The Dustmen, also known as "The Dead", are one of the largest and ubiquitous factions in Sigil, and for all that they are universally disdained, one of the most utilitarian. They are colloquially known as "Dusties".
Aside from the Mortuary, they can be found at the Gathering Dust Bar.
Philosophy[]
- "Passions carry weight. As long as one clings to emotion they will be continually reborn into this life, forever suffering, never knowing the purity of True Death. To achieve True Death you must kill your passions and strip yourself of the need for sensation. When you achieve this you achieve peace, past the Eternal Boundary lies the peace all souls seek." - Dhall
Dustmen believe in the "True Death"; passion is an obstacle to true enlightenment, and life is an obstacle to removing passion; the trappings of life are meaningless and all should cleanse themselves of passion and ultimately life itself to achieve the nothingness of True Death. They believe that passion is what anchors souls to what they deem a 'false life', and force those too passionate to be reborn again and again, and one must divest themselves of it to escape the cycle.
Organization[]
The Dustmen are organized in five circles, the Fifth Circle being the lowest rank, comprised mostly of initiates, and the First Circle being the highest, including the ruling body of the faction.
Duties[]
The Dustmen run Sigil's Mortuary where they passionlessly, yet methodically, care for the dead; registering their names, embalming their bodies, and interring or cremating the remains. As incentive to keep the streets clean, but mostly to gather as many dead as they can, they offer 3 coppers for any corpse sent their way. In an area as poor as the Hive slums, inhabitants jumped at the chance to become collectors, even given the unsavory nature of the work.
Among other means of furthering their goals are contracting to own the rights to recently deceased corpses through their Dead Contract, in order to raise them from the dead as zombies (and as they age, skeletons) to bolster their workforce. The Nameless One can sign away the rights to his corpse three times at the Gathering Dust Bar.
The Mortuary where this raising takes place is the first location in Torment, but throughout the rest of the game, it can be accessed by The Nameless One by three methods. First, The Nameless One (TNO) can ask the doorman outside the Mortuary to visit Deionarra's memorial chamber. Secondly, TNO can accede to Pox's request to feign death to enter (the Mortuary Area Quests). Finally, TNO can simply get himself killed, which will result in him waking up on the same slab he woke up on at the start of Torment.
Joining the Faction[]
Emoric is the recruiter for the Dustmen faction. TNO can ask to join by saying he doesn't *want* to join, but simply believes what the Dustmen believe. He has a few tasks that require completion before TNO can be admitted to the faction:
- Finding the thief masquerading as a dustman for Norochj.
- Stopping Awaiting-Death from killing himself.
- Finding out why Sere has become skeptical of the Dustman philosophy.
- Finding out where Soego has gone and what he is doing on his self-imposed missionary service for the faction. (Grants 2500 XP).
Do note that all quests listed above, can also be done without joing the faction. Only the quest involving Soego, who was present before and suddenly vanishes, cannot be completed before encountering Pharod. As such, the TNO can becomes faction member quite early in the game. Joining the Dustmen grants TNO 2500 XP (if this is the first faction he's joined, 1000 XP if not), access to the Dustmen Vault store, and the Dead Truce, which gives a +4 AC bonus vs. Undead.
Denouncing the faction[]
If you denounce membership of this faction, you cannot rejoin the faction. This can be done in order to join another faction and in case of the Dustmen, also by confessing to Emoric that the TNO is an immortal. This is against the most strict parts of the Dustmen philosophy.
You will lose the usability of items linked to this faction, along with access to the Dustmen Vault. These items are the following and are only usable by the TNO: