Part One – Millenia Ago
By divine decree, only those of noble blood could set foot on the sun-baked Plains of the Screaming Sun and live, and even then the desert was harsh. It was here that the army of 800 gathered; an army where ever man was a king in his own right. The undead legions of the Proclaimers of Shuul would be stopped here, or they would die trying, because this was the burying place The Fateless, a primordial being with complete knowledge of fate, and the only truly free being in the universe – until the first gods imprisoned it here.
The Spellspeaker Evrin’Kalaji had been charged with finding a way to destroy the Fateless, and had finally come to a conclusion: the Fateless was immortal, because it had no connection to the universe, so it had no power over him. He was separated from mortality the way he was separated from everything else. With his most powerful magic and with the aid of his allies, he merged with the Fateless – receiving all it’s great power, but also giving it a connection to the universe. He then willed his own death, and destroyed the Fateless.

Part Two – Disruption
The great libraries of Sigil held some of the rarest scripts and diaries in all of reality, and on several of them were the fingerprints of a Teifling woman. Soliloquy had been born in Sigil, and spent her life studying and occasionally experimenting with the arcane. She was a small woman, and not particularly designed for the wild worlds beyond Sigil, but she could survive here well enough. She was crafty and accidentally charming, and was good at her work.
The most important day in her life was the day the sorcerer walked into the library. At first, she thought he was just another client, but then she felt it for the first time. The familiarity. Their eyes locked as he turned in her direction, a look of surprise on his face. He raised a dagger and blast of chaotic energy almost killed her. Patrons scattered, and she hid under a table and drew her practice orb from her pocket.
With a quick spell, she made herself nearly invisible, and when he moved in to look for her, she raised her orb. The sorcerer fell to the floor, asleep, as the guards arrived. Their spears skewered him easily.
As his blood poured out, she felt the familiarity transform into a sense of connection with the world around her. The sorcerer and herself were connected to a larger truth. She remembered a story she once read about a man known as the Spellspeaker.

Part Three – Welcome to the Voidmoon
The Voidmoon was a desolate rock that floated in the astral plane. Here was the home of Blacktongue, his scrap palace tended by his slave-maidens. It was rare for him to receive a visitor, so he treated such an event as a great opportunity to delight in his favourite hobby – being a prick.
Soliloquy bowed her head slightly, her curled horns peaking out from the hood of cloak, and she asked if he were the same Blacktongue that once wielded the power of a primordial.
“Ah, the good old days,” the demon said, as he beckoned for a slave girl to bring him more wine.
“I’m looking for information.”
“Careful before you incur any debt to me, girl; the penalty for forfeiture can be quite steep.”
He pulled an elven girl close to him.
“What a cruel fate; to be condemned to this rock, in a body that has three penises and only two hands.”
He poured the wine on his crotch. The elven girl and two other slaves girl scrambled to descend upon him. They pushed and scratched at each other as they struggle to lick every drop that had been spilled on the demon’s skin.
“Remember, 6 bottles full and your debt is cleared.”
Soliloquy yawned. On some level it amazed her that living in Sigil had made her this immune to grotesquery.
“Think of it as an opportunity to hear the sound of your own voice.”
The demon smiled.
“Ah, mortals, I find your ignorance so cute. And funny. And pathetic.”
“What is the Oath of Doggerel?”
With one swoop a wine bottle flew across the room and into a dark corridor. The sound of it breaking drew the slave girls out of the room. They were alone.
“Where did you hear that name?”
“A man tried to kill me. Before he attacked, he asked another librarian if she knew anything about the Oath of Doggerel.”
“He attacked you?”
“Yes, in the library at The Sum of All. I work there.”
“Tell me, when you first met him, did he seem familiar to you at all?”
Soliloquy nodded.
“I believe that’s what’s called the Unspoken Bond by your kind. And when you killed this man, did anything happen?”
“I didn’t kill him, the guards did.”
“Sure, ‘it wasn’t my knife, it was the poison on it.’ Whatever. Details! Did anything happen?”
Soliloquy thought back…
“I felt stronger after defeating him – that lasted several hours – and I knew things I didn’t before. I knew it had something to do with the Spellspeaker Evrin’Kalaji.”
Blacktongue licked his lips. It took several minutes.
“You know how the Spellspeaker died?”
“Yes.”
“And you know about the Fatewise?”
Soliloquy shook her head.
“Awwww…that’s so cute.”

Part Four – The Legacy
The Spellspeaker could not die completely, some of his essence would go on, so he took his soul – and the infinite arcane knowledge he acquired from the Fateless – and divided it among the humans on the battlefield. They didn’t know at the time, but they had become the Fatewise. Each of them were a little tuned to the arcane, and knew a bit what Evrin knew, if subconsciously. When they passed on, their pieces of the essence would be divided amongst the other Fatewise. Since the child of a Fatewise is also a Fatewise, the essence has since been divided amongst many people.
In time, some of of the Fatewise noticed their connection. They could recognize each other and their connection: they had an unspoken bond. And some of them learned that it was possible to take the essence of another Fatewise, and the easiest way was to kill them. When a Fatewise dies directly or indirectly at the hands of another, that Fatewise gets the entire essence. You must be born Fatewise, and only humans and human offshoot races can be Fatewise – other races are simply not compatible with the Spellspeaker’s human soul.
Some of them have worked this out, and are hunting and killing each other in pursuit of power. Many of them have designed rituals to help them find other Fatewise. Doggerel, though, was the most successful. He created the means by which Fatewise can share their powers with each other without killing each other. He died centuries ago as a very rich and powerful sorcerer-king, but his order keeps going, pursuing power for it’s own sake.
Because of the activities of the Order and other infamous Fatewise, the number of Fatewise is going down. Once, they numbered in the millions, but now there are less than one thousand left. If one Fatewise remains, just how powerful will they be?

Part Five – Shake hands with the Devil, Assuming His Hands are Clean
“You should consider joining the Order.”
Soliloquy grimaced.
“I’m not the power-mad type.”
“Only the powerless say that. But you should consider joining for protection. The number of Fatewise has been dropping for centuries, and it started before the Order did. There are several individual Fatewise who have accumulated impressive power. Well, impressive by your standards. Not many know this, but the Arch-Lich Blaspheme is a Fatewise, as are several other people whose names people dread. But if you don’t want to deal with them, then consider making a deal with me.”
“I don’t like wine that much.”
“Ha! Like I want to attract the Order to my palace! No. I will make a pact with you: I will give you power, but in return, any knowledge you gain as a Fatewise you will share with me. Once per month, you will come here and commune with me. At that time, I will renew your powers.”
“Is that all?”
“What I want most is to get off this rock. I don’t live here for fun, you know. The knowledge of the Fatewise might help me find a solution to my…problem. You will not be indebted to me as these others are, you will be my…partner. If at some later date you change your mind…”
“I can walk away?”
“These others agreed to their fate if they forfeited, if you end our agreement, I’ll simply be…annoyed.”
And an agreement was made.