Editing Faction War

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'''The Faction War''' is an adventure for [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] set in [[Sigil]] and launched for the [[Planescape]] campaign setting. It is one of several mega-adventures that [[TSR]] and [[Wizards of the Coast]] used towards [[Advancing the Storyline]], such as how [[Die, Vecna, Die!]] was used to cover the transition from [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons|2nd Edition]] to [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition|3rd edition]].

Fueled by his [[God-Emperor of Mankind|legendary arrogance]], Duke Rowan Darkwood, Factol of the [[Fated]], pursues and recovers an ancient Macguffin that nobody ever noticed before this module's plot needed it: an ebony gem, containing the soul of a legendary wizard who wrought a spell intended to seize control of Sigil from the [[Lady of Pain]] and render it unto him instead. With this in hand, he sets out to dominate Sigil by manipulating the Factions into open war - at which he succeeds.

The players take up the role of individuals struggling to survive in the resultant chaos, and to figure out what's really going on. No small task, especially as the adventure's climax involves the factions going to open warfare ''and'' Sigil being invaded by armies of [[Tanar'ri]] and [[Baatezu]] hoping to seize advantage of the chaos.

Eventually, the madness is stopped and the ebony gem is lost once more. The Factions make a tentative peace, but their power is shattered -especially when the Lady announces that all of the Factions are now unwelcome, and they must disassemble or die. Some Factions formally renounce their power and maintain their roles, such as the [[Bleak Cabal]], [[Dustmen]] and [[Society of Sensation]]. Others quit Sigil and retreat to extraplanar locales -- the [[Fated]] to [[Ysgard]] and the [[Athar]] to the [[Outlands]]. And three Factions even cease to exist entirely; the [[Believers of the Source]] and the [[Sign of One]] fuse together to become the new [[Mind's Eye]] philosophy, whilst the [[Mercykillers]] split up and revert to being the [[Sons of Mercy]] and the [[Sodkillers]] again.

Needless to say, this adventure was a ''huge'' source of [[skub]] in its day. Planescape's always been a divisive setting (is the [[Great Wheel]] deep and mature, or pretentious and pompous? Is the [[Blood War]] the best thing since sliced [[meatbread]] or overhyped and boring?) but this adventure took that to new heights. You had people who liked the end of the Factions, people who hated it, people who wished certain different fates for certain Factions, people who didn't like how it kicked off, people who hated the time travel aspect...

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Planescape]]