![]() ![]() If one were to visit Sigil during those points in time, the whole enterprise would make sense, as factions would debate practical ideas and help one another hone their beliefs. At points in their history, the moderate elements of Sigil’s factions have held sway. The kriegstanz, or undeclared ideological war among Sigil’s factions, is a direct result. Sigil now finds itself in a moment of extremism. Competition for followers and influence means that extremism in one faction breeds extremism in another, while moderation brings about moderation, so one often finds that either extremists or moderates hold the upper hand in most of Sigil’s factions. These moderate and extreme forces within each faction exist in a state of constant flux, one side gaining the upper hand for a time but never fully eradicating the other. At the extreme end of the spectrum, beliefs are dogmatic, applied universally despite extenuating circumstances or contradictory evidence, and exist in a state of constant struggle with other beliefs. At the moderate end of the spectrum, beliefs are reasonable, qualified by common sense and empirical reality, and they supplement each other. All members of that faction fall somewhere along its belief spectrum. My answer: factions don’t hold one philosophy but rather occupy a spectrum of belief. But it begs the question: why this motley crew?įactions Don’t Have One Philosophy-They Have a Belief Spectrum It makes sense that a being who controls the center of an alignment-based multiverse would want to be surrounded by philosophers. ![]() If you think of Sigil like a forum, where there’s all these sort of competing interests and beliefs, the fact that she’s letting that happen says something about the nature of her and the multiverse.” She wants to see people challenge each other in a forum. She wants to see how it’s going to shake down. “The fact that she allows the factions to operate in her city, more than they operate anywhere else in the multiverse, suggests that she is sensitive to philosophy, or that she likes it, or wants it, or wants it around her. In-game, the Factions’ half-baked philosophy raises an even bigger question: Why does the Lady of Pain allow amateur philosophers to dominate power in Sigil, the center of the multiverse, when she does not allow the gods to even step foot in the city? Chris Perkins, in a Dragon Talk interview on The Lady of Pain, reflects on the meaning of this decision by Our Lady: That begs the question: if you want to encourage philosophical discussion, why make factions unreasonable and difficult for players to seriously engage with? All of the Factions, as written, read as caricatures of philosophy in a setting specifically designed to encourage philosophical discussion. ![]() Now the Sign of One, though an egregious example, are not alone among Sigil’s Factions in terms of taking a reasonable theory and twisting it far beyond its “logical” conclusion. Members of the Sign of One believe that because we can only be sure of our own existence, everything else exists only as part of our imagination. ![]() It also inspired the half-baked philosophy of The Sign of One, one of the 15 factions based in Sigil in DND’s Planescape campaign setting. Both parts are copied in full below.ĭescartes’ “I think, therefore I am,” has inspired more half-baked college philosophy discussions than any other phrase in the multiverse. In Part II, I develop moderate and extreme subfactions for all 15 Planescape Factions. In Part I, I describe how adding moderate and extreme wings to Factions, particularly the factions in the Planescape Campaign Setting, helps players engage with them and helps the DM create NPCs. This post consists of two related articles from my blog. ![]()
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