The Book of the Harmonium
Hardheads, Harmonizers, Harmonites, Redcoats, Shell-backs, Lawboys, Coppers. They go by many names, but they have one creed. And that's written in the umpteen-volume Book of the Harmonium.
The Book of the Harmonium is quite old, and it's still a work in progress, continually revised by Harmonium sages in order to provide maximum harmony for all. It's said that it was begun by the sage Jhary of Heka, who served the very first true Harmonium factol.
The modern edition begins with this line:
"The Multiverse has always needed someone like us."
With this statement it openly appeals to all peoples, discovered and undiscovered, throughout the worlds. It also reveals its ultimate goal, which is no less than the multiversal conquest of its beliefs over all others.
Another section which has gained great importance is the Pax Benevolus, which the book explains is adapted from an ancient treaty written by the gods of law and good themselves in an attempt to find common ground between all benevolent deities. While the treaty was never officially ratified, the Harmonium's explorations of the outer planes have allowed its wisdom to supplement their own quest to bring common ground to the peoples of the multiverse.
The Pax Benevolus (Harmonium version):
Rule number five is perhaps paramount. What is true is what the Harmonium says is true. Only through the doctrine of the Harmonium can peace be attained, and anything else is a selfish act of deception. Truth is harmony, the book explains, and harmony truth. Belief is power, and this power can be used for the selfish quest for individual ascension, to create discord and conflict among society, or it can be used to forge a unified front of peace and safety for all. Those who care about others take care to find a common system of belief that benefits everyone; those who only care about themselves choose a different system of belief, inevitably false because disagreement causes friction and even war. Friction and war create demons and power the Abyss; they are the source of all ills which plague the multiverse. Without disharmony, there would be no tanar'ri. Without tanar'ri, there would be no Blood War and the baatezu and yugoloths would not be drawn down to the tanar'ri's wicked level. There would be no evil at all. Good people are willing to sacrifice their personal preferences to the cause of multiversal harmony. If you do that, all the other rules should follow naturally. If you don't, you're a danger to everyone around you; how can you trust someone whose beliefs you don't know? How can you know all of a person's beliefs unless you share them? A whole volume (Volume 2: the Book of Lies) is dedicated to explaining this rule in essays and proverbs.
Hardheads will also agree with the sayings of Saint Cuthbert (from Village of Hommlet):
Square corners can be pounded smooth.The beliefs of the Harmonium can also be defined in negative terms: what do other factions believe that the Hardheads disagree with?
Revolutionary League: We must overthrow authority.
Harmonium: We must support authority.
Believers of the Source: We should strive to become gods.
Harmonium: It's hubris to deliberately try to become a god. Serve them faithfully instead, and accept whatever rewards they choose to give you. Rewards go to the humble.
The Sign of One: I am the center of the multiverse. The imagination of the One creates reality.
Harmonium: The Harmonium is the center of the multiverse. Our collective obedience creates harmony.
Athar: The powers are frauds.
Harmonium: The gods are not all frauds. Many are real, and many are worthy of worship. Of course, some are evil, or mad, or blasphemous; this is either the result of mortals not understanding them properly, or else they're false gods or fiends in disguise. The Harmonium knows which gods are correct, and the correct way to worship them.
Bleak Cabal: There is no meaning to existence.
Harmonium: The meaning of existence is harmony. The quest for harmony and peace through conformity is the highest of goals. The multiverse is predestined to one day ring with the true harmony that lies within it, currently masked by sin and discord. The multiverse was created with this goal in mind, and the Harmonium is the agent chosen to fulfill this goal.
Doomguard: The multiverse is falling apart. Eventually it will end in darkness and dissolution.
Harmonium: The multiverse is not falling apart; it's coming together. It's organizing itself with our help. The harmonious multiverse will be eternal.
Fated: Those most suited to make gains will gain them, and therefore deserve to.
Harmonium: We must all work together for the good of all. An individual is less important than the harmony of all.
Society of Sensation: Truth can only be apprehended through the senses. To learn through experience is the meaning of existence.
Harmonium: Truth can be apprehended only through the Harmonium. To conform to the Harmonium's instructions is the meaning of existence.
Xaositects: The multiverse is patternless chaos; order is an illusion.
Harmonium: Chaos is an aberration; order is the true, rightful state of the multiverse.
Fraternity of Order: Everything works according to laws, even if we haven't yet figured out what they are.
