Sigil lies at the center of the multiverse, and factions seek to grow their power in the city. Though the Lady of Pain ultimately holds dominion over the City of Doors, she permits to a degree these factions to compete with one another for the opportunity to capture the hearts of the masses and to spread their ideologies.
To help you prepare for the release of Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse, here's a sneak peek at the most influential factions in Sigil. You'll find downloadable faction recruitment posters you can print and play with, advice on creating your own faction, and learn what happens when a faction falls apart.
Click below to jump in:
- Downloadable Handout: 12 Recruitment Posters for Sigil Factions
- Creating Your Own Faction for Sigil
- When a Faction Falls Apart
Downloadable Handout: 12 Recruitment Posters for Sigil Factions
The city’s 12 most influential factions are known as the ascendant factions. Each is responsible in some way for managing the city, whether that’s laying down the law, crafting needed materials, or spying on troublemakers. But their diversity of ideologies and missions at times put them in opposition to one another, and tensions can escalate into all-out war.
Below, we offer downloadable recruitment posters for these major factions. You can print them out to use as handouts for when your party of adventurers begin to explore Sigil, and when the factions start to take notice of them.
Click a poster below to view its full-size version.
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The 12 Ascendant Factions of Sigil
Column one of the below table has the faction name; column two has the faction's motto; and column three reveals key information on the faction.
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Faction |
Motto |
Key Information |
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Athar |
Who Claim the Gods Are Frauds |
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Bleak Cabal |
Who Find No Sense in the Multiverse |
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Doomguard |
Who Celebrate Destruction and Decay |
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Fated |
Who Take All They Can and More |
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Fraternity of Order |
Who Discover Laws to Find Truth |
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Hands of Havoc |
Who Free Society Through Chaos |
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Harmonium |
Who Enforce Peace Through Might |
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Heralds of Dust |
Who Believe Everyone Is Already Dead |
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Mercykillers |
Who Bring Justice to the Deserving |
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Mind’s Eye |
Who Grow to Godhood |
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Society of Sensation |
Who Find Truth Only in Experience |
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Transcendent Order |
Who Act Unfettered by Thought |
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Minor Factions
Not all the factions of Sigil are represented here, only the ascendant factions. You’ll find details on a few minor factions in Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse. Such factions may reflect ideologies gaining traction in Sigil or be former ascendant factions whose numbers have dwindled.
Creating Your Own Faction for Sigil
The ascendant factions are not immutable. Over time, their ideologies may become dated or scandal may chase out members. Should your party of adventurers seek to grow their power in the City of Doors, they may seek to establish a new faction.
To help you create a faction of your own, I put together this bulleted list for you to fill out:
- Name: Every good faction needs a name!
- Core Tenets: What are the driving principles for your faction?
- Motto: Write a phrase that encapsulates the faction’s mission or beliefs.
- Alignment: How far is your faction willing to go to accomplish its goals? What is the general alignment of its members?
- Aligned Plane: Which of the planes of existence have shaped the ideologies of your faction?
- Factol: Who leads your faction, if anyone? What are they like?
- Headquarters: Where do you make your home? This could be a single location in Sigil or multiple.
- Members: What kinds of people does your faction commonly attract?
- Attire: Who doesn’t love a good uniform? How do your members dress for meetings or events?
- Epithet: What are your faction members called? Choose a word that reflects the faction.
- Ally/Rival Faction: Which faction(s) complement yours? Which would like to see it burn?
If your faction will be one of the ascendant factions, you should also decide in what ways it serves the people of Sigil. The Society of Sensation (my favorite) provides the people with a distraction from their everyday lives, whereas the Fraternity of Order deals in law and studies the city’s many portals.
When a Faction Falls Apart
Factions come and go in Sigil. The machinations of a rival faction may destroy your faction or drive it underground. A similar fate awaits a faction that threatens Sigil’s neutrality in the multiverse. Should factions openly wage war with one another, the Lady of Pain will force them to a speedy resolution by temporarily closing the portals into and out of the city.
When a faction falls apart, its members may scatter to other factions or, if they are truly devoted to their cause, choose to meet in Nowhere, found in Undersigil. As the name suggests, Undersigil is the underbelly of the City of Doors. There, forgotten factions host forums in seedy alleyways surrounded by criminals and all manner of odd monsters. Whether their ideologies or numbers will ever allow them to escape Undersigil is another matter.
Prepare for Multiversal Havoc
Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse has everything you need to take your players to Sigil and the Outlands. For Sigil, you’ll have a gazetteer, encounters, maps, and more at your disposal to bring the city to life. When your players are ready, they can strike out on an adventure to rediscover who they are and that uncovers a plot that undermines the very rules of reality!
