Culture of Sigil
Moderators: Makeshift, Makeshift
Culture of Sigil
GM | Doer of The Thing | Red Username Means I'm Important | Mastery over Sardonicism| Recovering Procrastinator | "You cannot understand a man's actions unless you understand his beliefs."
Planar Details
Planar
Being known as a Planar means you are someone who has been born and raised on the planes. Virtually any race can be a planar, from human to elf, to Tiefling and Genasi. Most Planars live within Sigil, and are generally a bit of a rude bunch: there's simply too much that goes on in Sigil for them to give people the time of day.
CULTURE
Almost everyone in Sigil speaks planar common, a form of common with various slang thrown in that has developed over the years of mixing cultures and a bit of thieves cant thrown in. In addition, There are three principles governing the most Planars: the Rule-of-Three, the Unity of Rings, and the Center of the Multiverse.
Rule-of-Three The first principle, the Rule-of-Three, says simply that things tend to happen in threes. The principles which govern the planes are themselves subject to this rule.
Unity of Rings The second principle is the Unity of Rings, and notes that many things on the planes are circular, coming back around to where they started. This is true geographically as well as philosophically.
Center of the Multiverse The third principle (fitting neatly into the Rule-of-Three above) is the Center of All, and states that there is a center of everything—or, rather, wherever a person happens to be is the center of the multiverse. From their own perspective, at least. As most planes are functionally infinite, disproving anyone's centricity would be impossible. In the planes , this is meant philosophically just as much as it is meant in terms of multiverse geography.
The fact that anywhere could be the center of the multiverse in this view also implies that nowhere can be said to be the de facto true and only center. This sparks a lot of arguments and violence since some people believe the City of Doors to be the center due to its uncommon number of portals to other planes and position in the Outlands and some factions also claim different centers, each with their own significance.
Common Etiquette rules
All Planars treat members of the factions with a tad more respect that the factionless. The factions run sigil after all, it would be the same if a primer insulted their cities nobles, its generally not a good idea.
Common Dress code
Planars often dress a little less formally than most may be used to. Some females wear what many primes would consider to be the most "romantic" of undergarments, while some, like the Dustmen for example, would cover all but their face.
Art & Architecture
Art is a strange thing with Planars. What a Tiefling could find beautiful might be disgusting to a planar Dwarf. Some of the renown planar artists, such as members of the Sensates need to carefully blend cultures together, to create something all Planeswalking folk can enjoy.
Funerary and Memorial Customs
While the exact rituals change, all remains eventually get sent to the Mortuary where they can be prepared to the loved ones wishes and then placed in the plane most aligned with the deceased.
Common Taboos
The one taboo all Planars can tell you is that you should never interact in any way with the Lady of Pain. Don't try to make her happy, don't try to make her upset. Just realize she is the ruler of Sigil, and she has plenty of ways to make a day go from bad to worse.
Common Myths and Legends
Many Planars know the story of Aoskar, a long dead god that once made his domain in Sigil, he was the god of portals, perfect for the City of Doors. One day it hit the point where even the Lady's own Dabus were worshiping the deity. On that day, the Lady decided she had dealt with enough, and killed Aoskar, placing him within the astral plane and making her loyal Dabus inform the population of sigil that he is to be no longer worshiped.
Some resisted, and those poor cutters are never heard from again.
Beauty Ideals
Beauty is a strange thing to Planars. Most would say its a clean face, and a fit body, while others think the most beautiful thing is the multiverse is the decaying body of a dying power. In most cases, if you have the conviction to be beautiful or create beauty, a cutter is going to know as opposed to simply faking it till you make it. See, plenty of planars have grown to tell when a berk is lying to them.
Courtship Ideals
Most Planars expect cutters to get to know each other before spontaneously marrying. (aside from members of the xaositects) and everyone expects some form of ceremony, from race to race and religion to religion there can be vast changes within.
Relationship Ideals
Planars, like most others, believe a relationship should be formed with someone that truly matters to you, whether that be romantic or otherwise. "Why put in the effort if you really couldn't care less about the person?" is the usual thought process.
Being known as a Planar means you are someone who has been born and raised on the planes. Virtually any race can be a planar, from human to elf, to Tiefling and Genasi. Most Planars live within Sigil, and are generally a bit of a rude bunch: there's simply too much that goes on in Sigil for them to give people the time of day.
CULTURE
Almost everyone in Sigil speaks planar common, a form of common with various slang thrown in that has developed over the years of mixing cultures and a bit of thieves cant thrown in. In addition, There are three principles governing the most Planars: the Rule-of-Three, the Unity of Rings, and the Center of the Multiverse.
