Balduran

Balduran was a legendary seafaring trader and explorer and namesake of the city of Baldur's Gate, and he was considered its founder. He was the first to cross the Trackless Sea from Faerûn to Anchorome and explored that land, and returned to enrich his home. However, he disappeared on his second voyage there, with numerous legends and accounts of his ultimate fate. In life, he was nicknamed Baldur, which he liked enough to use for business until it was commonly taken to be his real name. He was later transformed into a manipulative mind flayer known as the Emperor.
==Personality==
He likely had a wanderlust that drove him to travel and explore and see more of the world around him.
There were many legends about Balduran, his activities, and his deeds. One legend claimed that the dusthawk was his favorite species of hunting bird, after which Dusthawk Hill was named. Some even claimed that the dusthawk population over the River Chionthar descended from Balduran's personal flock.
As a mind flayer, the Emperor was ruthless and secretive, viewing others as mere instruments for its goals—akin to 'beasts of burden' driven solely by the Emperor's words. Above all, the Emperor strove for its own survival. It came to believe that Balduran's transformation into an illithid was purely beneficial, and that all people ought to be allowed the choice to "evolve" into free-willed mind flayers like itself.
==Relationships ==
Balduran held the memory of his mother dear. On his 18 birthday, she gifted him a set of cutlery that the man cherished. The butter knife of Balduran that was discovered in the mid–14 century DR was a part of the set, and the rest was stored in Balduran's lair underneath Baldur's Gate.
At some point in his life, Balduran befriended the glittering bronze dragon named Ansur. They formed an intense bond, marked by shared adventures like their quest for Yal Tengri's Great Spire. Ansur willingly endured hardships to stay by Balduran's side, cherishing their shared experiences. However, this bond was strained after Balduran's transformation into the Emperor. Ansur, seeking to cure Balduran's illithid condition, called upon various healers in a spirit-breaking effort, which ultimately soured their once-close relationship. Ansur became convinced that the Emperor needed to be "cured"—despite its insistence to the contrary, and ultimately tried to give it a merciful death. The attempt failed, and, in the ensuing fight, the Emperor cut Ansur's life short.
==History==
===Life===
Hailing from the sparsely settled village of Gray Harbor, while still only a young man, he sailed the Trackless Sea beyond Evermeet, in search of resources such as forests that could be logged. He mapped a number of islands on his route.
He landed on the continent known as Anchorome and was the first native of Faerûn to set foot there. He spent years adventuring there and returned to Gray Harbor full of tales and vast wealth, which he spread about his home town, either sharing it equally and philanthropically or with friends and family. Either way, he put forward a large sum of money on a wall to protect the town from the yearly raids by orcs and barbarians. It was built after he departed again, and one of its gates was called 'Baldur's Gate' in his honor. It was later known as the Old Wall.
At one point, Balduran and his companion Ansur sailed upon Yal Tengri in search of the Great Spire of the Ice Sea. They succeeded, though the effort took months and left them both ill.
Finally, feeling called by the sea once again, Balduran undertook a second voyage to Anchorome aboard his ship called the Wandering Eye along with two-hundred men sometime around the mid–1000s DR, and was never seen again.
Meanwhile, that small town soon grew into the city that bore his name—Baldur's Gate.
===Legends===
Although he invested vast amounts of money into his home-town, it was rumored it was not all of his fortune and that Balduran hid the rest along with numerous relics in one of the many caves along the Sword Coast cliffs, which were known as the Sword's Teeth. Others said it was buried far beneath the city and protected by such things as an army of golems, or chimerae fed by throwing condemned criminals down secret shafts, or titans trapped in stasis, and a dormant tarrasque of all things. (In fact, these tales were spread by dragons and referred not to treasure but to Trezorr, a primordial and archomental of ooze.)
The Illustrated Adventures of Balduran told a number of tales about Balduran, their veracity uncertain and their tone action and adventure. One particular tale told of the time when Balduran was approached by a devil. The devil demanded his soul, and Balduran agreed, but only for something else in return—a simple turnip, to the devil's incredulity. But later in the story, Balduran has her kneeling at his feet, now bound to his service. The story concludes with Balduran laughing at the bound devil, and boasting "Never underestimate the power of a turnip!"
===Fates===
After his disappearance, rumors and legends abounded about Balduran's fate. Some theorized his ship had simply been lost at sea, while others hoped he'd made a home in Anchorome and saw out the rest of his life there. More fanciful tales told that he continued to explore and sail the oceans of Toril for centuries to come, or even that he'd sailed off the planet entirely and into space to voyage through the stars.
Curiously, shortly after he was considered to have vanished, the statue called Balduran Looks Out to Sea appeared on the Tumbledown cliffs, overlooking the city and the waters of the River Chionthar. Strangely animated, it gave credence to the idea that Balduran yet lived, even as centuries passed, and the statue copied his movements. It was later found to point to a similar statue in a mysterious structure dubbed Balduran's Tomb (though this was mere speculation), which moved around the region and could not be entered.
In the , Grand Duke Eltan and the Flaming Fist mercenaries of Baldur's Gate undertook an expedition to Anchorome to discover Balduran's fate. On the coast, they discovered a ruined fort, broken and rusted weapons and armor, and a ship's log, and from it presumed this to be where Balduran and his crew met their ends. Then they were attacked by a tribe of savage elves, whom they thought had slaughtered Balduran's expedition, and were forced to retreat. They gave his name to the nearby Bay of Balduran and to a settlement and its territory in Maztica, immediately north of the Borderlands. 
