The Fated (Modern)

THE FATED (MODERN)

Vanessa Goldcounter looked at the contract tentatively. The printed sheet smelled of danger, and her wrinkled gnomish nose flared.

"Did you read the contract Sam?" asked Vanessa.

Her son had pink spiky hair and a nose ring, but despite his nonconservative appearance, his face was blank of emotion. It was not a contrast from his tactical body armor and the shotgun slung over his shoulder.

"Yes Mom. I did read it. We get 200 mercenaries, and the price is fair, I think. Once we sign it, we're at war."

Vanessa grunted and clicked the pen, hovering over the line where she should sign. She was afraid, and she remembered how she felt when Kilixi died. They didn't act and they should've, and because of it, the Monster was factol now. Vanessa knew she couldn't make the same mistake again, it would bring too much shame. She signed the paper.

"Let's see which of our Destinies is stronger now, Griffin," Goldcounter snarled.

Out of all the factions, the Fated profited most from the new eon of technology. From their almost-death as a faction they have managed to succeed beyond their expectations by riding the wave of modernity. The Takers believe it is their era, because now, there is a thousand new ways to manifest your destiny.

Far from the entrepreneurial independent mindset of the ancient Fated, powerful faction members have come to own vast conglomerates of corporations which span the cosmos and even spill out into the Prime Material.

Philosophy: Everyone's responsible for themselves. For good or for bad, you carve out your own fate.
Nicknames: Corporates, the Heartless, Takers.
Headquarters: Acheron (Uncolored Mansion in Avalas)
Majority Races: Halflings, Humans, Tieflings (Mostly undecided)
Majority Classes: Agile Hero, Smart Hero, Charismatic Hero
Faction Prestige Classes:
Factol: Griffin (Male Human Lich LE Unknown)
Prominent Members: Vanessa Goldcounter (Female Gnome NG, Smart Hero 5/Dedicated Hero 3/Charismatic Hero 3)
Alignment: Any except Lawful Good, with a tendency towards Lawful
Symbol: Same as Planescape.

Philosophy

The basic premise of Fated philosophy has remained pretty much the same, each individual determines their own destiny if your strong enough to hold onto it. Some enormous changes have been made interpretation of the philosophy, however. Most Fated believe that the best way to get power is within the bonds of society, that social and material goals are paramount. This has done well to isolate the chaotic members of the group.

The Fated, even the lawful ones, are individualists, believing that power goes to those whom take it for themselves. Carpe diem is not just a saying, it's a way of life for the Fated. If you don't grab success, someone else will, and that's the only justice in the universe.

You see, self-interest is not evil, it's enlightened. Some people sit around begging for charity all day when they should be out supporting themselves and doing something productive, it's not that they couldn't do it or they're too stupid, it's they're too damn lazy. Everything would be fine if people just concentrated on helping themselves rather than coddling and babying the poor whom take advantage of the charitable. People are poor and desperate because they let themselves be that way, there's always a way out and it's their responsibility to find it.

The Fated have two major sub-factions (as well as many small ones), the Stout-Staves, those Fated who follow the more chaotic aspects of the philosophy, and the Empty Crowns, the lawful members of the Fated. The Empty Crowns are the most popular and powerful of the sub-factions, whom claim the the social order is up for grabs to whomever wants it.

Brief History

Before hurtling to cosmic power the Fated faction has nearly died several times. Internal bickering and petty yet public power struggles made the Fated look extremely bad to the rest of Sigil's factions. Things really started to go downhill when the factol at the time issued an request to all faction members "not to be so antagonistic" to improve public relations.

Practically in the nick of time, the first non-magical steam engine was invented. In a pattern to be repeated through most of history, the invention was spurned by the technological elite, preferring the ancient art of clockwork machines or magic steamworks. Only the legendary Fated investor Norri Goldcounter saw the pragmatic uses for it.

The penniless Goldcounter pulled special favors and made a vast advertising campaign. It was not long until the steam engine was being purchased all over the planes and exported into the Material Plane, even to worlds who had the steam engine already for centuries.

As technology advanced, the Fated supported it, and became wealthier and wealthier. Norri Goldcounter became factol, and her daughter after that. Eventually, the Goldcounters were entrenched as factols almost hereditarily, among their greatest supporters the copper dragon Kilixi. The Fated headquarters moved to a growing industrial region in Bytopia (which many felt was far too close to lawful good Celestia). Ten generations of Goldcounters pass until things go sour for them.