Michael Galvis (@michaelgalvis) is a tabletop content producer for D&D Beyond. He is a longtime Dungeon Master who enjoys horror films and all things fantasy and sci-fi. When he isn’t in the DM’s seat or rolling dice as his anxious halfling sorcerer, he’s playing League of Legends and Magic: The Gathering with his husband. They live together in Los Angeles with their adorable dog, Quentin.
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Posted Sep 23, 2023Ravnica 2.0
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Posted Sep 23, 2023Sigil, and it's factions, have existed for a lot longer than Ravnica, and for longer than WotC has owned Dungeons and Dragons
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Posted Sep 23, 2023Why are the dustmen now called the heralds of dust?
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Posted Sep 23, 2023Probably cause it’s a better name for a group. Dustmen sounds more like a nickname.
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Posted Sep 23, 2023Where are the xaositects? The anarchists? The godsmen or the free league? did they just take out a ton of great factions?
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Posted Sep 23, 2023I know its history, I'm talking about conceptually for 5e its various similarities, and how it was published far after Ravnica in this edition, despite that setting being from MtG.
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Posted Sep 23, 2023There's some really weird continuity stuff happening here ...
The factols listed are all from the Planescape setting pre-Faction War. Notably, the factol of the Fated is still Duke Rowan Darkwood (who played a pivotal role and was ousted in the old FW adventure) & the factol of the Fraternity of Order is still Hashkar (who died in the old FW adventure).
However, the presence of the Mind's Eye faction is a post-Faction War development (mentioned in the epilogue of the FW adventure).
So there's conflicting continuity lore without any explanation (yet) for what's going on.
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Posted Sep 23, 2023The godsmen and the sign of one became the Minds Eye post Faction War, it seems they decided to keep that idea.
The anarchists and the free league seemed to have been mixed into the Hands of Havoc
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Posted Sep 23, 2023Doesn’t this sigil upcoming book contain a time travel adventure. Might be the answer
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Posted Sep 23, 2023Its a retcon. They don't want to do AD&D 2 Planescape. I mean, did you see Tower Sorcerous on the map? Its supposed to be gone with Incanterium.
Also, not sure if it will ever go in-depth about past factions of Sigil. But they might, look at that dead faction header.
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Posted Sep 23, 2023Internationalism - In Britain, dustmen means garbage collectors - or just to be less gender specific.
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Posted Sep 23, 2023We'll see if they address it, but the adventure does have "multiversal glitching" so even if they don't address the changes and it's just a reboot of the setting, then that could be a good explanation maybe.
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Posted Sep 23, 2023WoMEN - Enough said!
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Posted Sep 23, 2023At a glance, I’m liking:
Fated (Takers) - it’s sometimes fun to be a magnificent bast*rd with money & power.
Mercykillers (Jailers) - being a bounty hunter / vigilante provides good fodder for gameplay & narrative; without the administrative hassle.
Society of Sensation (Sensates) - fun for the sake of fun. Basically hedonists.
Transcendent Order (Ciphers) - who doesn’t love a good fight?
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Posted Sep 23, 2023The Sensates actually dislike hedonists that try to join them, as they view them as missing the point of their creed. They think one needs to experience everything, the good and the bad. Those are only interested in pleasure are not true sensates.
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Posted Sep 23, 2023Would it be possible to get a blank template?
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Posted Sep 23, 2023As part of the old-fogey brigade, this is the biggest thing we missed playing in "back in the day." (Holidays on the Costa del Plonk, a slap-up meal every night and we still had change out of a fiver, etc., etc. (very passable, Obadiah)) and I been REALLY looking forward to this... but the price of Planescape: Adventures in the do-blee-do has practically doubled since it's been displayed on the Amazon.co.uk website.
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Posted Sep 23, 2023Join the Mind's Eye Faction now, and you'll receive a free pair of Elton John '70's spec in the post, absolutely free!
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Posted Sep 24, 2023Conceptually? Factions/Guilds/Etc. are not limited to a single world/story/etc.
But if we go along that line of thinking, Ravinica (published as a world in M:TG in 2005) and the popularity of the "Plane Shift" pdf series (2016-2018) that led to GG2R (2018) being published would make Ravinica effectively Planescape 2.0.
Planescape was deeply developed though 2nd Edition, and Sigil is mentioned in every subsequent edition, including 5e's PHB and DMG (predating GG2R). The original setting spawned around 20 sourcebooks and supplements, a dozen adventures, novels, a computer RPG, and even a CCG (that was published a full 10 years before the world of Ravinica entered M:TG).
Spelljammer, Dragonlance, and Planescape, three of the most popular settings to ever be created for D&D, were chosen to be published later in 5e to refine them for the system (which became easier thanks to the new character generation options in TCoE), and in a small part because of the anniversary dates (35 years, 40 years, and 30 years respectively) coinciding with the 50th anniversary of D&D in 2024.
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Posted Sep 24, 2023You know if- in order to understand more of the events of Faction Wars- it's neccesary to read some adventures BEFORE? i mean The great Modron March for example?