Not these guys again

This was originally in response to the question:

What are some villainous factions for a D&D campaign?

Below you'll find just a bunch of well meaning folks who believe they're on the right side of history.

The Trans-Planar Liberation Front (a.k.a. “The Egg Breakers”)

Slogan: Crack the shell and let all fly free!

The Trans-Planar Liberation Front has one goal: Break down the barriers which separate the prime material plane from all the others and set all those who live here free to wander among the planes as they will.

They view the mortal realms as a prison, or at best a creche where overprotective parents have kept their children cooped up too long. This isn’t how souls of sapient creatures were meant to live! Surely everyone longs for the wild lands beyond this existence.

If this was a personal goal of the members, things might be fine. But the TPLF view all mortals inhabiting the material plane as prisoners, even if they don’t realize it yet. So members seek to eliminate the prime material plane on behalf of all.

Unfortunately, few except the highest level magicians are prepared for what lies beyond. Previous TPLF efforts have resulted in towns flooded with lava, githyanki incursions, districts devoid of people (their inhabitants cast adrift in the plane of Limbo), and undead hordes arising as the negative energy plane asserts itself.

The Unfree

Slogan: Blissful thralldom!

Fantasy worlds are tough enough to get by in when for seasoned adventurers. But for the average commoner or artisan they present a crazy, nightmarish existence steeped in death, and impossible situations no one could reasonably prepare for. One poor choice could spell untimely doom, but how can one even have a chance of making the right choice without the aid of a crystal ball or communication with a higher plane?

Well, being a PC wizard, cleric, etc. is nearly impossible for most folks, so the majority are left to agonize over every decision, or try to live with the increasingly random whims of chance.

Except for the Unfree. Their solution to the whole conundrum and anxiety is to put their trust in a higher power. But not just any higher power. Not some distant god or spirit who relies on your faith and might or might not set your mind at ease as you see evil in the world around you.

No. A true higher power is the more immediate kind with the ability to rewrite your mind and make you not worry. A vastly wiser and more insightful master who has a true grip on the vagaries of this bizarre existence. One which will make all the tough decisions for you so you don’t have to.

So, new members of the Unfree dutifully seek out powerful psychic monsters to pledge fealty to. Aboleths and mind flayers are common choices. They then serve these new masters with intense devotion, childlike trust and joy. On rare occasions some of them return to civilized areas to spread word of their blissful subservience, recruiting others to their cause.

The more cunning among the Unfree know that few will follow them to slave away their free will, and come up with more deceptive and cunning plans to lure others to their masters.

It has been rumored from time to time that the Unfree were originally sent by their masters (Illithid maybe) as a recruiting pitch to bring more thralls their way. This would make sense, after all why would they leave their masters if so contented? But the Unfree overall don’t seem beholden to one specific dominating species.

Others conjecture that sending Unfree to see how many they recruit is a gambling game the enslaving species play amongst themselves. Or that perhaps the mind masters are bargaining with the Unseen: So many new recruits in exchange for loved ones still in thrall.

The Legalist Concordat

Slogan: Toward perfection through discipline.

The Concordat are the folks who give monks and paladins a bad name. They consist of those who see imperfection everywhere, in sophont hearts and the natural world. But, far from giving up hope, they realize the only way to attain the perfect is to note all the instances of imperfection and pull them up like weeds before they get too large.

Exhaustive and invasive use of regulation coupled with grueling punishments become the norm wherever the the movement takes hold. Killing is quite rare, since they desire as many be brought to perfection as possible. But shaming, torture, and maiming are not unheard of in attempts to deter undesirable behavior.

Of course they take no pleasure in these acts (or at least the more high minded don’t). But they feel there is no more expedient way to cause thinking creatures to overcome their baser natures and focus on higher things.

Children of Muto and Selek

Slogan: To change and be chosen is our greatest strength.

It had been widely acknowledged by academics that minor change between parent and child create variations within a population. This process is followed by one or more events which kill off those who do not have variations which help them to survive. Through this method the various races of creatures in the world are constantly changing in small ways to become stronger and better suited to their environments.

But the Children of Muto and Selek want to take this one step further: Why wait for the natural course of events to create variations and select the most fit for an environment? Why not speed up the process in every way possible?

In reverence to the god Muto, the Children seek out magics and other phenomena which lead to dramatic physical and hereditary changes in themselves and their offspring. Then to give the god Selek its due, they put themselves in situations where their ability to endure is sorely tested.

This may include subjecting themselves to combat, natural catastrophe, feats of voluntary torture or drowning, poisons, diseases and hostile magics. Those who survive are considered to have Selek’s blessing and given high honor.

The Children could easily be considered simple nutcases, of no harm to anybody but themselves. But theirs is a forcefully evangelical devotion, converting not with words but with deeds:

Given the opportunity and adequate numbers, the Children may occasionally kidnap an individual who is unusual in some way and attempt to procure for them Selek’s blessing through exposure to horrifying circumstances.

Any discovery of a teratogenic substance or device is a cause of great joy among the followers. They will attempt to use it not only on themselves, but on as many others, willing or unwilling, as possible.

Finally, it has happened just barely often enough to become a cautionary tale: Some of the Children who subject themselves to disease do not die. Considering themselves possessed of Selek’s blessing they travel around the most populated areas to demonstrate the effectiveness of their cause. Unfortunately, quite often such individuals have become carriers of the disease which fails to kill them. But in their travels, these infected Children have the opportunity to spread the disease to others.