The Goldcounters were an old family and had become dyed-in-the-wool conservative. Then current factol Vanessa Goldcounter refused to support the use of computers, considering them too dangerous, corrupting and powerful. Goldcounter's conviction in the Fated philosophy was being questioned by the most powerful Fated members, except Kilixi, the copper dragon, who remained loyal to the Goldcounter family. Thus, Goldcounter's detractors were left with a dilemma: war against the Goldcounters and face the might of a copper dragon, or grin and bear it. Their savior would be a blind lich named Griffin.

Griffin was a well-known but nonvocal supporter of the Fated. As an inexplicably wealthy man with a shadowy past, he was a natural candidate to be a high-ranking Fated member, but never took part. For the first time, Griffin openly offered his help. He claimed to have enough power to easily defeat the dragon, so long as they held elections for a new Factol afterwards.

It was a fair deal, and Griffin's ambitions to become factol were obvious, but the families had no intention to passing the crown to a man who couldn't bother to publicly declare his loyalty to the faction. They agreed, the elections would be held (albeit rigged) and Griffin set off to kill the dragon. Needless to say, Griffin slew Kilixi, and no one is exactly sure how.

After the death of Kilixi Vanessa Goldcounter was forced to choose between her leadership of the family or the faction. If she chose the faction she would have a war on her hands which would most certainly cost the lives of many Goldcounters, on the other hand protecting her family would mean giving up being a factol. After a family meeting, Vanessa agreed to step down as the Fated factol.

The election would take place behind closed doors. Each candidate would be asked a series of questions, with rebuttals and comments from the audience. All of the candidates knew something Griffin didn't, special agents were put inside the audience whose sole job it was to criticize and boo Griffin each time he tried to speak, even if they were completely lies and half-truths. The families spent a lot of money into researching Griffin's past, looking for dirt (they found little). The elections were rigged, everyone was sure Griffin would lose.

The first question was "what would you bring to the organization?" Each candidate spoke some spiel and each received applause ranging to polite to uproarious, getting closer and a closer to Griffin's turn. When the final speaker finished, the judges repeated the question:

"What would you bring to the faction if you won?"

In a dramatic change of character, Griffin was blunt; "I would bring a Dracolich to the faction if you don't vote for me."

Griffin won.

Goals

Since the upset at the Fated elections, most Takers have returned to their own personal goals. Griffin grudgingly won the respect of most of the factotum, and his former adversaries became his supporters. However, the election of a lawful evil lich has caused some split. Many of the chaotic members have left the mainstream Fated faction to form a sub-faction called the Stout-Staves, and it's good members have yet to see Griffin's redeeming qualities.

The Goldcounters no longer want leadership of the faction, but revenge for the death of Kilixi, who was very much an adopted member of the family. They are shamed by their initial passivity and are now ready to go to war with Griffin. In their trying times the Goldcounters seem more like dwarves than gnomes in their demeanor and memory for grudges. There is a nagging doubt in the Goldcounter's mind; when Griffin mentioned a Dracolich, did he mean Kilixi? If Kilixi is now a Dracolich, no one has seen him yet, but should his existence be found the Goldcounters would try their best to put Kilixi to rest.

Griffin, meanwhile, has moved the headquarters far from Bytopia to Acheron to his personal abode, the Uncolored Mansion. The mansion was carved out of a cube, and as the name suggests, the mansion has no color except gray steel and white (after all, what does Griffin need with color? He's blind). Instead, the mansion is filled with statues and three-dimensional frescoes, anything that Griffin can touch and enjoy. There are also fountains and rivers throughout the entire cube, giving the mansion the eternal, echoing sound of softly flowing water.

Griffin's goals are mysterious. The faction itself is putting less and less effort into recruiting new members. As Griffin sees it, the faction will lead by success and example than pandering to the lowest common denominator. Griffin believes the problem with the previous factols even far back was that they tried too hard to convince people that they weren't all selfish liars and thieves. Griffin has no time for complainers, and neither do the Fated. If they wait around as the train leaves the station it's no one's fault except their own.

Griffin doesn't particularly care for the chaotic members of the faction. Each of them spend far too much time wandering around doing nothing rather than building their own personal empires. More than anything, Griffin wants his members to accrue power and wealth, not pursuing meanderings, and he doesn't particularly care whether they are good or evil.

Allies & Enemies

The Fated show such a diversity in terms of alignment it often depends on more on how the factions feel about individual members of the Fated rather than the fation itself. And because many Fated tend to wield so much power, they very well can be a political force in their own right. Because the Fated are prone to Byzantine games, they are viewed as a loose coalition rather than a unified body.

