Planescape
THE HARMONIUM
(Hardheads)
Philosophy: Peace is our goal. But if it takes a little war to get others to see things the Harmonium way, so be it. That's how we'll reach our golden harmony.
Factol: Sarin is a male human prime paladin, ch: 17. The chant's that he comes from the Harmonium world of Ortho and chose to go to Sigil rather than take the easier route through the ranks of the Harmonium worlds. He's tough and believes unshakably in the Harmonium's cause and will do anything honorable, lawful and good to promote peace and harmony. He doesn't feel like he's doing a good job unless he personally arrests somebody at least every day or two. He has a human wife, Faith, and nine children, the oldest of whom is Marinda, 14, a girl who already plans to join the Harmonium.
Sigil HQ: City Barracks (The Lady's Ward): The imposing City Barracks looks like a gargantuan slab of stone heavy enough to crush the very streets. The structure, with its spiked gray slate roof, appears dull but impenetrable and can house more than 1,000 people. It has a single entrance, over which rises an arch in the shape of two arms raised, clasping hands to form a huge fist. The barracks is an ugly place -- not that any basher wants a Hardhead to hear him say so.
The Lady's Ward around this HQ remains calm and orderly. Four guards stand watch at the building's entrance at all times, day or night, no matter what conditions arise around them. They stop anyone who enters, asking "Who goes there?" They reject anyone without a good reason to vsit the HQ but allow Harmonium members to pass.
Past the entrance is a reception area in which non-Harmonium members must sign in and state their business to the faction receptionist, Diana the Guardian, a cheerful and bright female human enchantress in her late 30s who doesn't put up with attitude from anyone. Harmonium may enter freely. Visitors are asked to stay with their faction guides at all times.
The public areas include classrooms where recruits receive instruction and occasionally advanced training courses or official briefings are held. This area also holds the dormitories, segregated by gender and rank. A small auditorium takes up one tower on the first level; a much larger hall using both levels of another tower is used for thrice-daily briefings. The public area also contains a training room and a mess hall, an extensive library filled with books of law, poetry and approved fiction, as well as confiscated religious tracts and multiple copies of the Book of the Harmonium and The Sigil Municipal Code. Faction members can check books out for a week at a time. From the ground floor, one can gain entrance to the immense courtyard of the Barracks. Portions of the recruits' physical training take place here, as do regular exercise sessions for namers and daily parade march practices. Frequent drilling gives namers and officers the polished military demeanor that impresses the folk of Sigil.
The second level of the Barracks is reserved for faction members only. There is a large records room containing scrolls listing the Harmonium's membership, along with each Hardhead's current assignment and supervisor. The tower also contains books describing the known history of the Harmonium and scrolls of all arrests made by Harmonium patrols in Sigil. Upstairs also contains two shrines for personal religious observances. There are faction offices, officers' quarters (two to a room), the office of Sarin's second-in-command male human planar Tonat Shar, and Factol Sarin's office and family quarters. The four towers contain a landing area for winged messengers and faction members, small libraries, records storage rooms, classrooms, training rooms and another mess hall.
Home Field: Arcadia (in Melodia): Melodia is a Harmonium stronghold on the second layer of Arcadia, Buxenus. Tiefling male Nicolai Mabru rules the town, and nearly 10,000 Hardheads live in it. The Harmonium uses the town as a faction headquarters and operates a lot of attractions to show visitors the bliss of life under universal harmony. New recruits get trained in four large camps that operate constantly just outside of town. Melodia welcomes all recruits and accepts them into the fold.
Allies: Guvnors, Mercykillers
Enemies: Free League, Revolutionary League, Xaositects.
Namer Abilities: Charm person once per day.
Restrictions: Disobediance requires Atonement. Refusal is punishable by death.
Archetypes: The Basher, the Preacher. True belief implies a lawful alignment, but evil members are as welcome as good ones. Few in the Harmonium seem actually evil; many are good and lots fall somewhere in the middle. Evil doesn't prove truly conducive to harmony and peace, but even a baatezu understands order and the advantages of stability.