Rule-of-Three The first principle, the Rule-of-Three, says simply that things tend to happen in threes. The principles which govern the planes are themselves subject to this rule.
Unity of Rings The second principle is the Unity of Rings, and notes that many things on the planes are circular, coming back around to where they started. This is true geographically as well as philosophically.
Center of the Multiverse The third principle (fitting neatly into the Rule-of-Three above) is the Center of All, and states that there is a center of everything—or, rather, wherever a person happens to be is the center of the multiverse. From their own perspective, at least. As most planes are functionally infinite, disproving anyone's centricity would be impossible. In the planes , this is meant philosophically just as much as it is meant in terms of multiverse geography.
The fact that anywhere could be the center of the multiverse in this view also implies that nowhere can be said to be the de facto true and only center. This sparks a lot of arguments and violence since some people believe the City of Doors to be the center due to its uncommon number of portals to other planes and position in the Outlands and some factions also claim different centers, each with their own significance.
Common Etiquette rules
All Planars treat members of the factions with a tad more respect that the factionless. The factions run sigil after all, it would be the same if a primer insulted their cities nobles, its generally not a good idea.
Common Dress code
Planars often dress a little less formally than most may be used to. Some females wear what many primes would consider to be the most "romantic" of undergarments, while some, like the Dustmen for example, would cover all but their face.
Art & Architecture
Art is a strange thing with Planars. What a Tiefling could find beautiful might be disgusting to a planar Dwarf. Some of the renown planar artists, such as members of the Sensates need to carefully blend cultures together, to create something all Planeswalking folk can enjoy.
Funerary and Memorial Customs
While the exact rituals change, all remains eventually get sent to the Mortuary where they can be prepared to the loved ones wishes and then placed in the plane most aligned with the deceased.
Common Taboos
The one taboo all Planars can tell you is that you should never interact in any way with the Lady of Pain. Don't try to make her happy, don't try to make her upset. Just realize she is the ruler of Sigil, and she has plenty of ways to make a day go from bad to worse.
Common Myths and Legends
Many Planars know the story of Aoskar, a long dead god that once made his domain in Sigil, he was the god of portals, perfect for the City of Doors. One day it hit the point where even the Lady's own Dabus were worshiping the deity. On that day, the Lady decided she had dealt with enough, and killed Aoskar, placing him within the astral plane and making her loyal Dabus inform the population of sigil that he is to be no longer worshiped.
Some resisted, and those poor cutters are never heard from again.
Beauty Ideals
Beauty is a strange thing to Planars. Most would say its a clean face, and a fit body, while others think the most beautiful thing is the multiverse is the decaying body of a dying power. In most cases, if you have the conviction to be beautiful or create beauty, a cutter is going to know as opposed to simply faking it till you make it. See, plenty of planars have grown to tell when a berk is lying to them.
Courtship Ideals
Most Planars expect cutters to get to know each other before spontaneously marrying. (aside from members of the xaositects) and everyone expects some form of ceremony, from race to race and religion to religion there can be vast changes within.
Relationship Ideals
Planars, like most others, believe a relationship should be formed with someone that truly matters to you, whether that be romantic or otherwise. "Why put in the effort if you really couldn't care less about the person?" is the usual thought process.
GM | Doer of The Thing | Red Username Means I'm Important | Mastery over Sardonicism| Recovering Procrastinator | "You cannot understand a man's actions unless you understand his beliefs."
Primes
Primes, also known as Outsiders, are Planeswalkers or people within the planes that were originally born on a Prime Material Plane. Examples of some of the common ones are Toril, Oreth, or Athas. While citizens of Sigil can vary in looks and culture there is a sense that it all blends in and it creates one singular culture. For Primes, it is the opposite: while the outer planes are finite, the amount of prime material planes are virtually unknown.
For example, a human from the city of Waterdeep is going to be a very different person than a dwarf from the wasteland of Athas. One was raised in a city full of magic and various races walking around interacting and drinking at taverns, while the other grew up in a harsh dessert with no magic and no gods, struggling to find water for the day.
It would be a bit pointless to list specific details of primers because its impossible to tell if what one prime tells you will be the same from the next.
For example, a human from the city of Waterdeep is going to be a very different person than a dwarf from the wasteland of Athas. One was raised in a city full of magic and various races walking around interacting and drinking at taverns, while the other grew up in a harsh dessert with no magic and no gods, struggling to find water for the day.
It would be a bit pointless to list specific details of primers because its impossible to tell if what one prime tells you will be the same from the next.
