Helm's Hold

Helm's Hold was a fortified city and cathedral dedicated to Helm found on the Sword Coast North.
==Geography==
Helm's Hold was located around southeast of the city of Neverwinter, not far from the edge of Neverwinter Wood. A stretch of the forest full of wild magic known as the Watcher's Forest was named for the fact it was tended by some residents of Helm's Hold. 
==Government==
The Hold was originally led by its founder, First Guardian Dumal Erard. His title was a position that could only be passed on to another by means of martial combat.
Eventually, a democratically elected City Council was chosen from among the city's populace. This council was composed of 'Speakers' who often resorted to ostentatious and self-serving behavior and, at times, even intimidation against their fellow members in order to pass legislation. The Chief Speaker led this forum and had the final say on policy-making decisions. 
When the Ashmadai revealed themselves within the city in the 1470's DR, their leader known as The Prophet temporarily became the de facto ruler. She held control over the Hold until she showed her true colors and was forced to flee underground into the city's crypts.
As of the late 1480s DR, the Chief Speaker was Amarandine Wanderfoot.
==Defenses==
For the first 40 or so years of the Hold's existence, local priests and paladins of Helm patrolled the Watcher's Forest and the perimeter of the Neverwinter Wood. 
A high wall was erected around the Hold when expanded to the size of a true city in the . 
One hundred men and women served as Helm's Hundred, a fighting force consisting of magic-users, warriors and even thieves. In the years leading up to 1370 DR, this troop would leave the Hold for Sundabar every Spring to battle the tanar'ri of Hellgate Keep.
After Dagult Neverember became the Lord Protector of nearby Neverwinter circa the , he sent a detachment of Mintarn mercenaries led by Dunfield to Helm's Hold. While their leader was an associate of the lord who fell out of his favor, the mercenaries still held enough power to impose martial law if so directed.
In the later years of the 15 century DR, the brutal Order of the Gilded Eye became the de facto police force of the city.
==History==
===14 Century===
Helm's Hold was originally a farming community known as Helm's Stead some time during or before the early 1350's DR. It was fortified into a fortified temple-city by a priest of Helm and former member of the Company of Crazed Venturers named Dumal Erard in the . In the subsequent years, other followers of Helm arrived, many of whom chose to remain amongst their fellow devotees. By 1353 DR, the Hold had grown to a fortified town of seven hundred who lived around the Helmite abbey.
The town lost prominence following the Time of Troubles, in the , when the people of Neverwinter proscribed the residents for the actions of their god during that year. 
The cultists responsible for infecting Neverwinter with the Wailing Death in the , posed as Helmites while using Hold as their base of operations. They desecrated the abbey until the Hero of Neverwinter entered it by means of a portal, and arrested their leader Desther Indelayne.
After recovering from its losses, Helm's Hold gained a reputation for safety over the next several decades and began to grow quickly again. The abbey became a grand cathedral, and the town itself grew to become a small city. Despite this, only a few actual Helmites remained in the cathedral after their god's death in the .
===15 Century===
In the years following the cataclysm of the Spellplague, Helm’s Hold became renowned as a place of safety and healing that catered to all those in need. Eventually, Prince Clariburnus Tanthul of Thultanthar used the barbarous Uthgardt Gray Wolves of the Neverwinter Wood to take over Helm's Hold but lost control of the city following the eruption of Mount Hotenow in the , allowing it to be reclaimed.
Helm's Hold became a prime site for refugees fleeing Neverwinter's destruction, many infected with Spellplague energies. Though none of the residents held any preconceived notions against such people, many of the uninfected refugees brought theirs with them and persecuted any who showed signs of spellscars. Those who were persecuted against fought back, forming the Heirs of Azure to retaliate against their oppressors.
When Dagult Neverember began reconstruction efforts in Neverwinter, he put a call out to all skilled carpenters and masons to travel to his city. This left a dreadful lack of such tradesmen in the Hold and caused many of its buildings to fall into disrepair. Because of the already high population of spellscarred within the Hold's walls and the success that some of the priests had shown in suppressing symptoms, Lord Neverember also issued the Protector's Law, an edict that required all those showing symptoms be sent to the Hold for treatment.
