Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jaerom Darkwind 02-19-07, 09:07 PM	Okay, I've been idly converting the factions into PHB2-style Affiliations, but I'm stuck on the Mind's Eye. The Godsmen and the Signers were easy, because of how much information there is on them, but from what I can tell, the Mind's Eye never received much information beyond the blurb in the Faction War module. So this is all I have so far: The Mind's Eye Symbol: A sword with a corona of clames rising from its hilt, and a sinuous golden oriental dragon coiled around the blade. Philosophy: Explore existence; face life's challenges; discover yourself and the multiverse. Background, Goals, and Dreams: Ever hear a body say that he's going off to find himself? Usually, he means that he's got to puzzle out a few problems and figure out just what king of a basher he really is--that he's going on a journey of spiritual discovery. Well, the members of the Mind's Eye take that idea a step further. They believe they're so connected to the multiverse that they can find themselves only by "finding" the infinite wonder and fulfillment of the planes. Sitting in one place won't help a body grow; he's got to forge out into the unknown, seeking out the kinds of challenges that'll test his character and show him what he's really made of. Ultimately, those who prove themselves worth enough (whatever that means) may pass into a new kind of existence. 'Course, each basher must follow his own path toward personal discovery, as the Cosmos holds different challenges for all. Everyone's the center of his own world. But it's more than that--the Mind's Eye likes to say that by facing the tests of the unknown, a cutter defines not only himself but the reality around him, bringing with him as much meaning as he takes away. In other words, everyone shapes and is shaped by the multiverse, a relationship that benefits both. Sound harmless? It would be, if it wasn't for the fact that Seekers consider the Cosmos their own personal playground and feel that everything and everyone in it exists only to inform their journey of self-discovery. As a result, the Seekers feel removed from their surroundings, almost as if they're actors on a stage cluttered with scenery, props, and bit players. They tend to be arrogant, inconsiderate, and at times wholly oblivious to the concerns of others. Lots of folks call 'em "the Mind's I" instead. Don't misunderstand, though--Seekers aren't cold-hearted or aggressive, and they won't put a berk in the dead book without good cause (even if his life's worth less than their own). They're just out to explore the multiverse and, in the process, find themselves. They don't expect other sods to understand. Enemies and Allies: Now that chant about the Mind's Eye has spread around the Outer Planes, other exiled factions are beginning to take an interest. The Fraternity of Order, in particular, sees parallels with their own quest to understand and thus control the laws of the multiverse. The Athar have extended an offer of friendship as well, simply because they call kip on the same plane (and because they need all the friends they can get, frankly). The Seekers don't really have any foes among the remaining factions, though their brashness and arrogance often gets 'em in trouble with ordinary bashers. Secrets: Type: Faction Scale: 20 (Cosmic) Criterion Affiliation Score Modifier Expertise and power 1/2 class levels 5 or more ranks in any Knowledge skill +1/2 per 5 ranks 5 or more ranks in Autohypnosis skill +1/2 per 5 ranks Is a member of the Extreme Explorer +2 prestige class Is a member of the Visionary Seeker +4 prestige class Recomendation of factotum +1 Recomendation of factor +2 Spends 20 or more years in faction +1/2 per 20 years, maximum +5 Completes a mission assigned by the faction +1/2 Makes a discovery important to the faction +1/2 Makes a pilgrimage or journey important to the faction +1/2 Titles, Benefits, and Duties: Rank within the Godsmen and the Signers was transferred when the two groups merged, even if the members' affiliation score in the Mind's Eye is no longer high enough to merit it. A new system for advancing rank has not yet been instituted, though the factol has raised several members by decree. Affiliation Score Title: Benefits and Drawbacks 1-3 No affiliation 4-14 NAMER: Does not need to interact with illusions to gain a saving throw-- if she can see or otherwise witness the illusory effect, she can attempt a save. Access to safehouses in most planar cities for free short-term lodging and purchase of goods at market price. Overcharged 10% by other merchants, and suffers -5 penalty to Gather Information DCs. 15-29 FACTOTUM: Immune to fear (including magical fear effects). Can intuit direction on the Outer Planes (as if she had 5 ranks in Survival), sensing north or equivalent direction. Can call upon contacts in any planar city and most towns for free short-term lodging and purchase of goods and services at 90% market price. 30+ FACTOR: Executive Power: Raid, Shadow War, Trade.
