The entire line of Planescape products was absolutely incredible. I actually used my books to help beat the video game. That was way back before everyone had the internet, and if you did it was dial up. Good times.
Absolutely LOVED Planescape Torment. Only game(DnD) w/o a level cap.........had a lv 18 fighter/92mage Nameless One. Leveling in the sewers against larva or leveling via modron cube, could get every stat to 25 before you even got very far in the story. Swarmcurse/Blacksphere were my favorite spells, could one shot nearly everything w/in range (in the entire game) once obtained. Planescape Torment was the OG "grinding game".......wish they would make a #2 but with todays graphics. Good times 😊
I've always love the city of Sigil (maybe because Planescape - Torment is my favorit RPG of all time!) So i'd love to see more video's of the factions or anything else Sigil related!
I feel like the Signers were really poorly explained here. They don't just believe in 'the power of positive thought', they are Solipsists who believe that all of reality is created by the mind - maybe yours, maybe someone else's - and because of this, we can't know what is true and reality can be shaped by belief.
Chocking that up to run time being too long. I appreciated the brevity here as it's at least a stepping off point, but to do any of these factions justice would require a lot more time with each of them. I also feel solipsism alone can be a bit long winded a discussion to properly capture.
Xaositects = "Chaos-itects" - as in "chaos architects" 'Course my Xaositect wild mage from back in the day would be on board with a bit of arbitrary mispronunciation. Just didn't want you to miss out on that bit of cleverness in the name :) Love your videos, btw! I got back into D&D last year after a 20-year hiatus, and this channel has been a fun way to brush up on lore.
To me, the factions in Sigil are so much deeper and more interesting than the regular 5e ones, because each of them are connected to a philosophical school of though from our real world. And they are like that because in the planes, belief change the nature of it. So if enough people believe the reality to be one way, the planes will get more in line with it. If your group is into it, then you can have a blast exploring those ideologies and the consequences on the game world(s). If not, then you can still use it as different homebases/patron organizations for your characters adventures throughout the planes.
I genuinely love Planescape. It’s so philosophical. Despite their being the standard good, evil, neutral,chaos and law theirs so much more than that in Planescape.
Athar (Defiers, The Lost) Philosophy: The Powers are frauds; the One true God lies beyond the veil. I never knew that there was such a Faction in D&D, that's so cool! I've been playing a Character for years now, who thought of the gods as nothing more than extremely powerful (and selfish) mortals, unworthy of Worship. He is a Wizard (Diviner) with the Sage background, and whilst he speculates that there _might_ be an actual true God that created everything (for a time he thought this might be AO), he is unsure whether or not such a God would even be knowable, and as such is pretty much an agnostic for now. Because he is from Faerun, his ultimate fate (as taught by the Priests), is to be cemented into the Wall of the Faithless, something he is not too keen on having happen, and as such he plans to meet his end with a bang, and go down swinging! :'D
The Xaositects - “I’M SETTING MYSELF ON FIRE!” Sensates - “Oooo, did you bring fire to share? Doomguard - “They now return to dust and ash.” The Free League - “You do you, have some fun.” Harmonium - “WHY ISN”T ILLEGAL TO SET YOURSELF ON FIRE!?”
Oh wow! Fascinating. I just love the idea of political intrigue in fantasy. I first got into the Game of Thrones TV show. It absolutely blew my mind. The whole good vs. evil thing in storytelling has been done to death. It is nice to have a conflict among different factions with different values. It is nice to have characters be gray. This is so refreshing. Then I got into Magic the Gathering. My first plane was Ravnica. I got into the political intrigue there. There are philosophies that are fleshed out a lot better. There is also more magic. This is awesome. There is a great DND crossover book called Guild Masters Guide to Ravnica. I recommend it to anybody interested in the Ravnica setting. I am interested in the cosmology in DND. I recently got the Plainscape book set for 5E. I was curious about the factions in Sigil. This video blew my mind. There is deep stuff here. If there will be a next video, I recommend showing some kind of organization of the groups. Ravnica has factions organized by color. Izzet for example is a mix of red and blue. Organizing Sigil factions would be helpful. Maybe they can be organized by alignment. I definitely noticed some factions are lawful and others are chaotic. There isn't a clear division of good and evil. Maybe other distinctions could work. There may be conservative vs. liberal. There could be individualism vs. collectivism. There could be materialistic vs. religious. There are possibilities.