Harmonium: Everything works according to laws, and we can tell you what they are.
Mercykillers: Crimes must be paid for. Wrongs must be made right.
Harmonium: The unjust must be reformed, or otherwise dealt with, but respect for the Harmonium and the rule of law is more important. Justice should be upheld, but it is much more important to reform the criminal and bring them to our way of thinking.
Transcendent League: The planes have a pulse which can be known by quieting your inner dialogue and learning how to listen.
Harmonium: The pulse of the planes is the sound of marching Harmonium boots. The Harmonium will tell you the rhythm you should move by.
Dustmen: The planes are a false world of death and pain, mere dust masquerading as life. By quieting your passions and desires we can acheive eternal peace.
Harmonium: Passion for law and legally sanctified things is a positive sensation to have. Eternal peace can only be found through conformity. The living and dead each have their place in the cosmos, decreed by the gods. Each is equally real.
Free League: Everyone should be able to make their own decisions and believe what they want, free from the meddling of factions and other planar philosophical groups. The rights of the individual are paramount. What I believe is none of your concern.
Harmonium: Everyone must believe what the Harmonium tells them to believe. Those who don't are only empowering discord, dissent, and the Abyss.
Ortho
One of the first things a visitor notices about Ortho is how tame it is. It's not Arcadia -- the plants aren't all perfectly arranged in geometric patterns -- but it's close. Except for tiny parts of the southern and western continents, there isn't any wild forest or swampland left. Everything has been touched and changed by sentient hands: the bogs drained, the beasts slain, the trees chopped down, their stumps removed, and the area turned into farmlands framed by groves and windbreaks. The fey and spirits of the woodlands have gradually abandoned the world, except for the occasional grain nymph and house sprite, and their mass migration has greatly increased the size of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts in the outer planes.
The old coastal cities of the world -- Delastra, Steelgate, Threerivers, Han the Gem-studded, and so on -- have been flooded as over the centuries the ocean levels have risen. The most common solution to this dilemna was to continue to build upward, reinforcing the buildings with pilons, floating barges, and even fields of magical force. For a time the Harmonium's quest to bring its philosophy to other material worlds gained new urgency as the fields began to lose their fertility, especially with the departure of the fey, but new methods of crop rotation and exotic plants from other realms have allowed them to regain their stability.
Regular church attendance is strongly encouraged by the Harmonium authorities. The approved churches are subsidized by the government, and those not inside one during Godshour each day can be expected to be dragged there by truant officers, unless they have a good explanation.
The beholders of Ortho are recognizable by their spiky bright red carapaces. Their teeming subterranean cities in the Flamedance Mountains are ruled by Hive Mothers and include the full variety of abominations, but they all have the same scarlet shells. Mutants are killed at birth. The traditional red armor of the Harmonium officer is actually designed to help make the beholders feel like the orcs, dwarves, and humans of Ortho and the planes beyond are part of their race; it works well enough to keep the beholders living in piece, although they still prefer to keep to themselves, and essentially have their own government. Young beholders found to be afflicted with the madness of tolerance are banished to live among other races, and there are enough of these that most Orthoites have spoken amiably with a beholder at least once in their lives, and there are quite a few who work beside one or more.
Over half a millenium ago, Ortho was a standard, even cliche sword and sorcery world full of heroic battles against demons, wizards, and elves. Then the Knights of Harmony managed to unite two powerful lawful good kingdoms, and the pacification began. Today the entire planet is controlled by the Pax Harmonia, and their empire extends into the planes beyond.
In general, Ortho's cities are large and exotic toward the east, and smaller and newer toward the west, showing signs of being extensively rebuilt by the Hardheads. Some of the eastern cities even have bladed roofs in the Sigilian style, a practice considered somewhat vulgar in the ancient East. The economy of the southern plains of the eastern continent mostly revolves around agriculture and mining.
Sarin is from the northwestern continent, though his ancestors came from the southeastern islands.
Ortho has only one official gate to the Planes, a great circular pool in the City of Harmony which leads to Arcadia. Rumor has it that the beholder nations have a gate of their own, but it's considered inpolitic to ask.
On the other hand, the Lady's doors can appear anywhere, and the world has the normal amount of conduits and vortices. According to legend, the gates used by the fey in their great Retreat could be reopened by someone with the appropriate key. The authorities insist that the gates to the Abyss have been sealed forever.
