A Gnome King - Brevoy's reaction?

[Zorkinian]

In the campaign that I'm running, the party (currently consisting of a human, a half-elf, an elf, and two gnomes) has chosen for the gnome sorcerer to take on the role of Duke/Baron/King.

Some background from the perspective of Brevoy(/Rostland):
Sending out these adventuring parties was a calculated risk. The Swordlords thought that the expenditure of four fully-staffed adventuring parties was too much, so they decided on a few different approaches:
- Expensive: contract the Iron Wolves to head into the area near Pitax.
- Pricey: send a delegation of diplomats and soldiers into the marshes to clear trade routes further south - and if possible, set up some encampments and forts.
- Politically dangerous: charter Maegar Varn, a politically ambitious fellow, with the Nomen heights. If he fails, that's one less rival - but if he succeeds, his prestige will only increase, though he'll probably stay loyal to Rostland.
- Complete Hail Mary: since they already spent so much on the other groups, one way or another, they contracted a ragtag group of misfits with mapping out the area in the 1st adventure path (Gooo PC team!). There's no real hope of success here, but the group cost almost nothing to hire.

As such, they are surprised when the PC group maps the area, defeats the local bandits, and begins stitching together a kingdom. As time has passed, members of the nobility are beginning to think that even if this kingdom may fall to the wilds like so many others, it seems to have some staying power for now. The complication? A gnome king!

My players are eventually going to have the opportunity to meet with a number of the major players (or their proxies) in Brevoy. More than one faction was planning on gaining a measure of control over this new kingdom by marrying off one of their daughters/sons... but I'm not sure how they will handle this development.

I've been playing races fairly straight to source material, and as such, gnomes can only produce children with other gnomes. The various noble factions in Brevoy are very human-dominant.

So, I think my overall question is - how would these noble houses react? Would they still attempt marriage, but with strange legal caveats? Inspire a coup and hope that the next ruler is more vulnerable to their proposals? The more ideas, the better. =]

[pennywit]

First, I think they'd be pretty patronizing. Except for that one house (don't remember which one) that interacts a lot with dwarves, I think the Brevic noble houses wouldn't take the king seriously. Gnomes are pretty much pranksters and jesters.

Second, I think the Brevic noble houses would smell opportunity. If this gnome doesn't take a spouse, then the nobles will look to marry into the other PCs' families, assuming one of them will take over the kingdom once the gnome lord has passed on.

I also think they might look for the possibility of fiefdoms. If you're using Vassalage edicts, noble houses might try to persuade the gnome king to grant them rulership over some of the Stolen Lands in exchange for oaths of fealty.

[GeoffA]

pennywit wrote:

First, I think they'd be pretty patronizing. Except for that one house (don't remember which one) that interacts a lot with dwarves, I think the Brevic noble houses wouldn't take the king seriously. Gnomes are pretty much pranksters and jesters.

I think they would at least start out the way penny wit describes. Recall that one of the guiding principles of the River Kingdoms is "you have what you hold" so if the gnome king proved to be a strong ruler, then he could earn the respect of the neighbors. There would probably have to be some display of strength where the gnome shows he is not going to be pushed around.

Incidentally, we have a fairly strong gnome presence in our local Pathfinder game. Our original king was a gnome, who later died but left behind a young son and heir (now about 3 years old). Our current ruler, who has taken the title of "regent" out of deference to the child heir, is also a gnome. Our DM has not made a big deal of it, though (without giving too many details of the story away) we have had several opportunities to smack our neighbors on the nose after they tried something dumb or provocative.

[Orthos]

What one group in my game offered was to send a human noble as a husband for the Countess (who is an Aranea - long story) and to send with him a surrogate mother to produce heirs. This was admittedly in part a way to try to wriggle out heirs that are legally due to take the throne but are only descended from the new Count, but otherwise was a legit offer.

It didn't work well because the Countess, while accepting the marriage, refused to designate the surrogate or name any heirs, since she's going to outlive the Count and any kids he would have by a significant margin anyway.

But the same offer could, theoretically, be made by someone gutsy enough to think they could pull it off - offer/send the Gnome King a bride and, knowing they'll be unable to produce heirs, offer a surrogate father on top of it. The only question is whether or not the king would accept the offer.

[Zorkinian]

Everybody, thanks for the feedback. I'm currently working on incorporating it into the campaign.

pennywit, I really liked your point about the noble houses smelling opportunity. I think I'll have the more conservative families looking to start courting the non-royal members of the party, or offering terms of vassalage - knowing that the mortality rate is high in the river kingdoms, they may get an opportunity to step in quite soon.

I think the more ambitious families will try something along the lines that Orthos describes (long time reader - know the Aranea background =] ), where they attempt to offer both a bride and surrogate as a way to get into the direct line of inheritance.

Such excellent opportunities!