Mercykillers

## History

### Founding Date

*First Iteration*: Centuries Ago*Second Iteration*: 3517 / Hashkar 252 (Officially Proclaimed 3518 / Hashkar 253)

### Founded At

*Second Iteration*: Catacombs beneath Ragmonger's Lane, Sigil (Officially proclaimed at the Trianym, Clerk's Ward)

### Dissolution

*First Iteration*: 3511 / Hashkar 246: Most Mercykillers killed or mazed by the Lady of Pain

## Membership

### Members

* Bliss
* Ares
* Sparky
* Shepherd

### Former Members

* Vhailor
* Ametrine
* Felquin

### Associates

* Star Lutana
* Gwynnestri Grimm
* Nagar Krelker
* Ashton Halloway
* Shio Zise
* Barny the Flaming Mimir

### Enemies

* The Fraternity of Order
* The Harmonium

### Alignment

Mostly Chaotic

> *"When the law fails to serve us, we must serve as the law.”*
>
>

*(This article refers to the second incarnation of the faction as presented in this group's Planescape game; for the original incarnation of the faction, see the article on the Mercykillers on Timaresh.)*

The second incarnation of the **Mercykillers** was a faction of the interplanar city of Sigil, taking up of the mantle of the now defunct faction of the same name following its obliteration at the hands of the Lady of Pain. The new faction, sometimes referred to as the **New Mercykillers** to avoid confusion, differed from its predecessor; instead of a collective of brutal enforcers of the courts of Sigil, the New Mercykillers consisted of vigilantes and agents of justice dedicated to passing judgment where the courts had failed to do so.

Fiercely opposed to allowing bureaucracy to drag out the process of delivering justice, the Mercykillers instead took the matter into their own hands. This often took the form of murdering criminals before their potential arrests, breaking into lawful institutions and assassinating convicts before their trials, and even killing corrupt law officials who impeded the delivery of justice.

The Mercykillers believed that Justice, the center of their belief, was a tangible force in the planes that required mortal hands to carry out her will. Their primary dispute with the byzantine law system of Sigil stemmed from said system's often sluggish approach to righting wrongs, especially when concerning less affluent citizens of the city.

## History

### Fall of the Mercykillers

The original Mercykillers, also known as the Red Death, were a lawful faction entrusted with keeping watch over Sigil's prison and tracking down wanted criminals. Their creed emphasized the importance of justice, believing that through punishment, the multiverse could achieve perfection. The Mercykillers' final factol during this time was Alisohn Nilesia.

At some point, a radical faction began to take hold in the Mercykillers' ranks, promoting the idea that the elusive Lady of Pain was not above the law, and in fact was guilty of supplanting the law by slaughtering those who dared cross her path. The Mercykillers gathered their numbers and attempted to arrest the Lady herself; the resulting storm of blood and mazes is still spoken of only in whispers, and by its end only a scant few Mercykillers away from Sigil survived.

Following the dissolution of the faction's first incarnation, the name of the Mercykillers fell into disuse, spoken only in whispers as to avoid drawing the ire of the Lady of Pain. The faction's memory was looked upon with contempt, and its members were branded as lunatics for daring to challenge the Lady's authority.

### A Chance Encounter

During the common year 3517, Shai'a Beaumont, the young adopted ward of the Beaumont family, was mortally wounded following a Harmonium raid on her family's home. Delirious and close to bleeding out, Shai stumbled into an alleyway and triggered a portal that accepted her anger over the injustice of her situation as a key.

Beyond the portal was a dusty crypt housing the inert, armored form of Vhailor; a disembodied Mercykiller that had rusted over and been forgotten for several decades, even before the fall of the faction. The spirit of Vhailor within the armor, having grown weak over the years with the waning of his belief, saw a kindred soul before him. Shai signed an unspoken pact with the spirit, saving her life by becoming a warlock with Vhailor as her patron and supplanting her nearly spent life force with Vhailor's own. In return, Shai's rage and burning desire for justice served to bolster Vhailor's dwindling spirit from the brink of nothingness.

Faced with a new collective lease on life, the pair began to discuss their philosophies concerning justice. Vhailor, an embodiment of the classical philosophy of the Mercykillers, favored the lawful interpretation of justice and the importance of laws in branding those who needed to be punished. Conversely, Shai favored the chaotic stance of a vigilante; that the law was prone to corruption and delay, and that those who were wronged by the malicious could not wait for a sentence to be passed by bureaucracy.