GM | Doer of The Thing | Red Username Means I'm Important | Mastery over Sardonicism| Recovering Procrastinator | "You cannot understand a man's actions unless you understand his beliefs."
Slang of Sigil
The "Voice" of the Planescape Setting is Planar Cant, aka Planescape slang, Sigil cant, or just The Cant. It “came from the extremely colorful slang of thieves, swindlers, and beggars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th century”. Planar slang, like Planescape's art, gives the setting its distinctive feel. It also gives players a more immersive experience. As a player, don't try to add too much, too fast--start slow with a few phrases and build from there until it feels natural. The following glossary of Planescape slang draws from and summarizes content from The Player's Primer to the Outlands.
Addle-cove
An idiot. "Did you hear what that addle-coved wizard wanted us to do?"
Anarchist
Slang for member of Revolutionary League faction.
Anthill
City or town.
Bang around
To hang around somewhere. Between adventures, bashers “bang around the Cage.”
Bar that
“Be quiet,” or "shut up.” Used as a warning.
Barmy
Insane, crazy.
Basher
A neutral reference to a person, usually a thug or fighter.
Berk
A fool or loser, especially one who got himself into a mess when he should have known better.
Birdcage
A cell, prison, or anything that compares to it.
Bleaker
A member of the Bleak Cabal faction.
Bleaknik
A Bleaker who expresses meaningless of world through Beatnik-style art.
Blinds
Something impossible or hopeless. "He'll hit the blinds if he tries lying to the factol."
Blood
An expert or pro in any field, from fighting to poetry. Calling someone a blood is a mark of high respect.
Bob
To cheat someone. Thieves boast they “bobbed a leatherhead on the street.”
Bone-box
One’s mouth. "Stop rattling your bone-box," is telling a berk to lay off the threats or bragging.
Box
A rogue modron that has taken up residence in Sigil.
Brain-box
A berk's head. "Go soak your brain-box" is a common phrase, while "He banged his fool brain-box on it" means a berk finally figured something (obvious) out.
Bub
Booze, wine, or ale - usually cheap and barely drinkable.
Bubber
A drunk, especially if he, she, or it has fallen on hard times.
Burg
Any town smaller than Sigil, in size or in spirit. To Sigil residents, refers to any city other than Sigil.
Cage, the
A common nickname for Sigil, derived from “birdcage,” or how Sigil feels when you can’t access a portal to get out.
Cager
A native or resident of Sigil.
Canny
Smart or talented.
Case
A decent or nice residence.
Chant, the
News, local gossip, the facts, the moods, or anything else about what's happening. "What's the chant?" is a common way of asking the latest news.
Chaosmen
A nickname for the Xaositects faction.
Chiv
A weapon, usually something with a blade.
Ciphers
A nickname for the Transcendent Order faction.
Clueless
Someone from a prime world, at least until they’ve spent some time in the planes. Also an adjective, e.g., “clueless berk.”
Colorpool
Portals on the Astral Plane that give access to the Prime Material and Outer Planes.
Conies
Victims of the cony-catchers.
Cony-catchers
Con-men, tricksters, or thieves looking for someone to peel.
Cross-trade
The business of thieving, or anything else illegal or shady. "A cross-trading scum" is a thief who's probably angered the Mercykillers.
Cutter
A generic complimentary term for a person that suggests resourcefulness or daring.
Dark
Secret information. "Here's the dark of it," is a way to start sharing a secret.
Dead, The
A nickname for the Dustmen faction.
Dead-book
To be dead. “Cross me and I’ll put you in the dead book.”
Deader
Anyone in the dead-book.
Defilers/Defiers
Nickname for members of the Athar faction.
Dusties
Nickname for members of the Dustmen faction.
Factotum
A medium-ranking member of a faction.
Factor
A high-ranking member of a faction.
Factol
The leader of a faction.
Feeding the Wyrm
Executing a prisoner. Taken from a form of execution used by the Mercykillers in Sigil, wherein they feed prisoners to a wyvern called the Wyrm.
Garnish
A bribe.
Gate
Any sort of passage between one plane and another.
Gate-town
One of the sixteen towns on the Outlands that has a gate to one of the sixteen Outer Planes. Each Outer Plane has one corresponding gate-town, and the town often has the same basic appearance, outlook, and attributes as the inhabitants, architecture, and terrain of that plane.
Ghost
A prime who visits the planes via astral spell. Since it involves little physical risk on the prime's part, it's considered cowardly by planars. Also called "cord babies."
Give 'em the laugh
To escape or slip through the clutches of someone. “He tried to give the Mercykillers the laugh, but ended up feeding the wyrm.”
