The Dustmen, also called the Dead, believe this “life” is actually just one stage of death, that we’re all leading afterlives and the only difference is how aware of this truth we become. Purging themselves of emotion, Dustmen hope to attain the True Death and move to whatever lies beyond the planes (or perhaps oblivion). Those attracted to the faction include death priests, necromancers, those who’ve led lives of great suffering, those with undead loved ones, and mystics seeking mastery of their emotions. In Sigil they are based in the Mortuary, while on the planes they claim the Negative Energy Plane as their headquarters.
Prerequisite: Clerics of the Life domain cannot join the Dustmen, since Life is opposed to Death.
Philosophy: Everyone is dead, some more than others. Undead have attained purity - they have purged themselves of all passion and sense.
Plane of Influence: The Negative Energy Plane. It is said that the soul of every dead Dustman lurks in their hidden citadel. The Dustmen could call them back to the Mortuary should the Dustmen need them.
Headquarters: The Mortuary. It has a lot of portals in it, many of which go to cemeteries on other worlds.
Allies: The Bleak Cabal and The Fated.
Enemies: The Sign of One and the Society of Sensation.
Rising in the Ranks:
- The Dustmen collect bodies and bury or dispose of them in the Mortuary.
- Factotums are known as "Initiates." You must be at least 4th level. Factotums are initiated through a dark pact with the undead. Factotums gain the power to command undead.
- Lowest ranking factotums are Initiates of the Fifth Circle
- Mid-ranking factotums are in the Fourth Circle.
- Factors and the Factol belong to the First Circle.
- Nobody knows what the second and third circles are. Many think they are full of powerful, free-willed undead. There are a lot of undead members of the Dustmen.
Background:
Skill Proficiencies: History, medicine
Tool Proficiency: Funerary kit, historian’s tools
Equipment: Historian’s tools, funerary kit, a flask of holy water, a set of common clothes including a faction badge sewn into them, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp.
Feature: One of the Dead. Your membership in the Dustmen grants you access to the Mortuary, in the Hive, where Sigil’s dead are processed. This includes access to the Dustmen’s dormitories, its armory, the records of the dead, the catacombs beneath Sigil, and to the faction library with its tomes on death, undead, burial practices, and similar topics. You may also earn a Poor living as a corpse-collector or mortuary aid there. You also know of a portal that leads to the Fortress of the Soul on the Negative Energy Plane, and have a key to that portal.
Suggested Characteristics: The Dustmen are dispassionate people, unconcerned with the vagaries of emotion, but they cling tightly to the ideals that they have. Their bonds tend to be the things they want to be rid of, in the end.
Dustmen Membership: The Dustmen attract the quiet and the introspective. The purging of emotion and attachment is an important part of the Dustmen philosophy, so it attracts classes that share the appreciation for logic over feeling. Popular classes include cold, calculating fighters, dispassionate, lonely rangers, quiet, cautious rogues, ruthless, effective warlocks, and academic, distant wizards. Unusual classes include barbarians (the rage trait is a use of emotions), bards (inspiration's emotional component is considered false), and clerics and paladins (devotion to a god or ideals requires powerful emotional dedication). Rare, but still possible, include druids and sorcerers, who tend to be too devoted to life, but who may purge that and gain acceptance.