[ Ascendant Factions | Minor Factions | Sects | Fringe Beliefs ]
Exploring the Weird Fringes of Philosophy
Not every barmy idea gains enough support to become a faction, or even a sect. In fact, the obscure philosophies are probably in the majority, when you look across the planes. Here then is a survey of some of the more niche, extreme or just downright bizarre beliefs bubbling up around the Great Ring. Perhaps some of these will gain traction and become a minor faction one day. Or perhaps one of these barmy cults will turn out to be a disposable adversary for some plucky band of adventurers… who can say?
The Children of the Watcher
The Gazers
Berk, I would crawl through the Viper Wastes buck naked before I’d enter a room with a Gazer.
—Amon’Ri, Mercykiller
Rumour has it that years ago a being of immense power from beyond the known multiverse visited the dreams of a number of children in Sigil. To the best of all scholarly knowledge this entity was known simply as the Watcher on the Threshold. It’s become a great debate what is on the other side of this threshold and what exactly does he watch. Anyway—this entity filled the heads of these children with so much insight into the fundamental truths that they now simply stare out into the darkness, or at candles unmoving and apparently unaware. From time to time new Gazers appear and old ones disappear and no one knows why.
Gazers can be of any race and are generally of eight to eleven human years of age (elves are of sixty to eighty). They have no pupils and generally sit in a state of suspended animation for most of their lives.
A couple of times there have been accounts by barmies that they Gazers do move but most of them are unsubstantiated. In most cases the berks apparently went mad after witnessingn what they did. One thing known for certain is that a Gazer can see right into your soul. Their stare is enough to break the hardest of hearts.
The following are some rumours that may or may not be true:
“The Gazers are Lost and their bodies just don’t know it yet. Whatever got them ate their little brains. It probably is that power the Lady went and stuck in the Spire…”
“The Gazers are the children of the Lady of Pain. They live outside of our time. The Watcher sent them here to keep the universe from collapsing in on itself… without them every person and thing would come to an end.”
“Them Gazers are infant powers. They’re born when a new set of beliefs are made up and they disappear when those beliefs die. When a set of beliefs reaches full power they go to a plane and start their almighty lives. That’s why the powers can’t or won’t mess with Sigil, it’s their birth place… The Lady of Pain’s their nanny.”
Source: Randir
The Galvanists
The Electricians, the Association of Energy
Location: Quasi-Elemental Lightning
Ask any planewalker out there and they’ll tell you that Belief is Power on the Outer Planes. Belief shapes the very fabric of reality, where the more people believe something, the stronger the idea becomes. Problem is that most people don’t understand the real reason why—bioelectrical energy.
Think about it, cutter: Faith and Belief are both composed of Thought, and thought is composed of electrical impulses traveling through your brain and nerves. Therefore, it is these same energies that make up the planes. Why do gods need so many people to worship them? Because they need to tap into these electrical energies to feed their powers.
No, not every creature is the same. Some have more powerful brainthoughts, and some aren’t even living. Yet, they all have some sort of driving force—they’re a part of the multiversal energy. We all come from it and we all return to it. You just want to harness as much of it as possible so that it can be put to good use rather than lying dormant…
Requirements: The Galvanists have very few restrictions as to who can join their sect. Any class is acceptable, although they tend to favour psychics and evocation wizards due to their ability to tap and control the energies about and within themselves.
Benefits: All Galvanists have the ability to draw forth some of the innate bioelectrical charge within themselves and use it against another. This actions translates to them being able to use the shocking hands spell twice a day—once for each hand.
Hindrances: The fact that the Galvanists’ goal is to eventually merge into a state of pure electrical energy makes it hard for them to resist electrical attacks. All saving throws versus electricity based attacks are made at a –2 penalty, but on the plus side, they suffer 1 fewer points of damage per die.
Source: Jason True
The Imbibers
These cutters believe that the key to power is to become immune to every form of pain or harm. They get their name from their habit of imbibing small quantities of poison in order to build up resistance, but they also go in for arming themselves with fire- and cold-resistant magic items as well. Imbibers tend to be found on the Lower Planes, in particular Gehenna.
Source: Obsidian
The Knights of Judgement
Knights Epoché
Location: Outlands / Hinterlands
While most Outer Planar bashers reckon that belief is the be-all and end-all of life on the Great Ring, the Knights of Judgement, or the Knights Epoché, hold that disbelief is the key to the Multiverse. These monkish cutters wander the Hinterlands (which they hold to represent the true negation of belief), thinking of ways to tear down the arguments of others while achieving epoché, or the absolute suspension of judgement. Bashers who’re able to purge themselves of all belief (in notions of good, evil, law, chaos, of substance and the external world, and even of themselves and their sects’ beliefs), will ultimately achieve perfection.
