SIGIL

SIGIL
N Metropolis
Corruption +2; Crime +5; Economy +6; Law +3; Lore +10; Society +1
Qualities academic, magically attuned, notorious, prosperous, rumormongering citizens, strategic location
Danger +20
DEMOGRAPHICS
Government
Population 250,000 (37% human; 20% planetouched, 10% elves, 10% halflings, 3% dwarves, 20% other)
Noteable NPCs
Arwyl Swan’s Son (LG make human paladin 12; Factol of The Sons of Mercy)
Rhys, Sigil Advisory Council (N female tiefling fighter 2wizard 5)
Shemeska The Maurauder, King of Cross Trade (NE female arcanoloth)
The Lady of Pain (Unknown)
MARKETPLACE
Base Value 30,400 gp; Purchase Limit 220,000 gp; Spellcasting 9th
Minor Items Nearly All; Medium Items 4d4; Major Items 3d4
Sigil is located atop the Spire in the Outlands. It has the shape of a torus; the city itself is located on the inner surface of the ring. There is no sky, simply an all-pervasive light that waxes and wanes to create day and night. Sigil cannot be entered or exited save via portals; although this makes it quite safe from any would-be invader, it also makes it a prison of sorts for those not possessing a portal key. Thus, sometimes Sigil is called “The Cage”. Though Sigil is pseudo-geographically located “at the center of the planes” (where it is positioned atop the infinitely tall Spire), scholars argue that this is impossible since the planes are infinite in all dimensions, and therefore there can never truly be a center to any of them, let alone all of them; thus, Sigil is of no special importance. Curiously, from the Outlands one can see Sigil atop the supposedly infinite Spire.
Sigil contains innumerable portals that can lead to anywhere in the multiverse: any bounded opening (a doorway, an arch, a barrel hoop, a picture frame) could possibly be a portal to another plane, or to another point in Sigil itself. Thus, the city is a paradox: it touches all planes at once, yet ultimately belongs to none; from these characteristics it draws its other name: “The City of Doors”.
The ruler of Sigil is the mysterious Lady of Pain. The Lady is sometimes seen in Sigil as a floating, robed Lady with a face bearing a mantle of blades. The Lady does not concern herself with the laws of the city; she typically only interferes when something threatens the stability of Sigil itself. However, she is an entity of inscrutable motives, and often those who cross her path, even accidentally, are flayed to death or teleported to her hidden Mazes, lost forever. It is widely believed that she never speaks, although some unconfirmed (and, most would argue, highly questionable) rumours to the contrary do exist. Sigil is also highly morphic, allowing its leader to alter the city at her whim.
Sigil is, theoretically, a completely neutral ground: no wars are waged there and no armies pass through. Furthermore, no powers (such as deities) are allowed to enter into Sigil; the Lady has barred them from the Cage, some disguised avatars have made it in and been promptly dispatched by the Lady. It is also of great interest to them, as they could use Sigil to send their worshipers anywhere, and it is at the center of the Outer Planes.
Sigil is hardly peaceful; with such a condensed population, consisting of everything from angelic devas to demonic glabrezu, violence is common, usually befalling the foolhardy, the incautious, or the poor. Most natives of Sigil (“Cagers”) are quite jaded as a result of living there.
People coming to Sigil from the Prime Material Plane are often treated as clueless inferiors by the planar elitists who dwell there. They are thus widely referred to as the “Clueless”, or more charitably, as “Primes”.
Sigil is divided into six districts, called wards:
The wards aren’t official designations—no walls divide them from one another—but everyone knows the difference between one ward and the next, even if they don’t agree on exactly where that difference begins and ends. Still, it’s important for visitors to know what’s where, so they don’t wander where they aren’t wanted. In some locales, that might earn them a warning, but in others, it might get them a knife between the ribs.
Lower Ward: The Lower Ward is perhaps the most symbolic of the Cage as a whole. It gets its name from the large number of portals to the Lower Planes found there, portals through which a foul, sulfurous stench billows, filling the area. Still, it’s hard to avoid the Lower Ward, since most of the city’s craftsmen live and work there, and the place is full of forges, mills, warehouses, and workshops.
The Lady’s Ward: Going counterclockwise around the ring of Sigil, the next stop is The Lady’s Ward (and yes, the locals can hear you capitalize all three of those words), The Lady of Pain doesn’t actually live here, but rich citizens and most of Sigil’s temples lie within this ward. The Lady’s Ward has power, wealth, and majesty, and knows how to show it off.
Market Ward: In the Market Ward, everything is for sale. The wealth of Sigil may be concentrated in The Lady’s Ward, but it’s spent here, whether on goods, services, information, reputation, or anything else your heart desires. The best place to get it all is the Grand Bazaar, an immense plaza filled with shops, tents, and stalls offering wares from dozens of planes and strange worlds. As the old saying goes, if you can’t find it here, it probably doesn’t (or shouldn’t) exist. Prices can vary wildly, from dirt cheap (for merchants with an unexpected overstock) to many times the normal value (for goods in sudden short supply, due to a faulty portal or a band of planar marauders).
Guildhall Ward: Many visitors can’t tell the difference between the Guildhall Ward and the Market Ward. Even some locals claim that only tradition separates them. Since guilds haven’t played a particularly significant role in Sigil for Centuries, one can guess that the name itself owes a lot to tradition. Today, the Guildhall Ward serves as the domain of the middle class of Sigil. Many merchants who hawk their wares in the Marked Ward during the day sleep here at night, and many who deal in services (rather than selling finished goods) live and work here as well. The Guildhall Ward also houses many racial neighborhoods, from the transplanted halfling hill of Curly-Foot, to the bariaur neighborhood of Ghundarhavel, to the githyanki community of Git’riban.
Clerk’s Ward: Before the Great Upheaval, the Clerk’s Ward held the bureaucracy of Sigil, but that’s all gone now, and some wonder what keeps the Clerk’s Ward busy. The concern appears well founded; many whisper that the Clerk’s Ward is starting to crumble at the edges, as the filthy Hive encroaches upon its territory. Behind the scenes, though, the Clerk’s Ward is finding new purpose as a quiet place to get things done without a lot of attention. Some criminal organizations looking to improve their lot have moved from the Lower Ward or the Hive into the Clerk’s Ward, and the fact that the locals here tend to respect each other’s privacy just encourages activities of an illicit nature. Of course, it wouldn’t be Sigil if everything made sense, so the Clerk’s Ward is also home to one of the flashiest places in the city—the Civic Festhall. Run by a group calling itself the Society of Sensation (a faction, back when the Lady allowed such things), the Festhall combines the best aspects of a concert hall, museum, and a tavern while simultaneously serving as the centerpiece of an artistic neighborhood that brings travelers from across the multiverse. It’s the best place in Sigil to see or be seen.
Administrator’s District – Hall of Speakers
Workers District
Sandstone District – Hall of Records
Festhall District – Civic Festhall
Little Arcadia The Hive: Many locals claim that the Hive isn’t a ward so much as it’s the lack of a ward. Both the name for the region between the Lower Ward and the Clerk’s Ward and for the chaotic, sprawling slum in its center, the Hive crawls with scum and villainy of all stripes. The lowest of the low live in the Hive—those who can’t afford (or don’t dare) to rub elbows with the more fortunate folks. In effect, the Hive is like a miniature version of Sigil itself, with everything that is needed in daily life: taverns and inns aplenty, entertainment, and services from escorts to sellswords. The quality may be questionable, but the prices can’t be beat. The Gatehouse Night Market offers nearly everything one could find in the Grand Bazaar ( and a few things one couldn’t), though it’s best not to think too hard about where they came from.
Later, it is revealed that the Torus underneath Sigil is the physical manifestation of the Multiverse’s Fulcrum, and Gods are banned because divine energy disrupts and destabilizes it. Aoskar lived in Sigil for a significantly long time before he was destroyed by the Lady, however.