Jaerom Darkwind 02-21-07, 02:27 PM	No? Okay, one more question. What happens to the abilities of cutters whose factions vanished after the faction war? For example, a Signer factor with the power of Imagining. Does he up and lose it as soon as the faction disbands?
ripvanwormer 02-21-07, 03:34 PM	The Mind's Eye are also detailed in the Planar Handbook, and in the Planewalker.com Planescape Campaign Setting Releases. Faction War did suggest that characters whose factions disbanded lost their powers, but I think everyone agrees that this is nonsense. Unless all the former faction members also stop believing in their former ideals, the power isn't going anywhere. Faction abilities come from belief, not from political organization.
Jaerom Darkwind 02-21-07, 04:12 PM	The Mind's Eye are also detailed in the Planar Handbook, and in the Planewalker.com Planescape Campaign Setting Releases.Neither was very informative, more's the pity. Faction War did suggest that characters whose factions disbanded lost their powers, but I think everyone agrees that this is nonsense. Unless all the former faction members also stop believing in their former ideals, the power isn't going anywhere. Faction abilities come from belief, not from political organization.Must have missed that part, somehow. Thanks, and I agree that it would be stupid to take their powers away.
Jaerom Darkwind 03-06-07, 09:06 PM	So I suppose for the moment characters will just keep the abilities of their old factions, adjusted as necessary to the new climate. * * * * * We can all be gods. All beings are sacred, haloed by the divine, ordained for a greater destiny. Each time we die, we rise again to a new life. The multiverse acts as a forge for us, in every life we live. As we are shaped by it, we evolve: from grue to prime, to planar, to power—and then into the unknown sublime. Reincarnation turns the wheel of existence: teaching us, testing us, remaking us. The lessons of experience may be obscure, esoteric, unfathomable, but the one who overcomes them and survives is the one who succeeds and ascends. The difficulties of living are more than unpleasant irrelevancies to avoid. They are opportunities. And the one who fails to prove his worth when challenged by the multiverse risks more than the loss of gold or love: Sentient spirits can and do descend the great ladder of evolution, to be reborn as vargouilles or slugs. Courage and intelligence are necessary qualities in the upward stretch towards the source of all life… We must become partners with the multiverse to sculpt our own beings. We cannot wait upon the vagaries of life to transform us, as people wait in line to pay their fines at the Courts in the grand City of Doors. Passivity invites self-pity and stagnation. Those who allow their agony to merely wash over them become small and hard and mean. And those who simple acquiesce to joy forget to embrace it! Their spirits shrink, and all unknowingly, they prepare themselves for a descent after death. While gripped in the vise of like’s ills and joys, we must bend all our virtues toward participation in our experience. The man who expands his duties and responsibilities while suffering and allows the pain to urge him on toward greater achievement will grow. The woman who allows her joy to drive her to new experiences rather than trying futilely to cage that joy finds the emotion has infused all she sees and all she does. These active participants in the forge of existence are preparing themselves for the more rigorous challenges prevailing on the higher rungs of the ladder to the Source. These people become strong and flexible, the goal of the ascent toward their destiny… One should never give too much meaning to the forms we gain in our ascent toward our goal. Only the ignorant believe the purpose of our evolution is to acquire the body of a human, a halfling, or an elf. A being’s physical form merely mirrors one’s spiritual development—not the other way around. Inner development is our aim. Yet a profound mystery remains concerning the form manifested by a being who reaches the top rung of the ladder of the multiverse and steps off it to some sublime existence beyond. Is his body fashioned so finely that we lesser kindred cannot even perceive it? Or might it be that formlessness itself is the measure of the ascended one’s triumph? This, as all other knowledge, we will lean in time. —Excerpt from Destiny of Being, a treatise in three volumes by Factol Ambar Vergrove of the Believers of the Source Believers of the Source Symbol: A silver sword, point down, in the foreground; an organge sunburst centered over the cross, the top half in negative and the bottom half in positive, in the background. Philosophy: All life springs from the same source, ascending and descending in form as the Cosmos tests it. Background, Goals, and Dreams: To Godsmen, all things are godly. All things can ascend to greater glory—if not in this life, then in the next. Patience, that's all it takes. See, here's the chant: Everything—primes, planars, petitioners, proxies, the whole lot—is being tested. Survive, succeed, and ascend—that's the goal of all beings. Fail and get reincarnated to try again. It's pretty simple and straightforward. 