Source: Caine
The Motley Fools
The Order of the Comic Relief, Jesters
“Hey, cutter, want to know the ture secret of the planes? It’s all a joke! No, seriously, it’s a big joke. The powers, factions, planars, and primes are all part of some big cosmic punchline. Who’s telling the joke? Beats me, I just work here.
“Anyhoo, some people don’t get it. Whether they can’t see, or just refuse to, they don’t want to laugh at the absurdity that is life. Infinite multiverse, infinite minds; in other words, there are a lot of people around with rods up the ol’ nether-quarters. That’s where we come in. The Order of the Comic Relief (also known as the Motley Fools, the Jesters, or “Oy vey, not those guys!”) was formed to give people a good, square kick to the galbas—or comparable part of the anatomy—and make ’em loosen up a smidge.
“While some members of our order are unrepentant tricksters who merely like to make others look bad to make themselves look good (*cough* *Dave the Tiefling* *cough*), most of us cutters are fun-loving, good-natured berks who’ll proudly march up to the nearest baatezu and ask him to pull our finger, then run away giggling. I could tell you more, but I’ve gotta put this whoopee cushion on Shemeska the Marauder’s seat. In closing, to quote a great philosopher (actually, a rabbit): ‘Don’t take life too seriously; or you’ll never get out alive.’
—Alban the Smart-Aasimar, exonerated fool of the Order of the Comic Relief
Source: Matt Maybray
The Oppressors
The secret to life lies in pushing others down. If a body could lock all the other sods away, then they’d be the master of everything. Then you wouldn’t ever have to do any work again—you just get a slave to do it for you. You’d be able to do anything you felt like doing! Problem: No one’s got the power to keep everyone enslaved or in the dead-book. Solution: Share it. There’s more than enough power out there, so set up a small ruling class, and keep everyone else powerless. Rule through fear, and crush the weak. Ally with the strong. ‘Good’ is the definition of true weakness.
The leader, Philip the Adamant Fist (planar tiefling fighter/thief [he/him] / NE), has carved himself a moderate sized realm in Carceri, encompassing three whole orbs, on Colothys. Some other successful faction members have dictatorships in the Gray Waste, Acheron, and Baator. The sect splintered from the Fated years ago, by members who disagreed with the Duke’s less extreme views. They meet from time to time to discuss recent conquests. Sect members are accepted only if they gain rulership of some burg, and they can count on little from fellow members, without paying for it.
Requirements: Any evil alignment
Benefits: +2 on reaction rolls with fiends, who make deals with Oppressors occasionally. If bargained with, fiends may be employed to protect oppressor, and keep the slaves in line, in return for souls, jink, or magic.
Penalties: -2 to reactions with anyone else and -6 to reaction rolls from celestials, good clerics and paladins. Celestials recognise the base evil of these cutters and have few reservations about putting them in the dead-book.
Source: Lucas Berghaus
The Peacemakers
“Chaos, law, can’t we focus on your similarities instead of your differences?” — Peacemaker Valis Tal
“Shut your bone box, and quit interrupting our battle.” — Tanar’ri & baatezu
[Moments later, after both reaching for a stone the annoying interlocutor has thrown between them] “Hey. What were we fighting about?”
Tarkus Nite (planar ultroloth [he/him] / NE) is the founder of the Peacemakers. Nite is actually an ancient ultroloth exiled from both Gehenna and the Gray Waste for seeking to end the Blood War (which some cutters suspect the yugoloths began for their own purposes).
He usually appears as a wise and benevolent older human, only adopting his true form when dealing with fiends. Nite began the Peacemakers long ago to bring together the three fiendish “Great Races of Evil” (his term) to exterminate the celestials rather than each other. As the yugoloths are already ready to work for the highest bidder whoever it might be, he concentrated on convincing the other fiends in his efforts to end the Blood War.
“How many fiends must die before the tanar’ri and baatezu realise that what they have in common is more important than what they disagree about? Law and chaos are opposed, it is true, but this senseless war is going nowhere. The real enemies of Baator and the Abyss are the accursed empyreals! Only united can the fiends truly triumph.” —Tarkus Nite
Of course, he hasn’t succeeded one bit. The Blood War has a lot of momentum behind it. However, in Valis Tal (prime human wizard [she/her] / LG), Nite may have found the pawn he finally needs to end the Blood War and begin the real bloodletting.
