Speech given by Miss Mylee Daventport on the 18th day of Mirtul, year 1373, in the Town Hall to those citizens assembled. Copies have been posted on the major boards of the Upper City.

The town of Sanctuary was founded in the year 1222, the year of the Horn, by two human brothers and a group of slaves that they led in their exodus from the whips and chains of Traensyr. Coming upon the strange and hidden ruins of an empty Svirfneblin city, Charles Bresley is said to have declared, "Here, there shall be a sanctuary from all the terrors of the Underdark".

That expert from the History of Sanctuary, Volume 1 by Councilor Adelia Tyrell highlights some of the earliest conceptive actions behind the birth of the city in which we now find some modicum of safety from those terrors of the Underdark. Drow, Illithid, the Beholder, the Minotaur, the Dreurgar—all at times had besieged the city in even the earliest of days that those first settlers had found home and hearth here within foreign walls. Frederick Bresley, brother to Charles the first mayor, founded the Seekers, still known for their work in keeping us safe by scouting the dark depth beyond the walls, and keeping a hope burning in many that a way still may be possible to the surface. To those that were born here, and raised here, Charles Bresley, then Melinda Serena and later his wife Melinda Bresley, did much to keep both themselves and all future generation safer than they had been in the cold iron shackles of the slavers without the walls. Animatrons once hidden in the Bowels begin to march once more to the march of the spells and power wielded by the lovely Melinda, the first of the Spellguard. And Charles, his first night within the walls, weary from the recent revolt he and his brother had instigated against the oppression of the Drow slavers of the House Jhael’nyihr, took the first Watch. And looking out into the endless night of the underdark, I think perhaps he saw a glimmer of hope, and a shimmer of a thought of what Sanctuary may be.

That we have seen many of the same things those first settlers had seen is true. We have in recent years lived through assaults against our walls and against out homes by a myriad of foes—goblin, Drow, the Choosen, spider, Minotaur…and in each of these attacks we Sanctuarians have stood against them, and defended the same walls that sheltered our weary ancestors and those who came before us. We have faced threats from within, Drow living among us—and more that one rebellion and revolts has shattered wills and fractured lives with the same force an attack from without our walls.

Despite these forces, each conspiring against us, we have maintained ourselves here. One current area of historical significance I would speak on tonight is on that of our Council. First formed from the numbers of the original slaves by the support of their peers, this democratically elected body has held governing power within the city since its inception. The Time of Building is a period which covers the early establishment of the city governments and the first settling of the buildings, the activation of the inherent defenses, and which ends with the organization of all the current major bodies within the city structure. For the next many generations the City and its citizens lived through a long period which I would term as the Time of Establishment, which began with the first birth of a native Sanctuarian, and during which the citizens solidified their presence here in the region. The birth is of critical importance, as it represents the formation of a community identity beyond that held by the original ex-slaves. Now there was more than life and hearth to defend—there was family. From the inception of the second generation through a few months ago the town’s identity somewhat solidified, though with growing pains certainly. Within the past few months the town council and the city itself have both gone through an upheaval, and marked the passage into what I feel is the third age of Sanctuarian history, and one which I term the Time of Crisis. This age had a beginning marked unfortunately with the death of longstanding Councilwoman Victoria Colivin and the destruction of her Inn in lower Sanctuary. Within the months after her death, again the council was shifted with the deaths of Councilor Ivandur Reynolt, Councilor Morgan Maddox, Councilor Mandarin Dreagle, Councilor Jacob Geigne, and Councilor Genevis Ward all gone to us within a matter of a few elections. They were, unfortunately, not removed through ballot, but likely by blade and spilled blood. Now with the gates left shattered, our city separated, Councilmembers dead and our hearts and hopes depressed, we find our selves in the now.

The same wall that Charles himself sat upon, staring out into the darkness with a resolute will of making a true Sanctuary for those who sought it still stands. Perhaps his vision is not completely carried out as he would have envisioned it, though one thing is certain—that we do not live in slavery to other masters. We are shackled here only by our greed, our shortsightedness, and perhaps our unwillingness to work together. The original slaves freed in the revolt, the original settlers that came to this city, were bound perhaps by iron chains. Beyond that though, they were bound with a desire to survive in a place better than that they had fled from. Let us be bound together with this same will that has held Sanctuary together in past times—the will to live.