Bleak Cabal

The Bleak Cabal was one of the official philosophical and political factions of the Outer Planes. Based in the planar city of Sigil, they formed a triumvirate of fatalistic philosophies with the Doomguard and Dustmen. And they were one of the more ancient factions of the City of Doors, rivaled in age only by the Dustmen.

Outlook
The Bleak Cabal's philosophy centered around the belief that there was no higher purpose or meaning to anything or anyone in existence. Not the multiverse, not life,  not even the multiverse's deities. And despite their claims, the various deities, proxies, petitioners, and people from the Prime Material all lacked the true answers to the meaning of existence. Over time the faction's philosophy expanded. In the place of outward meaning, the Cabal felt that the only true meaning worthy of consideration lied within one's self,  achieving an introspective understanding of the self or "inner peace" and creating one's own reason for being by pursuing individual desires to accomplish things before the end of one's life.

Some further believed that the madness that often came from trying to achieve this and the acceptance of the meaningless of things was itself the meaning inherent to their faction's philosophy. That it was somehow necessary in order to achieve self-understanding.

Organization
The Bleak Cabal was led by Factol Lhar,  a half-orc that was an orphan at the Gatehouse in his youth. He was determined to maintain the policies of his predecessors, but ambitiously leaned the faction into taking a greater interest in Sigil, creating a network of Bleakers dedicated to gathering an understanding of the City of Door's political nature. He was determined to have an extra wing built to the faction's headquarters and to increase their membership so that there would be more hands to run its facilities, despite the inherent risks there were in increasing member. The faction normally made no efforts to actively recruit new members, relying solely upon word of mouth for growth. They found that their membership fluctuated naturally, dwindling whenever the other factions were intensely recruiting and eventually growing when the people became disillusioned with the other philosophical factions. Every few hundred years, this fluctuation pivoted in their favor and would make them the most powerful faction in Sigil for a time.

Unlike some factions, vicious internal power struggles never occurred in the Cabal due to its philosophy of meaninglessness. However, this philosophy was also responsible for Bleakers having shorter lifespans than the members of other factions, though many viewed a reduction to their lifespan as a blessing, rather than a curse. It was also responsible for the Bleakers having frequent changes in leadership, with their turnover rate for Factols rivaling that of all other factions in Sigil.

Individuals of all but lawful alignments were allowed membership in the Cabal, for to be lawfully implied a sort of order and structure to the universe and therefore a greater meaning. Distinctions between good and evil were of no concern to them, as all shared the same internal struggle for sanity.

Activities
Most members of the Bleak Cabal devoted their time to engaging in charitable acts, figuring that the doing of good works would move them closer to achieving self-understanding and because they figured that mercy was necessary in a senseless multiverse, though some also found relief in caring for the less fortunate. This practice made the Cabal arguably one of the most charitable of the factions in Sigil.

The Cabal's charitable acts included tending to the hungry, homeless, orphaned, sick, and insane. To that end they ran many soup kitchens, orphanges, and sanitariums in the city and beyond. Having a tremendous understanding of mental health, their treatments in these sanitariums had high success rates, though the nature of this "treatment" was kept a secret by all patients. Additionally, a great number of soup kitchens were set up by the Cabal's Factol Lhar in the wards of Sigil beyond the ward that the Cabal's headquarters stood in, hoping to garner donations for its future wing expansion. These soups kitchens were open to all, caring not about one's race or creed.

Some members, referred to as "Bleakniks", engaged in variety of artistic expressions of their introspection. These included such things as anguished poetry, elegant dirges, and gloomy stunts. And the drive to achieve self-understanding also drove Bleakers to lives of adventuring, as finding meaning in one's self necessetated experiencing the multiverse's intrinsic folly. Adventuring Bleakers had no great concern for wealth, sometimes leaving treasure behind if they couldn't think of a suitable use for it, but other times holding on to any fair share of treasure in order to spend on worthy charitable causes.

Base of Operations
The headquarters of the faction, known as the Gatehouse, was located in Sigil's Hive Ward. It was situated on a slight hill at the Ward's very edge and at the end of a long, curving road known as Bedlam Run. Ancient and massive in size, it consisted of a tall, semicircular and roofless tower with numerous wings spreading out from it. Formerly known as Bedlam Blight, it was designed with the purpose of housing those with contagious conditions. Most notably, a design that was inlaid on the tower's tile floor prior to their acquisition was adopted by the Bleakers as their faction's symbol, feeling that it was appropriate to adopt a pattern whose meaning had long been lost.

Four hundred years after the Cabal's takeover of the building, it became an asylum opened to all of Sigil's mentally ill, including victims of the Lady of Pain's mazes, as well as an almshouse and had one wing that was a dedicated orphanage. The central tower held the Gatehouse's bureaucratic offices and the living quarters of various high ranking officials, with the first floor being the public processing room and everything above it being restricted to fellow Bleakers.