Though this disagreement caused friction, the two would agree on the fundamental principle of justice and its absolute importance throughout the Planes. Inspired by her patron's former experiences and desperate to prevent what happened to her from happening to another without just retribution, Shai decided to reform the Mercykillers under her new and chaotic philosophy. Though still in disagreement, Vhailor agreed to support Shai so long as the cause of Justice was being served.

### A Faction Reborn

With no members save for Shai herself and an immobile suit of armor locked in a crypt, the Mercykillers could hardly be called a faction once again. Shai built her own reputation for a time by acting as a bounty hunter in the Hive and the Lower Ward; she slaughtered serial killers, forcibly castrated rapists, and maimed corrupt officials. It was her hope that she would in time attract new members and further her own pursuit of the mysterious Veiled Lady through her efforts; however, an accidental trip to Avernus and the formation of the adventuring party known as the Skeleton Keys put these plans on pause.

However, hope would arrive in the form of Bliss, a tiefling saved by the party from a malicious cult. Shai saw the young woman, angered by her treatment and eager to ensure it could not be done to others, as a perfect fit for the Mercykillers. Bliss accepted this offer, becoming the second member of the New Mercykillers and finally establishing the faction as a group capable of attracting others to its philosophy.

Bliss, showing initiative in recruiting members both former and new, would go on to be instrumental in the faction's growth.

## Membership

Mercykillers could be of any age or profession, any sex or gender (or lack thereof), and of any race. While there was no official requirement of a chaotic alignment, the faction's outright hostility to the courts of Sigil was often off-putting to individuals of a lawful disposition. New recruits had to prove their worth and commitment to the ideals of the Mercykillers by presenting a severed body part of an evildoer, often their ring finger, as an offering.

Shai'a Crescent served as the faction's factol, guiding the organization as she saw fit. The Mercykillers had little in the way of formal hierarchy, instead favoring a loose structure favoring seniority and meritocratic ideals. Most members of the organization acted as agents in their own chosen areas, working either as lone vigilantes or part of small parties of justice-seekers.

## Areas of Operation

The Mercykillers were based in Sigil, but could be found in any of the planes, as the necessity of justice was seen as an omnipresent reality in all of the planes by the Mercykillers.

During Shai's early reign as the factol, the faction had no formal headquarters, as she spent most of her time adventuring with her unaffiliated companions.

## Relationships

As vocal opponents of lawful systems and bureaucratic courts, it came as no surprise that the New Mercykillers came into conflict with the former allies of their original incarnation; the Fraternity of Order and the Harmonium, both obsessively lawful organizations that governed much of Sigil. This enmity was exacerbated by Factol Crescent's own personal vendetta against the Harmonium, and her general distaste for the Guvners by association.

During Factol Crescent's early reign, the faction had no official alliances with the other factions of Sigil. Although a former Sensate initiate and a travelling companion of a fully fledged member of the Sensates, Shai desired no alliance with the Sensates, viewing the philosophies of the two organizations as incompatible. Shai looked on a few factions with favor and interest in potential alliances following the re-establishment of the Mercykillers as a functional faction; namely the Athar, the Bleak Cabal, the Doomguard, and even the notorious Fated.

## Philosophy and Code

The Mercykillers were dedicated to justice above all else; to them, nothing was more important than furthering the cause of just treatment and exacting proper recourse against those who did wrong. This was obviously applied to obviously heinous acts such as unjust murder, but was also easily projected on a smaller and individual basis; a Mercykiller wouldn't abruptly kill someone for causing them an inconvenience, but would ensure that the slight was repaid in kind.

The name of the Mercykillers was, as always, the subject of some confusion. The name was often taken to mean that the faction existed to put the unfortunate out of their misery; in truth, the name referred to the desire to kill the concept of mercy itself. The Mercykillers looked upon the supposed virtue of mercy with great contempt and disgust. To a Mercykiller, it was better to execute a criminal or an evildoer than to risk rehabilitation. It was their hope that through brutal punishment, others would be discouraged from following in the steps of villains and malefic individuals.

The biggest departure from the original faction's philosophy was the New Mercykiller's view of law; as a mostly chaotic organization of vigilantes, the New Mercykillers saw the law as an obstacle at best, and an active enemy of justice at worst. They saw courts as fundamentally flawed institutions prone to bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption, and therefore an entity not worthy of being trusted with the divine task of dispensing justice.

## Notable Mercykillers

* Shai'a Crescent
* Bliss
* Ares
* Sparky
* Shepherd

### Former Mercykillers

* Vhailor (remains present by sharing Shai's soul)
* Alisohn Nilesia (former factol)
* Ametrine
* Felquin