A leader of the Heirs of Azure named Rohini, known in the Hold as "The Prophet," capitalized on this turn of events and earned the trust of the Helmites with a divination of the return of Helm.As demonstrated in the novel The Sentinel and pages 21-24 of the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide this "divination" was indeed false. Over time gained great influence in the area and corrupted many of the Helmite priests. She worked on behalf of the Abolethic Sovereignty to take claim over the city's unfortunate spellscarred to the Sovereignty to be used as servants and experiments.
In or around the , it was revealed that the Prophet Rohini was, in fact, a member of the Ashmadai who wanted the spellscarred for service to her god Asmodeus. Rohini's machinations were discovered, and the Helm's Hold fell under siege. She summoned forth her fiendish allies to defend her domain against the Neverwinter Guard and their allies, who sought to take back the fortress of Helm. The Heroes of Neverwinter forayed into the streets of the city, infiltrated the Cathedral, and killed the evil succubus alongside her devil and aberrant allies. Helm's Hold was finally declared cleansed of evil influence.
Sometime later, an adventuring member of the Order of the Gauntlet by the name of Javen Tarmikos began experiencing signs of the god Helm's return. This event was followed shortly afterward by several others claiming the same visions. A veteran of the siege of the Hold, Javen started a splinter-group he named the Order of the Gilded Eye, which refused to follow the Order of the Gauntlet's ethos of attacking without provocation and actively sought out to destroy all hidden evil. Resorting to brutal tactics, the Order came to gain control over Helm's Hold.
As of the , followers of Helm received cryptic visions of aberrant creatures working below the Cathedral of Helm, despite its "cleansing" a decade prior. This implied that the threat of the Abolethic Sovereignty was far from over.
Around the same time, the Black Earth mercenary company was revealed to be a cover for a cult of Evil Elemental Earth led by Marlos Urnrayle, and his plot to create an earth node below Helm's Hold was thwarted by the Heros of Sleeping Dragon Bridge.
==Rumors and Legends==
Rumors persisted that passages formed when Scar Alley was created led up and inside the Sanatorium. Nobody who ever explored that way was seen again but it didn't stop the brave and the desperate from trying.
==Notable Locations==
;Inns & Taverns:
* Hungry Flame, a run-down tavern that catered to the spellscarred residents of the city. 
* Venturer's Rest, another battered inn that was once known as the Old Dirty Dwarf. 
;Landmarks:
* Town Hall, the city's official council chambers that was once a former inn.
* Heartward, the city's central marketplace. 
;Temples:
* Heartward Hall, a temple of Sune that formed from a smalls shrine located on the edge of the marketplace.
* Helm's Cathedral, the grand Helmite cathedral around which the city formed. 
:* Sanatorium, the underground asylum located immediately beneath Helm's cathedral.
;Underground:
* Crypts of the Vigilant Eye, the labyrinthine network of crypts that long predated the Hold itself.
* The Warrens, an incomplete drainage system located underneath Scar Alley.
==Notable Inhabitants==
===14 Century===
* Dumal Erard, the founder and First Guardian of Helm's Hold. 
===15 Century===
* Dunfield, temporary Neverwintan overseer of the Hold.
* Rohini, The Prophet of the Heirs of Azure.
* Chartilifax, a green dragon ally of Rohini that took the form of a "green elf".
* Amarandine Wanderfoot, Chief Speaker.
* Alisara Callum, Speaker of the council.
* Kharissa Anuvien, Speaker of the council.
* Aldwin Graves, Speaker of the council.
* Javen Tarmikos, leader of the Order of the Gilded Eye.
==Appendix==
===Appearances===
:;Adventures
::Storm over Neverwinter • Storm King's Thunder
::
::Lost Crown of Neverwinter
:;Video Games
:: Neverwinter Nights • 
===Notes===
===External Links===
* 
===Gallery===
Image:Helm's Hold N.jpg|The siege of Helm's Hold, as depicted in the Neverwinter video game
===References===
Category:Settlements
Category:Cities
Category:Locations on the Sword Coast North
Category:Locations in Northwest Faerûn
Category:Locations in Faerûn
Category:Locations on Toril