'Course, it ain't that easy either. First off, nobody really knows what the tests are. Is a body supposed to be good, evil, or what? Godsmen are trying to figure that out. Second, a fellow just might go in reverse—mess up and come back as a prime or something worse in the next life. It could even be that those who do really badly return as fiends. Finally, there's one last step nobody even understands. Getting to be a power ain't the end of the cycle. There's something beyond that, something that powers, themselves, eventually ascend to. Cross that threshold to the ultimate form and get released from the multiverse forever. Now, there's a fixed number of beings out there, and sooner or later we're going to run out, when everybody's ascended. A lot of the worlds on the socalled "infinite" Prime Material Plane are already pretty thinly populated. When a prime ascends to the next level, then there's one less prime in all the multiverse—unless, of course, a planar somewhere fails and falls back a rank. But sooner or later, everybody's going to attain the ultimate, goal, the final ascension, and when that happens the multiverse ends closes up shop, fades right out of existence. So you see, the Godsmen calculate that's the whole purpose of the multiverse. The Prime Material, the Inner, and the Outer Planes—they exist to test and purge. It's just a matter of figuring what's being tested and how. When that happens, the Godsmen can hasten the end of the universe and get on with some new existence. Enemies and Allies: Since a central belief of both the Godsman and Athar philosophies is that there's some greater thing that the powers, those two factions often find themselves allied. Likewise, the belief in the ultimate end of the multiverse sits well with the Doomguard, although any alliance between the two groups is always temporary. Both the Bleak Cabal and the Dustmen take exception with Godsman philosophy, and they're considered foes of the Godsmen's cause. Secrets: Believers of the Source possess a faculty they don't truly understand. See, in the Great Ring, beliefs matter more than they do in Prime worlds. Whole burgs can vanish or move because of belief—take Plague-Mort, the gate-town that's regularly pulled onto the Abyss, then pushed out. Entire planes can be born or destroyed because of belief. And, because the Godsmen believe ordinary bashers may one day evolve into powers, they actually can. So far, the Godsmen've seen only one of their fellows evolve to this stage: the previous factol, Curran, who grants her followers spells of healing and protection. Many think Ambar'll be next. On a more mundane level, the Godsmen possess a useful resource in the relationship between a teifling factotum named Zena and her estranged identical twin sister, a Sensate factor named Zakarias. Zena has, on occassion, gained entrance to the inner sanctums of the Sensates by impersonating her sister. Type: Faction Scale: 20 (Cosmic) CRITERION AFFILIATION SCORE MODIFIER Expertise and power 1/2 class levels 5 or more ranks in craft skill +1/2 per 5 ranks Has an item creation feat +1 Has bardic music or equivalent class feature +1 Spends 20 or more years in faction +1/2 per 20 years, maximum +5 Recomendation of factotum +1 Recomendation of factor +2 Completes a mission assigned by the faction +1/2 Makes a discovery important to the faction +1/2 Makes a pilgrimage or journey important to the faction +1/2 Is a cleric of a specific deity -2 Comes from the Prime Material -2 Titles, Benefits, and Duties: As a member advances through the ranks of the Godsmen, she gain increased access to the resources and secrets of the organization. Becoming a namer requires working as a helper in the Great Foundry for a variable period of time. To advance to the rank of factotum, a namer must first serve an apprenticeship to a factotum or factor. On receiving the recomendation of her mentor, a namer undergoes a series of tests tailored to prober her fears and limitations, administered by a factor. A similar test administered by the factol himself is required to advance to factor rank. The leader of the faction is called the factol, and is typically chosen from the ranks of the factors. AFFILIATION SCORE TITLE: BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS 1-3 No affiliation 4-14 NAMER: Gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks, base attitude of planar NPCs increases by one step (unfriendly to indifferent, indifferent to friendly, etc.). Can call upon contacts in most planar cities for free short-term lodging and purchase of goods at market price. Cannot be -raised- or -resurrected- by any means (can be -reincarnated-, -cloned-, or revived through other methods normally). 15-29 FACTOTUM: Can call upon contacts in any planar city and most towns for free short-term lodging and purchase of goods and services at 90% market price. Access to -source tokens-. 30+ FACTOR: Borrow one item of up to 40,000 gp value from the faction's stores once per month for 2d4 days. Lodgings in Ambar's Palace, access to communications network that lets you use the Gather Information skill across the planes without requiring you to leave the Great Foundry. Executive Power: Craft, Research, Shadow War.