Give the rope
What happens to condemned criminals who don't manage to give the law the laugh.
Go to the Mazes
Planar equivalent to “Go to hell,” referring to the Lady of Pain’s mazes.
Greybeard
A sage or scholar. This term refers to the stereotypical wizened old man but can apply to any learned intellectual.
Great Ring, Great Wheel
The Outer Planes, often depicted in maps and diagrams as a ring. This also refers to their infinite size, another allusion to the endlessness of a ring.
Great Road
A series of permanent gates that connects the Outer Planes.
Gully
A potential victim of a peel, a gullible sod.
Guvners
Nickname for the Fraternity of Order faction or its members.
Hardheads
Nickname for the Harmonium faction or its members.
Heartless
Nickname for the Fated faction or its members.
High-up
A person with power, money and influence. Factols are high-ups.
Hipped
Stranded. "Hipping the rube" means stranding someone by sending them through a one-way portal.
Indeps
Nickname for the Free League faction or its members.
Jink
Money or coin.
Kip
A residence or place to stay. To "call kip" is to make a place a body's home, at least for a while.
Knight of the post, knight of the cross-trade
A professional thief or cheat, or a term used as an insult.
Lann
To tell or inform. See "well-lanned."
Leafless tree
The gallows.
Leatherhead
A dolt or idiot.
Lost
Dead.
Lost, The
Nickname for the Athar faction or its members.
Madmen, The
Nickname for the Bleak Cabal faction or its members.
Mazes, the
The extraplanar mazes to which the Lady of Pain banishes those who threaten Sigil’s independence or insult her.
Mark
To be noted or identified as something. “That berk was marked to be a Guvner.”
Minder
A bodyguard.
Music
A price a cutter usually doesn't want to pay, but has to anyway. “Pay the music, or you’ll never find your way out of here.”
Namer
Low-level faction members who subscribe to the philosophy but do not perform substantial duties for the faction. Term derived from “faction member in name only.”
Nick
To attack, cut, or strike someone, often used in threats. “I nicked him good.”
Out-of-touch
Outside of the Outer Planes.
Out-of-town
On the Outlands (i.e, outside Sigil).
Outsiders
Clueless primes.
Park your ears
To eavesdrop, spy upon, or just simply listen intently. “He parked his ears in the tavern to get the latest chant.”
Path
Means of planar travel that requires physical movement. Includes traveling via the Styx or Oceanus, the World Ash Yggdrasil, or the Infinite Staicase.
Peel
To swindle, con, or trick.
Peery
Suspicious and on one's guard.
Petitioner
The soul of a mortal who has died and reformed on the plane of his alignment and/or deity without memory of its former life. The chant goes that Petitioners seek to become one with their new plane.
Pike it
A useful, all-purpose rude phrase. “Take a short stick and pike it.”
Pike off
To anger someone. "Once he discovers he's been peeled, he's going to be really piked off."
Planar
A being not native to the prime material plane or its echoes.
Planar Conduit
A wormhole-like connection that links two layers of the same plane or two layers of two different planes.
Plane-touched
The offspring of a planar native and a humanoid. Tieflings, aasimar, genasi, and cambions are types of plane-touched.
Planewalker
A term of respect for a cutter who is knowledgeable, experienced and capable of traveling to different planes.
Portal
A doorway to another plane or location. Typically requires a portal key. May be permanent or temporary, two-way or one-way.
Power
A deity or god.
Prime
The Prime Material Plane or a being who originates from there.
Proxy
A direct and powerful servant of a power.
Red Death
Nickname for the Mercykiller faction or its members.
Ride
An adventure, task, or undertaking. “What’s the ride today, boss?”
Rube
A naive or clueless person, though not necessarily a prime.
Scan
Look, listen, or learn. “Scan this, berk.”
Scragged
Arrested or caught.
Screed
A monotonous tirade, or someone who gives one.
Sensates
Nickname for the Society of Sensation faction or its members.
Signers
Nickname for the Sign of One faction or its members.
Sod
An unfortunate or poor soul. Use it to show sympathy for an unlucky cutter or use it sarcastically for those who get into their own messes. “Sod off, you sodding sod.
Sodding
A derogatory term used to stress magnitude. “A sodding leatherhead.”
Sparkle
Specifically a diamond, but also any gem.
Spellslinger
A wizard.
Spiv
An individual who lives by his wits (rather than having regular employment).
Takers
Nickname for the Athar faction or its members.
Thought Guild
Derogatory term for a faction member, used by those who dislike the factions.
