Government
Baldur's Gate is ruled by four grand dukes, the Council of Four. The rulers include Duke Eltan, leader of the Flaming Fist, Belt, a powerful warrior and divine spellcaster, Liia Jannath, a mage, and Entar Silvershield, the richest man in Baldur's Gate, but also a strong warrior in his own right. The Council is part of the Lords' Alliance, which includes Waterdeep, Neverwinter and Silverymoon, among others. However, with Neverwinter being wiped out by a plague whether this Alliance still exists or not is uncertain.
Baldur's Gate contains a very effective Thieves Guild, as well as a powerful and honest Merchant's League. Additionally, the Knights of the Shield and the Knights of the Unicorn are both active in the city. Various thieves guilds have risen and fallen in Baldur's Gate including Xantam's Guild and the Hands of Glory. Amn's Shadow Thieves are also known to be active in the city, although their local operations are believed to be strictly commercial.
Read more about this topic: Baldur's Gate (city)
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“In our governments the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of government contrary to the sense of the constituents, but from the acts in which government is the mere instrument of the majority.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society, depend so much upon an upright and skilful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“We have got rid of the fetish of the divine right of kings, and that slavery is of divine origin and authority. But the divine right of property has taken its place. The tendency plainly is towards ... “a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.””
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)