Guildhall of Performing Artistes
When Zagig Yragerne vanished, some said that his successor in madness was Lord Ren, a noble who received his station from the Mad Archmage himself. Lord Ren loved the arts, from acting to music to painting to everything else. He amassed a great fortune by trading in ancient artwork recovered from various dungeons (by questionable means), and he had a small castle built for himself on an artificial hill. Before his death, Lord Ren willed his small castle and his entire art collection to the Guild of Performing Artistes, which was only a few years old at the time of the bequest. This catapulted the small guild into the ranks of the most powerful interest groups in the city, but its influence has been fairly subtle.
Situated in the former palace of Lord Ren, one of the long line of eccentric Greyhawk nobles, the Performing Artistes’ Guildhall is an ostentatious building containing a theater, a museum, and a decadent playground for bards, jugglers, musicians, sculptors, jesters, actors and the effete nobility who prefer to socialize with them. Less stuffy than similar places in the High Quarter, the so called “artists’ castle” is a place for the creative and their patrons to share their talents, rehearse and create. Often, it’s also a place for them to practice immoral and decadent acts of pleasure and debauchery. When the very rich speak of “slumming it,” they’re often speaking of a night at the Performing Artistes’ Guildhall.
The tall houses the permanent art collection of the of the deceased Lord Ren, thought by many to be among the finest in the Flanaess. A shrine to Lirr (members are abnormally superstitious, and a dedication to Lirr is always performed on opening nights) and two libraries featuring plays in a half-dozen languages are open to the public, but most of the castle remains the exclusive haunt of those considered, en vogue by the Lords of the Masque, the semi-secret masters of the guild. Because the wizard Otto is known to be a patron of the guild, it is believed the gallery has extensive magical protections.
Internal politics of the guild are intense, yet largely transparent to outsiders, though they are a subject of obsession among the city’s artistic elite. Blood has been spilled over who is considered talented enough to gain access to certain parts of the castle.
The guild’s small theater is most often used for rehearsals, but on occasion a special performances is debuted there before it opens in the Grand Theater. The directors of said performances charge obscene prices (15 gp) for the privilege of an early showing, usually to nobles, ambassadors, or visiting foreign dignitaries.
More exclusive are the catacomb-like dungeons below the castle, which are used as storage space for countless props, wine, food, and discarded pieces of art, and which serve as a secluded spot for romantic dalliances. Some guild members even live in these dark passages, preferring a quiet life away from the prying eyes of the audience.
The guild’s art museum is open six afternoons a week, and all day on Godsday. Admission is one silver piece. On festival days, brightly uniformed “guards” parade across the castle’s battlements, and huge flags and banners fly from poles and tower tops.
From street jugglers to soloists in the Grand Opera, every performer in the Free City is required to join the Guild of Performing Artistes and is open to accepting anyone with any ability in the field of performing arts, and it is not unknown for the guild to tempt famous performers from other regions to take up residence in Greyhawk.
The guild has the largest proportion of demi-humans of all the Free City’s guilds within its ranks, gnome musicians, and even a troupe of half-orc clowns. Present membership exceeds 700, although by no means are all of these artists normally present in the city at the same time; some take shows on tour around neighboring towns and cities, and some are just itinerant by nature.
Type
Guildhall
Parent Location
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