Tumble to
To discover, understand or figure out something. “Tumble to the dark of a problem.”
Turn stag
To betray somebody or use treachery. “Turn stag on me and you’ll end up in the dead book.”
Twig
To take a liking to. “The poor sod twigged to a knight of the cross trade.”
Unity of Rings
The outer planar consensus philosophy that everything forms a logical ring or circular pattern.
Vortex
A passage between an environmental extreme on the Prime Material and the corresponding Elemental Plane.
Well-lanned
Connected, in-touch, or otherwise blessed with numerous friends, allies, and informants.
Wigwag
To chat or talk.
Yawn, the
The state of being bored. "This place gives me the yawn."
Addle-cove
An idiot. "Did you hear what that addle-coved wizard wanted us to do?"
Anarchist
Slang for member of Revolutionary League faction.
Anthill
City or town.
Bang around
To hang around somewhere. Between adventures, bashers “bang around the Cage.”
Bar that
“Be quiet,” or "shut up.” Used as a warning.
Barmy
Insane, crazy.
Basher
A neutral reference to a person, usually a thug or fighter.
Berk
A fool or loser, especially one who got himself into a mess when he should have known better.
Birdcage
A cell, prison, or anything that compares to it.
Bleaker
A member of the Bleak Cabal faction.
Bleaknik
A Bleaker who expresses meaningless of world through Beatnik-style art.
Blinds
Something impossible or hopeless. "He'll hit the blinds if he tries lying to the factol."
Blood
An expert or pro in any field, from fighting to poetry. Calling someone a blood is a mark of high respect.
Bob
To cheat someone. Thieves boast they “bobbed a leatherhead on the street.”
Bone-box
One’s mouth. "Stop rattling your bone-box," is telling a berk to lay off the threats or bragging.
Box
A rogue modron that has taken up residence in Sigil.
Brain-box
A berk's head. "Go soak your brain-box" is a common phrase, while "He banged his fool brain-box on it" means a berk finally figured something (obvious) out.
Bub
Booze, wine, or ale - usually cheap and barely drinkable.
Bubber
A drunk, especially if he, she, or it has fallen on hard times.
Burg
Any town smaller than Sigil, in size or in spirit. To Sigil residents, refers to any city other than Sigil.
Cage, the
A common nickname for Sigil, derived from “birdcage,” or how Sigil feels when you can’t access a portal to get out.
Cager
A native or resident of Sigil.
Canny
Smart or talented.
Case
A decent or nice residence.
Chant, the
News, local gossip, the facts, the moods, or anything else about what's happening. "What's the chant?" is a common way of asking the latest news.
Chaosmen
A nickname for the Xaositects faction.
Chiv
A weapon, usually something with a blade.
Ciphers
A nickname for the Transcendent Order faction.
Clueless
Someone from a prime world, at least until they’ve spent some time in the planes. Also an adjective, e.g., “clueless berk.”
Colorpool
Portals on the Astral Plane that give access to the Prime Material and Outer Planes.
Conies
Victims of the cony-catchers.
Cony-catchers
Con-men, tricksters, or thieves looking for someone to peel.
Cross-trade
The business of thieving, or anything else illegal or shady. "A cross-trading scum" is a thief who's probably angered the Mercykillers.
Cutter
A generic complimentary term for a person that suggests resourcefulness or daring.
Dark
Secret information. "Here's the dark of it," is a way to start sharing a secret.
Dead, The
A nickname for the Dustmen faction.
Dead-book
To be dead. “Cross me and I’ll put you in the dead book.”
Deader
Anyone in the dead-book.
Defilers/Defiers
Nickname for members of the Athar faction.
Dusties
Nickname for members of the Dustmen faction.
Factotum
A medium-ranking member of a faction.
Factor
A high-ranking member of a faction.
Factol
The leader of a faction.
Feeding the Wyrm
Executing a prisoner. Taken from a form of execution used by the Mercykillers in Sigil, wherein they feed prisoners to a wyvern called the Wyrm.
Garnish
A bribe.
Gate
Any sort of passage between one plane and another.
Gate-town
One of the sixteen towns on the Outlands that has a gate to one of the sixteen Outer Planes. Each Outer Plane has one corresponding gate-town, and the town often has the same basic appearance, outlook, and attributes as the inhabitants, architecture, and terrain of that plane.
Ghost
A prime who visits the planes via astral spell. Since it involves little physical risk on the prime's part, it's considered cowardly by planars. Also called "cord babies."
Give 'em the laugh
To escape or slip through the clutches of someone. “He tried to give the Mercykillers the laugh, but ended up feeding the wyrm.”
