The Outlands and Sigil

he Outlands is the plane between the Outer Planes. It is the plane of neutrality, incorporating a little of everything and keeping all aspects in a paradoxical balance — simultaneously concordant and in opposition. The plane has varied terrain, with prairies, mountains, and shallow rivers.

The Outlands is circular, like a great disk. In fact, those who envision the Outer Planes as a wheel point to the Outlands as proof, calling it a microcosm of the planes. That argument might be circular, since the arrangement of the Outlands inspired the idea of the Great Wheel in the first place.

Around the outside edge of the circle, evenly spaced, are the gate-towns: sixteen settlements, each built around a portal leading to one of the Outer Planes. Each town shares many of the characteristics of the plane where its gate leads. Planar emissaries often meet in these towns, so it isn’t unusual to see strange pairings, such as a celestial and a fiend arguing in a tavern while sharing a fine bottle of wine.

Given the fact that you can ride a horse in the Outlands from a heaven to a hell, a planar-themed campaign can be set there without the need for planar travel. The Outlands is the closest the Outer Planes come to being like a world on the Material Plane.



Gate-Towns of the Outlands Town Gate Destination Excelsior The Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia Tradegate The Twin Paradises of Bytopia Ecstasy The Blessed Fields of Elysium Faunel The Wilderness of the Beastlands Sylvania The Olympian Glades of Arborea Glorium The Heroic Domains of Ysgard Xaos The Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo Bedlam The Windswept Depths of Pandemonium Plague-Mort The Infinite Layers of the Abyss Curst The Tarterian Depths of Carceri Hopeless The Gray Waste of Hades Torch The Bleak Eternity of Gehenna Ribcage The Nine Hells of Baator Rigus The Infinite Battlefield of Acheron Automata The Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus Fortitude The Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia Sigil, City of Doors At the center of the Outlands, like the axle of a great wheel, is the Spire — a needle-shaped mountain that rises high into the sky. Above this mountain’s narrow peak floats the ring-shaped city of Sigil, its myriad structures built on the ring’s inner rim. Creatures standing on one of Sigil’s streets can see the city curve up over their heads and — most disconcerting of all — the far side of the city directly overhead. Called the City of Doors, this bustling planar metropolis holds countless portals to other planes and worlds.

Sigil is a trader’s paradise. Goods, merchandise, and information come here from across the planes. The city sustains a brisk trade in information about the planes, particularly the command words or items required for the operation of particular portals. Portal keys of all kinds are bought and sold here.

The city is the domain of the inscrutable Lady of Pain, a being as old as gods and with purposes unknown to even the sages of her city. Is Sigil her prison? Is she the fallen creator of the multiverse? No one knows. Or if they do, they aren’t telling.