#planescape factions

[tinkerbitch69]

Some ramblings I came up with while thinking about the best faction in D&D’s Planescape: The Bleak Cabal!

If nothing holds meaning, then pain serves no purpose. It doesn’t teach, it doesn’t punish, it doesn’t spur growth or change or redemption. It’s just pain. It just hurts. With no reason to, it just hurts…

So why not try to soothe them? why would you want people to hurt?

[thecreaturecodex]

What Planescape Faction would you join?

Read about the factions here if you aren't familiar with Planescape, or need a refresher

[saintrabouin]

The Chant of Sigil : Factol Hashkar of the Fraternity of Order delivers a boring speech (as usual) at the House of Speakers

[yellow-yarrow]

The only way I can make sense of Pryce beeing an anarchist is if he is not an anarchist in the modern sense (the means are the ends, mutual aid etc) or in the classical sense (assassinations, etc, kinda like Russian nihilists) but he's like the anarchists from Plansecape Torment (which was an inspiration for DE)

What I mean by that is that in planescape torment although anarchists ( like nihilists) want to destroy everything first so they can build something new ,and they do assassinations, the main thing about them is that they work in great secrecy, they don't trust anyone other than people in their cells, they betray people constantly, they infiltrate factions, and they are chaotic neutral

I guess this way it would make sense for Pryce to infiltrate the rcm and act in a "the end justify the means" way

I also have to add that in Elysium some ideologies are not exactly how you would first imagine them. This is not confirmed officially but I think it's extremely likely that for example nihilists aren't just people who think life is meaningless but they are more like Russian nihilists from the 19th-20th century. communists aren't just marxists but they are also based on cosmism. So the same could apply for anarchists, it's not anarchism the way you would first expect it to be

My theory is that if communists are underground then anarchists are even deeper undercover, Joyce says that so many of them were shot that nobody remembers them. In a world where remembering has power, when people get erased from collective memory and history and even existence, it would be fitting if the anarchists made people forget about them on purpose so they could plot in secret.

(but that's just my theory lol. sidenote I am not a fan of this I wish there were some real anarchists in the game)

[gauzemer]

Okay, so. The idol in Aeor that the Hells found-- the one the liveshow will presumably be focused on-- we all think it's Gruumsh, right?

I have some evidence to the contrary.

So the symbol we saw is a small circle inside a larger circle with lines radiating outwards between them. We've never seen this associated with Gruumsh before, but it sparked something in my memory. I think I found it.

We were first introduced to this deity during the Search for Grog liveshow, when VM found a small shrine to her in Pandemonium. She has not been mentioned since.

Everyone, meet the Lady of Pain.

Small circle. Bigger circle. Lines radiating between them. Hell, here's a stylized form of her symbol:

But the blood and eyes that Liam's been posting on Twitter-- definitely Gruumsh, right? Well, maybe not. On a hunch, I went to the Lady of Pain's wiki page and hit ctrl+f for the word "eye," and this came up. "The face of the Lady of Pain served as the logo for the entire Planescape Campaign Setting and thus appeared on every sourcebook or accessory. Her image in the logo was intentionally removed from the Faction War sourcebook, but it appeared in the background with a bleeding eye."

Okay. Okay. Cool. I found the Faction War book.

OKAY. OKAY. COOL. UM. So it could be Gruumsh!! Could be!! Two instances of connection is still a coincidence. But three?? Oh, I'd really have to wrack my brain to come up with three connections, right???

WRONG. CHECK THIS SHIT OUT.

"According to the great wizard Mordenkainen, the Lady of Pain had some sort of connection to the Raven Queen, another enigmatic character. It was said that only the Lady of Pain knew the Raven Queen's true intentions."

So. Uh.

I'm gonna be very interested in seeing the results of that liveshow.

[three--rings]

I already shared my 999 book, which was more work, but this was the project that made me think "oh, video games as books!"

