I've decided to create a sect known as The Makers who dwell in the towers bordering the Positive Energy Plane on each of the positive quasielemental planes. This puts them somewhat in opposition to the Doomguard, though they're much smaller and very reclusive. In essence, they're more a wizards' guild than anything else, with an emphasis on creating life. Every member is seeking to create new life forms one way or another, whether it's manipulating plant life, creating intelligent constructs, making twisted creations like the chuul or building a new organic lifeform entirely from scratch. The players will end up opposed to them for a couple of different reasons, not the least being that one of the characters, an intelligent construct, was created by a former Maker who went rogue on the sect. The dominant members became less and less ethical and more and more willing to experiment (and torture) creatures, including sentient ones, to make new combinations and such, which is why he left.
Problem is, as they stand right now, they feel a little too much like something easily placed on the Prime plane in just any old game. Wizards' guild that creates new twisted monsters... it lacks the power of belief/ideas/philosophy spin that Planescape things should have. I'm having trouble thinking of a philosophical spin for them. Any ideas would be appreciated.
I also haven't decided if some Makers, far in the past, were the creators of the four towers, or if they've merely managed to access their secrets and are the current dwellers.
Inner Planar sects are often more about what is rather than belief, but there are plenty of beliefs that are compatible with a passion for studying and creating life.
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What is the meaning behind the Multiverse?
The Sensates have it a little right. The Multiverse only has meaning insofar as it is experienced. The Fated have it a little right. The Multiverse only has the meaning that is made of it. The Fraternity of Order has it a little right. The Multiverse only has meaning if you can understand it. The one thing that they all have in common, but have not completely understood, is that what gives the Multiverse meaning is the life within it. A sterile reality of rock, and wind, and sea, and stars, and floating metal cubes and infinitely tall Spire and the rainbow of Chronias could never be beautiful, or important, or meaningful without the souls within. Life is important. It is the only important thing. Protect it, nurture it, understand it.
What is the meaning of life?
Who said life needs a meaning? Life doesn't mean anything. It just is. That's what it does. And it's very, very good at it.
What is the nature of the Powers?
Depends on which one you look at. Iuz? Hermes? Nothing all that special. Getting born is no feat. Orcus is a hopped-up wizard, which is impressive, but at least we know what he did. Real deities, the ones that transcend the world in which they were themselves formed, create something utterly new. Ideas and tools are good: Apollo is a writer, Moradin a smith, even Lolth a weaver. Honorable traits all. But true honor accrues to the sculptors of life itself, of whole new ways of experiencing reality. Yondalla: halflings. Skerrit: centaurs (imaginative, that one). Corellon Larethian: elves. Io: dragons. Jazirian: couatls. And umpteen number of gods claim to have created humans, which is kind of impressive for such a boring race if you think about it. Each race is a new kind of universe, because each soul sees the universe in a way framed by their mortal existence. And we mortals? We create gods. We exist in symbiosis with our creators, and sometimes we become one ourselves.
What do we offer you? We offer you power over the only thing that matters, knowledge of the only thing that makes a difference in the Multiverse. Life. Understand life, control it, and you put yourself at the fulcrum of existence. Here, near the Lifewell, we are close to the source of that essence. We study it. We will master it. And in doing so we will master everything.