So, I’ve recently had the idea to introduce one of the things I loved most about Planescape, namely the Factions, to my Planarch Codex game. Mechanically they are to function as pre-made options for players to choose for the Cultural part of their Heritage Moves. In the game they are to be more like street gangs with philosophies rather than philosophers with clubs, though. Here’s the first one I’ve come up with so far;
Gravebound
AKA: Tomb-tenders, corpse-botherers, deadites.
“Can you believe that just three Engulfments ago this lot were just another mortuary cult? Now you see them on practically every street corner, all done up like a flock of raven devils. Well I don’t trust ‘em, and I don’t care how many cemeteries they keep tended or how many hauntings they rest, or how many orphans they take in.
“Hah! That’s another thing! Taking in the street urchins, feedin’ em up, trussin’ em up all in black and putting strange notions in their heads like the rest and teaching them necromancy? Even in Dis that’s a pretty tall order to swallow. I’ll give the next one of those dour little sods who tries to flog me a plague-warding pomander a clip round the ear.
“Pers’nlly I reckon they’re responsible for half these plagues that keep blowing through the parishes. Oh sure, they help cart away and bury the dead but notice how not a one of them gets sick? And with that damn unhealthy way they live, all those mucky vegetables from out the ground they eat, and bathin’ so regular that the body doesn’t have time to develop a proper defensive odour? Right suspicious, I say.”
Honouring the Faction
When you invoke your rights of blood and tradition, as described on pg. 26 of “Dark Heart of the Dreamer”, these are suitable ways to honour your Faction;
1. Record the fading names on gravestones and tombs.
2. Tend to the sick and dying.
3. Make sacrifices and offerings to the honoured dead.
Faction Heritage Moves
1. Perform proper funeral rites.
2. Listen to what the dead have to say.
3. Impede the spread of pestilence.
Love it.