I was introduced to the game Planescape: Torment on an old forum thread about the video game with the best written story, and this game was mentioned over and over. And I remember people saying "the writing is so good, fans have made it into a book!" So I HAD to play it, right?

I knew I wanted this book to be a leather, medieval-style Tome. As I was working on the typeset I realized there are two different fan novelizations. One which is very basic and "the good one" which is a novelization of someone's playthrough from the Something Awful forums. And it's, uh, much longer. Obviously that's what I went with. And it just kept getting longer as I went.

I started thinking about doing scraps of leather but then I saw this paper, which is a lotka with string texture that reminded me of the scarred skin of the game protagonist (who is immortal but not invulnerable). His skin is grey so I painted it grey. The endpages I designed and printed and it's just the symbols of all the factions in the game.

The K118 style is based on extant medieval books and produces a very flexible spine. This giant one does the bending-backwards party trick, but it's pretty stiff.

I reinforced it with a layer of cotton and then paper over my tapes and real vellum tabs.

I won't be springing for real vellum in the future, but it was neat to use sheepskin in this one, and I could sand the tabs down on the board. The board is also shaped on the end where it meets the tabs, which I did with a power sander super quickly.

The spine leather was some very thin sheepskin I got from ebay, which is lovely but almost too thin. I didn't pare it at all because it wasn't possible or necessary.

The symbol on the spine is the symbol of Torment in the game and I did it with cutting stencil vinyl on my cricut which I then used to paint in silver acrylic before I put the leather on. I then sealed it with satin leather varnish.

My endbands were improvised with some braided leather cord and linen thread which I used to stitch the cord on for a rustic look.

I'm happy with the outcome. It sits nicely open in the hand and is very readable. I'm looking forward to re-experiencing the story of this game without spending so long grinding in dungeons.

[enddaysengine]

To the Stars and Beyond!

A bunch of interesting things happened at PaizoCon this weekend, the most fascinating for me was something completely internal. Pathfinder wasn't the game I was focused on. Given all of the reveals about War of the Immortals, the announcement of Spore War, and about 9000 other things related to the planes, that may be surprising.

But no, this time the main event was Starfinder.

While I never got to play as much of 1e as I would've liked, I've been eagerly awaing Starfinder 2e, both as the playtest and in its final form. Starfinder's blend of science-fantasy from properties like Star Wars, Doom, and 40k took a while to grow on me, but it has solidly become one of my favorites. Plus, even in 1e, Starfinder had a lot of planar content baked into the setting. Made an argument on Twitter and BlueSky when I'm feeling spicy that between Pathfinder and Starfinder, it is the latter that is better set up to be a successor to Planescape. And oh boy that has not changed at all from the titbits they got dropped at PaizoCon. Both the playtest and 2e seem poised to lean even harder into the weird and strange parts of the setting where science fiction and fantasy overlap. I am 100% here for it.

The point that I am getting to that Paths Beyond wasn't the only project I had sitting on the back burner. There is also Star Beyond, a science fantasy take on the same weird and wonderful genre we know from Planescape. I can never predict which games my brain is going to latch on each week, but I expect I'll be writing Starfinder content for the blog in the very near future. Not just because it's fun and because Starfinder literally calls its player organizations factions, but because I have an ambition. My aim is to have Stars Beyond ready for Starfinder Infinite by the 2e launches. I actually have an outline and I'm aiming for a companion in the 40,000 to 50,000 word range. That's a big project, if I finish it, it will be easily the most words I've written for a single book, but I figure I have time on my side. It may actually be doable, but nonetheless wish me luck.

See you in the stars.

Post-Script: We also got confirmation that while 2e was in the works when OGL-gate hit, there were supposed to be more 1e books: the Faction Guide (which was being written) and the Extraplanar Archive (which was in outlining). It's a bummer we don't have either yet given what I plan to do, but it does make me feel like Stars Beyond is on the right track.

