiming a magnificent victory. However, the Fiend King’s continued claim to Westgate’s throne is proven hollow when he and his most loyal troops are forced to flee in the face of a host of mercenaries, who had assembled outside the city walls while the conflict unfolded the night before. Led by Farnath Ilistar II, a great-great-grandson of King Farnath Ilistar I descended from King Belhendar’s younger half-brother, the army marches into Westgate in the face of token resistance. Farnath II is proclaimed king by acclamation of the populace, refounding the Ilistar dynasty in the process.
The virulent Bluebottle Plague brings an end to the Ilistar dynasty, with the death of King Thartyrn II and all known royal heirs. In the ensuing chaos, the Holy Council of Westgate is established by the city’s high priests, who rule as the Prince-Templars of Westgate. 900 DR Year of the Thirsty Sword On the eve of the Feast of the Moon, Favored High Reaver Gostaraj, high priest of Garagos, unleashes a horde of berserkers against his fellow Prince-Templars during a meeting of the Holy Council of Westgate. None of Gostaraj’s ever-bickering fellows survive the ensuing bloodbath, and the high priest of Garagos is crowned the Reaver King beneath a blood-red moon before dawn breaks the following morn. 927 DR Year of the Red Rain Fed up with the excesses of both the Reaver King and the Prince-Templars who proceeded him, the merchant nobility of Westgate secretly hires another army of mercenaries to over throw Gostaraj in turn. The heads of the various noble houses choose Altarl Campion, the head of a powerful merchant family, as Westgate’s next king. As his first official act, King Altarl bans all organized religious activity within the city walls, and all existing temples are torn down, their land seized in the name of the new king. The Templeban Edict extends beyond the city walls as well, permitting only simple shrines within a day’s walk of Westgate. In the nine decades that follow, no less than seven rings of standing stones are established on a ring of seven hillocks just beyond the last rise west of the city. One such site, the Hill of Fangs, is established by worshipers of Moander. The Abomination’s hilltop shrine consists of a ring of eight great red stone plinths shaped like fangs curving inwards. The other faiths include Garagos, Ghaunadaur, Jergal, Savras, Silvanus, and one whose name has been forgotten. Unbeknownst to the general populace of Westgate, secret subterranean temples are established beneath most (or all) of the seven hillocks, as well as in the catacombs of the city itself, in direct violation of the Templeban Edict. 1018 DR Year of the Dracorage The Rage of Dragons unleashes a host of wyrms against the realms of humankind. Westgate’s harborside district is set aflame by a red wyrm of the Thunder Peaks, Thungarbarath Flamegout, and the royal family and much of the populace is slain in the resulting conflagration that engulfs the city, bringing the Campion dynasty to an end. Thungarbarath is eventually slain and the fires extinguished thanks to the heroic and able leadership of Sarvyn Eorn, a mercenary lord visiting the city in search of his next commission. As the surviving inhabitants begin to rebuild their city, Sarvyn Eorn is crowned as King of Westgate by acclamation. King Sarvyn holds his throne for many years, widely recognized for his wisdom, craftiness, and principled nature. The Bane of Thungarbarath forges a strong relationship with the monarchy of the Forest Kingdom, and several years after his coronation, Sarvyn marries Lady Ardine Huntsilver of Cormyr, a favored second cousin of King Arangor and a granddaughter of Prince Tanalar, the second son of King Galaghard III. Early in his reign, Sarvyn reverses the long-standing royal edict banning temples from the city proper. In the years that follow, numerous temples are constructed in Westgate proper, and the shrines and secret temples west of the city dating back to the Campion Dynasty are abandoned. Over time, the seven hillocks become known as the Shrines of the Seven Lost Gods, even though several of those faiths are still venerated in Westgate. (Curiously, the term ‘Seven Lost Gods’ has its roots in antiquity. It more properly refers to seven demipowers that bowed down before Bane long ago: Maram of the Great Spear, Haask the Voice of Hargut, Tyranthraxus the Flamed One, Borem of the Lake of Boiling Mud, Camnod the Unseen, and two whose names have been forgotten.) 1091 DR Year of Watery Graves Aurgloroasa, a shadow dragon seen once before from Westgate’s docks, sinks the treasure-laden Winsome Wyrm just outside Westgate’s harbor, a long-popular tale in the city which is told and retold in the form of the “Ballad of the Shadow Storm.” 1111 DR Year of the Old Giant Roadaeron Lorndessar succeeds his long-lived granduncle, Sarvyn Eorn, as King of Westgate and founds the Lorndessar Dynasty. 1117 DR Year of Twelverule Alzurth, Mage Royal of Westgate, seizes King Roadaeron’s crown after imprisoning his former lord in his own throne room before a host of assembled courtiers. As king, Alzurth imposes a reign of terror on the populace of Westgate through his command of sorcery and his absolute mastery of the Knights of the Silent Skull, a company of twelve armored warriors who stalk Westgate’s streets at night in search of opponents of King Alzurth’s rule. 1123 DR Year of the Shattered Chains Roadaeron escapes his magical tomb deep beneath the surface of the earth when an archmage in the Gulthmere Woods miscasts a freedom spell. The deposed monarch flees westward before King Alzurth discovers his escape. In Irieabor, Roadaeron reunites with Blaervaer, his youngest son and the only other member of the royal line to survive Alzurth’s bloody purge. Blaervaer, who had been fostered in the home of a simple shopkeeper, follows his father into exile in the Rockshaws, the broken country of the northeastern High Moor, after Alzurth’s assassins track down the exiled king in Irieabor.