Each day long lines gathered outside of the Gatehouse and dissipated come night time, crowded by those waiting patiently to have their mental illness treated, to hand their children over to its orphanage, to commit one's addled elders, or to be the last resort for a caretaker of a mentally ill individual. The Cabal tried to accommodate all, but could only allow fifty individuals in a day regardless of the building wing they were directed to. Some waited weeks to be seen by the Cabal, though Bleakers had the privileged of skipping these lines. The lines tended to attract streetpeddlers, shady criminals, Bleakniks, and those seeking to hire mercenaries.

Beyond Sigil, a considerably larger amount of the Bleak Cabal's members could be found in Pandemonium  and in its gate-town Bedlam, having sort of adopted the plane as their own. Enduring and wrestling with the madness that the plane was known for producing in non-natives was viewed as bringing Bleakers closer towards the goal of achieving self-understanding. In Pandemonium the Bleak Cabal maintained a stone-walled a town by the name of the Madhouse that acted as a waystation for travelers. Originally an unnamed inn, "the Madhouse" was dubbed as a jest by a visitor, but as the inn overtime grew into a fortified citadel and town the name stuck and signposts were erected bearing the name.

Possessions
Members of the Bleak Cabal possessed an immunity to spells that caused or induced madness. These included such spells as chaos, confusion, delude, feeblemind, Otto's irresistible dance, and Tasha's uncontrollable hideous laughter. Members also had a greater resistance to having their minds probed with ESP and a natural immunity to certain psionic abilities, such as ego whip, psychic crush, and psychic surgery. As an extension of their mental immunities, more powerful members had the ability to absorb any artificially-induced madness that was being suffered by another individual by means of a ritualistic head massage. The individual being treated had to remain still and the process could take many hours, five at the least, to complete and the upon completion the patient's body would grow numb. If interrupted, the process had to be restarted all over. Afterwards the Bleaker would have to meditate for an hour in order to cleanse their mind.

Due to their nihilistic worldview, members of the Cabal were prone to going insane  or experiencing deep melancholia    as they reflected upon the perceived pointlessness of life, or most rarely of experiencing a state of manic euphoria where they are overcome with free association. The melancholia in particular was a daily struggle for Bleakers. Once overcome with melancholia it was difficult for a Bleaker to feel motivated towards any action, though appealing to their charitable nature or demonstrating it might relieve them of their depression could prove motivating enough to get them out of their funk.

Whenever the faction's membership swelled too quickly and became glutted, the older members of the faction had a tendency to succumb to a mental illness dubbed by the Cabal as the "Grim Retreat" that most often lingered until one's death. While still contracted by members in the Present Age, the Grim Retreat was far less common due to the Bleak Cabal having gained great understanding of mental health over the centuries and from the efforts made to maintain a stable registry of membership.

Relationships
The Bleak Cabal was generally considered allies with the Dustmen, Doomguard, Revolutionary League and the Xaositects. All four viewed the faction with some sympathy. Bleakers sneered at the Doomguard's reverence for entropy as being the "ultimate goal" of the multiverse, though they still found common ground in decay.

Beyond these factions the Bleak Cabal was disliked by most in Sigil. The philosophy of the Harmonium, that there was some sort of "order" to the multiverse, was anathema to the Cabal and the Sign of One was hated ever since they took credit for the mysterious death of a former Bleaker Factol. The Cabal was outwardly considered an enemy by the Fraternity of Order, Harmonium, and the Mercykillers. This legal triumvirate of Sigil were all suspicious of it's charitable activities, the latter two often staking out the Cabal's soup kitchens, particularly those in the The Lady's Ward. They were also an enemy of the Believers of the Source,  for like the Dustmen they detested their philosophy.

The Bleak Cabal was also notably among the few factions known to make allegiances in the Abyss.

Members
Joining the Bleak Cabal was a difficult endeavor, as members were gruff and uninterested of those seeking membership, refusing to explain what they had to do or where they had to go. Those who were persistent and endured this "initiation period" were eventually accepted in as namers, though most seeking membership become disheartened and don't make it to that stage. This period typically lasted from around six to twelve months. Once accepted into the Cabal a Bleaker had to renounce their surname as a sign of their willingness to renounce their former life of valuing outward "meaning".

Demographics
The Bleak Cabal roughly maintained a stable number of 10,000 members. Bleakers were of a wide variety of races, including humans, elves, grey elves, gnomes, half-elves, halflings, dwarves, bariaurs, and githyanki.

In terms of classes, the Cabal's emphasis on the mental over the physical attracted the attention of those with scholarly inclinations, such as bards, priests, and wizards. Fighters and thieves were not exempt from joining, but such people typically found membership later in their lives after going through haunting life experiences. Fighters and thieves often turned over half of whatever they earned to local charities in an effort to soothe their consciences.

In terms of religions, the three most popular deities among members of the Cabal were Cyric, Dionysus, and Tharizdun. This trio were viewed as embodying different aspects of madness. Many Bleakers also admired the Faerûnian power Ilmater, for the god of suffering and endurance was seen as one that could help them to muddle through their own lives of hardship.

Notable Members

 * Ilkaren, a githyanki Bleaker that interacted with some Ravenian adventurers.