Post-post-script: I also have a place where I reblog inspirational media for this project over at @stars-beyond-sf! Check it out.

[probablyfunrpgideas]

Planescape Factions by Magic Color

I hope to get some responses on this, because I’m not super familiar with Magic lore. But here’s some of the Planescape organizations - the philosopher gangs and guilds who run Sigil and clash across the multiverse.

The Athar say that the gods aren’t truly divine and should be subject to the same rules as anyone, despite their power. They represent Blue/White with their focus on logic over faith and their organized printing presses and alchemists.

The Believers of the Source say all things are being tested and eventually, with enough determination, we mortals can achieve reincarnation into a higher state. In their foundries, they build tools and vehicles and fine trade goods. They represent Black/Green with the focus on growth and personal development, and the drive to become something new.

The Bleak Cabal says there’s no meaning or purpose to existence, and even accepting this lesson is just a temporary distraction from the endless, hopeless mess. In the Gatehouse, they care for the many poor and unhealthy citizens of Sigil. They represent a very odd flavor of Black/White as they turn their empty lives to a social mission.

The Doomguard say everything is going to end eventually, so why not enjoy the view of all the destruction? They push the entropic process forward by forging all kinds of weapons in the Armory. They exemplify Red/Black in their reckless disregard for the fabric of reality.

If this sparks some interest I will keep it going - there’s fifteen factions, so there might be color overlap between them. And keep in mind, there’s all kinds of alignments and ideals within these groups to inspire NPCs and adventure hooks!

[quietlyawesomeart]

This is an NPC for my DnD table playing the Turn of Fortune's Wheel module in the Planescape setting. There's an encounter where they encounter three faction members, discussing the meaning of the multiverse, but it provides no visual for these people. So I drew one and came up with backstory. _______

Gracie was born a human in Sigil, city of doors, when a portal is opened in her neighborhood, directly connected to the Blood Wars taking place in the hells. Gracie, along with many other civilians were captured and dragged into the hells before the portals were able to be closed.

Time behaves differently when being tortured in the hells. While Gracie and the other captives spent years and years being experimented on, tortured, and used for rituals, they did not age, and they could not die. It would be over a decade before a party of adventurers made their way down to the hells to liberate the captives, returning them back to Sigil. However, Gracie returned with monstrous deformations. Her cranium was more horns than not, her eyes a constant fountain of blood, her limbs bent, broken, and reset into unnatural positions.

The Bleak Cabal is a faction in Sigil who believe that the universe has no meaning, only that which an individual finds for themselves. Most of it's factions find meaning in helping those afflicted with extraplanar ailments and curses, so they had the halls of their gatehouse filled to the brim after the liberation of the captives. Most of these patients were too far gone for saving, some even electing to be put out of their suffering. Gracie, deemed by the Cabal's experts, was the worst case that they were able to bring back to normalcy.

It took months of enchantments and procedures, removing horns, correcting bones, to return Gracie to a humanoid form, though she was different from before. Her freckled and sun kissed face had assumed a pallid sheet white color. Her once silky copper hair became wiry, thick, and jet black. Her rounded ears held a sharp point. Her ocean blue eyes still held the flames of the Nine Hells, taking on a red hue.

Even once Gracie was physically healed, the mental scars carried with her. She would come to discover that her parents, already elderly prior to the portal's opening, had passed away during her time in captivity. With nothing left, and with new relationships forged with the members of the Cabal who had cared for her, Gracie made the decision to dedicate her life to the Bleak Cabal, specializing in demonic curses and how to dispel them.

_______

TL;DR: She's been through it but she's like fine now.

My players will more than likely ignore her and will never even see the art lol

[ddarker-dreams]

Lock! What other games would you recommend to a fellow bg3 and disco elysium enjoyer?

