Dock Ward

The Dock Ward was long considered the most dangerous district in the city, but the Field Ward has since taken that title, though the Dock Ward never deserved that title. While home to most of Waterdeep’s poorer citizenship, with taverns and inn’s that work to earn coin from drunks and whoring folk, the resilicency and tenacity of such people is evident most in this district, housing the hardest workers living under the harshest conditions. The colors of the Dock Ward are burgundy and orange, and its mascot is a swordfish that has always been depicted as green for reasons lost to time.

Warehouses, poorhouses, and tenements dominate much of the area. Streets are steep throughout, and few have space alongside for pedestrians. Wandering through the ward can be a bewildering journey without a guide. Except in the immediate vicinity of the piers, shop signs and advertising of any kind are rare, and warehouses and other businesses often have no sign at all. You either know where you are going and have reason to be there — or you are lost, and a likely mark for pickpockets or worse.

Streetlamps don’t fare well in the Dock Ward. Their candles, oils, and glass are too regularly stolen or smashed. The Guild of Chandlers and Lamplighters makes a halfhearted attempt to repair the streetlamps at the start of each season, but for most of the year, locals are forced to carry their own light when traveling these streets at night.