Transcendent Order

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The Transcendent Order is one of the fifteen major factions in the Planescape campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. In the city of Sigil, the faction is based out of the Great Gymnasium, where people go to exercise, meditate and train. They are nicknamed the Ciphers, since few know what they are thinking.

In fact, members of the Transcendent Order do their best to avoid thinking at all. Action involves both mind and body, whereas thought involves the mind alone; therefore, to be a whole person, Ciphers do not think, they act. The central belief of the Order is that by emptying the mind of distractions, a person can perform any act on instinct alone, transcending the boundary between mind and body, as well as between the individual and the universe. Though many beginning Ciphers tend to be impulsive or even short-tempered, the upper ranks cultivate a philosophical detachment. The Order was clearly inspired by Zen philosophy.

Like all the factions, they are divided into four rough categories: namers (people who are members in name only), factotums (the dedicated rank and file), factors (lieutenants) and the factol, or leader. Ciphers, however, refer to the three upper ranks as masters of the heart, masters of the mind, and master of the spirit. In game terms, each rank of master offers a free bonus on resisting spells and powers that manipulate the mind.

The current master of the spirit is Factol Rhys, a beautiful woman with the legs of a goat and a reptilian tail. As a tiefling, a person with a fiend somewhere in her family tree, Rhys dealt with society's distrust by being self-reliant, which naturally led to the study of self-mastery.

In terms of alignment, Ciphers must be at least partially neutral. Their secondary headquarters is on the neutral good plane of Elysium, where order and chaos are both harmoniously balanced in the pursuit of good. However, according to The Factol's Manifesto, the dominant alignment of the Order is actually true neutral, as the duality of good and evil must likewise be transcended to hear the true cadence of the universe.