Hello... you have come to the right place... i am a CRPG Fan™ so i'm more than happy to point you in the direction of some games that hit similar beats to bg3 and disco elysium (which happen to be my favorite games of all time).

planescape: torment —

a true classic. the writing in this game is brilliant. the game's setting comes from dungeon and dragon's planescape campaign, so some of the terminology you've seen in bg3 will pop up here (specifically the githzerai, who, unlike githyanki, don't follow vlaakith). if i had to pick the game's core element... i'd say it's interacting with various philosophies/belief systems. even the most random NPCs have interesting things to say. the factions in the game's main area, the city of sigil, are based on real world philosophies (nihilism, hedonism, and anarchism, to name a few). the faction known as the society of sensation is actually what inspired elements of nexus!

the story has you hooked from the opening cutscene until the final potential endings. a protagonist with amnesia might not be anything new, but i don't think i've ever seen the trope explored in the way planescape does. the side quests and characters are all memorable too. you can just tell that so much thought and care went into the writing, it has such a distinct personality.

that being said ... fair warning. the combat in this game is notoriously scuffed. i highly recommend playing on the lowest difficulty to help circumvent some frustrating encounters. it isn't awful, but it can feel tedious at times. there's no real incentive to level up/minmax characters. everything else about the game goes hard though.

divinity original sin 2 —

WOOOO BABY larian studios know how to make god tier RPGs. i replayed do2 recently and man. i love this game. beautiful graphics, an interesting story, lovable characters, and the combat. omg. it's almost overwhelming at times how many approaches you can take to each fight.

except for the blackpits fight. all my homies hate the blackpits fight.

anyway ... you should feel right at home when booting this game up if you've played bg3. the combat is turn-based, although do2 uses slightly different mechanics (action points and spells/abilities replenishing based on turns rather than rests, for instance). it's fun, engaging, and has lots of charm.

pillars of eternity —

pillars of eternity holds a special place in my heart... it's the very first CRPG i ever played. some of the people who worked on it wrote fallout: new vegas and the aforementioned planescape: torment. as such, you can expect quality writing and worldbuilding. POE has a more somber tone than the others on this list, which i personally liked. i spent hours getting into the cosmology and pantheon from this game's world, reading everything little thing.

the worldbuilding impressed little lock so much that it went on to influence how i write/create settings. HWR was in its infancy stages around the time i first played the game, which inspired the home continent i made for the story.

also. you can build a jail on your base and throw people in it. i really enjoyed doing that.

[ailustrarte]

The argument between three sapient leaders of different animal factions. "Faunel: Beast Leaders", illustration for Wizards of the Coast’s Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse

This is one of the pieces I have had the most fun painting in my life!

AD: the fantastic Emi Tanji, who I can never thank enough for her guidance and support.

[ariswolfram]

Who the fuck am i?

Guess what, this post is here to explain that.

Side blog focused on TTRPG details: @karmasystem

As a reminder:

You can use my stories, species, and lore as long as you give credit to me.

Hello! I am Aris!

I am the writer and storyteller for a very extensive setting, which i like to call either the Singural Hyperion, or (most recently) Asterium Prima.

Every story, book, and other piece of media i make is intertwined into this story in one way or another. Always leading back the main crew you might find me talking about a lot.

I have over 600 characters (its a problem, i know), each with their own background and storyline.

Alongside that, i have hundreds of different factions/empires that interact with each other in different ways. And, just about 100 Deities in a self-made pantheon called the "Hyperion Astra" (including Athena, though she has a very different domain).

My setting works with possibilities and change a lot.

It has a fully functional timeline (with the current "present" year being in the 18,900's), with time travel being a common factor in everything.

Alongside that, i have made a planescape for factors determining how the "material plane" or "mortal coil" functions, and a Dimension system, for even more chaos cause why not :)

My setting is a mixture between Sci-fi and fantasy, while also heavily being Xenofiction in nature.

Most of the time, you will see the setting interacting with its self in space, across various different systems, sectors, galaxies, universes, and multiverses.

BUT WHY STOP THERE??

