Over the years, tribes began to stay there most of the year, farming the cleared land. After several pirate and tribal raids, they settled together by the harbor in a fledgling town referred to as "the town of Water-deep."
Waterdeep was ruled by warlords then, warriors who led the people against the relentless attacks of the trolls, and orcs. There were many bloody battles for a decade before, until the magic of a Northern Youth named Ahghairon turned the tide against the "everlasting ones" (trolls).
When Ahghairon was 112, he had a sharp disagreement with the present warlord: The warlord wanted to use the city's acquired wealth and strength-of-arms to forge a new northern empire. Ahghairon defied him before the people, and in the fight that followed, the warlord was slain. Ahghairon then proclaimed himself the first Lord of Waterdeep, and he recruited others to help him in his job, but unlike him, they would be masked in public, unknown to the general eye. These Lords ruled unchallenged for many years.
To fight increasing corruption in the city, guilds were formed for each trade. However, this would prove to be the city's undoing. After Ahghairon died, the Guildmasters sought out and killed all but two of the secret Lords of Waterdeep. They then took over the city, and formed a council with only themselves on it.
Many years later, after greed and pettiness for power had killed most of the Guildmasters, the two surviving Lords returned to the Courts of the Lord Magister, and commanded the Guildmasters to leave the city forthwith. They refused, and were presently slain by one of the Lords. One of them, Baeron, then decreed that the Lords would rule again, all concealed bar him, the new Open Lord of Waterdeep.
They chose fourteen other Lords to rule with them, and they also chose many magistrates ("Black Robes") to judge the courts, all of which were fine men and women. However, things didn't just go right overnight: Even today, the evidence of the "Bloody Reign of the Guildmasters" is visible.
Northreckoning (NR)
The time scale used mostly around Waterdeep and the Savage Frontier is Northreckoning (NR). This calendar system uses Ahghairon's rise to the rulership of Waterdeep as the start of its calendar. The Dalereckoning system (DR) overlaps beginning with 1032 DR at 0 NR.
0 NR
- Ahghairon becomes the first Open Lord of Waterdeep.
224 NR
- Ahghairon dies, and the Guildmasters sieze power.
241 NR
- The Lords return, the Guildmasters are slain, and Baeron becomes the second Open Lord of Waterdeep.
276 NR
- Both Baeron and Shilarn (his wife, and another Lord) die and Lhestyn (their daughter) becomes the Open Lord of Waterdeep.
282 NR
- Piergeiron the Paladinson becomes the Open Lord after the death of Lhestyn.
290 NR
- Khelben, son of Lhestyn, returns to Waterdeep and claims Arunsun Tower as his own, renaming it after his title of "Blackstaff".
309 NR
- Paradox is born.
313 NR
- The Night of Temple Fires rocks the city.
320 NR
- Atala is born.
321 NR
- Moth is born.
324 NR
- The Dragonspear War breaks out briefly as Waterdeep's government cracks down on corruption and crime in the city.
326 NR
- Kythorn: The Lord's Alliance of Waterdeep expels Luskan's forces from Ruathym by applying combined diplomatic and military pressure. Luskan and the allied island realms of the Trackless Sea join to form the Captain's Confederation. Not long after, the Time of Troubles wracks the world as the mysterious overdeity Ao banishes the gods from the heavens for misdeeds by Bane and Myrkul.
- Flamerule: Helm slays Mystra on the Celestial Stairway rising from Mount Waterdeep, in full view of the city below. Waterdhavians, horrified and enraged, turn their backs on the narrow-minded but dutiful god for his treachery. Shortly thereafter, Bane and the Clestial Stairway are destroyed by Torm.
- Marpenoth: Myrkul's Legion assaults Waterdeep. The goddess Siamorphe protects much of North and Sea Ward from the siege personally, diminishing the damage. In a duel unlike any in recent history, the archmage Midnight confronts the Lord of Bones and defeats him; his fall destroys two city blocks, blighting the ground to ruin forever there. Nearby, Shar and Selūne also do battle, devastating large tracts of Waterdeep. Shortly thereafter, the Tablets of Fate are returned to Ao, who declares the gods servants to their worshipers and elevates numerous worthy mortals to fill the openings left by slain deities. The Time of Troubles comes to an end.