What made the Athar one of my favorites was realizing they weren’t atheists. Many are monotheists. The factol is actually a high level cleric! Many believe a true deity exists, but these ones we see are just thugs and mafiosos. The idea of an Athar seeking after the one, true deity appeals to me.
I'm looking forward to seeing what, if anything, from my 2e Planescape Monster Manuals made it into these books. I really like Incantifers, and thought the Prolongers, Merkhants, and some others were neat; the Mortai, too. Will have to wait and see, as well as what I still remember from those days so long ago. 😊
I Love planescape. Só much crazy stuff to do. Every campaign setting is just another Planet on the prime material plane. You can mix everything and the core of it is planewalking, wich is the ability/knowledge to walk the planes without magic - using only existing Portals. With that, planescap is even more interesting for low level adventures. Soooo coool
Can I just point out, that I find it really quirky and lovely that ur channel is named the way it is and that it's a gag with the ph is silent. I know i'm easily entertained but still. Cool name ^^ (Also cool video obvioulsy)
I’d enjoy seeing a video on Vestiges. The lore is sparse, and I’m not even sure if we have good definitions, but that’s half the reason I’d like it. There are also a handful of vestiges that we know how they existed before their death: Tenebrous, Aschardelon, Primus, Karsus. Maybe there are others. I’d enjoy knowing that.
The factions of Sigil are really cool and interesting, but also feel like they're more philosophical constructs than factions with a lot of influence on a city's function and structure, which has always bothered me. It feels like a philosophy major got into making a setting but forgot to implement why it's important there are some guys in the city who believe in reincarnation.
It just seems to me like the law and order faction in sigil would grow strongest, because law and order = money. The other factions don't really provide anything to the production of goods and services, only philosophy.
@@villiamkarl-gustavlundberg5422 Harmonium have a large standing military force but I suppose are also funded by their own reality. The Mercykillers run the prison, but that wouldn't make much money unless it's funded by government, Guvners don't actually seem like they can make those sorts of choices because of how the factions argue, and the tax collectors the "Takers" seem like they don't give what they take... so it sounds very non-functional.
@@Chaznar27 The sigil factions are basically mafias who extort the merchants in their districts. They dispise religion. A God is much more attractive because he or she recipricates the tithes with blessings and what not. •The food that flows into sigil was probably farmed by religious farmers who rely on their nature godess. •The ore that goes into sigil was probably mined by miners who rely on their earth god. The sigil factions just seem really lame and parasitic versus the chad religious factions. If the players have to buy spells then cosying up to the spell merchants' faction will be of highest priority and he or she might approve of one of the sigil factions or might dispise all the sigil factions.
What you might be overlooking is that Sigil isn't just a city like any city you'd find on Earth. It's in another plane of existence that's more like a mental construct than a physical location. That's generally the flavor behind the Outer Planes, where they're really more like dream realms centered around moral alignment and other such abstract concepts than "real" places like the Material Plane.
@@artificerprime4154 Even thinking of it as another plane they seem really esoteric and ot very interesting. Have you seem the guilds that rule the plane of Ravnica? I'm not just talking about the D&D book but the the way they are represented in the Magic cardgame and lore books and articles makes for such an interesting ecosystem that runs on a moral system that may feel alien to many.
The campaign I am running right now began on the Prime Material Plane, in the Greyhawk campaign setting. Around seventh level, the party met a member of the Society of Sensation, and decided to move to Sigil. I use the Group Patron rules in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and allowed the PCs to use downtime training activities to gain Darkvision (one of the benefits of belonging to the Faction in 2E was infravision). The players enjoy being Sensates, but they've learned that not all is sunshine and roses in the Faction. They were invited to a fancy soiree by a member who turned out to be a Vampire! (Turns out that not all the Undead in Sigil belong to the Dustmen!) One way they maintain their good standing is by recording their experiences in the Sensoriums of the Sensates. On another note I think Xaositect should be pronounced "Kay-Ohs-i-Tekt", not "Zee-Ohs-Iht".
I've wanted to start an explosions in the sky cover band. Or at least play in the vein of that music. I have watched this video before but I did not catch that reference. More than likely it was because I was washing dishes while I listened. But... Huzzah good sir
On the thumbnail... First glance I thought the light part between the spear and body was part of the subject of the picture. I didn't notice the skull immediately resulting in my brain seeing... A giant gerbil riding a horse and looking up at the sky.