After years of dwelling in his simple cottage in the Rockshaws, Roadaeron chances upon a sword-hilt with an invisible blade, later revealed to be Zeladazar, the Ghost Sword, an event which rekindles the sense of injustice he long held in his heart. Over the course of the next three years, faced with his own mortality and a desire to grant Blaervaer his birthright, the exiled king uses the magical weapon as a symbol to rally about him an army to retake the throne of Westgate for his son. Members of Westgate’s merchant nobility who chafe under Alzurth’s nightmarish reign secretly fund many of Roadaeron’s mercenaries. Blaervaer goes along with his father’s plans, despite his preference for the quiet life that they had forged in the Rockshaws.
Roadaeron and Blaervaer lead an assault on Westgate, with the father wielding the Ghost Sword. The long-suffering citizens of Westgate rise in revolt as do many of Alzurth’s own soldiers, and the invading army quickly overruns the city. King Alzurth is slain by Zeladazar and his phantom image is captured by the blade’s magic. As Alzurth’s undead status is a closely held secret, the exiled king is left defenseless when the Ghost Sword vanishes immediately after the lich’s destruction. The elderly Roadaeron is then slain by Alzurth’s elite company of armored knights—later revealed as skeletal warriors—before Blaervaer can reach his father. In the aftermath of the two kings’ deaths and after the posthumous restoration of his father’s throne, Blaervaer is crowned as Westgate’s next sovereign. 1164 DR Year of Long Shadows Immurk “the Invincible” raids a merchant-ship of Procampur, capturing the coronation crown of Cormyr’s new king, Palaghard I. This marks the rise of piracy in the Inner Sea from their hideouts in the archipelago that becomes known as the Pirate Isles. The nations of the Inner Sea, including Cormyr, Sembia, Impiltur, and the city-states of Procampur and Starmantle begin building their own warships, seeking to defend their merchant fleets and hunt the pirates in their own lairs. Westgate, still struggling to rebuild its royal treasury and fleet of ships, does not participate. At the urging of his advisors, despite strong personal reservations, King Blaervaer issues a royal edict that defines piracy as a raid against a ship docked in Westgate’s harbor. As a result, Westgate becomes a relatively safe port for pirates to visit, and the city’s inhabitants need no longer fear pirate raids.
Having grown old, King Blaervaer steals away from his throne back to the Rockshaws, embittered by the vicious struggles among his four sons for the throne. His sons, having been raised amidst the scheming nobles of Westgate, are nothing like their noble, if somewhat naive, father. In the aftermath of Blaervaer’s sudden abdication, his eldest son, Roadaeron II, is enthroned as his successor.
King Roadaeron II is murdered less than one year after his coronation, along with his queen and three young heirs. Maeraedryn, Blaervaer’s second son, is crowned as King of Westgate. Although suspicion of regicide falls on the newly installed monarch immediately, this tirelessly charming, darkly handsome master of intrigue quickly establishes himself as the true power in Westgate. His hidden investments greatly enrich the city, and Westgate flourishes. During King Maeraedryn’s twenty-seven year reign, many members of the royal bloodline fall prey to assassins, but the bloodlines of Blaervaer’s youngest three sons survive.