Give the rope
What happens to condemned criminals who don't manage to give the law the laugh.
Go to the Mazes
Planar equivalent to “Go to hell,” referring to the Lady of Pain’s mazes.
Greybeard
A sage or scholar. This term refers to the stereotypical wizened old man but can apply to any learned intellectual.
Great Ring, Great Wheel
The Outer Planes, often depicted in maps and diagrams as a ring. This also refers to their infinite size, another allusion to the endlessness of a ring.
Great Road
A series of permanent gates that connects the Outer Planes.
Gully
A potential victim of a peel, a gullible sod.
Guvners
Nickname for the Fraternity of Order faction or its members.
Hardheads
Nickname for the Harmonium faction or its members.
Heartless
Nickname for the Fated faction or its members.
High-up
A person with power, money and influence. Factols are high-ups.
Hipped
Stranded. "Hipping the rube" means stranding someone by sending them through a one-way portal.
Indeps
Nickname for the Free League faction or its members.
Jink
Money or coin.
Kip
A residence or place to stay. To "call kip" is to make a place a body's home, at least for a while.
Knight of the post, knight of the cross-trade
A professional thief or cheat, or a term used as an insult.
Lann
To tell or inform. See "well-lanned."
Leafless tree
The gallows.
Leatherhead
A dolt or idiot.
Lost
Dead.
Lost, The
Nickname for the Athar faction or its members.
Madmen, The
Nickname for the Bleak Cabal faction or its members.
Mazes, the
The extraplanar mazes to which the Lady of Pain banishes those who threaten Sigil’s independence or insult her.
Mark
To be noted or identified as something. “That berk was marked to be a Guvner.”
Minder
A bodyguard.
Music
A price a cutter usually doesn't want to pay, but has to anyway. “Pay the music, or you’ll never find your way out of here.”
Namer
Low-level faction members who subscribe to the philosophy but do not perform substantial duties for the faction. Term derived from “faction member in name only.”
Nick
To attack, cut, or strike someone, often used in threats. “I nicked him good.”
Out-of-touch
Outside of the Outer Planes.
Out-of-town
On the Outlands (i.e, outside Sigil).
Outsiders
Clueless primes.
Park your ears
To eavesdrop, spy upon, or just simply listen intently. “He parked his ears in the tavern to get the latest chant.”
Path
Means of planar travel that requires physical movement. Includes traveling via the Styx or Oceanus, the World Ash Yggdrasil, or the Infinite Staicase.
Peel
To swindle, con, or trick.
Peery
Suspicious and on one's guard.
Petitioner
The soul of a mortal who has died and reformed on the plane of his alignment and/or deity without memory of its former life. The chant goes that Petitioners seek to become one with their new plane.
Pike it
A useful, all-purpose rude phrase. “Take a short stick and pike it.”
Pike off
To anger someone. "Once he discovers he's been peeled, he's going to be really piked off."
Planar
A being not native to the prime material plane or its echoes.
Planar Conduit
A wormhole-like connection that links two layers of the same plane or two layers of two different planes.
Plane-touched
The offspring of a planar native and a humanoid. Tieflings, aasimar, genasi, and cambions are types of plane-touched.
Planewalker
A term of respect for a cutter who is knowledgeable, experienced and capable of traveling to different planes.
Portal
A doorway to another plane or location. Typically requires a portal key. May be permanent or temporary, two-way or one-way.
Power
A deity or god.
Prime
The Prime Material Plane or a being who originates from there.
Proxy
A direct and powerful servant of a power.
Red Death
Nickname for the Mercykiller faction or its members.
Ride
An adventure, task, or undertaking. “What’s the ride today, boss?”
Rube
A naive or clueless person, though not necessarily a prime.
Scan
Look, listen, or learn. “Scan this, berk.”
Scragged
Arrested or caught.
Screed
A monotonous tirade, or someone who gives one.
Sensates
Nickname for the Society of Sensation faction or its members.
Signers
Nickname for the Sign of One faction or its members.
Sod
An unfortunate or poor soul. Use it to show sympathy for an unlucky cutter or use it sarcastically for those who get into their own messes. “Sod off, you sodding sod.
Sodding
A derogatory term used to stress magnitude. “A sodding leatherhead.”
Sparkle
Specifically a diamond, but also any gem.
Spellslinger
A wizard.
Spiv
An individual who lives by his wits (rather than having regular employment).
Takers
Nickname for the Athar faction or its members.
Thought Guild
Derogatory term for a faction member, used by those who dislike the factions.