Faction Information: The Harmonium largely consists of humans and dwarves, with some tieflings and planar half-elves. Paladins, warriors and priests are the bulk of the membership, with a few wizards and only the occasional rogue. Once joined, though, a Hardhead is a Hardhead, and they all stick together like one big family, occasionally squabbling but always preserving their unity.
When Violet and Angel join, they go to Sarin's indoctrination speech, in which the factol shows the type of man he is -- tough, forthright, charismatic, and unforgiving -- and tells the recruits what to expect. They then get shipped off to the training camps on Buxenus for eight weeks of grueling training. Violet and Angel are stuck together with three other recruits (five is an auspicious number in the Harmonium) in their group, and by the end of the training session all nine are a cohesive team, having stuck up for each other, been awarded together, punished together, and kept together constantly.
Upon leaving boot camp, Violet and Angel and their three companions are Notaries, common soldiers. Notaries have 5 ranks, from Notary One, the lowest (Violet and Angel) to Notary 5, the highest.
Notaries who later pursue officer training receive advanced training and become Measures (factotums), from Measure One to Measure Five. Above the ranks of Measures, Movers are the Harmonium's factors, ranked from One to Five. The factol himself decides who to promote from Movers. The Factol is also known as the Composer.
The Harmonium is one of the biggest of all factions, especially off-plane. Whole worlds belong to the Harmonium. Thus, a Hardhead is seldom too far from another Hardhead, no matter where she goes.
Harmonium members who advance in rank get other powers. Those of Measure One rank (of at least 4th level) have trained so hard that they receive a +1 bonus on attack rolls with a weapon of choice. Movers (of at least 7th level) have developed beliefs and dedication to duty so rigid that they become difficult to distract, getting +3 bonuses to saves against Fear and other emotion-related spells or spell-like abilities, even draconic Fear. Mover Fours and Fives (of at least 10th level) can use a spell-like ability called Dictate (an improved Command) once per day, regardless of class.
THE CHANT: The Harmonium has Plans; they want action, and they want action against some of the other factions most of all. Anarchists probably pose the biggest threat to the Hardhead philosophy, since they actively seek to upset the order of Sigil. Harmonium high-ups are formulating a strategy against them, although they're frustrated at having to make plans against a bunch of berks who don't have specific plans.
The Xaositects are also problematic, mostly because other factions can use them for their purposes. The Harmonium as a body hasn't moved against the Chaosmen, although individual officers and Notaries constantly watch for them to break a law. Then they can get the berks off the street.
Members of the Free League get a lot of attention from some in the Harmonium. By refusing to join "real" factions -- even those the Hardheads don't like -- they flaunt their refusal to accept the Harmonium's order of things. As the Indeps get more organized, they gain Harmonium notice -- a source of more than a little worry to the Free League. To some (and not just Indeps) it looks like the Hardheads want to exterminate them. With growing frequency, some Hardheads arrest folks just for being Indeps.
For quite a while, the Doomguard and the Bleakers have shown up high on the faction's troublemaker list. Sure, a lot of them appear patient, because they figure nothing matters (the Bleakers) or because they figure everything'll eventually go their way (the Doomguard), but some of these folks have developed a yen for active destruction. Besides, their philosophies really bother the Hardheads; they don't want either group infecting others with their barmy ideas. The Bleakers might prove easy enough to deal with; as with the Xaositects, wait a while. They're bound to make a mistake, and then the Hardheads can arrest them.
The Doomguard's another matter. The faction has an important function in Sigil; it controls the Armory -- a big problem, as far as the Harmonium is concerned. The Hardheads work to undermine the Doomguard in every way possible without confronting the Sinkers directly. See, if they fight them directly, they fall right into the other group's hands -- promoting entropy. Factol Sarin is too smart for that. Instead he tries to move around their authority, to build good works and step up the generation of harmony and peace. Only by supporting its own goals can the Harmonium hope to defeat the Doomguard; the moment the Hardheads counter this foe directly, they've done things the Doomguard way.