Valis Tal is everything that Tarkus Nite is not. Lawful good, she’s an ancient mage from the Prime world Ortho—yes, the same one as the Hardheads—who’s been planewalking for years. Over these years she’s seen many a fiend slain and many an Outlander village razed in the name of the Blood War. She wants to stop the madness and end the war forever. To this end, she’s liberated an ancient artifact from the Mages’ Guild of Ortho: the Sympathy Stone.
This non-descript stone can bridge the perception gap between any two beings, by making them briefly see each other’s point of view. Hopefully, Valis thinks, once enough tanar’ri and baatezu have seen things from the other side, they’ll call off the war. That’s all Valis wants. She known nothing of Nite’s plans for after the end of the Blood War.
Actually, things aren’t even that simple. While showing Nite the stone, Valis Tal touched it while he was also holding it. Now they can both see the merits of each other’s viewpoints—which has led them both to become half-barmy, and half enlightened.
Source: Alex David Groce
The Prime Regals
Prime Superiors
“There is no better example of Balance than the Prime. All those who do not believe so are—as you planars say—’clueless’. Not only are we balanced in every alignment, but every element as well. And a planar on board a spelljammer ship would be just as out of his depth as a prime in Sigil.
“Why do the Mathematicians use ‘prime’ numbers? And by the way, your rule of threes and unity of rings are flawed. Why doesn’t a plane connect the Inner and Outer Planes? There goes your ring and your three theory. Why, the prime has better models of the multiverse and when we assert our beliefs we craft it as a sphere.”
A group of semi-plane-savvy Primes, disliked by most planars, the Prime Regals reckon the Prime does a much better job of being the Centre of the Multiverse than Sigil, so Cagers should shut their bone-boxes and let them get on with it.
Widely seen by planars as precocious clueless who should hurry up and tumble to the dark, chant goes that it was an encounter with a member of this group that provoked the eladrin Cirily into starting the Planarists, her prime-phobic organisation.
Source: Joshua Jarvis
The Rosebringers
The Beautfication League, the Decorators
Location: Sigil / Lower Ward
Located adjacent to the Great Foundry is a trolley-track expanse of land owned and operated by the Mind’s Eye (and before them the Believers of the Source). An ore preparation facility, teams of its workers push mine carts around the criss-crossinq tracks in order to separate ores destined for the Foundry’s enormous forges. It was nick-named the Industrial Stitches because chordwise from the other side of Sigil its tracks resemble cat-gut stitches pulled taut over a vicious wound. Dusty and covered in dirt, it is a major contributor to the pollution level of the Ditch. The facility’s dumping of waste into the river has brought the ire of an extremist group called the Rosebringers (also known as the Beautification League or the Decorators). Their incessant picketing of the site has forced the need for regular Harmonium and Mind’s Eye guards along the fences at all hours. While the sect has sent petitions to the Hall of Records and filed charges at the City Courts, most all who have encountered the Rosebringers dismiss them as little more than a lunatic fringe.
Creativity is the basis of the multiverse, and True Beauty is its ultimate destiny. Though most Cagers think that they’re just barmies throwing roses around, the Rosebringers are a sect that believes that the most noble pursuit is to bring beauty to the multiverse. Thus they spread the beautiful scent of roses wherever they go. Of course, they also indulge in aesthetic pursuits, such as art, music, and literature. In the Cage, Rosebringers can be found hanging around the Civic Festhall and other Sensate-infested areas.
By spreading rose petals about, any Rosebringer can raise the morale of her allies and confer the benefits of a bless spell. However, everybody else finds this real annoying, so Rosebringers have a –1 to reaction rolls in any place except their primary planes of influence, Arborea and Elysium.
Reduce, reuse, recycle…
— a Decorator slogan in tune with the Rule-of-Threes
Source: William James Cuffe and Caine
The Separatists
“Magic? We love it. That is, until is starts making portals and the like…
“The Separatists are an independent sect which laments that everything in the multiverse is going wrong. Long ago, when everything was better, there were no portals, gateways, or Astral conduits and each plane was alone. Every petitioner reached their correct destination and everything was fine.
