Waterdeep’s wealthiest ward is notable for the many-spired, grand homes of the nobility, the gleaming edifices of the city’s leading temples, and the imposing towers of the city’s premier wizards. Other notable landmarks include the Field of Triumph, the lush Heroes’ Garden, and the Sea’s Edge Beach.
Waterdeep’s quietest ward is also one of its wealthiest. North Ward is home to most of the middle class and lesser noble families. This ward has few notable landmarks other than the Cliffwatch, and it all but shuts down at dusk. This placid reputation belies the intrigues and scheming that goes on behind closed doors, and the volumes of smuggled goods that lie in cellars beneath the city streets.
Castle Ward lies in the heart of Waterdeep, wrapping around the eastern slopes of Mount Waterdeep. This ward is home to the city’s administrative buildings and buildings of state. The ward’s most prominent landmarks include Ahghairon’s Tower, Blackstaff Tower, Castle Waterdeep, Piergeiron’s Palace, the Market, and Mirt’s Mansion.
Trades Ward lies in the eastern half of Waterdeep, encircling the western and southern walls of the City of the Dead. Given over almost entirely to commerce, Trades Ward lacks the feeling of community found in the more residential wards, but retains the hustle and bustle of a marketplace throughout the day and night. Notable landmarks of Trades Ward include the Court of the White Bull, the Plinth, and Virgin’s Square.
This walled enclosure on the eastern edge of Trades Ward is the general cemetery for the City of Splendors, and its size nearly makes it a ward in and of itself. Many citizens visit the City of the Dead’s park-like green lawns and white marble tombs during the day, for it is one of the few places dominated by greenery that the citizens of Waterdeep can share within the city walls.
A Watch contingent keeps the cemetery peaceful, and various members of the Guild of Chandlers and Lamplighters keep torches lit around and inside a number of the tombs. The grounds are off-limits after dusk, and the gates are locked. Nevertheless, many individuals still hold clandestine meetings at night in the City of the Dead, despite the slight risk of undead escaping from a warded tomb to prowl the sprawling cemetery. Although it has only been in its current form since the Year of the Riven Skull (1250 DR), the area has served as the city burial ground for centuries.
The cemetery ran out of room in the Year of the Stranger (1064 DR), prompting the city to build a low wall around it and replace the individual graves with magic tombs linked by portals (constructed primarily by the mage Anacaster) to infinite demiplanes. Two years later, the high number of undead prompted the Lords to erect higher, defensible walls around the cemetery and to lock and ward the magic tombs. There have been few incidents since.
Waterdeep’s most notorious and colorful ward is also the oldest. Traveler’s tales portray it as a lawless, brawling place of drunks, smugglers, roaming monsters, and fell magic, which is not all that far from the truth. The bustling harbor scene and its attendant activities dominate this ward.
Once known as Temple Ward, Southern Ward lies in the southeastern corner of Waterdeep, bounded by Trades Ward to the north and Dock Ward to the west. Caravan City, as this oft-forgotten ward is sometimes known, is a homely, friendly, busy, and largely poor area of Waterdeep. Notable landmarks of Southern Ward include Caravan Court and Waymoot.
The naturally sheltered, deepwater basin that gives Waterdeep both its name and its wealth is a bustling place. Its chill waters are kept fairly clean by the diligent work of the Guild of Watermen and the merfolk of Tharqualnaar. The mariners of the Guard control access to the harbor above the waves, using the retractable chain-nets and walls of the defensible harbor to bar entrance or exit by particular ships.
Deepwater Harbor is divided into two smaller harbors—the Great Harbor, through which commerce and transportation flows, and the Naval Harbor, restricted for the use of the navy. Two major islands, Stormhaven and Deepwater, enclose the harbor. Notable landmarks include Boatscrape Cove, where ships are beached to be cleaned of barnacles and worse; Deepwater Beach, where mermaids often come to sun and flirt with the guards; the Sea Stacks, sharp rocks that deter the close approach of sailing ships; and Umberlee’s Cache, the subsea depression that leads to flooded caverns in the depths.
Waterdeep’s sewers empty into the harbor at places covered with extremely large and strong gratings, regularly patrolled by bands of merfolk. The merfolk use catch-nets on poles to scoop and gather the debris into large tow-globes for transport far out to sea. The harbor’s rocky, sloping bottom is thinly covered with mud, especially at the southern end of the harbor. It is kept free of plants and litter by the merfolk.