Reflections of Sigil in other Realities

Sigil is a city that exists on many levels, and casts its reflections into other realities that exist parallel to the Material Sigil. They resemble the reality of other planes (all transitive planes) but they aren’t parts of these planes. An Ethereal or Shadow Sigil is not at all connected to the Ethereal or Shadow Plane. Instead they are reflections of Sigil, co-existing with the material form of Sigil.

Sigil’s Ethereal Reflection

While Sigil is misty and foggy enough, it is even more so over here. The strangeness on this reflection of Sigil is even stranger for it is home to many races beyond the standard sampling of the material Sigil’s population. Some are foreign and completely alien; others have been long dead for years. In fact a sizable number of Sigil’s undead live here as opposed to places in the Material Sigil such as the Mortuary and The Drowned Nations. Ghosts of Sigil’s past live here; some could recall some of the earliest factions that lived there.
The streets and buildings here generally mirror that of the Material Sigil, however there are still some differences. Rooms and tunnels that did not exist in the Material Sigil exist here. And some large ancient buildings that don’t exist elsewhere can be found here.
The Dabus that live in this part of Sigil roam the streets shaping the protomatter of this plane to maintain the streets. It’s thought in that the mysterious place from where the Dabus come from and go to is located somewhere on this plane, but no one every knows. It’s thought that there is in fact a city belonging all to the Dabus that exist here. But everyone who has went to find it has never come back.
Also of interest to this part of Sigil are the mazes which are demiplanes connected to this reflection, where enemies of the Lady of Pain find themselves.

