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Sigil (city)
Encyclopedia
Sigil is a fictional city
and the center of the Planescape
campaign setting
for the Dungeons & Dragons
fantasy
role-playing game
.
in 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons
, "A movable base, like a vessel of some sort (or an artifact, which was the original idea for the means of traversing the planes) wouldn't do it. It had to be a place that characters could come home to when they needed to, and it had to be central to the nature of the setting." Sigil's fifteen factions
were created because, "Vampire: The Masquerade
was a particularly hot game at [the] time and one of the ideas in it that we really liked was the clans. Jim Ward
wanted to be sure that players had something to identify with and to give them a sense of belonging in this alien venue [Sigil]."
boxed set, released in 1994. It is also featured prominently in some later Planescape rulebooks, including In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil (1995), The Factol's Manifesto (1995), and Uncaged: Faces of Sigil (1996), as well as in many adventures
, such as The Eternal Boundary (1994), Harbinger House (1995), and Faction War (1998).
(2003). Information on Sigil can also be found in various 3.0 and 3.5 sourcebooks, such as the Manual of the Planes and the Planar Handbook. A small reference to Sigil is also done in the Epic Level Handbook
aside other planar metropolis such as Tu'narath
.
and expanded upon in Dungeon Master's Guide 2. The City of Doors, unlike many planes, remains almost completely unchanged from earlier editions.
; 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 Dungeons & Dragons cosmology: 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 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 (and Vecna, see below) 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. Vecna once managed to circumvent the ban by entering while in a transitional state where he wasn't strictly a god when he entered Sigil, and by using Ravenloft as the instrument of his entry, instead of one of Sigil's portals. The Lady has since enacted Wards to prevent this from happening again. 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, destabilizes and will eventually "break" it, causing the multiverse to come apart at the seams. Aoskar lived in Sigil for a significantly long time before he was destroyed by the Lady, however. 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".
commented on the use of Sigil as the game's main setting, saying "We felt Sigil was the part of Planescape we really had to get right from the outset in case we made more games. It's the signature city, but... we did sacrifice other planar locations so that we could do it."
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
and the center of the Planescape
Planescape
Planescape is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by Zeb Cook. The Planescape setting was published in 1994...
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
for the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
.
Development
Sigil was originally created for Planescape as the setting's "home base." According to Steve WinterSteve Winter
Steve Winter is a game designer who has worked on numerous products for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game from TSR and later Wizards of the Coast.-Early life:Steve Winter was born in Dubuque, Iowa on December 8, 1957...
in 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons
30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons
30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons is a 2004 publisher's retrospective written by Harold Johnson, Steve Winter, Peter Adkison, Ed Stark, and Peter Archer...
, "A movable base, like a vessel of some sort (or an artifact, which was the original idea for the means of traversing the planes) wouldn't do it. It had to be a place that characters could come home to when they needed to, and it had to be central to the nature of the setting." Sigil's fifteen factions
Faction (Planescape)
The Factions are fictional philosophically based power groups in the Planescape campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Background:...
were created because, "Vampire: The Masquerade
Vampire: The Masquerade
Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game. Created by Mark Rein·Hagen, it was the first of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness role-playing games, based on the Storyteller System and centered around vampires in a modern gothic-punk world....
was a particularly hot game at [the] time and one of the ideas in it that we really liked was the clans. Jim Ward
Jim Ward (game designer)
James M. Ward , is an American game designer and fantasy author. He is most famous for his game development and writing work for TSR, Inc., where he worked for more than 20 years. In 1989 he was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame...
wanted to be sure that players had something to identify with and to give them a sense of belonging in this alien venue [Sigil]."
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)
Sigil is first described in the Planescape Campaign SettingPlanescape Campaign Setting
The Planescape Campaign Setting was a boxed set for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The set was designed by David "Zeb" Cook and published in 1994, and introduced the Planescape setting.-Contents:...
boxed set, released in 1994. It is also featured prominently in some later Planescape rulebooks, including In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil (1995), The Factol's Manifesto (1995), and Uncaged: Faces of Sigil (1996), as well as in many adventures
Adventure (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, an adventure or module is a pre-packaged book or box set that helps the Dungeon Master manage the plot or story of a game...
, such as The Eternal Boundary (1994), Harbinger House (1995), and Faction War (1998).
Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003-2008)
A short description of Sigil is in this edition's Dungeon Master's GuideDungeon Master's Guide
The Dungeon Master's Guide is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons...
