Planescape
THE FRATERNITY OF ORDER
(Guvnors)
Philosophy: Everything has laws; most are dark. Learn the laws of the multiverse and you can rule it.
Factol: Hashkar, a male dwarf planar. For a factol, Hashkar doesn't look too impressive. He's short and dumpy, with a big red nose and a long white mustache. His eyes are constantly bloodshot from reading, and he always carries one or more books or scrolls. When he's not reading, he's lecturing. Faction members get used to seeing him shuffling down the halls of the City Court, mumbling to himself, barely aware of his surroundings. Hashkar lectures at the drop of a hat, launching into a discourse to answer any question posed to him, including (a) the history of the answer; (b) a comparison of that answer with what the answer would've been under previous versions of the Rules; and (c) an analysis of the answer, the question, the reasons for asking the question, and why the answer is vitally important. Should the questioner try to leave before Hashkar has finished answering, the factol will follow along, oblivious to any hint that the unlucky berk has anything better to do than to listen.
Hashkar has been factol for 127 years. Though a few other Guvnors have factol ambitions, none would usurp the post; it's against the Rules.
Sigil HQ: City Court (The Lady's Ward). The imposing Court building stands in the heart of The Lady's Ward. This foreboding structure rises only two stories above its huge granite foundation, but its tower climbs three stories higher.
The Harmonium keeps the neighborhood around the City Court orderly. Taverns serve bashers just killing time before their court appearances, and nearby scribes await court-related duties. Although the Guvnors will provide each accused sod with an advocate from the faction, freelance advocates from other groups hawk their skills outside the building. All day long, people flow steadily into and City Court as fast as others exit.
Once up the Great Stairs and past the proud marble pillars flanking the outside of the entry, a basher crosses the Promenade packed shoulder-to-shoulder with accused criminals, Harmonium agents, and Clueless. Pushing through the throng, a cutter can make it to a reception area to pay fines for minor infractions. More serious offenses go to trial, most of which take place in the Ward Court. Lesser court defendants who fail to arrive promptly pick up a fine for tardiness. But sods destined to appear in the Grand Court never arrive late; the Harmonium bailiffs escorting them from City Jail see to that. The Grand Court -- with its shiny wood, gilt fixtures, and mosaics celebrating justice -- houses more spectacular cases and all appeals.
Sure, appeals are possible, although the Guvnors deny most of them -- they know all the laws, so once a judge from the Fraternity of Order makes a ruling, it's the right one, see? Counsel can appeal a case up the chain from the initial Ward Court hearing to High Court (held in the Grand Court chamber), then to the Bureau Chief of the Ad Hoc Bureau of Courts, and finally to Factol Hashkar. The factol hasn't had to deal with an appeal for a decade now.
Attached to each courtroom is a private chamber: a meeting and study room for the judges and counsels of the cases on trial nearby. Factol Hashkar spends quite a bit of time in his private quarters on the main floor. This orderly set of rooms is connected to the Grand Court's chambers by a short hallway. Down a short staircase from several first-floor locations begins the library of the Guvnors, called the Vault of Knowledge. It consists of the first three sublevels beneath the Court, all 20 to 30 feet from floor to ceiling and packed with books and scrolls. Only a Guvnor may enter.
Faction high-ups have their offices on the second floor of the main building as well as the top floor of the tower. Also on the second level are dormitories for Aides (namers), quarters for Administrators (factotums), and twin chambers containing all the city's court records -- it's said there are a number of pocket dimensions holding the overflow.
Many Guvnors also work in the Hall of Information in cooperation with the Fated, who run the Hall of Records.
Home Field: Mechanus (in the Fortress of Disciplined Enlightenment).
Allies: Harmonium, Mercykillers.
Enemies: Revolutionary League, Xaositects.
Namer Abilities: Comprehend Languages once per day; after 7th level, Item (24-hour duration) once per day. Administrators of at least 5th level gain a limited power to manipulate probability.
Restrictions: Can't knowingly break a law.
Archetypes: The Sage, the Manipulator.