Tumble to
To discover, understand or figure out something. “Tumble to the dark of a problem.”
Turn stag
To betray somebody or use treachery. “Turn stag on me and you’ll end up in the dead book.”
Twig
To take a liking to. “The poor sod twigged to a knight of the cross trade.”
Unity of Rings
The outer planar consensus philosophy that everything forms a logical ring or circular pattern.
Vortex
A passage between an environmental extreme on the Prime Material and the corresponding Elemental Plane.
Well-lanned
Connected, in-touch, or otherwise blessed with numerous friends, allies, and informants.
Wigwag
To chat or talk.
Yawn, the
The state of being bored. "This place gives me the yawn."
GM | Doer of The Thing | Red Username Means I'm Important | Mastery over Sardonicism| Recovering Procrastinator | "You cannot understand a man's actions unless you understand his beliefs."
Timeline of Sigil
Rather than posting the whole thing, I will link this site to you all to view. My eternal thanks to the creator.
We are currently in year -5 Post Faction War, the 123rd Year of Factol Haskar’s Administation.
Timekeeping and Calendars
Time of Day
The timekeeping in Sigil is simple. The day is divided into twenty four hours: six hours before peak, six hours after peak, six hours before antipeak, and six hours after antipeak. Time is written as 1+p, for one after peak, or 3-ap, for three to antipeak. Peak corresponds to the terrestrial “noon”, and antipeak is the terrestrial “midnight.” Clocks in Sigil are divided into 24 chunks, with half of the clock painted black for the antipeak hours.
Months and Years
The Sigilian Year consists of thirteen months, each sponsored by one of the represented factions in Sigil. Twelve of the months are grouped into four "seasons" of three months in length, with each season being a collection of like-minded factions. The thirteenth month stands on its own between the "summer" and the "autumn".
Calendar
Months of the Year
Years are not named (no “Year of Wild Magic” or Year of the Dog), simply numbered by the start of the reigns of the Factols of the Fraternity of Order. The current year is the 123th year of Factol Hashkar’s Reign, for example. This makes the measure of a year mutable. If the factol does not resign or die, a year ends after 360 days (twelve months.) If the factol’s reign should end before this time, however, the year ends on antipeak of the last day of that factol’s reign. The next day is the first year of the new era (this does lead to some confusion, as it might take the Guvners as much as 10 years to choose a new factol! These interim years continue the numbering of the old year system, but are retroactively officially renamed and renumbered to the proper new Factol’s name when one is chosen.)
The first day (the first Lady) of every month has been defined by the Guvners as "Factol's Day". This day is set aside to celebrate both the birthday of the factol and the founding of the faction, regardless of when each was actually created. Regardless of the faction, this day is marked by some sort of celebration that more often than not forces Cagers to sit up and take notice that a new month has started. Every 2nd and 4th Clerk, is called Taker's Day, in which the Fated go around to meet the citizenry and demand of them their yearly taxes.
The only exception is Leagueheim, a off-order weather event of about 3 weeks length that the Free League have claimed as their own to celebrate their Faction (as it would be a cold day in Avernus before a Guvner would recognize them as a Faction).
We are currently in year -5 Post Faction War, the 123rd Year of Factol Haskar’s Administation.
Timekeeping and Calendars
Time of Day
The timekeeping in Sigil is simple. The day is divided into twenty four hours: six hours before peak, six hours after peak, six hours before antipeak, and six hours after antipeak. Time is written as 1+p, for one after peak, or 3-ap, for three to antipeak. Peak corresponds to the terrestrial “noon”, and antipeak is the terrestrial “midnight.” Clocks in Sigil are divided into 24 chunks, with half of the clock painted black for the antipeak hours.
Months and Years
The Sigilian Year consists of thirteen months, each sponsored by one of the represented factions in Sigil. Twelve of the months are grouped into four "seasons" of three months in length, with each season being a collection of like-minded factions. The thirteenth month stands on its own between the "summer" and the "autumn".
