The Makers (Homebrew Anti-Doomguard-ish Sect, need advice)

4 posts / 0 new
Last post
Tim4488's picture
Offline
Namer
Joined: 2010-01-19
The Makers (Homebrew Anti-Doomguard-ish Sect, need advice)

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.

Jem
Jem's picture
Offline
Factor
Joined: 2006-05-10
Re: The Makers (Homebrew Anti-Doomguard-ish Sect, need advice)

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.

-----

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.

Hyena of Ice's picture
Offline
factotums
Joined: 2009-09-25
Re: The Makers (Homebrew Anti-Doomguard-ish Sect, need advice)

I have been working on such a sect as well, except that I called them the "Guardians of Life" or "Wardens of Creation".
They take the exact opposite view of the Doomguard, in that the Multiverse is still going through the birth pangs of creation. Likewise, they see even death as an act of creation-- a creature that dies is not destroyed, it simply ascends to a higher, more perfect form, where it will either be absorbed into the Plane's essence, changed into an outsider directly, or absorbed into a power. Likjewise, the corpse it leaves behind will nourish other organisms. An outsider slain on its plane will have its essence scattered across the plane (merged with the plane itself, if you will). One day, parts of that essence may create a new fiend, fiendish animal, become part of the plane's buildingblocks, etc.
A clash with the Doomguard faction of Citadel Sealt has forced them into hiding.
The basic tenant of the Guardians of Life is that matter and energy cannot be destroyed (barring a sphere of annihilation or the like, which of course they'll fight fervently to destroy), it simply ascends to a different form.

Planescape, Dungeons & Dragons, their logos, Wizards of the Coast, and the Wizards of the Coast logo are ©2008, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. and used with permission.