Waterdeep and the warforged
Following the Great Modron March of 1490 DR that culminated in a concentrated attack on the city of Waterdeep, the city spent years rebuilding. From the wreckage, the city (literally) found new strength. A Dwarven artificer managed to reverse-engineer the bio-technology of the Modrons and created a new race of mechanical humanoids. Waterdeep began manufacturing these automatons, and at first largely used them for public service or as servants to the nobility and rich merchant lords. During the coup in Luskan that drove the pirate captains out, Waterdeep sent a battalion of automatons to aid in the fight. They were so successful that Waterdeep began to bolster its military with automatons, now called the Warforged.
In the year 1540 DR, the Warforged began to exhibit sentience beyond what they had ever shown. While patrolling the outskirts of the city, a unit of Warforged turned on their fleshy masters. They killed them and east into the hills. When waterdhavian scouts discovered them in a network of caves, they found that the warforged there had developed into a full-fledged society called “The Unchained” led by a warforged known as the First. One scout was left alive and sent back to the city with a message: The Warforged would bow no more.
Over the course of the next 50 years, the free Warforged would continue to harass waterdeep by attacking merchant caravans and remote outposts. The occasional unit of warforged retrievers would infiltrate the city and exfiltrate awakened warforged. Meanwhile, the city did all it could to squash warforged sentience. Harboring an awakened warforged became a crime punishable by exile, and warforged military service was banned. “The Chained,” as they became known by the free warforged, continued to be used in public service including as lamp-lighters, street-sweepers and personal attendants.
Meanwhile, the city of Neverwinter began accepting awakened warforged seeking to make a life for themselves. Warforged adventurers began to fill the taverns, and a mercenary company known as the Iron Company was formed by Warforged mercenaries. This strained diplomatic relations with Waterdeep, and some fear open warfare between the two cities.
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