Join a Villainous Conspiracy, Control the World, Win Prizes

[RangerWickett]

Nicodemus wants to be in control, and he wants to be viewed as a legitimate leader, following what the convocation suggests, rather than the sole decider.

Tomorrow is Miller's Pyre. Saturday is Panarchists. Sunday is Watchmakers. Then Monday I get to do all the wacky ones, like the Sky League (who just want whatever world is created to allow flying and airships).

 

[gideonpepys]

Nicodemus wants to be in control, and he wants to be viewed as a legitimate leader, following what the convocation suggests, rather than the sole decider.

All the more reason for wide-eyed idealism IMHO. By the looks of things, Miller's Pyre will be getting my vote.

 

[Ajar]

Sky League (who just want whatever world is created to allow flying and airships).

HECK YES! I might have to vote for that one, regardless. TEAM ZEPPELIN!

Edit: I think the Panarchists, rather than Miller's Pyre, would be the most appealing to my players. They're all Americans, and while not libertarians by any stretch, they're still coming from a culture in which individual liberty is highly prized. I think if I went with Miller's Pyre and they found out it was actually my choice, they'd jokingly accuse me of imparting my own secret desires to the villains.

In contrast, if they find out that my vote went to TEAM ZEPPELIN, they will make that accusation and IT WILL BE TRUE.

Edit 2: That said, I absolutely LOVE the idea of Colossus allying with TEAM ZEPPELIN. Airborne overseers floating above? Heck yes. I guess that's why in my latest homebrew setting, the BBEG is quite literally the moon...

 

[RangerWickett]

Miller's Pyre
Enact subtle changes, focused on making people more empathetic and less susceptible to hypocrisy, so they can more easily pursue goodness and justice.

Miller's Pyre refers to the philosopher monk William Miller who, five centuries ago, wrote treatises on potential types of societies, discussing their pros and cons. His works were generally critical of the religious establishment, and shortly after he tried to found a nation of his own following his ideals, the Clergy burned him as a heretic atop a pyre of his own books.

The Pyre's spokeswoman, Kasvarina Varal, knew Miller and recalls his teachings fondly. She was one of the original founders of the Obscurati centuries ago, and her opinion holds great weight. However, she is absent from the Convocation. The Pyre's members hope she will appear before the vote occurs.

In the view of the Pyre, most suffering is due to misunderstandings between people with very different backgrounds. They seek to improve the world with invisible changes that will make people more aware of the thoughts and emotions of those around them. They would make people particularly keen at detecting hypocrisy.

The Pyre would replace the current plane of Space with one that has an 'Empathy' aspect. This would give people mild psychic powers to detect emotions, but tests show that the effect is not obvious. Test subjects brought into the sample demi-plane simply found themselves coming to agreement more easily, or at least were more amenable to discuss problems rather than view a stranger as an enemy.

Additionally, with a bit of clever orbit-tracing, the Pyre will remove the current planes of Air and Fire and replace them with a binary world, the air plane possessing a Speech trait, the Fire plane possessing an Expression trait. This causes those who speak to have their true emotions more easily sensed, and likewise causes words themselves to carry more weight, making it easier for a strong argument to sway a person's opinion.

The last change is that the plane of Earth will be replaced with one that has the traits Logic, which the Pyre hopes will lead people to appeal to reason in their arguments. Otherwise they worry that the strengthened emotional connection might have negative consequences.

Drawbacks include stronger storms, and weather that will respond to local moods. As with Colossus's plan, the world will again become vulnerable to extraplanar visitors, but the Pyre takes an optimistic view of what civilization will be capable of if it is attacked.

The other drawback is not one the world will experience, but rather a concern of the Obscurati, albeit one no one is voicing publicly. There are many who worry that in this new world, there will be no place for them. The Pyre's advocates can only hope that their arguments will sway those who might selfishly reject this ideal solution.

Finally, the binary pairing opens up a slot for a potential extra plane. It would need to be fairly weak -- perhaps a moon rather than a full planet -- but it would be possible to add some extra trait. The Pyre is open to making agreements with other factions.

 

[RangerWickett]

Panarchists
Grant individuals enough power to make governments unnecessary.

The Panarchists, unified by the elder statesman Han Jierre, seek by far the most radical change of any major faction in the Convocation. Their goal is to eliminate the ability of those in power to become corrupt, and their chosen method is to eliminate the need for people to be in positions of power in the first place.

The purpose of government has traditionally been to protect people as they travel, to protect property, and to enforce contracts. The Panarchists wish to shift these tasks to individuals.

They will use a Plane of Life with a Healing aspect, the same Plane of Space as the Colossus faction to grant teleportation powers and the ability to sense events, and a Plane of Death with a Possession aspect. Combined, these planes will make people more resilient and able to heal from injury, able to infuse a tiny sliver of their soul into objects in order to bond with it, to sense those objects as easily as their own bodies, and to teleport easily.

People would no longer be vulnerable to assault, since unless an attack killed them before they could respond they could teleport away and quickly heal from their wounds. A person who attuned with an item would be able to find it if it were stolen (and just teleport in to take it back), and no one else could attune to it without the current owner's permission. People who made agreements would be able to share a bit of each other's soul, which would make pledges binding. Anyone who shirked on a promise would forfeit a piece of his soul.