Blaervaer dies of old age in his cottage in the Rockshaws, unmourned and already forgotten by his descendants. 1201 DR Year of Embers Immurk “the Invincible” dies during a battle with a Sembian warship. 1204 DR Year of the Private Tears Urdogen rises as leader of the pirates of the Pirate Isles. 1209 DR Year of Blazing Banners Piracy in the Inner Sea is given a sharp check for nearly a century when Urdogen’s pirates are defeated by the assembled fleets of Cormyr, Sembia, Impiltur, and the Vilhon Reach. 1219 DR Year of Prideful Tales King Maeraedryn is formally challenged to a duel by his grandson and acknowledged heir, Iliphael, who has grown sick of his grandfather’s cruel teasings and sly torments. After dispatching all his viable rivals to the throne, Maeraedryn had selected Iliphael as his heir, knowing that the noble merchant families would never choose the sickly grandson over the grandfather as king. Instead of simply dispatching Iliphael to the dungeon for his temerity, Maeraedryn accepts his challenge, perceiving the ensuing combat as a chance to further humiliate the long-suffering Iliphael. Iliphael, however, has prepared for his opportunity to seize the throne, and Westgate’s next king dispatches his predecessor through the treacherous use of sorcery, having secretly trained in the Art for many years. King Iliphael’s reign is marked by the rapid depletion of Westgate’s royal treasury. The sickly, philandering tyrant is obsessed with power and paranoid that he will be replaced in turn. He spends much of Maeraedryn’s wealth on procuring or developing personal magic items, including the Jodhpurs of Skydancing, the Stormshower Girdle, and Iliphael’s Gauntlet of Wands. 1233 DR Year of Many Monsters King Iliphael is slain by his fiancee, Shlanarnla Durovree, whom he has kept in chains in his dungeon since their betrothal four years earlier. Shlanarnla strangles Iliphael with her steel fetters when he approaches too closely and then claims the throne of Westgate in accordance with the city’s archaic inheritance laws, as her betrothed had not yet named an heir. As the first and only ruling queen of Westgate, Shlanarnla’s brief reign is marked by a spate of assassination attempts against her, all of which she narrowly survives.
Queen Shlanarnla disappears in a storm while out hunting with her latest consort. Although widely assumed in Westgate to have been assassinated, Shlanarnla chooses to flee the throne and the grim fate it portends with her newfound love. Her final fate is not recorded. As Shlanarnla has no known heirs, the crown reverts back to the Lorndessar line, and Verovan, great-grandson of King Blaervaer and third cousin of King Iliphael, assumes the throne of Westgate. King Verovan’s reign is marked by his heavy taxes, fueled in part by the need to rebuild the royal treasury and in part by the new monarch’s consuming greed, and his penchant for rowing-races.
Andaeren Robyth, a thief with a scaled and taloned left arm, is teleported to Westgate, where he begins a short but colorful career. 1247 DR Year of the Purple Basilisk Aurgloroasa, the shadow dragon who sank the Winsome Wyrm over a century before, abandons her thoughts of seizing Westgate as her domain after Anaglathos, a venerable blue wyrm, is overthrown in Turmish by popular rebellion and slain by adventurers. 1248 DR Year of the Cockatrice Verovan, the last true king of Westgate, dies during a rowing race with a Thayan galley when he accidentally employs a whip tipped by cockatrice feathers to lash his crew, a whip placed on his ship by the treacherous Red Wizard he had challenged. As Verovan’s death comes as he attempts to stem the growing power of the merchant houses and petty lords of Westgate, many speculate that his own citizens betrayed him. Upon Verovan’s death, a troop of tanar’ri in possession of a piece of the late king’s soul are dispatched by the Abyssal lord with whom the fallen king had dealt with to plunder the royal treasury, hidden in an extradimensional pocket formed from the Abyss. The tanar’ri and the fragment of Verovan’s soul are imprisoned along with the king’s treasure through the actions of Gen Thalavar, an adventuring paladin and third cousin of Verovan who happened to be in the city at the time and sensed the danger. The treasury key is secretly fashioned into a brooch, and the green feather becomes the trading badge of House Thalavar. Fed up with the excesses of the monarchy, the noble merchant families of Westgate establish the "new" position of Croamarkh, an elected head-of-state whose term of office lasts four years. House Vhammos occupies the former royal palace shortly thereafter and renames the building Castle Vhammos. A company of adventurers led by Endruth Immister, a paladin of Tyr known as the “Unicorn Knight” of Westgate, retrieves the Leaves of Green, a prayer “tome” of Silvanus, and a huge sword whose blade is a leafy spar of living oak, from the Ghost Holds of Battledale. Endruth delivers both items to the druid Raevarl and his Circle (who dwell in the woods southwest of the city that later vanish under the axes of woodcutters).
