"After the Faction War, a lot of bashers assumed that because the factions were banished from Sigil, they weren't going to have influence on the planes anymore. Of course, today we know this to be entirely false - by forcing the factions out of Sigil, they retreated back to places suitable to their beliefs and concentrated their efforts there, where they grew far faster than they ever did in Sigil. All of this seems obvious in retrospect, but bear in mind the factions were relatively quiet as they healed their wounds compared to before the Faction War. By the time the factions started to gain real power in the Outer Planes, enough that they actually started infringing on the powers' spheres of influence, it was already too late.
“Greybeards always wonder how the Blood War started; I think what we're looking at now is the potential beginning of a similar conflict, but this time I don't think any of the planes will be safe from it. Of course, things had begun to unfold some five years after the Faction War...”
- Portiale, zenythri scholar, four years hence"
I'm curious to know what the readers of this forum think about this metaplot. Will you use it in your own Planescape games? Do you think all of the factions will benefit from this massive increase in power, or only some of them? For instance, the leaders of the Dead are on the Negative Energy Plane. Does anyone know if the Negative Energy Plane has a large population that the Dead could theoretically pursuade to join their faction? How about the Athar near the Spire? Who could they recruit? The Rilmani? That seems a little unlikely to me. Do you think the Mazed leaders of the Factions will be brought back? How will the Lady react to these massively powerful factions? Will she allow them to reestablish their headquarters on Sigil? One could argue that the reason why she expelled them was precisely in order to allow them to become so powerful. And what happens when the Factions do start challenging the Powers? Won't the Powers fight back? Is that a fight the Factions can possibly win?
I've incorporated some of the PW events into my own game, however I've deviated to the point of no return from a number of plots etc so I can't actually use the PW metaplot(s), whatever they might be. ;)
For instance I've turned the power structure of the Yugoloths on its ear. Mydianchlarus and Anthraxus are dead, Xengara handed over to the Hag Countess of Baator, Typhus executed and hung from the ramparts of Khin-Oin, Cerlic neutral in the conflict, and Bubonix and Cholerix assassinated before the 'loth civil war erupted. Taba is vanished, a thorn in the side of the new 'loth order, and the Crawling Citadel of the General of Gehenna is vanished to parts unknown at the outbreak of the conflict.
Belarian, Elysium's swampy, hidden 3rd layer is gone, ripped away from the plane by the 'loths after the slaughter of the defenders of the Guardinal fortress of Rubicon. The Mother of Serpents now lies in obediant slumber at the base of Khin-Oin. Belarian, the 4th gloom has been allowed to slide back into the Outlands where Tanar'ri, Archons, Baatezu, and Guardinals fight over the layer/domain to determine its final resting place on the planes. The Rilmani quietly aid the Guardinals.
Muriav Garianis is dead, having comitted public suicide, and the Athar have retaken the Shattered Temple.
Alisohn Nilesia was flayed alive by The Lady after returning to Sigil, only to reappear 13 months later alive and well (it wasn't the 'real' Nilesia who was killed, but an artificial copy of her, spawned by experimentation upon the 'child' of the Gehennan moon/city of Nimicri), with multiple copies of herself in existance and controlled by the newly risen Oinoloth. Nilesia herself after being rescued, has all but snapped mentally and grown utterly obsessive with being 'alone in her mind' once more, wishing to kill her flawed clones.
Xidious the Shator Gehreleth is dead, his copy of the Book of Keeping stolen and a portion of the Gatehouse torn apart in a massive explosion. The former Bleaker factols, Esmus and Tollysalmon are gone, escaped by way of previously unknown portals when their cells were opened following the destruction of that portion of the Irretreivably and Criminally Insane Ward.
The Githyanki and Psurlon have erupted into full scale war at the instigation of other forces. Tu'narath is burning and the Guardian of the Dead Gods is restless within the Silver Sea of the Astral.
Ghyris Vast, creator of the Divinity Leech, is dead in his cell in the Astral Prison of Pitiless. His invention is gone, though he hints before his death that it was given freely to its thieves. "And what they don't know is... I... had...help!" A 'reformed' Ultraloth, locked away within Pitiless in a call across from Vast, incoherantly babbles about a Baernaloth who simply appeared, stepped clean through the wardings and killed Vast with a touch. Lazarius Ibn Shartalan, The Architect, created The Leech in order to gift it to others who would come to steal it. Why? Good question.