(2003). Information on Sigil can also be found in various 3.0 and 3.5 sourcebooks, such as the Manual of the Planes and the Planar Handbook. A small reference to Sigil is also done in the Epic Level Handbook
Epic Level Handbook
The Epic Level Handbook is a rulebook by Wizards of the Coast for the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons.-Contents:This books contained rules for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition characters to attain levels above 20, the limit in the core rulebooks...
aside other planar metropolis such as Tu'narath
Tu'narath
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Tu'narath is the capital city of the githyanki, a race of humanoids descended from slaves who overthrew the illithid empire thousands of years ago. The city is located on the Astral Plane, where it was built atop a god-isle, the corpse of a forgotten...
.
Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)
Sigil is described in the 4th edition Manual of the PlanesManual of the Planes
The Manual of the Planes is a manual for the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. This text addresses the planar cosmology of the game universe....
and expanded upon in Dungeon Master's Guide 2. The City of Doors, unlike many planes, remains almost completely unchanged from earlier editions.
In the game
From outside
Sigil is located atop the Spire in the Outlands. It has the shape of a torusTorus
In geometry, a torus is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle...
; 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
Infinity
Infinity is a concept in many fields, most predominantly mathematics and physics, that refers to a quantity without bound or end. People have developed various ideas throughout history about the nature of infinity...
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 Dungeons & Dragons cosmology: 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
Paradox
Similar to Circular reasoning, A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition...
: it touches all planes at once, yet ultimately belongs to none; from these characteristics it draws its other name: "The City of Doors".
Sigil's leader and neutrality
The ruler of Sigil is the mysterious Lady of PainLady of Pain
The Lady of Pain is the fictional protector of the city of Sigil in the Planescape campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game...
. 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 (and Vecna, see below) 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. Vecna once managed to circumvent the ban by entering while in a transitional state where he wasn't strictly a god when he entered Sigil, and by using Ravenloft as the instrument of his entry, instead of one of Sigil's portals. The Lady has since enacted Wards to prevent this from happening again. 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, destabilizes and will eventually "break" it, causing the multiverse to come apart at the seams. Aoskar lived in Sigil for a significantly long time before he was destroyed by the Lady, however. 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
Prime Material Plane
The Prime Material Plane is the central plane of existence in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game...
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".
Administrative divisions
Sigil is divided into six districts, called wards:- The Hive Ward, the slumSlumA slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
and the ghettoGhettoA ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
, home to the poor, the rogues, and the unwanted dregs of the city. - The Lower Ward, an industrial district, clogged up with the smoke from the foundries and from the portals to the Lower Planes.
- The Clerk's Ward, an affluent district, home to most of the city's lower-rung bureaucrats and middlemen.
- The Market and Guildhall Wards are the home to the traders, craftsmen, artisans, guild members and other members of the middle classMiddle classThe middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
. - The Lady's Ward, the richest and most exclusive section of the city, is home to the elites of society and of its government, though not the Lady herself.
In other media
Sigil is also the setting for the 1999 video game Planescape Torment, in which you play the immortal "Nameless One." In an interview with RPGWatch, Chris AvelloneChris Avellone
Chris Avellone is an American video game designer and comic book writer who worked for Interplay and currently works in Obsidian Entertainment.-Early life and education:...
commented on the use of Sigil as the game's main setting, saying "We felt Sigil was the part of Planescape we really had to get right from the outset in case we made more games. It's the signature city, but... we did sacrifice other planar locations so that we could do it."
See also
- CynosureCynosureCynosure is a fictional pan-dimensional city that exists within the First Comics multiverse. It is described as floating in a "bubble" in the "pan-dimensional vortex." Because of its unique situation, Cynosure is an important center of multi-versal commerce and much of the city's government is...
, a similar city from the GrimJackGrimJackGrimjack is the main character of a comic book originally published by First Comics. John Ostrander and Timothy Truman are credited as co-creators of the character, although Ostrander had been developing Grimjack with artist Lenin Delsol before Truman's arrival on the project...
comics. - TanelornTanelornTanelorn is a fictional city set in the Multiverse of Michael Moorcock's fantasy novels.Tanelorn shares some properties with the author's key character, the Eternal Champion, namely its existence in all dimensions, albeit not at the same time...
, a pan-dimensional city featured in the work of Michael MoorcockMichael MoorcockMichael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
.