Ever heard of the omniverse theory?

Its effectively a group of space that is a collective of multiverses together.

Each Omniverse is inherently different than another, as if a different type of story all together. For instance: Singularity (the main omniverse i work with) is like our real world, only if it was heavily reliant on magic tech.

Meanwhile, Wylrin is effectively completely comprised of the Fae, and Fae entities.

Each omniverse is a different story medium.

If you cant tell, i like changing my stories up. I like writing different things.

Another thing that helps, is the timelines.

The main timeline which is considered "cannon" is called the "Major". This timeline is effectively the master branch for all others. Changes done to the Major changes all other timelines.

Every event done by every person creates a split in the timeline, one split being one result of their actions, and another split being a different result.

This can range from small things, like choosing between tea and coffee. Or large things, like choosing to betray someone or not.

This gives me infinite timelines, and infinite possibilities. Which i personally find a lot of fun exploring.

I like to expand on and build my story. And so you may see me posting a lot of random things based around it.

One thing you have to keep in mind though, is i love to take suggestions, and i love to use prompts. Ask me anything or give me a prompt, and i am sure to answer!

Anyways, that is all for now. Though i may update this in the future. Cya!

[saintrabouin]

The Chant of Sigil : Factor Sneer of the Transcendent Order steals an arborean apple at the Great Bazar's market

[yellow-yarrow]

playing planescape torment:

I wake up as a character who lost all of their memories

I look like shit

a funny annoying horny object is now my companion and occasionally talks to me

I don't remember my name but I can make up one and use that

later in the game there is an object I need to open to find information about my past

i find a letter from my ex, Dei..something about how much she loves me

my ex is haunting me

past self was kind of an asshole and made a mess

barkeeper tells me I trashed his place and I owe him a bunch of money

loosing my memories weren't an accident, someone did this to me

loosing them had something to do with a depressive nihilist gray area where your dreams are pulled to the surface and then become lost forever

a powerful goddess called "lady of pain" is keeping the order and status quo

the city is talking to me

someone tells me about ultimate negation

and how belief changes reality

immortality

things disappear when you stop believing in them

there is a faction that wants to undo reality

guy named Ignus who loves violence

there are anarchists

[zakamore1]

Working on a new Planescape campaign; Door to Dolores

I put most of the info I came up for it on reddit but most of the people there are… narrow minded at best. So I'ma copy stuff over here.

So the primary idea for the adventure is based on this one old Polyhedron article and picture that went with it, as well as a disgusting amount of research into The Lady of Pain and her origins not just in setting but as a character.

Basically, when The Lady of Pain decided to spare the child (her name being Dolores) on that mythical day, she was actually selected to be her successor; The Child of Pain. She's then taken by Dabus' and pampered by The Lady, a ritual taking place to attempt to ascend her with the pains of the multiverse that The Lady herself exudes; Misery, Agony, Aguish, and Despair. However this ritual went wrong, destroying Dolores' body but trapping her soul within Sigil and The Outlands to reincarnate endlessly. With each new incarnation The Lady of Pain has tried again and again, fine tuning the ritual in the hope of getting it right and having the daughter she so desperately wants.

So that's essentially the set up, the adventure starting with the party discovering the current incarnation of Dolores and effectively adopting her as she slowly develops her LoP powers. I think it could be a really fun adventure with some heartwarming bits and a heart-wrenching ending planned, but I wanna know what kinda stuff around Sigil/The Outlands that could gel well with it. The best I've thought of, with the limited knowledge I've been able to research, is a few of the factions that would have any amount of interest in Dolores being a thing;

Athar; cause she’s proof that the gods aren’t the only way to power

Doomguard; cause she’s allowing The Lady of Pain to cheat entropy

Fated; cause she’s the ultimate prize to control Sigil

Fraternity of Order; cause they keep records on everything

Heralds of Dust; cause she’s died so many times they’d be fascinated by her

Mind’s Eye; cause she’s the realization of their ideas

Incanterium; cause she’d be how they might siphon Sigil of magic

With all this kinda laid out and me being kinda stuck in how I wanna run the adventure, I humbly ask any planar scholars on here that know more of the setting if you've got some fun lore bits or anything else that could make this adventure more fun. Anything that could help is appreciated! ^w^

Here then is Dolores' statblock that I made

[illarian-rambling]

Hello! I heard you like DnD!