Ambitious priests of Bhaal launch the “Crusade of Slaughter,” which sweeps bloodily from eastern Amn along the trade routes to the very walls of Westgate before being broken in late autumn by hastily hired mercenary armies. Raevarl and the druids of his Circle are slaughtered during the fray, and the Leaves of Green are lost once again. In their wake, the Bhaalist crusaders leave the shattered ruins of the royal Amnian city of Torlathan, which lies on the northern bank of the Valashar River some seventy-five miles upstream of its confluence with the River Khalleshyr, fracturing the trade route between Amn and Westgate. Intermittent efforts to rebuild this link falter with the death of Amn’s last reigning monarch in the Year of the Crumbling Keep (1276 DR), leading to a precipitous decline in Westgate’s westbound caravan trade for several decades thereafter.
The Ladies of the Blade, a band of female adventurers, is founded by a group of bored noblewomen of Westgate. Four years later, the company recovers the Key of Faith, a sacred prayer “tome” of Oghma the Lorekeeper, amidst the Ghost Holds of Battledale. 1304 DR Year of the Stag In early summer, Maeran Faerlin, a rising merchant of Westgate, employs a trio of mages known as the Hunting Hands, a band of archers, and Alion Narithryn, a minor priest of the Morninglord, to hunt down Aglistralarraghautha, a large female black dragon whose brood of hatchlings had been laying waste to the Reddansyr area and who destroyed the merchant’s warehouse in an isolated compound near Teziir. Of the merchant and his hired adventurers, only Alion survives the battle, but Aglistralarraghautha and five hatchlings are destroyed thanks to the dragonbane prayer found within the Tome of the Morning, a prayer tome of Lathander. 1312 DR Year of the Griffon The independent city of Teziir is refounded on a high bluff overlooking the Lake of Dragons, located to the west of Westgate its main rival in the merchant trade. Previous cities on this site have been attacked, sacked, and burned more than a few times throughout history. A Chessentan merchant secretly backed by the Lawless, a sect of Shar, offers the Helm of Helm, a prayer “tome” dedicated to the God of Guardians, for sale in Westgate. Each night, battles erupt in the streets of Westgate between the Lawless (backed by someone of great authority in the city), the South Shore Serpents, the Wild Blades Adventurers of Teziir, and agents of Thay.
The faithful of Loviatar undertake an extensive search in Westgate for the Lash of Loviatar, following rumors of its sighting in the city. Their efforts make them many enemies, but the “tome” is never found. 1353 DR Year of the Arch The Night Masks, a band of thieves, assassins, and enforcers who operate largely by night, are established by a doppelganger mage known as “the Faceless” and a handful of merchants, who take to calling themselves the Night Masters. The guild, whose symbol is a domino mask, quickly comes to control most of the illegal doings in town, although the Shore Patrol, a loose confederation of street gangs, thieves, thugs, and outcasts of all sorts, resists assimilation. The Faceless and his Night Masters are protected from scrying by a device stolen from the temple of Leira. It consists of a tree rack and twelve white porcelain masks painted with black domino masks about the eye slits that, once recharged on the tree rack, protect anyone wearing them for at least an hour for up to four days from magical detection and divination.
