Factions are an order or fraternity that possesses a strong central belief. Joining a faction is meant to provide a sense of purpose to the player, but there are also many benefits to vowing your allegiance, including the ability to purchase exclusive armor, weapons, and other items that wouldn't be readily available otherwise. There are fifteen factions in the Planescape campaign setting, but you will only have the opportunity to join seven of them in Torment.
Motto: Destroy the factions; they're built on lies and greed. Break them all down and rebuild with what's left; that's the way to the real truth.
Philosophy: These sods claim that Guvners, Chaosmen, Mercykillers, Athar - every last one of them - no longer care about the truth. Their factols all have property, bodyguards, jink, and influence. They're not looking for the truth; they just want to hang onto what they've got. Well, the Anarchists say it's time for that to change. It's time to break free of the chains and seek the real truth. And that's only going to happen when a body's free of the bonds of the other factions.
How to Join: After you have joined the Godsmen, speak with Bedai-Lihn on the second floor of the Foundry. If you tell her that you are unhappy with the faction, she will ask you to complete three different tasks for her. Once these are complete and you've snuck her out of the Foundry, she will give you a secret code to give to Scofflaw Penn in the Print Shop. After you have given Scofflaw the code and completed his tasks, you'll be offered the chance to join the Anarchists.
Motto: Everyone is dead. Purge your passions, and in so doing, ascend toward the purity of True Death.
Philosophy: These guys say Life's a joke, a great trick. Nobody's alive; in fact, there's no such thing as Life. Sure, the petitioners are dead compared to the rest of us, but everybody else is dead, too - they just don't know it yet. So what's the chant? Simple: "All these worlds and all these universes are just shadows of another existence." This multiverse the Prime Material, the Inner, and the Outer Planes - is where beings wind up after they die. Look, if things were truly alive, would there be such pain and misery in the multiverse?
How to Join: When you visit the Gathering Dust Bar in the northeast portion of the Hive, you'll meet a Dustman named Emoric. Express interest in joining the Dustmen to him and he will ask you to complete several tasks in order to test you. After you have successfully completed all of his tasks, you will be presented with the opportunity to become a Dustman.
Motto: All life springs from the same divine source, ascending and descending in form as the cosmos tests it.
Philosophy: To these characters, all things are godly. All things can ascend to greater glory - if not in this life, then in the next. Patience, that's all it takes. See, here's the chant: Everything - primes, planars, petitioners, proxies, the whole lot - is being tested. Survive, succeed, and ascend - that's the goal of all beings. Fail and get reincarnated to try again. It's pretty simple and straightforward.
How to Join: Once you have gained entry into the Foundry of the Godsmen in the Lower Ward, speak with the man named Keldor. Keldor has two tasks for you to complete, after which he'll offer you the opportunity to become a Godsman.
Motto: Indeps are individualistic bloods who have banded together to protect themselves from the other factions. Truth? There is no "truth" -- just live free or die.
Philosophy: This ain't no faction and nobody tells them what to do. The idea that any berk knows the truth and everybody else's wrong -- well, that's a chance a body shouldn't take. Who's right -- the Guvners? The Mercykillers? The Chaosmen? Since when does a smart gambler play all his jink on a single throw? The short and long of it's simple: There's nobody who's got a sure key to the truth, so it pays to keep the options open.
How to Join: The Nameless One will never have the opportunity to join the Indeps, but Annah is already part of the faction when you recruit her into your party.
Motto: Justice is everything. When properly applied, punishment leads to perfection.
Philosophy: As far as this faction's concerned, justice is everything, and there ain't no sod who can give it the laugh. Those cutters that try'll have the Mercykillers on their tail, so the smart thing is just don't try. It's the whole reason laws exist - to see that justice is carried out. Justice purges the evil in folks and makes them better, fit to belong in the multiverse. Once everybody's been cleansed, then the multiverse reaches perfection, and perfection's the goal of the multiverse.
How to Join: The Nameless One will never have the opportunity to join the Mercykillers, but Vhailor is already part of the faction when you recruit him into your party.
Motto: Know the universe by experiencing it fully. The senses form the path to truth, for the multiverse doesn't exist beyond what can be sensed.
Philosophy: According to these folks, the multiverse is known by the senses - the only proofs of existence. Without experience, without sensation, a thing isn't. If a sod can't taste the soup, then it ain't soup. The only way to know anything for sure is to use the senses. Look, it ain't that hard to understand. Which is real, a description of a rose or the rose itself? Only a barmy'd choose the description, which ain't real. It's got no smell, no thorns, no color. Picking a rose, that's real, and the way a body knows is by experiencing it. The senses are the only way to know the universe.
How to Join: When you reach the Clerk's Ward, enter the Civic Festhall and speak with Splinter. If you agree to relinquish any previous factions and provide the Sensates with several sensations for recording, Splinter will allow you to join their ranks.
Motto: Truth chaos is. By randomness embracing the of the multiverse, secrets its one learns.
Philosophy: As these sods see it, the multiverse wasn't born from Chaos - the multiverse is Chaos. There's no order, no pattern to anything. That's the meaning of the multiverse, the great secret everyone else is just too dull-witted and cowardly to admit! Look around. Is there any pattern to this existence? Any order that gives it all meaning? None, not a one. By gazing upon Chaos, learning to appreciate the randomness of it and understanding its sublime intricacies, the Xaositects learn the secrets of the multiverse.
How to Join: Just outside the Smoldering Corpse Bar in the southeast portion of the Hive, you'll encounter a crazed man named Barking-Wilder. If the Nameless One is chaotic enough, you can convince Barking-Wilder to let you join the Xaositect faction by first growling at him, then snarling and barking at him, and finally improvise a song (and a crazy one at that). Follow that up by quizzing him about who he is and then ask "Join the can I the chaosmen?" to which he'll respond by slapping you. This odd ritual gets you into the Chaosmen faction.