What has been your favorite campaign so far? My current friend group is completing a 5e WotC one, but I have also seen some great homebrews done. Do you prefer WotC campaigns, or homebrews? What were some memorable moments? ✨

Oh god, you've got me started, now I'm never gonna shut up >:)

So, I've played in four games and ran one, all homebrew, over the course of my time. My first campaign I was a life cleric with a pet goat that I saved from being a sacrifice. I didn't really know what I was doing, as it was my first game, but I had fun. My second game, I was a rogue snakeoil (and crack) salesman, which started the trend of all my characters selling drugs. Game three, I played an evangelist artificer and fell in love with the class. I adore robots, what can I say? In my current game (which is an original story, but in the planescape setting), I play a barb/fighter hazily struck out of time. She's up to three mystery voices in her head now, one being the sword of Kas, sells drugs via cranium rats, and was in a pro-wrestling tournament.

Probably one of my most memorable moments was perma-killing my artificer, Gillaria. To start, Gillaria was a bit of dunce. She was smart, yeah, but had balls wisdom and even worse charisma. She tried to fly into a portal to hell once on a wooden broom so she could take an energy reading. She got kidnapped in like three separate alleyways and gave her full, legal name to a devil. This is all to preface with the fact that this character didn't make the smartest choices.

The other thing about Gillaria was that she was a priest of Relhan, the setting's god of innovation. She and her two robot buddies, Anatolius and Aenira, would preach the word of this dying god on street corners, since the main temple to him had been destroyed. Usually, given that the highest charisma score between them was an 8, this ended up with tomatoes being thrown.

Anyways, though the campaign was supposed to go a little while longer, our dm got a new job, so we had to end early. The party decided that our last hurrah would be to raid the Golden Trident, a rival faction we'd been eyeing for some time.

One Gillaria project she wanted to get done before the end of the campaign as well was the squirrel laser. The construction of such a laser is as follows:

The druid Awakens 6 squirrels with their magic staff. The squirrels are now sentient.

Our warlock signs these squirrels onto warlock pacts. The squirrels can now cast the cantrip Bonfire.

Gillaria has a Decanter of Endless Water and the spell Magic Mouth

Infinite steam power has been achieved

We did the math and we would've been able to power a railgun with this set-up, so our dm decided, fuck it, campaign's almost over, they can have a death laser. It was decided it would be a DC 16 dex save against being zapped into ash.

Anyways, cut to us raiding the Golden Trident. Our level 10 warlock is being chased by an anctient dragon, our barbarian fell off the airship (We had a dragon ghost powered airship. Long story, also Gillaria's fault) and we're being chased by the enemy's airship.

Gillaria tells Anatolius, her steel defender with an intellect headband that she treats like a son, to point the laser at the enemy skyship, ready to fire once it warms up in four rounds. Gillaria then flies over to the enemy ship, hoping to disable its engines. However, like any good artificer, she's immediately enamored by the engines themselves. At this point, I the player forget I have a four round count down.

Yeah, you can see where this is going... The dm has me pick high or low on a d100 to see what part of the ship my laser hits, and I invariably pick wrong. And that is how Gillaria got blasted to ash by her own automaton, wielding her own laser, atop her own airship. Her final consolation was finding out that her god was not, in fact, dead and being reincarnated into his steel and steam avatar.

This is one of sooo many dumbass stories for this character, she was a piece of work. Thanks for asking though, I love talking about dnd! Feel free to share a story of your own or ask any questions :)