That about scratches the surface of my abuse of the setting canon. ;)
Originally posted by Shemeska the Marauder
... there's still that whole 'little' army of undead that Skall had been massing to invade Sigil before he was mazed.
Undead army invading Sigil? Skall in charge? The Dustmen factol Skall? The very old, very unemotional, very non-displeased about the state of things, Skall?
So it's Die Skall Die, or what? I wouldn't buy that module.
Or is this some other guy that was called Shkall in 2E, but is now renamed for no obvious reason? ;)
Originally posted by Weenie
Or is this some other guy that was called Shkall in 2E, but is now renamed for no obvious reason? ;)
I too have been using a modified pre-FW timeline. I'm using my PC's to help sneak Factol Mallin ot of the cage before Alisohn Nillasia gives him the boot.
However I'm a big fan of some of the new factions, especially the Mind's Eye!!! I always thought the Signers and the Godsmen were too similar (and I couldn't choose between them).
My campaign I’ve been planning generally follows most of the 3e plot advancement, though I lost most of it when I had to wipe my hard drive. Had several plans for a new faction hall for the Seekers too. Ah well…
Originally posted by primemover003
However I'm a big fan of some of the new factions, especially the Mind's Eye!!! I always thought the Signers and the Godsmen were too similar (and I couldn't choose between them).
Yah! You name one of my favorite factions and least favorite in the same breath. A Signer thinks he or she is the only one, and a Godsman thinks he or she is amid multitudes that could all one day be powers. The mind's eye combines the most self-centered and one of the most others-respecting factions in a way that I don't like at all. The Godsmen had to go (or else be renamed the Godsfolk), but I think they would have paired better with the Sons of Mercy.
Originally posted by Sildatorak
The mind's eye combines the most self-centered and one of the most others-respecting factions in a way that I don't like at all. The Godsmen had to go (or else be renamed the Godsfolk), but I think they would have paired better with the Sons of Mercy.
Agreed. The Mind's Eye philosophy is supposed to be a mixture of the two schools of thought which don't seem to have very much in common, I have no idea why did those two decide to merge, except maybe the Signers suddenly somehow figured they were totally wrong the whole time...
In the end, to noone's surprise, it turns out that Mind's Eye has next to nothing to do with the Signers.
*shrug*
I'm playing in a campaign set about six years after the Faction War. In fact, the PC I played through that adventure is now one of the major NPCs (and keeps boring the PCs with irrellevant war stories...).
I'm using the Mind's Eye as written. The Fated and the Ring Givers are involved in a bitter ideological (and physical!) war that is slowly reaching its conclusion. The Dustmen simply launched an expedition to fetch Skall from his Maze (after all, it's not like he'd have starved, they had time!) and kept on collecting lost sods bodies like nothing had happened. The Doomguard hasn't totally reformed as a Faction (that would be contrary to their entropic beliefs). Instead they've adopted a pseudo-feudal model, with the Factol chosen from among the Doomlords. Currently the more conservative Ash chapter counts the Factol among its members.
The Factions are back in Sigil - they sort of trickled back in as more and more factioneers took up lodgings in the Cage again and none of them got flayed alive (well, not for any reason that wasn't readily apparrent). Some roles have changed around though.
The Doomguard, who never really had a role in the governance of Sigil before, have taken up the Dabus' burden of collecting garbage from all over the Cage and taking it to be destroyed in the Great Incinerator (formerly the Great Foundry). The Lower ward is, if anything, slightly filthier for the new arrivals, but its denizens know how to deal with ash, so they don't complain much.
Since folks have noticed that the taxes the Fated collected didn't seem to help the city at all, they've now turned the Hall of Records into the Academy, where they train the rich and/or gifted of the city.
The Ring Givers have taken over the information distribution business, and for a brief period Sigil was awash in factotum touts offering free guided tours (spewing faction screed all the while). They also operate soup kitchens throughout the city, which has sometimes allied them with, and sometimes pitted them against, the Bleakers.
Haven't quite figured out a use for the Minds Eye in the Cage yet - suggestions are welcome!