Faction Information: The Guvnor's records go back at least a thousand years, maybe more. The Fraternity of Order became an organized group 982 years ago. At that time, the members established the rules for chartering a faction in Sigil; eventually the other factions had to follow suit. The Guvnors, therefore, consider themselves the first faction, since they were the first chartered under current rules. Other factions disagree. Anyway, the Guvnors easily survived the Great Upheaval. They record everything that happens to them, have regular meetings, and naturally take minutes at every one. Fact is, minutes from a meeting 900 years ago are still moldering in a vault somewhere on Mechanus.
While the Guvnors make a lot of rules to govern themselves, they do not make laws to govern others. After all, the other factions would rebel if they didn't get their say, and The Lady of Pain wouldn't like that. It's ironic that one of the Fraternity of Order's highest Rules forbids them from creating laws for Sigil on their own.
Two basic types of bashers join the Guvnors: those looking for knowledge and those looking for power. To most of 'em, the two quests amount to the same thing: knowledge is power.
A cutter's got to be lawful to join the Guvnors -- and pass the right tests, of course, Good characters respect the laws as they are, while evil ones thrill in twisting them legally when they can.
Most members of the Guvnors are mages, although Guvnor wild mages seem less wild than most and concern themselves with learning the laws and patterns of chaos (such as they are). A lot of the remaining Guvnors are priests, usually of a power representing law and order, justice, or a related topic.
The Guvnors' namers are called Aides and perform the faction's mundane, day-to-day tasks. Their superiors assign them duties, but they may request assignments, as well. Often, high-ups encourage Aides to go on adventures to gain first-hand knowledge, as long as they write full reports on their return. However, the Guvnors require at least a few hours of regular duty from each and every Guvnor every week. Most namers work their hours as file clerks, research assistants, and court recorders.
To earn promotion to factotum, or Administrator, rank, a namer must pass a series of tests, offered every 100 days. Passing the tests makes the basher an Administrator of A10 rank. (A1 is the highest). Low-ranking Administrators feel like little more than glorified Aides, but factotums of higher ranks, A5 to A1, usually have their own Aides to supervise. These high-ups often conduct research missions or serve as attorney and legal advisers.
Factotums each have a superior. Sometimes a higher-ranked Administrator serves as a supervisor, but often it's a Bureau Chief, a factor in the faction. Advancement to Bureau Chief usually requires a test. However, bashers only get promoted when a Bureau Chief position is open. The faction's got way too many middle managers, especially ranks A3 to A1, because there's no place to advance.
The ranks of Bureau Chief run from B5 and work up to B1. B5s supervise lesser bureaus. B1-level chiefs run the Star Bureaus: Record-Keeping, Research, Internal Affairs, Planar Affairs, and Prime Affairs.
The position of factol seems unlikely to open in the near future. However, not all factols leave the position by dying. A few have retired, stepping down to honorary B1 status. Some factols, including Hashkar's predecessor, disappeared without a trace, despite efforts of the faction's best investigators.
THE CHANT: Hashkar's predecessor, Lariset the Inescapable, spent the last few months of her reign mostly sequestered in research, occasionally explaining that she was on the verge of a major discovery. When she disappeared from her quarters leaving no evidence, arcane or otherwise, to her whereabouts, others assumed she had made her discovery -- presumably one of the Great Axioms -- and ascended to a higher level of power. Some think she now watches over the Guvnors and all other seekers of power and knowledge. A minority even suggest that Lariset's Axiom allowed her to replace the Lady of Pain. They say she became the latest to fill that "office," but only a barmy'd believe such a thing.
Another minority of the Fraternity of Order, the Mathematicians, feel strongly drawn to the gears of Mechanus, and believe that everything imaginable exists somewhere on Mechanus.
Lots of high-ups of other factions seem to think the Guvnors are close to finding the ultimate loophole of the plane of Mechanus -- any day now, they could take over the plane on a technicality. Not only that, but if they have the dark about the nature of the plane, they'll understand all the cogs of the multiverse and wind up controlling the whole show. Sure, folks've heard this chant for centuries, but it seems louder lately. Lots of cutters feel a little worried about the Guvnors.
