Waterdhavian Social Season

Winter

• The fierce Northern winters essentially shut the city down. As of the first blizzard, snow usually lies thick on the ground, and cruelly cold winds rush in off the ocean to lock the city down.
• Most nobles flee the city entirely during the winter, preferring to lock down their opulent villas in favor of country properties that are much cozier, or even for holdings in warmer, more southerly lands (most families of Tethyrian blood maintain houses in Amn, Tethyr and Calimshan, as well).
• As a result, while the Guild of Street Laborers works diligently to keep most of the streets of the city snow-free, the Sea and North Wards are basically left to snow-over (with the exception of the High Road and major roads).

Spring

• Fleetswake (Ches 21st - 30th): Generally speaking, the Spring Social Season begins with Fleetswake, when winter has let up enough to allow ships to return to the Waterdhavian harbor. Many noble families return during this week, taking rooms in inns while their servants prepare their estates for reinhabiting. By the time of the Highcoin, the nobles have mostly all returned.
• Fair Seas Festival (Ches 29th - 30th): The returning nobles make their presence known to their fellows with elaborate Fair Seas Feasts. Those Houses that retain a strong presence in the city have the upper hand in these plans, for they're in place to arrange their feasts and send out invitations to those nobles who are just now getting back into the city. The nobles also make a point of preparing to contribute to Umberlee's Cache in extravagant ways during these parties, which are the favorite scene for the cache collectors to take up offerings from the noble Houses.
• Highcoin (Ches 30th): While the rest of the city is focused on the Fair Seas Festival, the nobility take the Waukeenar festival of Highcoin very seriously. Lord Piergeiron's Highcoin Ball is an absolute necessity for those intending to be on the scene this season - if you miss it, you're an afterthought at best for the rest of the year.
  • This ball is usually accompanied by accolades on what the nobles contribute to Waterdeep's prosperity by the Open Lord, myriad Guildsmasters and other personages of importance. This event begins at sundown, and most of the nobles make sure to be at the sinking of Umberlee's Cache as the true beginning of this festival, lining the shoreline in their finest garb, and then promenading to the Palace afterward.
• Waukeentide (Tarsakh 1st - 10th): The nobles of Waterdeep take the merchants' festival very seriously. It is the beginning of the social season after winter's reprieve,