Bral

"I hate Bral. It's dirty, noisy, crowded, and dangerous. There aren't more than ten honest men in the whole city. But I wouldn't miss it for the world."

- Mordreggan Zudrik, dwarven miner.

Bral was the sole city on the surface of the Rock of Bral and one of the greatest merchant spaceports known to any of the races of the multiverse.

Trade
Bral was the epitome of free trade. Money was power, and anything and everything was bought and sold there, from a vast number of worlds and crystal spheres.

Society
Everyone was polite to everyone in the city of Bral; mind flayers could be seen conversing with elves and dwarves with beholders. This was not because they were friends; rather, the city had a policy of "check your vendettas at the docks".

History
The settlement that would one day become Bral began near the start of the 13 century DR as a pirate hideout for the Black Brotherhood, whose leader was one Captain Bral. When Bral fell in an ambush to elves, the remaining pirates on the Rock named their town after him.

Over time, the population of Bral shifted, until by the end of the 13 century, there were more merchants and shopkeepers in the city, selling goods and ale to the pirates, than pirates themselves. One pirate, Captain Cozar, saw this as an opportunity. He purchased all land in the city and the rest of the asteroid from the merchants and forced any pirates to lease from him or run actual businesses if they wanted to remain. In this way, Cozar became ruler of the city above all the other pirates.

Prince Cozar ruled remarkably fairly for a former pirate, and the city thrived and grew as a legitimate center of trade, as trade turned out to be more profitable than piracy.

Prince Cozar's successor, Prince Frun, was not as good a ruler as his father. Nevertheless, the city continued growing from its trade, as companies from at least twelve different crystal spheres established businesses there. Frun commissioned the building of the Citadel and the Donjon and rebuilt and expanded the royal palace.

At one point during Frun's 35-year reign, he had insulted a neogi trader, which triggered an attack from a neogi fleet set on razing the city. They succeeded in destroying a part of the Middle City by crashing an abandoned dwarven citadel into it, but then retreated.

After Frun died, Prince Calar ruled for only six days before being assassinated by being jettisoned into space. His brother, Prince Andru, then took the throne. Within fifteen years, Andru had doubled the size of Bral's army, tripled the size of its navy, and strengthened the law-enforcement of the government.

Rumors & Legends
The older and more superstitious citizens of the city believed that Bral would one day be destroyed by the asteroid's original inhabitants.