The end of the Living Greyhawk campaign in 2008 saw an election for new Oligarchs after Turin Deathstalker threw a tantrum about peace talks with the Orcish Empire of the Pomarj and assassinated Lord Mayor Nerof Gasgul and a number of Oligarchs reducing it to less than the quorum required to appoint replacements.
The election was the subject of the final Core module COR8-12 “Foundations” by Eric Menge.
But who won? With the end of the LG campaign there was no publication of details.
Former LG (and OJ) writer Sam Weiss posted in GHO Discord wiki chat thread over the weekend:
“The campaign ended, so it was left for individuals to design for their groups.”
However, he also tantalising commented as follows (for those wondering perhaps if we’d ever seen LG go into year 9 and 599 CY in 2009):
“If you want my personal take - I pictured a rather peculiar alliance of convenience between Tigran Gellner and the Pholtans, Eritai Kaan-Ipzirel and the Cuthberrans, and Janziduur and the Trithereonites to clean up the city and secure the Wild Coast.
I do not recall a list of specific candidates, but I expect they replaced other older people, like Gavin Ambus, with younger supporters of their faiths, along with Kieran and the successor to Torrentz Hebvard, the successors of the patriarchs of Boccob and Zilchus, and whatever reasonably non-corrupt members of the Merchant and Traders Union they can find.“
A great question, by the way. The PCs in my campaign are getting mixed up in the machinations between Eritai Kaan-Ipzirel and Nerof Gasgal in early CY 596.
How I wish the Living Greyhawk developments like this were listed on a timeline somewhere . . .
Ten Oligarchs Not Enough to Make Soup
Riddle me this: what's got twenty hands and no head? The recently decapitated Directing Oligarchy of Greyhawk, of course! With Oligarchs dropping like flies and a Lord Mayor demonstrating that being repeatedly ventilated is not a survivable condition, the ruling body of Greyhawk is crippled and unable to make basic decisions, like picking new oligarchs, choosing a new mayor, or deciding whether to ban certain broadsides from the city. Since few Greyhawkers who aren't chronically dull, cursed, or forced at knife-point have read oligarchic procedure, many citizens are wondering how this can be. It's all due to something called quorum, which is surprisingly not a type of cheese. For the Oligarchy to act, it must have enough members present at a meeting to reach quorum, and the magic number for quorum on the Directing Oligarchy is eleven. Turin's death march through the Oligarchy has left us with ten. Who made up such a absurd rule? He wasn't called the Mad Archmage for nothing.
Politics abhors a vacuum, as well as unspent tax revenue, and Dernan Nathane, Oligarch, guildmaster of the Merchants and Traders' Union , and smooth as satin, has slid into the role of unofficial Lord Mayor to ensure that the city continues to function in some fashion. Exclusive sources close to Dernan, who are certainly not The Grumbler disguised as a large potted plant in the corner of the room, report that the merchant prince plans to use the sideshow that is the Public Council of Greyhawk to ratify his appointment of a new Oligarch to restore a quorum. Once the Oligarchy has an eleventh member, they can select a new Lord Mayor. The Grumbler gives you three guesses as to who the Oligarchy will pick, and the first two don't count.
So Eric Menge's answer was "probably Dernan Nathane."
The current Guildmaster of the Merchants' and Traders' Union, Dernan Nathane (male human swashbuckler 2/rogue 10, AL N, knowledge [local] +24) is a highly successful, well-liked, 54-year-old businessman. As the guildmaster of the Union, Dernan wields enormous influence in the city and is second only to Nerof on the Oligarchy. There is very little about Greyhawk that he does not know, and this knowledge has secured his place in Nerof's faction. He votes with Stakaster to improve roads and infrastructure, which puts him at odds with Glodreddi. He also supports trade with all nations, including Ahlissa and perhaps even the Pomarj. His personal life is unremarkable, his only known transgression being his long running affair with Gerda Hollardel (which was confirmed when they announced their engagement.) His reputation is otherwise spotless, and he is much admired for his restraint and self-control. Conventional wisdom is that Dernan will continue to have a variety of affairs on the side, which will be kept reasonably discrete.
Good catch and timely for my purposes, as my PCs saved Dernan Nathane aka Sepris (I've adapted the 3.5 adventure Ring of Thieves to Greyhawk as its author suggested) from an attempted coup a few sessions ago.
So what happened to Turin Deathstalker after such a flagrant act of treason? I can picture two scenarios, and either or both of them could happen:
1) Turin is immediately stripped of all his offices and declared a traitor, with a substantial price on his head. Some of Turin's sympathizers defect with him, but most Greyhawkers turn on him for causing so much chaos and disrupting their livelihoods. If Turin is caught, which is obivously easier said that done, he's likely to be drawn and quartered.
2) Turin decides not to do anything by halves and tries to not only kill the rest of the Oligarchy but take over the Free City himself! He and his sympathizers are in no mood to hear dissent or disagreement, so the people of Greyhawk will have two options-hail their new masters, or be the unwilling shock troops in the next attack on the Empire.
I just can't see Turin not facing any consequences for such a killing spree, or willing to just sit idly by and take a punishment.
I'll be honest that I never kept up with Living Greyhawk at all. The times I played at a convention, I felt the adventures weren't that good, and I had no belief that the people involved knew anything about Greyhawk beyond what the Living Greyhawk Gazetter said.
But, if I'm looking at this, then I probably would have retired Nerof and Turin a while ago (I'm thinking CY 591 at the latest, that would be Nerof as Lord Mayor for 15 years from the original Greyhawk Gazetter in CY 576). Didn't Turin step down as Guildmaster during the Wars? Did Vesper step aside, or was that another Living Greyhawk adventure that explained it?
But I'm going to say that Turin would have died in his attack or shortly thereafter. I'd say that Kieren Jalucian was the one who killed him.
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