Out of all the factions, perhaps the Harmonium find the Fated philosophy hardest to swallow. After all, just taking what you want isn't really conductive to universal harmony. The Fraternity of Order isn't too found of the Fated overreaching themselves, either. Most Fated dislike the Revealing Light's tendencies to give things away for free, and take issue with them on many counts.

Most other factions, however, appreciate and hate the Fated depending on each particular entity. Nearly every faction organized enough to make deals has something cut with the Fated, as suppliers, advisors, and troubleshooters. The Sodkillers definitely appreciate the Fated's mercenary attitude, too.

Griffin's writeup,

Feel free to send feedback and comments, even critiscm. Honestly, I was hoping more people would send feedback. Oh well.

GRIFFIN

Background
Griffin was born blind amid a group of refugees in Acheron. His mother and father are unknown, they were presumed to have died shortly afterwards. As a blind orphan navigating the crashing cubes of Acheron, Griffin learned to be a hard and resourceful man very quickly.
Rumor has it that he was self-taught sorcery. Like many things, Griffin refuses to comment on any aspect of his childhood. What is known is that he saved a lot of gold and took the first portal to the Inner Planes. As an blind orphan, his disappearance didn't raise an eyebrow.
It's not known what Griffin did in the Inner Planes for five years, but whatever he did, he came back what seemed to be a lich. Greybeards still debate what exactly he is, but any berk can point out that he gained immeasurable power, stopped aging at 23, and gained two swirling vortexes of darkness for eyes.
For a vast amount of time, Griffin worked to build a corporate and media empire, at the same investing in the efforts of the Fated. He dealt arms to both sides of the Astral War conflict. He funded the Goldcounter family. He put money into charitable trusts. Griffin always had a hand in the background of many events, from major to seemingly irrelevant, for his own inscrutable purposes.
The result was Valor Inc., one of the multiverse's biggest corporations. Valor Inc was technically only an investment firm, but under it's talons were enormous assets. Valor owned television channels, newspapers, magazines, mining companies, banks and arms manufacturers, spread across the inner, outer, and prime material planes.
In all this time, only among the Fated was he widely well-known, even though he wasn't officially a member. However, with the invention of the computer, Griffin managed to oust the entrenched Goldcounter family as factols and took the mantle for himself.

Appearance
Griffin always wears clothes suited to high-end corporate meetings. He never looks fazed, caught off guard, or informal. He is the very image of the young, serious, and coldly crisp businessman. He carries a black cane with a silver hawk head, which he uses feel his way around.
If it weren't for the two swirling voids he had instead of eyes, he might be mistaken for a pleasant man. Some cutters don't understand that this isn't a metaphor. The vortexes almost seem to be consuming his face, and some wonder if one day the rest of his body will go the way of his eyes. He does have pupils, which look like two tiny pinpricks of light which are only visible if Griffin is looking directly at a blood. Griffin has taught himself to look directly at a blood whom he's talking to, even if he can't see. Not many stand to have long conversations with him.
He lets no one touch him.

Personality
Some bodies believe that Griffin is emotionally retarded. He doesn't seem to appreciate much. He's got no time for small-talk nor to be friendly or cruel. Devils are the only ones who can appreciate his personality, and even they are shocked by his apathy to criticism and his lack of desire to do anything except develop his faction.
Griffin expresses his views when he feels like it, which is rare. When he says something, he says it once. If it is misunderstood, it is their problem. Griffin doesn't often condescend himself to use social protocols or niceties, he's honest in his opinions and if he needs to be diplomatic he'll get someone else to speak for him.
Privately Griffin views himself as a supremely powerful exemplar, a Power, not like a devil or an angel but the personification of a concept, such as Asmodeus or the Lady of Pain (for this reason, he avoids going to Sigil at all costs). Griffin is approaching the status of a Power, but lacks a certain purity of spirit that such a being has. Griffin thinks his blindness is sacred, a metaphor for Blind Fate itself, unbiased yet unforgiving, which is why Griffin is so involved in Fated politics.

Combat
Griffin is unpredictable when it comes to violence. On some occasions Griffin will spend whatever time he can to resolves situations peacefully. Other times Griffin is immediately violent and without mercy. He's a sorcerer and will use as few spells as effectively as possible. His nature allows him to have some very exotic special abilities, but he only uses them when he's with a very serious opponent.

EDIT: Added to the Philosophy section.