- Nightal: The Order of the Silver Chalice is founded in Waterdeep.
329 NR
- Waterdeep, along with the rest of the Lords' Alliance, is forced to threaten war when Luskan once again conquers Ruathym to the west, and tensions rise as the city begins to stockpile arms.
331 NR
- The Second Dragonspear War breaks out when baatezu, entering Toril through portals in Dragonspear Castle, assemble an army of ogres, hobgoblins, orcs, bugbears, goblins, and kobolds bolstered by a black dragon. These "Hordes of Dragonspear" overwhelm and destroy the Way Inn (near the High Moor) and then attack Daggerford, but are defeated by a hastily assembled force of dwarves, elves from the Misty Forest, paladins of Ilmater, mercenaries, local militia, and a troop of the City Guard of Waterdeep.
332 NR
- Shieldmeet is disrupted by Grimnoshtadrano the Green, called the Riddling Dragon, and the aged and deranged bard Iriador "Garnet" Wintermist, a former Harper, who attacks Waterdeep with an army of monsters in revenge for the decline of the bardic arts before she is mysteriously defeated. The sage Terithus of Athkatla publishes the chapbook Red Her Valor, about the heroics of the Red Knight as a mortal during the Time of Troubles, which serves to convert many former worshipers of Helm to the Grandmistress of the Lanceboard. Later in the year, the Way Inn is rebuilt.
333 NR
- Trade is established with Zakhara and Maztica, though many ships fail to return home from foreign seas. The shipbuilding trade booms as dozens of new vessels are commissioned by noble families and guilds in the race to cement their power in New Amn. The Lord-Governor of New Amn refuses to allow twelve ships from Waterdeep to trade at Helmsport because of the council's restrictions on transoceanic trade. Waterdhavian ships head north to land at Maztapan Island, off the jungle coast north of Mount Plutoq. Within two months, a small colony called New Waterdeep forms farther west, off the Gulf of Kultaka; these colonists trade and negotiate with the Kultakans, despite the displeasure of Governor-General Cordell of New Amn. New Waterdeep marks the northernmost extent of New Amn's influence; the former is one mile north, on the eastern side, of the river marking Kultaka's allied territory. In Maztica, with the aid of some rangers and more wizards than the Amnians' usual wont, the Waterdhavian contingent forges north and establishes a second colony called Trythosford, named after the expedition's paladin leader. It lies at the mouth of a river due west of the offshore Zilhatec Island. Both new settlements are protected by log palisades and defensive ditches that enclose most of each settlement's buildings. By year's end, eight of twelve ships head for Waterdeep, laden with new trade for the northern Sword Coast; three ships sink during the return voyage. These adventures are all immediately chronicled extensively in explosively popular chapbooks and broadsheet serial stories.
334 NR
- New Waterdeep is warned by Cordell not to trade weapons with the Kultakans, because the Council of Six wants to slow the trade between these newcomers and their military allies. Cordell sends a regiment of his Golden Legion north to monitor New Waterdeep and subtly threaten military action should New Waterdeep disobey his or the Council's wishes. The priesthood of Helm sends twelve missionary priests inland along with New Waterdeep's explorers; they return in three months with new Maztican converts and inland survey maps.
- Waterdhavians refound the city's old bardic college and name it New Olamn.
335 NR
- Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun reveals himself publicly as a Lord of Waterdeep, then resigns and presents his masked successor.
- After some strange events in the Rat Hills near Waterdeep sends a cloud of smoke over the city, many Waterdhavians contract a mild plague.
