Editing Circle of Eight (section)

==The First Circle of Eight==
After a while, Mordenkainen realized he had fucked up something bad, and tried to reform his boy band with a new label, the Circle of Eight.  This time, he'd get it right, and only invite wizards, because obviously only other wizards could understand what he was trying to do.

The first lineup for the band consisted of:
*[[Mordenkainen]]
*[[Bigby]]
*[[Otto]]
*[[Rary]]
*[[Nystul]]
*[[Drawmij]]
*[[Leomund]], replaced by [[Otiluke]] when he stepped down to explore the planes
*[[Bucknard]], replaced by [[Jallarzi Sallavarian]] (the first and so far only female member) when he disappeared for unknown reasons

The fact that all of these guys have at least a few spells named after them is no accident: all of them were the most powerful wizards of the time, which I guess Mordenkainen thought would make them more amenable to his way of thinking (Robilar has some feats named after him, but that's neither here nor there). Leomund eventually retired, and Tenser replaced him (though still bitter over the loss of his bro Serten), and Mordenkainen himself stepped down to allow Otiluke to come in. That wasn't because Mordenkainen was giving up his power, far from it. Otiluke was president of the Society of Magi in Greyhawk, which gave him a seat on the city council (aka Directing Oligarchy), giving the Circle a good bit of political stroke if they ever were going to need it.

As for Mordenkainen, he had by this point become something of an egomaniac. He saw himself as manager of the band (nobody had agreed to it, he just got things done or made them happen), and that he was controlling everything. But here's where it gets a little funny.

See, Mordenkainen apparently sensed some kind of evil threat out there, so he sent the entire Circle of Eight to go face it. Only they fucked up and got a TPK because Mordenkainen finally met his fucking match: no less than [[Vecna]], who was just then beginning to spin up his plans for godhood. Vecna had kitted out a minion with his artifact Eye and Hand, and basically told his boy to just kill them all. Either Mordenkainen was fucking stupid and couldn't see the danger despite his vast magical ability, or he was a coward and knew his going would get him killed. Either way, he goofed, his boys all died, and he had to send a B-team of adventurers to go in and retrieve a literal pound of flesh so he could magically clone the Circle back to life.

But there was a problem. This magic cloning shit wasn't easy; it took a lot of effort and attention to do it. So while Mordenkainen was sitting in a lab, watching his buddies growing back to life (and probably trying to come up with a really good explanation why he wasn't among them when they died), the entire Flanaess region erupted into a "World War" event known as the Greyhawk Wars. Essentially it was an outbreak of a half-dozen or more smaller wars between various factions and states, all of them trying to use the other conflicts as cover for various nefarious schemes. What it ended up being was a total shit-show. [[Iuz]], the demonic bastard spawn of a witch-queen who forced herself on a demon prince (though it's a toss as to whether it was all that forced, or [[Just As Planned]] on his dad's part), ended up slaughtering and conquering huge sections of the region north of Greyhawk itself. Other tyrants and evil beings, such as Ivid (who might have raised even Vecna's nonexistent eyebrows in appreciation for his use of necromancy and demon summoning as tools of statecraft), rose and caused wide destruction.

Worst of all? The Scarlet Brotherhood took the opportunity to actually make good on their racist ideals and helped add to the chaos and carnage by toppling states, enslaving whole populations, and otherwise teaching everyone to hate the Suloise if they didn't already.

By the time Mordenkainen had the clones done, the Flanaess was a fucking mess. Devils and demons were openly walking the world and doing as they pleased. Undead were virtually everywhere to some extent. So of course, Mordy decides that the Circle just has to do something about it. Rary promptly tells him to fuck off, and removes himself back to his own place. The rest split up and try to stem the tidal wave of evil that has engulfed the region.

This time, with Mordenkainen actually working '''with''' other people, instead of acting like some back-of-the-office asshole manager who never does anything but complain about shit, the Greyhawk Wars finally got under control. States banded together to throw down the worst evil beings, and the forces of good finally got enough help to turn things around. It wasn't a total victory, though: some evil beings were just too powerful ever to be destroyed or contained, so putting them on their heels was the best Mordy & Friends could manage.

Overall, though, things settled down a bit. The Circle decided this was probably their best shot at a general treaty effort, so they turned their attention to bringing all the diplomats and ambassadors and whatnot to Greyhawk City to sign a general peace thing.