Jaerom Darkwind 03-06-07, 09:07 PM	"Good afternoon, children. I'm Factol Darius. Your teachers tell me you've been enjoying your visit to our beautiful Hall of Speakers today. It's pretty quiet, for once, since the Council's not in session today. The room you're in right now is called the Speaker's Podium, named for that big wooden lectern up there. This is where we make Sigil's laws. "Now, I have only a few minutes to spend with you. Do any of you have questions about your visit?" "Is that big statue out front supposed to be you?" "Yes, in a way, it is me, just like it's every other member of the Sign of One. That sculpture, called 'The Power of One', represents our faction. as you approached the Hall you passed right by it, a woman holding an entire world on her back. Remember gow it didn't even look heavy for her? Her whole body looked powerful enough to carry that world across the multiverse, and her face wore a confident smile, as though she were imagining exactly where she wanted to put that world. She was planning it all out in her head. That's what we do in the Sign of one. We can think about doing something, no mater how impossible it seems, and we make it happen through sheer concentration." "How come you can do that?" "Because I'm the center of the multiverse. Therefore, I can control everything in it." "Can I do that too?" "'Course you can. Everybody can, though we Signers do it best of all. Try this when you get back to your case tonight. Pick some task, anything that involves manual deftness, like threading a needle. Sit down, close your eyes, and imagine yourself trying to thread that needles. Imagine that you just can't do it. The thread won't go through the needle's eye. Then, open your eyes and actually try to do the task. Try threading that needle a half dozen times. What do you think'll happen?" "I can't do it?" "Exactly. Then, try something else. Close your eyes and imagine actually threading that needle. Your fingers hold steady, and you can picture yourself threading it on the first try. Then open your eyes and really try to do it. Try it another six times. What happens?" "Bet it works, now." "That's right, it works. You'll naturally succeed more often this time than in your earlier attempts. See, the mind is a powerful too. The results it envisions frequently come to pass. I know some berks pass this off as the effect of practice. They say that by rehearsing mental images you train your body. But that doesn't explain why imagining the return of a lost iem usually causes it to reappear. Has that happened to you? "I can tell you why it works like this. The mind create the multiverse—maybe just a small chunk of it, maybe a whole plane, or perhaps the entire Great Ring. You think about it enough, it'll come to pass. It all depends on the power of he mind doing the envisioning. "Here's a challenfe for all of you. Grasp that slice of the multiverse which is your life and take control of it. Imagine the happy ending, the triumph. It could be yours, if you've got the guts. Don't cling to failure. Stop whining, stop blaming, stop worrying. Imagine yourself radiant. You could be. And when you've grown up and you have what you imagined, think about whether you want more. Would you like to guide the destiny of a city—an ampire? If that appeals to you, I would offer you the Sign of One. We have the entire multiverse at our fingertips." —A recent talk between Factol Darius and a group of schoolchildren touring the Hall of Speakers Sign of One Symbol: A serpentine dragon head and neck, bounded by a circle. Philosophy: Where is the center of the multiverse? I'm the center of the multiverse. Background, Goals, and Dreams: Every person, every individual, is unique. This is the greatest glory of the universe—that each creature living (and dead) is different from all others. It's obvious, then, that the multiverse centers around the self, or so this faction would have everyone believe." It's quite simple, addle-cove," one of these sods would say. "The world exists because the mind imagines it. Without the self, the multiverse ceases to be." Therefore, each Signer is the most important person in the multiverse. Without at least one Signer to imagine it all, the rest of the factions would cease to exist. Better be nice to the Signers then, berk, because they just might decide to imagine a body right out of existence. Don't think it can be done? Maybe not, but then a basher's a fool to take the risk. Lots of folks disappear without a trace, and more than a few are enemies of the Signers. Makes a body think, don't it? So, some smart cutter'll say, what happens if two Signers don't agree? What if they both think different things? Then what happens? After all, the multiverse is the same for everybody. The answer's easy for a Signer. Since he's the center of the universe, then obviously everything else is from his imagination - simple. Nobody else really exists except as he thinks of them, so of course the multiverse is the same. How else could it be? A lot of folks don't accept this idea. After all, they point to their own feelings and emotions, their own self, as proof the Signers are wrong. And the Signers simply claim to have imagined it all. What others feel and think isn't real; only what the Signers feel is. So exactly u ho is imagining the multiverse? That part even the Signers don't know for sure. One of them is, but they can't agree on which one. The safest bet is just to fall in with their faction, because any Signer could be the source of everything. Remember that, berk. Enemies and Allies: The Signers and Sensates share some common points in their philosophies, making the two natural