336 NR
- This year signals the opening of major trade routes to and from Maztica. After eighteen months of frosty negotiations, the ports of Helmsport and New Waterdeep are opened to all parties, Maztican and Faerūnian alike. Qoral has become a small, thriving, agricultural town that feeds the Amnian trade back east. New Waterdeep and Helmsport found rival shipbuilding industries to improve trade and profits. Waterdeep's ships still sink on voyages to and from Maztica; Amnian sabotage is suspected. The Lord's Alliance quietly builds evidence to censure Amn for illegally interfering with lawful trade and violating its trade agreements.
- A fad for dream spheres sweeps Waterdeep, appealing to the increasing ranks of those who dream of a better life but despair of ever achieving it. Members of Waterdeep's nobility war with each other behind the shadows. Lord Thesp Eltorchul's son and heir, Oth, is left a babbling husk after dabbling in the creation of the dream spheres.
- The Font of Knowledge, an expansive new temple to Oghma, is finished in Castle Ward.
337 NR
- Rakesk and the alhoon Ralayan the Ocultacle of the Twisted Rune kidnap Halaster Blackcloak from his seat of power in Undermountain. Halaster's Highharvestide results in the destruction of the village of Geniste and other chaos across Faerūn, until his rescue by a group of adventurers. Open Lord Piergeiron Paladinson destroys the dracolich Kistarianth the Red on the slopes of Mount Waterdeep during this time. The transformed red dragon was slain in life by Piergeiron's father, Athar the Shining Knight.
- The Deepwater War rages through the city for several weeks as sahuagin and sea monsters somehow bypass the protections of the merfolk and sea elves in Deepwater Harbor and invade through the sewers.
- Atala meets Moth in the chaos and the two coincidentally save one anothers' lives: Moth by attempting to lead a bewildered Atala—abandoned by her schoolmates—to safety, and Atala when her sorcerous powers awaken under stress, massacring a group of monsters with an icy blast. The young sorceress faints from exhaustion, and Moth is forced to hide her in an alleyway before attempting to distract their pursuers; the two will not meet again for three more years.
- New Waterdeep is razed to the ground by Kultakan raiders. Refugees flee north to Trythosford. Waterdeep is unable to send aid due to continued sahuagin attacks during the Deepwater War.
- Following the Deepwater War, the Grey Gull Shipyards in Waterdeep are purchased by the Bozeman Line when the previous owner goes bankrupt, and is instrumental in rebuilding Waterdeep’s merchant fleet.
338 NR
- Eleint: A small earthquake in the depths of Undermountain triggers a month-long sequence of aftershocks. The damage from the quake is superficial: no lives are lost, and the property damage is easily repaired. During one of the many quakes, the cobblestones in Skull Square collapse as the ceiling supports in the dungeon give way, releasing some prisoners and burying others alive. Magic and the efforts of several resident stonecutters repair the damage by the end of this month. In the meantime, those who would normally be sentenced to the dungeons are instead sentenced to slavery.
339 NR
- Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun along with several other Chosen of Mystra muster a relief army in Waterdeep and set out to lift the phaerimm siege on Evereska. The relief army becomes trapped in Evereska after failing to raise the siege there. An army drawn from the members of the Lords' Alliance and led by Laeral Silverhand Arunsun also marches for Evereska in the last days of this year to aid Khelben's troops, but does not arrive for several months.
- Uktar: Atala moves to Summersend.
340 NR (1372 DR)
- The City of Shade, a Netherese floating city of legend, appears over the Anauroch. Diplomatic entreaties are sent to Waterdeep after a time, but quickly break down into tense hostility. The shades mount an ill-advised incursion into nearby Shadowdale, resulting in much chaos and confusion, but are swiftly routed by an alliance of forces from Waterdeep, Silverymoon, Cormyr, and the Dalelands, led by the Chosen of Mystra.
- Fortunately for travelers, Amn no longer has a monopoly on shipping to and from the New World. The Bozeman Line now offers transport to and from Maztica at a fee substantially cheaper than Amn. Passengers need pay only 100 dragons for a working berth on a westbound ship, and 200 for the return trip. Vessels of the Line never dock at Helmsport, instead preferring Trythosford, New Waterdeep, or other colonies to the north of New Amn.