BlogNomic: The First Dynasty of Desertfrog

The Most Serene Republic. La Serenisimma, the Jewel of the Adriatic, Pax tibi Marce, evangelista meus. The seat of the Doge, but the Doge is dead.

Most of the Doge’s Palace is silent, but the Chamber of the Great Council is alive. This room, one of the largest great halls in all of Europe, is densely decorated in gold molding and elaborate frescos - the work of Venetian masters like Bassano, Veronese, and Tintoretto. Those great works are today not visible behind the thronging mass of people.

Today is the convocation of the Mazor Consegio, the Council of Great Wise Men, the hereditory patriarchs of the ancient families of Venice summoned in accordance with their status as enshrined in Venice’s Libro d’Oro. The Great Council of Venice is ornately designed to prevent any one family or alliance of families from establishing a dominance, while also keeping too much power from the hands of the Doge, a task at which it has been successful for hundreds of years. Today, more than 2,000 artistocrats are present as electors. From their number, a lottery will be used to select 30 nominators, who will reduced by lot to 9; these 9 will then chose 40, and those 40 will be reduced by lot to 12; those 12 will chose 25, and the 25 will be reduced by lot to 9; those 9 then elect 45, which are then reduced by lot to 11; then the 11 chose 41, and those 41 elect one, the new Doge. It is a ludicrous system, designed to keep power in the hands of the nobility - but not any member of the nobility in particular - and it has worked for centuries.

Today, you are here to elect a Doge. Hopefully not yourself; the position of Doge is one of glory but no real power, and the ducal palace was too often merely a prison into which a cold and determined aristocracy could thrust any one of their own number who had the misfortune to incur their suspicion. But an empty dignitary under your control is better than one selected by your rival, and so: today you start mixing and jostling and scheming and shoring up their status, in the hope, knowledge and certainty that your power and the power of the Most Serene Republic will be intact when the day is done.

Throughout the ruleset, replace the term Emperor with Elector and Player with Doge. Set the Special Case rules Seasonal Downtime, Dormancy, Dynastic Distance and Dynastic Tracking to Active, leaving all others inactive, and set the page referred to in the rule Dynastic Tracking to be [[Chamber of the Great Council]].