Ortho has gunpowder; in fact it has enormous alchemical cannons used by the military and installed in the great steel leviathans, ironclads, and airships. Use of a powder or alchemical weapon by a civilian is illegal, and carries stiff fines and imprisonment. As a result, such weapons are very rare in Ortho, although some extraordinarily powerful and secretive criminal groups have a few.
Ortho's landscape is dotted by numerous manufactories which pump out useful alchemical products. Many of the major waterways are coated with colorful salts from centuries of absorbing industrial run-off, and in some cases fish and topsoil have had to be imported from other Harmonium worlds.
Red Terra: this world is similar to our Earth, except that the Harmonium appeared as technological advisors to Oliver Cromwell's government in England. In the century or so since then Harmonium England has conquered or economically dominated most of Europe, the Americas, Asia and the South Pacific. The Harmonium considers this world to be essentially pacified, and welcomes its citizens as Ortho's "little sister." For simplicity, this version of Earth is polytheistic (and primarily Roman), although some Hardheads from other worlds may be Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. Before the reign of Cromwell, Britain was dominated by the Celtic pantheon and the cults of the personification Brittania and her divine consort the current king, but Cromwell's ascension brought the Roman pantheon-worshipping Puritans into power. For a touch of the exotic, this planet's sun is large and red.
Synthesia: this world's natives are intelligent plants. They look much like humans, except their skin is a rich green and their heads sprout thick leaves instead of hair. They reproduce by cross-pollination and budding, so they always ensure that there are plenty of bees around; some actually have hives within their hollow
torsos. The synthesiates, who gain all of their energy from their world's sun and do not have to compete for mates, have little reason to fight and have been pacifists for their entire history. When the Harmonium arrived, they found they had little to do: the Synthesiates agreed with most of the Hardheads' ideas, and although they wouldn't help the faction fight anyone they would open their world to agriculture and mining, and join the faction in non-combatant positions. Today Synthesiates are a rare but growing presence in Harmonium-controlled regions of Arcadia, the Outlands, and Sigil, acting as scholars, healers, and menial servants.There's another world dominated by unchanging immortal carnivores: not vampires, but a living species which regenerates itself instead of reproducing. Being absolutely still and constant and desiring a multiverse which is much the same, they are parlaying with Harmonium representatives, trying to work out a mutually compatible philosophy. Things are going well, but the natives are so slow in their routines that it may be a century or so before the first preliminary treaty is drafted, and the Harmonium may never convince any of them to accompany the faction off-world.
There's another world where the only intelligent lifeform the Harmonium has discovered is a kind of reddish mold or lichen. It's possible to inject the spores of this organism beneath humanoid flesh where it quickly arranges itself as a rigidly patterned tattoo, living parasitically off of its host's body heat and minor nutrients. As it grows, it eventually extrudes pointed spikelike organs. The reason the Harmonium is interested in this organism is the fact that it shares its mind with its host. The mold is very complacent and suggestible, and its host tends toward the same. The mold also contributes intelligence points, while stripping away wisdom.
Iotia: The other world that the Harmonium dominates is based on a Star Trek episode. Basically, every life form on it bases its habits on mimicry. Mammals mimic plants, plants mimic mammals, aquatic birds mimic fish, and the humanoid races mimic one another. In general, a tribe of humanoids will all pattern their behavior off of the member who has proven to be the most clever and resourceful. When different tribes meet once a year, they hold contests where they try to prove their leaders' ingenuity and usefulness; if they're extraordinarily successful, the different tribes may merge and become one.
In the Star Trek episode, the Iotian civilization (said only to be "very intelligent and imitative") was visited by a ship from the early Federation and given an industrial revolution. The ship left behind a book about Chicago gangsters of the 20th century, and the whole world quickly patterned itself after what they learned there.
In this campaign, the Harmonium meets them and proves that their skill and knowledge is far beyond what the natives know. Within a few years, everyone on the planet is trying to make themselves into the ideal Hardhead, even adjusting their facial features in order to look more human. Some of the red-spikey armored humanoids walking the Arcadian-style cities are actually plants and animals innocently imitating the sentients! The Harmonium is ecstatic, but some of the natives brought to Sigil have begun imitating members of other factions, or no factions at all. As a result, natives are strongly discouraged from going anywhere but Iotia, Ortho, Synthesia, Arcadia, Fortitude, or the planet of spiky fungi.
The Harmonium is active on a number of other worlds and planes, and is fighting several simultaneous wars against stubbornly resistant nations.
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