Have you looked into City of 7 Seraphs at all? It's a 600+-page Pathfinder adaptation of Sigil that remixes the Factions in some interesting ways. I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
@@Jorphdan The stuff in the core book is worth a video on its own, possibly multiple (there are also a few sequel books, each of which has a bunch of lore within). A bunch of the authors are also really cool people and are happy to answer questions.
Ran my current group through Sigil in 5e. Some even joined the Fraternuty if Order, which is near because I have one Lawful evil PC in the group and it didnt really interfere with joining this group. The campaign BBEG us actually straight out of a Planescape book, as well: Doors to the Unknown, Lathuraz the Mad Mercurial. Started Sigil from a random table in LLoKwalish
I'd love to know how you ran Sigil in 5e. I am planning a campaign in Wildemount near the ruins of Shattengrod. The BBEG was originally a citizen of Shattengrod when it was destroyed in the Calamity. Motivated to make the gods answer for the Calamity and the end of the Age of Arcanum, he ventured out and discovered the secrets of a spell which might be powerful enough to "kill" a god. His adventures lead him to sigil where he spent much of his time doing research, collecting spell components, and traveling the multiverse. Because of his extensive activity over the course of centuries here, it's a great place for the party to come learn of ways to stop his plans before he starts the next Great Calamity.
I love Planescape and the factions. But the problem is some of the factions don’t seem to fit with the fact that they’re actually our gods. Some of them don’t seem to make sense in a multi-verse where it is factual that gods exist. The Ather? Why in the world where there is proof of an afterlife, would anyone not worship a god. What they want to spend eternity in the wall or whatever happens to faithless people? And the believers of the source, incarnation is a very interesting concept from the Hindu religion but again that fly in the face of the fact that there are gods and when you die you go to their afterlife? But breaking down the multi-verse into different philosophies, is a very cool, I just think it’s difficult to do in a fantasy D&D world
I think you're conflating different cosmologies here. The Wall of the Faithless is specifically part of the Forgotten Realms - everything I've read about Planescape as a setting suggests the dead just become petitioners in one of the outer planes even without the influence of gods. Nothing in the Planescape cosmology (to my knowledge) explicitly requires the existence or worship of dieties at all, just strong enough personal conviction. In fact, the Athar even have clerics that can manifest divine magic without worshiping a god presumably just to prove the point.
The Athar believe that the Powers are big shots, sure. And in some Athar's minds, deals with those big shots aren't terrible. But they also believe the gods who inhabit and muck about the Great Wheel aren't *The* Power(s). Much like the BECMI D&D Immortals, there must be some power above these powers, and maybe it's powers all the way up. Believers of the Source are straight up BECMI D&D Immortality aspirants (Path of the Polymath)
As a Planescape fan from back in the day, I actually think the Factions were one of the weakest part. Not in concept, but having so many of them really diluted each one's identity, and aside from having one for every plane, there wasn't really much inteletucal cohesion behind each one. On the other hand the mtg Guilds of Ravnica factions are amazing, and a much better way to philosophise about how to run a Fantasy City. I honestly think they probably only needed 8 guilds (One for each of the Major alignments). That would have made the setting a lot more managable imo.
Will we get a video on the far realm? Originator of the great old ones , aberrations, and the occasional summer home of beholders like xanathar and demi lich like asierak?
Hey idk how else to put this but I really dislike the way you say Sigil idk if TWOTC said to say it like that but it just doesn’t sound too great that way I would personally pronounce it as the normal word Sigil as it also would refer to the massive city being a symbol of many things. Other than that thanks for some good videos it helps with a lot of writing and ofc to learn about the overall lore is always good fun 👍🏻
How do you have conflicting opinions about cosmetic rules like death when in Sigil there is literally a door that goes to the places that people go when they die ? A guy dies on Sigil in front of you and you just step through the door and see him in the different planes.
3:38 Here's a novel idea: instead of going through the trouble of converting 2e rules in a supplement used for a 2e setting, just play 2e. That solves all of your problems right there.
@@Jorphdan Haha. Alright. Fair. Still, even though I now get that it's technically correct, its unlikely to prevent me from cringing. XD Appreciate the response, and the correction, nonetheless. I very much prefer to know I'm wrong and be able to correct it. ^_^