In the , the shipwreck of the Wandering Eye was discovered on the so-called Isle of Balduran, along with Balduran's Log Book, though much of it was damaged and illegible, and a lone survivor, an elf guide from Tethyr named Dradeel. Together, they shed some light on the ship's fate. First, on the way past Evermeet, the Wandering Eye was boarded by suspicious elves whom Balduran complained about and tried to avoid another encounter with. Finally, it reached Anchorome once again, where Balduran faced some hostility from those he'd offended previously. But with the strength of his forces to back him up, Balduran was permitted to pass through the lands of one local ruler, from whom he elected not to request tribute. The captain and his crew adventured and gathered a significant amount of treasure from a being known as the Cursed Lord of Anchorome, but as the expedition was returning, they were attacked, with half his crew killed. To replace their number, Balduran conscripted local people, but the sailing back was slow and far from smooth. Finding a shaman among the conscripts and inciting them, he ordered him thrown in the sea. Thereafter, the voyage was plagued by bad weather, beetles infesting the Wandering Eye's food supplies, and morale running low. By luck, the Wandering Eye found anchorage on the island. Judging by Balduran's notes, members of his crew, both from Faerûn and Anchorome, began showing signs of some sickness that later turned out to be lycanthropy. Most, if not all, of the sailors were killed by the infected. In the chaos, a hole was blown in the Wandering Eye's hull, rendering the ship unseaworthy, and a fire burned it. Away leading a landing party at the time, Dradeel saw his friend Galan killed but managed to defeat the lycanthropes in his group, and marooned on the isle among the werewolf descendants of the crew until rescued by the adventurers. Several artifacts that belonged to Balduran were recovered from the wreck, including the helm of Balduran; the cloak of Balduran; two weapons both named the sword of Balduran; shield of Balduran; the plate of Balduran; and lastly the butter knife of Balduran.
===Capture and Transformation===
Yet Balduran somehow survived his second voyage and returned to Faerûn. At some point during or after the mid–11 century DR, he arrived at Moonrise Towers to seek fortune, only to be captured by mind flayers and their elder brain from a colony hidden beneath the fortification. There, he was subjected to ceremorphosis and transformed into an illithid.
Although the human Balduran was dead, the new mind flayer retained his memories and eventually managed to break free from the illithids' hive mind after almost 14 years. Balduran's old ally, the bronze dragon Ansur—who had tracked it down, possibly while on a scouting mission into Baldur's Gate—brought it home to Baldur's Gate. At first, the Emperor hoped to find a way to return to its original form, but over time it adapted and began to view its state as a natural evolution. Ansur's dedicated efforts to reverse the transformation were in vain, which greatly saddened him. After Ansur's thousandth attempt failed, the Emperor wrote him a heartfelt letter, encouraging him to "be free and fly." Yet Ansur ultimately concluded that death was the only cure for the Emperor. In a final act of mercy, Ansur tried to end its life while it slept, but the Emperor ended up killing Ansur first.
After Ansur's death, the mind flayer assumed a new life and took sustenance from the city's criminal underbelly. In the late 1400s DR, it forged a significant partnership with Duke Belynne Stelmane, and became the covert governing force behind the Knights of the Shield, the largest mercantile operation in Baldur's Gate. Initially, the relationship between the two appeared to be good on the surface, but for unclear reasons, it eventually deteriorated. The Emperor began to manipulate and control her. Over time, its influence became so great that it came to be popularly known as "the Emperor," though most were oblivious to its true nature.
Eventually, however, Enver Gortash, a chosen of Bane and leader of the Cult of the Absolute, discovered the Emperor's true identity and abducted it, returning it once more to servitude to the elder brain, which was now dominated by the chosen of the Dead Three using the Crown of Karsus. Yet even as a captive, the Emperor clung to its adopted name, finding in it a strange sort of solace and identity. 
In the , it was sent on a mission to retrieve the Astral Prism as Gortash feared its powers. Aboard a nautiloid with other mind flayers, the Emperor was the first to locate it among the many who sought it. Upon making contact with the Prism, it felt a resurgence of free will and subsequently discovered its power to resist the telepathic controls of the elder brain and its followers. After the ship was attacked by githyanki dragonriders, the ship teleported across various planes, including Avernus, before crashing in Elturgard on the Chionthar River. The Emperor, inside the prism, saved his soon-to-be allies from the crashing ship. While working in secret to undermine the Cult of the Absolute, the Emperor grappled with the implications of its newfound alliance and potential power shifts.
===Legacy===
As well as the city of Baldur's Gate itself, his name was also lent to the Seatower of Balduran and to one of the steeples of Candlekeep. Outer City guilds were traditionally titled "Balduran's Honorable Company...", such as Balduran's Honorable Company of Harborhands. However, there was a belief that to misuse the name of Balduran was an insult to both the man and the city; hence, the city's demonym was 'Baldurian', never 'Balduran'.
Several more statues of Balduran were erected in Baldur's Gate, with one massive statue looming over the center of the Gray Harbor. In the late 1400s DR, one stood in the High Hall, within the mausoleum for Baldurian dukes, standing above a glass case containing the "holy relics" of Balduran: a longsword in cracked leather sheath, steel shield, favorite spyglass, the remains of his cloak, and his butter knife.
The day of Balduran's return to Gray Harbor from Anchorome was celebrated as Returning Day.
Circa 1479 DR, adventurers of Baldur's Gate would search for Balduran's treasure in the Sword's Teeth, though not for mere fortune hunting, of course.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===Appearances===
===External Links===
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===Gallery===
Balduran the Brave concept art.png|Concept art for the statue of Balduran in Baldur's Gate III.
Baldur as a human.png|Balduran, before being transformed into a mind flayer.
===References===
de:Balduran
Category:Explorers
Category:Humans
Category:Mind flayers
Category:Sailors
Category:Inhabitants of Baldur's Gate
Category:Inhabitants of the Sword Coast
Category:Inhabitants of the Western Heartlands
Category:Inhabitants of West Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Toril
Category:Inhabitants