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 24, 2023I’d like to think that every group has a mix of members who represent the high values & the low values of their faction…like, there can be Takers who believe in only boosting their personal power; and others who use their wealth to do some good (but still ruthless).
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Posted Sep 24, 2023Guessing that either Faction War has been retconned, or the Lady decided to allow Factions back again - and the dead Factols have simply been resurrected. (Kinda odd since Hashkar was a petitioner meaning he was already dead and moved on to his paradise...) My guess would be a retcon, and I am glad for that, since I absolutely hated Faction War. The guy writing it obviously did not understand how Sigil and the setting works, and wanted to change it, unnecessarily.
Dustmen have rebranded to a new name, and the Athar and Fated have new symbols, but little else changed there. Mind's Eye is likely a merge of the Godsmen and the Sign of One. The Hands of Havoc probably scooped up the remains of the Xaositects, Revolutionary League and Free League. Or those still exists as minor factions underground, guess we will see when the book is released. I am liking the artwork shown - especially that the Guvners kept their silly high hats with horns! :)
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Posted Sep 24, 2023Yes as mentioned, there are hedonists that try to join, but they are looked down upon by majority of members, cause they think they are missing the point. Hedonism is not what the sensates stand for.
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Posted Sep 25, 2023hmmm.......retcons, rowan is a tiefling ??? waiting for my books to arrive - seems 2ed still way better.
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Posted Sep 25, 2023The people on the cards are not the factols.
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Posted Sep 25, 2023alot of factions in planescape were destoryed during the faction war
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Posted Sep 26, 2023As a new comer and someone that despite trying a few times to get into the video game have only ever managed to leave the first room like once..... I am going with the reason they changed the name is because "Dustmen" is a fricking stupid uninformative name that makes people simply double take and ask... Huh? What?
"Heralds of Dust" at least sounds like a faction, and not some weird class of janitor!
(I spent far to long trying to start torment... Only to be confused with what the hell dustmen were and why I should care)
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Posted Sep 26, 2023It is a good game! though really only story wise the gameplay is rather outdated. there's a great audiobook series on spotify that retells the game! if you like deep meaningful storytelling its great
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Posted Sep 26, 2023also didnt he die at the end of faction war????
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Posted Sep 26, 2023The posters look okay, they get to the point and show what each faction is about briefly.
But they're all a bit too.... cookie cutter?
Would have been nice if each reflected the style of their faction, as if the poster was made by the faction.
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Posted Sep 26, 2023Anarchists are still there, renamed as Hands of Havoc.
Xaositects and Free League disappeared from sight.
Godsmen are the Mind's Eye which are probably merged with the Sign of One.
All changes make no sense to me, and I don't approve any of them, but at least they didn''t do anything too crazy.
We have to keep our expectations low this time, very low.
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Posted Sep 26, 2023is that right? o.O
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Posted Sep 26, 2023Right? I was going to make a joke about them using the same corporate template. The mottos are bland too.
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Posted Sep 26, 2023I am honestly surprised that the Lady of Pain would allow any factions to exist within her domain. Particularly those dedicated to disorder. How do they avoid her gaze, and how do their actions not draw her ire?
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Posted Sep 26, 2023Nothing says how unique and different each faction is from the others like 12 identical posters.
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Posted Sep 26, 2023AH! And therein lies the rub, whilst cool Seagull, er, Sid-gel, um, Sigil has many wonderous and diverse factions and guilds and other nebulous organisations, due to some strange "multiversal glitch" it only has 1 PR company - and that poor little gnome is working their socks off! (or maybe they don't wear socks, or maybe they do wear socks but have a moustache!)
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Posted Sep 27, 2023The commissioned art looks great but the poster design is a little too modern in style and doesn't seem like it is consistent with the look of the setting.
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Posted Sep 27, 2023Also: Every faction openly recruits, and wants anyone who wants to join? None of them are the least bit secretive, or exclusive?
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Posted Sep 27, 2023They have always openly recruited, they just reject people that don't meet their standards.
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Posted Sep 27, 2023Why wouldn't she? She is not concerned with whatever they want to do outside of Sigil, as long as they run the town well. They major Factions all have a role to play - Guvners catalog the laws and act as lawyers, Harmonium are city police, Bleakers run the asylum, Dustmen run the morgue, Sensates the festhall, etc. They all follow the laws set up by the Lady, though. Nobody wants to make a move against her, they know she is more powerful than all of them together. Besides, why would they want to? They are more interested in promoting their ideals over the planes or plotting against other Factions.
There used to be more than 50 Factions in the distant past, and a lot of conflict between them, and the Lady decreed (via Dabus) that they should cut down to 15 max. So most of those merged into these current Factions or disbanded.