June, 1365 Dalereckoning, the second day of the Battle of Baldur's Gate.
Dawn had barely broken when Lathander's clerics began the Song of the High Heavens. Amid the ruins of Baldur's Gate, the clerics of the Lord of the Dawn played the organ, while the clerics of Tymora, goddess of luck, took coins from baskets and scattered them over the coffin.
Nearly eighty thousand people in Baldur's Gate had died in this disaster. The body of Archduke Takkus lay in an enormous, magnificent, elongated coffin. Following the customs of Blackwater in Kara-Tur, Takkus's homeland, the City Council of Baldur's Gate had commissioned Gond's artisans to hastily craft nine dragon sculptures to stand in front of it, creating the grand spectacle of "Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin."
As for the pallbearers, Baldur's Gate had respected Archduke Takkus's last wishes, selecting seven dancers from the Church of Sune, dressed in ties, suits, and black jackets, to carry his coffin. The Church of Sharess provided pounding music alongside them.
The coffin was gold, engraved with a golden Aquila and the holy symbols of Gork and Mork, its entire surface gleaming with dazzling light. The Watchers and Flaming Fist soldiers who had survived the fighting stood solemnly in a row, led by Duke Eltan, commander-in-chief of the Flaming Fist. On the other side stood the Silver Dragon Knights who had come to join the battle, with Aaron at their head.
More than thirty Silver Dragon Knights had fallen in the Battle of Baldur's Gate, leaving only sixty-odd survivors. Their souls, however, had all returned to Aaron's embrace. With proper reforging, these fallen Silver Dragon Knights would have one chance at resurrection.
Orderly ranks lined both sides of the road. Today, all of Baldur's Gate had turned out to attend Archduke Takkus's funeral. Aaron, Viscount