Perhaps this will give some of you a new perspective on what I\'m talking about. The concept of my guild is taken directly from a PlaneScape setting, though I have modified it according to the evolution of several D&D characters which have participated in it. I have always found this faction fascinating. This is the excerpt from
A Player\'s Guide to the Planes regarding the Transcendent Order.
The Transcendent Order
(Ciphers)By the time you\'ve thought about it, I\'ll have killed you! That makes it a do-or die deal!
--Factol Rhys of the CiphersFaction philosophy. These guys say that for a body to become one with the multiverse, he\'s got to stop thinking and act. Action without thought is the purest form of thought. When a cutter can know what to do without even thinking about it, then he\'s become one with the multiverse. It goes like this. Every berk\'s part of the multiverse, and nothing\'s apart from it. So it figures that every being knows the right action to take at just the right moment. Problem is, some folks start thinking and mess it all up. Thinking adds hesitation and doubt. It overrules instinct and separates a sod from the multiverse. By the time a poor sod\'s thought about something, the right action for the right moment is gone. So all a berk\'s got to do is just quit thinking, right? \'Course it ain\'t that easy. Any addle-cove can blunder in and act without giving it a thought, but that\'s not the goal. A body\'s got to work hard at learning himself - learning his own mind and instincts until the right action comes automatically. It\'s done by training both the body and mind. Just like the way thieves practice their crosstrade, a Cipher\'s got to train his mind (the source of action) and body (the actor) to be one thing. There\'s no difference between the two, no separation between thought and motion. Body and mind act as one - the hand moves before the thought reaches it. So what\'s all this get a fellow, then? Once mind and body are in harmony, the spirit becomes in tune with the multiverse. A blood understands the purpose of the multiverse and knows just where and how he should be.
If you can get through all that PlaneScape jargon, then you might have a pretty good idea of what I\'ve been talking about now