allies. Signers also gain frequent recruits from the Outsiders, who often are comforted by being placed at the center of importance. The Harmonium finds the Signers more than slightly annoying, and the Bleak Cabal's the most opposed to them of all. Secrets: The Sign on One's secret and unusual resources include a significant resident of Hell. See, the Signers helped the pit fiend Bael obtain gis position as leader of the host of Avernus through the power of imagining. Bael has bowed to perform a favor of like magnitude for the faction whenever the factol decides to collect payment. Factol Darius is even more ambitious than her predecessors, and her latest scheme to increase the faction's prestige is fitting: she plans to revive a dead god. Which deity has not yet been decided, but Aoskar seems to be the front-runner. This would involve destroying the Bois Verdurous (the magical tree in the Shattered Temple--the headquarters of the Athar). While Darius is not worried about the Lost, she's hesitating because the Lady of Pain is said to have slain the deity, and it's not wise to get on the wrong side of Her Serenity. Type: Faction Scale: 20 (Cosmic) CRITERION AFFILIATION SCORE MODIFIER Expertise and power 1/2 class levels 5 or more ranks in Concentration skill +1/2 per 5 ranks 5 or more ranks in Autohypnosis skill +1/2 per 5 ranks Has psionic ability +1 Recomendation of factotum +1 Recomendation of factor +2 Spends 20 or more years in faction +1/2 per 20 years, maximum +5 Completes a mission assigned by the faction +1/2 Makes a discovery important to the faction +1/2 Makes a pilgrimage or journey important to the faction +1/2 Is Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral -2 Comes from the Prime Material -2 Titles, Benefits, and Duties: The Sign of One does not recruit new members as actively as other factions. See, bashers need to prove they can alter the multiverse before the faction'll admit them. The Signers recognize the chosen by allowing faction hopefuls to register their visions for the future at headquarters. Bashers whose predictions come to pass become namers, but their faction allows them to do little more than serve as runners and legislative clerks and hold various menial jobs in the Hall of Speakers. They spend their free time improving their concentration, to prepare for greater faction duties. Namers of 6th level or higher can ascend in the ranks the same way they got in--successfully predicting future events. Each rank in the Sign of One has a special conclave devoted to evaluating members of the level below, checking their recorded predictions, and promoting the most talented. Factotumsenjoy the privilege of going on faction missions and speaking at major events in the Cage and elsewhere. Some perform guard duty within the Hall (such as at Rillith's Tomb), and the best can join special "think tanks" concentrating on the Signer's vital goals. A character must have reached 15th level to become a factor. These signers work as personal assistants to the factol, guard faction outposts, and supervise factotums involved in complex missions. As factors have worked tirelessly to improve their concentration abilities, they form the core of the Sign of One's "think tanks". AFFILIATION SCORE TITLE: BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS 1-3 No affiliation 4-14 NAMER: Does not need to interact with illusions to gain a saving throw-- if you can see or otherwise witness the illusory effect, you can attempt a save. +2 bonus on Concentration checks. -2 to Leadership score and base attitude of planar NPCs decreases by one step (indifferent to unfriendly, friendly to indifferent, etc.). 15-29 FACTOTUM: Power of -imagining- (see below); gain access to -speaker's keys-. 30+ FACTOR: Greater powers of -imagining- (see below). Imagining: Signers of factotum rank or higher share the power of imagining, which can be used to bend the fabric of reality to conform to a character's wishes. To imagine a thing into (or out of) existence, the Signer must make a successful Intelligence or Wisdom check (DC 10 + Int modifier + Wis modifier). This check receives a cumulative -5 penalty each time it is used each wek (-5 the first time, -10 the second time, etc.). With a successful imagination check, a factotum can create a bend reality effect, as the psionic power. A power can only be duplicated if a psion of the Signer's character level could manifest it. If a character fails an imagination check, she cannot use the ability again for the rest of the week. This ability is not without danger, though. A factotum who rolls a natural '1' on her check believes herself imaginary. She becomes a shadow version of herself, as if conjured by the shadow conjuration spell. Once per day, the factotum can attempt an imagination effect to return herself to reality. Signers of factor rank can imagine even greater effects. A factor who succeeds on her imagination check can create a reality revision effect (which has the same restrictions as the lesser version of the ability). However, if the factor fails her imagination check, she cannot use the ability again until she gains a level. In addition, rolling a natural '1' means that she has imagined herself out of the Cosmos completely, and she ceases to exist. The factor can only return through the use of an alter reality power or equivalent effect, or if another Signer imagines her back. (A factor can also use the lesser form of imagining available to factotums.) Executive Power: Law (Sigil)*, Shadow War * Due to the political climate of Sigil, the Signers must make a Diplomacy check as listed in the description to pass any law, no matter how reasonable).