Rock of Bral

The Rock of Bral was one of the asteroids making up the Tears of Selûne,  which orbited the planet Toril behind its moon Selûne. It was the site of the cosmopolitan city of Bral.

Description
The Rock was roughly ovaloid in shape, about long and half a mile thick on the other two axes. The gravity plane ran through the center lengthwise, such that the Rock had a top side and a bottom side. The city of Bral was located on the "upper" side. The "bottom" side was government property owned by the ruling prince and contained hangers for his fleet.

The edges of the Rock were steep and dangerous to climb, so it was challenging to traverse from one side of the asteroid to the other without using a tunnel to pass through. Rescue stations were placed along the edge to recover unfortunate souls who might fall into the gravity plane and begin to drift out into wildspace.

Fresh water on Bral was provided by Lake Bral, a huge chasm plunging deep enough to pass through the gravity plane. The lake was periodically filled with fresh water from harvested ice asteroids. Under normal usage, it needed refilling every 4–7 years, at which point the Bralian Navy located and lassoed an ice asteroid, brought it back, broke it up in space into chunks of in mass, which were carefully aimed and dropped into the lake until full. All up, the work took up to three months. The water was treated with animal cultures and waste-eating monsters to keep its waters pure for drinking.

Oxygen and food were produced by vegetation on the lower side of the asteroid. Most of the work at tending the fields and groves was done by convicted criminals as part of their sentence.

Also on the underside were massive vanes, which were enormous sails crafted from the wings of a radiant dragon. The sails allowed the Rock to be steered slightly as needed in its orbit.

Government
The Rock was ruled by Prince Andru, grandson of a bandit king named Cozar, but several other factions wielded power as well.

Defenses
The Rock was heavily fortified. It included a system of nine ballista towers on the topside that protected the city. Each such stone tower was hexagonal and tall. Atop each tower was a dwarven-built heavy ballista set in a special mount that permitted it to be aimed any direction, including straight up from the gravity plane. A complicated counterweight mechanism within the tower aided the fifteen crewmembers in reloading it, such that it could fire once every ten seconds! Each ballista had an effective range of, which was well beyond the extent of the Rock's air envelope. A squad of crossbowmen and shieldbearers were tasked with protecting the ballista engineers, and each tower was stocked with 50 heavy crossbows and hundreds of crossbow bolts for this purpose. The crossbowmen fired in volleys of 25 bolts at once in regular spaced ranks. These smoothly drilled crews operated under the leadership of the noble houses of Bral.

On the bottom side of the Rock was the Citadel, a heavily armed fortress.

Patrolling the Rock at all times were at least four hammerships and four squid ships, but the full naval power of the Prince was unknown.

Prince Andru also had a contract with a group of wizards known as The Fireball Alliance, who acted as a magical defense force for the Rock.

Notable Inhabitants
Gamalon Idogyr of Tethyr lived on Bral for several decades in the 14 century DR and met and married his wife Mynda there. Gamalon maintained a curio shop on the Rock. Elminster and Lhaeo had also traveled there on occasion to visit him.

A beholder known as Large Luigi, who had more collected knowledge than any non-divine entity in the many crystal spheres, lived on the Rock, working as a bartender at the Laughing Beholder.

Locations
The asteroid contained only a single city, named Bral, which was one of the most cosmopolitan cities in any crystal sphere.

Despite the Rock being a haven for pirates, it was also home to the only temple to Tyr, god of justice, in Realmspace that did not lie on the planet of Toril. The Pantheist Temple of Tyr was home to priests who held a number of non-standard religious views, but nevertheless they felt compelled to fight crime and injustice wherever they found it. Thus, they waged a number of crusades and wars on crime on the Rock of Bral. Needless to say, the Tyrrans and their god were not popular on Bral.

History
The Rock had changed hands many times in its history. Indeed, humans had only been living on the Rock since the 12 or 13 century DR. The original inhabitants were unknown, but cavern expeditions into the center of the asteroid revealed artifacts indicating that mind flayers lived in the Rock around the 6 century, and beholders more recently than that. Scholars believed that the beholders had exterminated the mind flayers and that the beholders had destroyed themselves in infighting. However, neither illithids nor beholders had any records of past settlements on the Rock&mdash;unless they were simply hiding that knowledge for some reason.

After the illithids and beholders, a clan of about 200 dwarves seemed to have settled the Rock. Their ruins appeared to have been from the 10 century. They left no tombs or memorials and seemed to have vanished without a trace, with pots still in the fireplace and blades still on the anvil.

After this, the Elven Imperial Fleet used the Rock as a recreation station, but they, too, eventually abandoned it.

Captain Bral, a space pirate, "discovered" the Rock of Bral near the start of the 13 century. He planted trees and crops and lived within the caves that later became the docking caverns. Bral assembled a group of pirates known as the Black Brotherhood, and over time, a small town developed on the surface of the asteroid. When Bral was finally killed by the elves, the pirates of the asteroid town named the settlement Bral in his honor and the asteroid the Rock of Bral.

Over time, the population of the Rock shifted, until by the end of the 13 century, there were more merchants and shopkeepers on Bral, selling goods and ale to the pirates, than pirates themselves. At this time, the pirate Captain Cozar literally purchased every piece of land on the whole asteroid from the merchants until, by the end of only several months, he owned the Rock of Bral. Next, he evicted any pirate who would not lease land from him or operate a legitimate business. In this way, Cozar became the first prince of Bral, and established the House of Cozar.

Rumors & Legends
Within the whole of the Rock of Bral were a mazework of tunnels and dungeons, the ruins of the asteroid's various previous inhabitants. These extensive caverns had never been fully explored and almost certainly held ancient artifacts and monsters.

Miscellaneous
Rock of Bral cuisine had some unique dishes. The kitchen in Harper's Hold, lying in Waterdeep, Toril, had cookbooks with recipes from all over the Realms and other worlds, including from the Rock of Bral.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Skull & Crossbows • Under the Dark Fist • Light of Xaryxis
 * Novels
 * The Maelstrom's Eye
 * Into the Void
 * Card Games:
 * AD&D Trading Cards
 * AD&D Trading Cards