As part of the Flight of Dragons that afflicts the Moonsea and eastern Heartlands, a young adult male black dragon named Xuntlarmerphyn, the last hatchling of Aglistralarraghautha, attacks Westgate. Many ships in Westgate’s harbor are sunk before the wyrm is slain by the concerted attacks of the city’s wizards, priests, and warriors. 1357 DR Year of the Prince On the 6th day of Kythorn, the avatar of Moander, the Jawed God, appears over the city of Westgate battling Mistinarperadnacles Hai Draco, a female red dragon allied with Alias of the Magic Arm, a saurial paladin named Dragonbait, a halfling bard named Olive Ruskettle, and a mage from Turmish named Akabar Bel Akash. Both Moander and the red wyrm are destroyed in a great conflagration over the city, and their shattered forms rain down over the northwestern end of the city, destroying parts of the city wall, the Dhostar warehouses, and the slum area known as the Shore. Two days later, an earthquake centered on the Hill of Fangs west of the city rocks Westgate shortly after dawn. The tremor is the result of a great battle between Alias and her friends against those who had created the swordswoman with the magic arm, including a guild of assassins known as the Fire Knives, the sorceress Cassana of Westgate, and the lich Zrie Prakis, all of whom are destroyed. During the months of Flamerule, Eleasias, and Eleint, the Night Masks battle the Shore Patrol for control of Westgate’s criminal underworld. Adventurers, hired by the city’s merchant nobility as bounty hunters, deliver a sharp check to the ambitions of the Night Masks. Their efforts thwart a plot by the ruling Pentad of Night Masters to transform Westgate into a theocracy of Mask, the Shadowlord. 1358 DR Year of Shadows The Time of Troubles wracks the Realms and Garagos rampages through Westgate’s harbor before wading out into the Sea of Fallen Stars, leaving a blood-red harbor in his wake. In the aftermath of the Reaver’s rampage, trade in Westgate is sharply impacted by the magical chaos that accompanies the Fall of the Gods. Shortly after the Time of Troubles, the temple of Leira is looted and burned. A magical mesh-chain helm of disguise covered with platinum coins struck with the glyph of the Lady of Mists goes missing, stolen by the Night Masks.
Victor Dhostar, son of Croamarkh Luer Dhostar and one of the Night Masters, becomes “the Faceless” after secretly killing his predecessor and seizing the helm of disguise previously looted from the temple of Leira. Victor begins rebuilding the Night Masks, eventually subsuming the Shore Patrol confederation into his organization. 1368 DR Year of the Banner Alias of Westgate and Dragonbait return to Westgate in the month of Mirtul on a visit to Mintassan the Sage and are hired by the Croamarkh to curtail the activities of the Night Masks. Victor Dhostar secretly murders his father, framing him as “the Faceless,” and then unleashes iron golems upon the merchant nobility at the annual Regatta Masquerade ball. Victor is then elected Interim Croamarkh by the newly elevated heads of the heads of the merchant houses, who are unaware of his perfidy. The two adventurers and a handful of Harper allies eventually unmask the Faceless and severely disrupt the operations of the Night Masks. Victor is slain shortly after proclaiming himself King of Westgate, and the late King Verovan’s treasure is briefly found before being lost for good. Durgar the Just of Tyr, a priest, judge, and head of the city watch of Westgate, is elected interim Croamarkh.
A long-lost stasis clone of Manshoon awakens in the catacombs of Westgate as the Manshoon Wars begin. Prior to his awakening, this Manshoon clone had been abducted and drained by the Night King, a powerful vampire. As a vampire, the Manshoon clone hunts down and kills his creator, becoming the next Night King in turn. The Manshoon clone then sets about rebuilding the Night Masks to serve his ends, leading to rumors in Westgate that “the Faceless” has returned. An attempted assassination of King Azoun IV is foiled, and many treacherous nobles are exiled from Cormyr. Some disgraced members of House Bleth and House Cormaeril emigrate to Westgate, quickly establishing themselves as important members of Westgate’s merchant nobility thanks to the disarray amongst the city’s older houses stemming from the events of the year before. House Cormaeril claims the holdings of the Dhostar family, as a niece of the recently deceased family patriarch had married into that Cormyrean family. House Bleth begins constructing its own castle west of town, in keeping with the relatively recent construction of Castle Dhostar (renamed Castle Cormaeril) west of the city walls. Many fishing boats based along the Dragon Coast come under attack by devil rays, suggesting that something is stirring things up beneath the waves. 1370 DR Year of the Tankard Trade between the sea folk of the Sea of Fallen Stars and ports along the Inner Sea increases sharply in the aftermath of a great undersea war. The merchants of Westgate quickly realize that the long-standing presence of koalinth tribes in the waters offshore put their city at a severe trading disadvantage in comparison with Starmantle. Download 67 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham:
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