“Then, portals and other planar means of passage were created, and then the Outsider races began wandering the planes—look! You can find humans practically everywhere! Creatures not native to the planes began arriving, races that don’t belong, creatures that weren’t meant to exist (tieflings, cambions, aasimar) formed from unions between races that were never supposed to meet. This destroyed the planes as they should have been.
“As for Yggdrasil, the World Ash, the Norse powers were supposed to keep that one safe, but they just left it for anyone to use. The Styx? Just a pathway for souls on the way to their final kip. It was never meant to be a line of travel and passage. In fact, the marraenoloths, those Stygian yugoloth boatswains, were supposed to guard the Styx to prevent such a thing! Not be the cause!
“Oceanus? Similar to the Styx, but this one was meant to be the home of upper planar marine creatures such as the balaena, who were supposed to guard against berks bending the rules and seeking passage. And as for the gate towns, they’re the worst example for the corruption of the planes as a result of those gates. Planes such as the Abyss grow on the gate towns moving into them and gain land that was never meant for them.
“And Sigil! The ultimate mystery. We say that Sigil had a secret purpose of great consequence once, but one which has been destroyed by all the damn portals the sodding Lady of Pain creates.
“Now, we must correct this. How? Frankly, it’s too late for much of the problem. We have the planar races wandering everywhere, tieflings, the Blood War of course, what do we do? We must destroy all portals, shut down all of the gateways, perhaps even negate all planar magics in order to prevent this from recurring in the future. Then, once each plane is alone again, it will be able to restore some kind of balance.”
Source: David Alexander
The Twilight Knights
The Ryders, the Fae Knights, the Silverblades
Location: Arborea
Everyone knows about the two sects dedicated to Goodness, right? First there are the Order of Planes-Militant, who pattern themselves after the lawful & good archons. Then, there are the Guardians, who espouse the ideals of the guardinals. And, of course, by the Rule of Three you must realise that there’s a third group who aid the eladrin in the protection of Arborea. What—you never heard of them? Then read on, berk!
The Twilight Knights are a collection of knights errant who patrol the layers of Arborea. Unlike the other two sects, they don’t have any formal hierarchy per se—though there are those that have been voted leaders of local groups, called branches. While the terms of rule for these leaders changes from branch to branch, all leaders are invited to at least one meeting at an eladrin court. The membership is generally comprised of humans, elves, bariaur, aasimar, and the occasional githzerai. Rumours abound of half-fae changeling members who are descended from mortals who were abducted by the Seelie Court, but these have yet to be verified.
There’s surprisingly little intrigue surrounding the group, though this might be because of the loose, informal structure of the sect. Chant goes that they are privy to secrets of the plane, though this might just be screed. However, since leaders do attend meetings at the eladrin courtx, it’s possible they’re aware of some of the intrigues which swirl around fae high society.
Source: Matt Maybray
The Unificationists
E pluribus unum (from many, one)
The Unificationists believe that the entire multiverse is a process which has the sole purpose of becoming God. In the beginning, the multiverse was a single thing, imperfect through its ignorance. At some point outside of time, this ignorance promoted its division into many parts. Godhead was corrupted and shattered into millions of pieces.
From these shards of consciousness came the powers, for originally all cutters were gods. However, as the Shattering took hold, godhead was corrupted by its flesh, and all of the moralities of the multiverse were unleashed.
It is hence the goal of all to reform the perfect whole, this time without the inexperience, and ignorance which plagued it so long ago.
Unificationists all wear a single shade of gray, and speak slowly in a single tone. All Unificationists look exactly the same, sound exactly the same, and smell exactly the same. They are forbidden from having names, and would not use them even if they did. They all cover their eyes with dark spectacles, and paint their lips a dull black.
Unificationists can find common ground with all other sects and factions. Even the Blood War is very important to the Reformation. As such they are more likely to receive a favourable reaction upon meeting anyone, even fiends (increase friendliness by one level, if the Unificationist gets a chance to speak).
Unificationists may not obstruct any activities which promote the resolution of problems. And they may not perform any act which encourages diversity.
Source: Randir
The Vivisectionists
An obscure sect of the Lower Planes that believes the key to power is in dissecting and understanding the inner workings of every living (and nonliving) being in the planes. They’re a barmy bunch of addle-coves, to be sure, more often than not necromancers or priests of Powers of Death, but the Vivisectors also count several rogue modrons among their numbers. Chant goes that one of their more senior bloods left the group recently and joined up with the Tacharim.
Source: Obsidian
Canonwatch: All of these sects, philosophies and characters are homebrew