If any shape could describe the layout of Baldur's Gate, Rupert's Tear was the perfect fit. Baldur's Gate stood at the mouth of the lower Chionthar River, where it emptied into the Sword Coast sea. What made the location special, however, was Greyhawk Hill, which sheltered the alluvial plain below. With walls sealing off the northern and eastern approaches and the river forming a natural defense to the south, an excellent port city, easy to defend and hard to attack, had naturally sprung up here.
As the city developed, Baldur's Gate divided into the Upper City, Lower City, and Outer City. The Upper City was naturally where the old captains and sailors who had adventured alongside Balduran settled-a paradise for the city's nobility, the patricians. Seated atop the hill, they quite literally looked down upon the rest of Baldur's Gate, using their wealth and influence to push the Four-Person Council to preserve their comfortable lives.
Wealthy merchants or powerful adventurers might once have hoped to rise into this patrician class, but the Upper City no longer had room for anyone new, whether in terms of physical space or anything else.
Now, only those born into patrician families could live in these oldest estates in Baldur's Gate. Even the poorest among them could maintain the same lifestyle as their peers simply by selling off their household furniture and ornaments.
The Lower City lay close to the harbor, also protected by the city walls. Its people were generally considered the ones who actually kept Baldur's Gate running, residents who had long shouldered most of the city's real work. Baldur's Gate depended on trade, and everyone in the Lower City brimmed with ambition, dreaming of one day using wealth and strength to enter the Upper City and become a true Baldurian patrician. Although