What Is Manorgate?

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Manorgate has two different meanings depending on the context:

  1. In the context of the city of Baldur's Gate, Manor Gate is a landmark gate in the old wall within the city. It is located in the region of the wall that separated the Upper City district of Manorborn from the Lower City district of Bloomridge.
  2. In the context of the 2020 film “The Hunt,” Manorgate refers to a fictional conspiracy theory in which elites hunt “deplorables” at a manor

    The film explores the idea of conspiracy theories and their potential consequences when taken too seriously.

Featured Answers

ManorGate, which is where elites hunt deplorables, is a landmark gate in the old wall within the city of Baldur's Gate. It was located in the region of the wall that separated the Upper City district of Manorborn from the Lower City district of Bloomridge.

Answered from mimi

What Is Manorgate?

ManorGate is an imposing landmark gate in the fantasy metropolis of Baldur's Gate that encapsulates the vast inequality between the city's elite and impoverished classes. Beyond just a portal in an ancient wall, ManorGate has developed complex symbolic meaning reflecting the rigid social immobility ingrained in Baldur's Gate society.

This comprehensive guide will unpack ManorGate's history, appearance, defenses, and significance to provide insider perspective on this iconic location that reinforces class divisions.

Contents

  • Introduction to Baldur's Gate's Districts
  • Architecture and Design of ManorGate
  • The Original Construction of the Gate
  • Fortifying ManorGate Over the Centuries
  • Daily Life on Either Side of ManorGate
  • Perspectives on the Gate's Meaning
  • Rules for Passage Through ManorGate
  • Economic Factors in Class Separation
  • Artistic Depictions of ManorGate
  • Real World Gate Symbolism
  • Foreshadowing Future Events
  • Conclusion

Introduction to Baldur's Gate's Districts

Baldur's Gate rose from humble origins to become a sprawling city along the Sword Coast. It is divided into neighborhoods by ancient walls:

  • Upper City – Grand estates and manors of wealthy families upon the hills
  • Lower City – Impoverished, overcrowded slums and tenements
  • Outer City – Middle class artisan workshops and guild halls
  • Wyrm's Crossing – The bustling river harbor and trade district

The old city walls segregate the elite manorborn nobles in the Upper City from the lower class working poor crammed into the Lower City. ManorGate sits centrally within this dividing wall.

Architecture and Design of ManorGate

ManorGate cuts an imposing figure along the weathered city wall. Its design includes:

  • Two 60-foot squared stone towers with crenellated tops for archers
  • Arrow slits and interior rooms for defensive barricades
  • Soaring iron portcullis flanked by heavy wooden doors
  • Intricate stonework decorating the gate's facade
  • Statues of armored warriors standing guard

The fortified Gothic architecture reinforces ManorGate's role in restricting access and keeping social classes separated.

The Original Construction of the Gate

ManorGate first took shape alongside Baldur's Gate's founding in the early 1300s DR. The purposes were twofold:

  • Regulate passage between the emerging upper class estates uphill and lower class riverside dwellings
  • Provide defensive control of a strategic chokepoint in the city walls

While initially serving practical functions, ManorGate quickly became embedded with social meaning as it formalized the division between rich and poor sections of the city.

Fortifying ManorGate Over the Centuries

Given ManorGate's growing symbolic significance, extensive resources have been devoted to protecting it:

  • Multiple rows of iron portcullises and reinforced doors
  • Murder holes installed to rain missiles on assailants
  • Barbican structures added to create layered buffer zones
  • Veteran bugbear mercenaries stationed as elite gate guards
  • Magic wards and enchantments to prevent supernatural entry

Destroying or disabling the gate could fatally disrupt Baldur's Gate's entrenched class hierarchy.

Daily Life on Either Side of ManorGate

Citizens' lives diverge sharply on either side of ManorGate's dividing wall:

In opulent Manorborn, the wealthy families enjoy rambling estates, private gardens, grand social balls, and excess luxury. Servants cater to their every need.

In squalid Bloomridge, the impoverished lower class dwell in overcrowded tenements, toil at backbreaking labor, and live meal to meal. They are excluded from Manorborn's splendor.

ManorGate serves as a daily reminder of the segregation of social stations.

Perspectives on the Gate's Meaning

Different groups hold conflicting views on ManorGate:

For the nobles, it represents the rightful partition from the riff-raff. A manorborn lady wrote, “Passing through ManorGate feels like temporarily descending into the foul bog of the Lower City. How gratifying returning uphill to perfumed air and civilization!”

For the lower class, the gate signifies oppression and servitude. A Bloomridge laborer grimly remarked, “That cursed ManorGate is all that keeps us trapped down here, slaving away to fill their coin purses.”

Rules for Passage Through ManorGate

Passage in either direction through ManorGate is tightly restricted:

  • No night passage permitted – the iron portcullis remains lowered from dusk till dawn
  • Workers must present stamped documents authorizing entry to the Upper City on business
  • Nobles may pass freely but typically avoid the Lower City unless absolutely necessary
  • Beggars or Lower City commoners without credentials are barred from entering

This strict control maintains the separation of social spheres that the gate represents.

Economic Factors in Class Separation

Beyond just ManorGate's physical barrier, economic disparities ingrain Baldur's Gate's class divide:

  • Wealth concentrates in the hands of the established noble families who pass it down inheritance
  • Lack of social mobility traps Lower City commoners in poverty for generations
  • Guilds restrict professions to limit workforce competition and competition
  • Labor exploitation keeps wages low and food/housing costs exorbitant in the slums

Thus, the class divide self-perpetuates even without ManorGate.

Artistic Depictions of ManorGate

As a symbol, ManorGate frequently appears in Baldurian creative works:

  • Poems praise it as an unbreachable guardian or condemn it as a prison wall
  • Novels use crossing through the gate as a metaphor for ascension in station
  • Paintings contrast idyllic vistas of Manorborn with Bloomridge squalor
  • Bards perform illicit folk ballads daringly criticizing the gate

These depictions reflect the deep cultural significance of ManorGate.

Real World Gate Symbolism

ManorGate's symbolism as a divider between the privileged and marginalized mirrors real world walls and social barriers:

  • The Berlin Wall partitioned communism and capitalism
  • Gated communities create elite suburban enclaves
  • National borders separate citizens from migrants
  • Social institutions segregate by race and class

Like these real divisions, ManorGate represents systemic separation and inequality.

Foreshadowing Future Events

In Baldur's Gate's current timeline, political tensions surround ManorGate's restrictions, foreshadowing conflict:

  • Revolutionary groups like the Dead Three spreading radical ideologies among the lower class
  • Rumors of attacks planned against the gate itself
  • Anonymous threats sent to nobles warning “tear down the gate or it shall fall…”

This unrest hints that ManorGate may soon become ground zero for wider class warfare.

Conclusion

ManorGate stands as more than just a physical portal in Baldur's Gate's landscape. Rather, it encapsulates the vast disparity between the elite and impoverished classes. The future may see this symbolic structure besieged by rising social unrest and demands for equality from those condemned to live outside its walls. ManorGate's fate will decide whether class immobility persists or gives way to revolution in this iconic fictional city.

Reference

[1] https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Manor_Gate
[2] https://collider.com/the-hunt-ending-explained/
[3] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC216744/filing-history
[4] https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/273083/magic-commander-legends-battle-for-baldurs-gate-manor-gate
[5] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=manorGate
[6] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03875208/filing-history
[7] https://scryfall.com/card/clb/356/manor-gate
[8] https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2492532/the-hunt-ending-explained-what-is-the-truth-behind-manorgate

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