This might seem like a strange question out of the blue @TheEdVerse but in a discussion with my jimmy rustling wife, the topic of of when specifically Baldurs Gate was created came up. Would you happen to have an approximate date for that?
— Renezuo (Summer Arc) (@RenezuoArt) March 26, 2022
1)
The problem is that the good natural harbour around which Baldur’s Gate developed was a pirate and smuggler’s haven, and supported a tiny settlement of fisherfolk, for many years before Balduran first set sail from it. 2)
It was a known port of call for ships on the Sword Coast by 204 DR (i.e. by then it had “visitors wharves” and a shipyard, and could replace masts and sails). It was known as Baldur’s Gate, and considered a city, by 446 DR. #Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 26, 2022
3)
So, sometime “earlier” (before 0 DR) was when it was founded, and it was likely known as Baldur’s Gate before 300 DR. The designation “city” in the Realms is based neither on the presence of cathedrals nor on precise population… 4)
…totals/thresholds or legal incorporation, but on importance/domination of interland and rough size, and for the Gate likely came earlier rather than later due to the absence of large nearby settlements to provide competition.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 26, 2022
This is great Ed and very useful. After that 204 DR date, was it – for a time – incorporated or controlled by the brief realm of Shavinar, which existed from 227 DR to 277 DR? I see it as nominally being part of Shavinar, but very much, on a daily "on-the-cobbles" basis, doing its own thing: only some citizens paid taxes (the rest never registered), they obeyed laws and enforcers of them only when under the eye of said authorities, etc.#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 27, 2022