Sigil’s Shadow Reflection

This is a dark and bleak reflection of Sigil where the “sky” never becomes bright. Peak is only slightly brighter than anti peak is. Many unknown races live here. And it’s thought that the Revolutionary League has plenty of secret safehouses in this most dangerous region of Sigil.
The streets and landscapes of Shadow Sigil only mirror the most familiar appearances and layout of Sigil. Its physical features may shift from time to time unpredictably. Any many ways Shadow Sigil is a warped reflection of Sigil with dark overtones. There are ancient long lost communities and intimidating huge citadels found here which can’t be found in the other Sigils.
The Dabus of this part of Sigil are darker and more sinister in appearance. They move quickly and silently going about their business. Here they have the ability to shape Shadow stuff to their will bringing about whatever changes they want here. There are also rumours that Sigil’s Shadow is in fact the very place that the Lady of Pain herself resides in, though no one is willing to prove that.
Entities known as the Voices of the Black Void have been known to lure people to parts unknown in this reflection. Their agenda is unknown, but those they’ve lured into their influence are never the same again, if they ever return.

Sigil’s Dream Reflection

Sigil’s Dream Reflection has the least in common with Sigil’s other counterparts. There are some vague similarities to the Material Sigil here. The landscape is all varied and different here, in many ways the environment is in conflict with itself as one part of this plane is very alien to another part neighboring it. It’s said that a piece of every world on every plane exists here as places such as cities buried under sand neighbour pyramids in snowy wastelands.
If there’s one thing to be said about Sigilians it’s that their dreams are extremely varied and unpredictable. The effect over here can be catastrophic, making this one of the most dangerous counterparts of Sigil. The inhabitants of this part secretly travel from dreamscape to dreamscape living off the dreams of all Sigilians. A Dreamheart also exists here, lying within the centre of Sigil’s ring, it holds an important secret to the Cage, but none have discovered it yet.
The Dabus can also be found here, it’s thought that their job here is to ensure that the dreams of Sigil can be safely maintained and used for construction parts in other reflections. The words of the Dabus are much easier to comprehend here. Note: Dabus are immune to Dreamburning.

Sigil’s Faerie Reflection

The Plane of the Faerie itself is an anomaly, an Outer Plane that is coexistant with some other worlds. The plane is constantly shifting in its position among the planes, as the home of both the Seelie and Unseelie Court.
In Sigil there is a “beach head” or reflection of the Faerie Plane that exists here, cut off from the rest of the plane. Faeries and others roam here in a world that looks quite similar to the Material Sigil; however various parts of this reflection are shared with parts of the Spirit, Dream, Ethereal and Shadow reflections. Stepping in certain parts of the Faerie reflection will dump one into any of these other reflections.

Sigil’s Spirit Reflection

If the Spirit World exists, then in Sigil its reflection resembles its material counterpart except that its features and structures are more intense and exaggerated. In the Spirit Sigil the many spirits of Sigil’s people, building and streets live alongside many different beings. The Godsmen, their successors the Mind’s Eye, the Sensates and the Ciphers all have an interest in this part.
Like many of its other counter parts, there are places here that don’t exist in others. Entire neighborhoods based around particular concepts exist around here. And powerful spirits here have the ability to affect changes in the physical Sigil, such as destroying and creating buildings, alleyways and streets. However even they are wary of the Lady of Pain, thought by many to have originated from this reflection.
The Dabus of Spirit Sigil are spirits themselves, often working together with their physical counterparts, shaping the spiritual reflection of Sigil before it’s physical part.
By: Kobold Avenger

Type

Metropolis

Location under

Concordant Opposition

Included Locations

• Stray Manor

Related Historical Events

• The Dawn Times
  First Contact: Fiends and the Lady of Pain.

The Lady’s Wrath

Faction members should not expect a warm welcome in Sigil. If a faction member makes their allegiance known, they can expect a -2 to all Charisma-based ability rolls while in Sigil, as Cagers don’t want to invite the Lady’s wrath.