This would drastically alter the nature of society, reducing the importance of places and increasing the value of trust over physical might. However, many in the Obscurati are not eager to see the world change so much, especially when they would have no guarantee that their current power would transfer over to the new order.

 

[RangerWickett]

Watchmakers
Eliminate free will and design a thousand-year destiny for the world.

The Watchmaker proposal is particularly popular among pious members of the Obscurati, or at least those raised in countries where the Clergy is powerful. This faction was organized by Leone Quital, known as the Steelshaper, who made sure his faction came to the Convocation already organized.

Of all the proposals, the Watchmakers' is the riskiest, because its specifics cannot be tested in a demi-plane. But the Watchmakers say the risk is worth the reward.

The Obscurati researchers have determined that it is impossible to simply force people to behave a certain way via planar alignments, because free will is inherent to mortal intelligence. For a person to regularly choose moral actions, he must have been raised to value morality over selfish power. So the Watchmakers propose to eliminate free will entirely for one thousand years, during which they will enforce a precise course of events that will result, like clockwork, in a world where all people have been raised to behave morally. Then, after a millennium, the clock will wind down and leave all mortals with free will and a wholly moral society.

To accomplish this, the Watchmakers will replace three of the eight planes. Time shall have an aspect of Clockwork (and the plane's connection will be inscribed with the details of destined events), Life will have Goodness (to drive people against their will to be good), and Death will have Domination (to bind people so they are slaves).

Leone Quital has provided members of his faction with a lengthy description of the 1000 year plan. The drawback, of course, is that every member of the Obscurati will have to willingly sacrifice their free will too, and none will live to see the plan come to fruition. And even though tests of similar planar energies in demi-planes suggestion the plan will work, the Ob will have to trust that their plans will work out 1000 years into the future. Once set into motion, nothing can be changed.

And thus we come to the end of the five main factions. Tomorrow we will see brief information on minor and radical factions.

 

[RangerWickett]

Minor Factions
A few minor factions have formed, focused on pressing for small issues rather than grand plans. They include:

Aegis. The current planes prevent invasion from other worlds, and it has worked well so far. Aegis insists that if the current planes of Space and Death -- which are the source of that protection -- are changed, that some other defenses be put in their place.

Bards. This faction wants people to have a more discerning taste when it comes to entertainment, and for performers to constantly seek to hone their craft.

Economists. This group wants people to have a stronger sense of the value of things and a more intuitive grasp of economics. They hope this will lead to more workers participating meaningfully in a new industrialized economy, rather than wasting money or time on things that are traditional but less utilitarian.

The Long Now. People live a long time, but typically plan only for the short term. This faction wishes to find a Plane of Time that will make people consider a longer timespan in their decisions. Most other factions fear tampering with time.

Mortal Mind. This faction opposes all religion as a distraction from the enlightenment of the mortal mind. They desire a world where people reject religion. Such mind control is not doable, so their plan is to eliminate people's ability to feel religious awe, creating a much more rational existence.

The Sky League. The current plane of air limits flight only to small winged creatures; magical flight can never last more than a few minutes, and airships are an impossibility. The Sky League wants the new world to make flight possible, preferably easy. If it is feasible, they would like to be able to fly constantly, without need of casting spells.

Trekkers. Not content to limit mortal races to a single world, this faction wants to choose planes that are habitable.

Weapon-Mongers. Believing that technological progress is of great value, this faction wants to ensure that whatever new world is created is not one of pathetic peace and harmony, where invention and innovation is stifled by the lack of war.

 

[Hitomi Camacho]

Well, I have a clear idea of the ones I don't like. Arboretum is boring and Colossus is quite cliche. Watchmakers are quite obvious for an evil conspiracy but the fact that they don't know if it's going to work or not and that it affects members of the obscuraty really intrigues me (the apparition of Nicodemus on adventure 2 talking about chaos suggest he's considering it, in my opinion).

So that leaves Miller Pyre and Panarchist. I like them both because they will really surprise my player's, and I believe most groups. When you hear global conspiracy you always believe the goals is to control the world. There's one thing that catch me at the very moment when I was reading the campaing guide "imagine that, one day, you wake up and the whole world agree with you". That single phrase made me want to run the campaign. And the one faction that resembles the best that idea is Miller's Pyre BUT, the effects seem very "minor" to me, (i would have love if that faction also shared the Mortal Mind and Long Now)

Also, where's the fun if nothing goes wrong in a plan like this? So here it comes Panarchist. To me they look like a twisted version of Miller Pyre, like a good idea gone wrong "What could go bad if we give super powers to everybody?" is so appealing to me.

So, my vote is for Panarchist.

PS. As always, sorry If i haven`t made myself clear, English is not my main language and capturing all the philosophical aspect of the zeitgeist world can be complicated...

 

[Siberys]

Totally agree. Panarchist is the way to go. They have that 'the path to hell is paved with good intentions' vibe the Ob really needs, IMO. And Aegis needs, for story reasons, to not succeed. It has to.

 

[Morrus]

There's one thing that catch me at the very moment when I was reading the campaing guide "imagine that, one day, you wake up and the whole world agree with you". That single phrase made me want to run the campaign.

Maybe we should use that phrase a bit more!