Calendar
| Lady | Market | Guild | Clerk | Hive | Low | Void |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1) 1st Lady (Factol's Day) | 2) 1st Market | 3) 1st Guild | 4) 1st Clerk | 5) 1st Hive | 6) 1st Low | 7) 1st Void |
| 8) 2nd Lady | 9) 2nd Market | 10) 2nd Guild | 11) 2nd Clerk (Taker's Day) | 12) 2nd Hive | 13) 2nd Low | 14) 2nd Void |
| 15) 3rd Lady | 16) 3rd Market | 17) 3rd Guild | 18) 3rd Clerk | 19) 3rd Hive | 20) 3rd Low | 21) 3rd Void |
| 22) 4th Lady | 23) 4th Market | 24) 4th Guild | 25) 4th Clerk (Taker's Day) | 26) 4th Hive | 27) 4th Low | 28) 4th Void |
Months of the Year
| Sigil Month | Faction |
|---|---|
| Regula | Fraternity of Order |
| Accordant | Harmonium |
| Retributus | Mercykillers |
| Narciss | Sign of One |
| Tithing | Fated |
| Savorus | Society of Sensation |
| The Pivot | Transcendent Order |
| Catechism | Believers of the Source |
| Sacrilegion | Athar |
| Nihilum | Bleak Cabal |
| Mortis | Dustmen |
| Decadre | Doomguard |
| Capricious | Xaositects |
| Leagueheim | Free League |
Years are not named (no “Year of Wild Magic” or Year of the Dog), simply numbered by the start of the reigns of the Factols of the Fraternity of Order. The current year is the 123th year of Factol Hashkar’s Reign, for example. This makes the measure of a year mutable. If the factol does not resign or die, a year ends after 360 days (twelve months.) If the factol’s reign should end before this time, however, the year ends on antipeak of the last day of that factol’s reign. The next day is the first year of the new era (this does lead to some confusion, as it might take the Guvners as much as 10 years to choose a new factol! These interim years continue the numbering of the old year system, but are retroactively officially renamed and renumbered to the proper new Factol’s name when one is chosen.)
The first day (the first Lady) of every month has been defined by the Guvners as "Factol's Day". This day is set aside to celebrate both the birthday of the factol and the founding of the faction, regardless of when each was actually created. Regardless of the faction, this day is marked by some sort of celebration that more often than not forces Cagers to sit up and take notice that a new month has started. Every 2nd and 4th Clerk, is called Taker's Day, in which the Fated go around to meet the citizenry and demand of them their yearly taxes.
The only exception is Leagueheim, a off-order weather event of about 3 weeks length that the Free League have claimed as their own to celebrate their Faction (as it would be a cold day in Avernus before a Guvner would recognize them as a Faction).
GM | Doer of The Thing | Red Username Means I'm Important | Mastery over Sardonicism| Recovering Procrastinator | "You cannot understand a man's actions unless you understand his beliefs."
Getting Around in Sigil
First Impression for the Clueless
Stepping into Sigil, regardless of which ward you enter, is always a unique, and not always an altogether pleasant experience. Be that as it may, it is always remarkable and not easily forgotten. The first thing you’ll probably notice is the sting in your eyes as you cough, and maybe struggle for your first breath of the thin, soot-laden air mixed with the sounds and smells of a thousand worlds, planes, and their inhabitants. And then you start to marvel at the place despite the dense blanket of haze that hovers like fog, mixed with the low hanging clouds that form the city’s own weather. In a word: Sigil can be utterly dreary at the same time it amazes and confounds.
That nearly constant haze and high hanging fog very well constitutes the average weather of Sigil. While the city isn’t truly large enough to create its own weather patterns, a presumed number of portals exist that link it to the Elemental Plane of Air, as well as the Paraelemental Plane of Steam, and perhaps even the Quasielemental Planes of Lightning and Smoke. All of this, in combination with the influx of air from all other portals in the city, and the combined cooking fires, exhalations of the residents, and any other similar things combine to form the unique atmosphere of the City of Doors. It isn’t exactly pretty berk, even by a fiend’s ideals. While the air in The Lady’s Ward might be a bit clearer most days, down towards the Lower Ward the exhaust and smoke from the Great Foundry and all the other myriad workshops and forges combine to form a yellowish, sickening blanket of smog over the city that spreads out to the other wards.
Now if this all kept up, eventually the air in the city would be “unbreathable”, or so the graybeards say. Every so often when the smog seems like it can’t get any worse, it all improves in the space of a day; the air seems cleaner, a blood can see further up into the “sky”, and the ring opposite seems much more detailed than before. At these intervals the air is downright pleasant to breathe too. Not that it lasts all that long, but the chant is that either winds blowing up off the Spire purge Sigil of its worst smog, or the Lady opens the portals in such a fashion as to flush the air and replenish it anew when needed.
But I’ve gone down quite a tangent, and forgotten the scene at hand. Past the mildly acidic drizzle from overhead on most every other day, you can stand and gawk at both deva and fiend conversing with one another as they stride past you on the wide cobblestone street between two high eaved buildings. Glancing at the surrounding structures themselves, you will notice the blades and ornate spikes that might decorate the surrounding walls and terraces from which ravens and pigeons, among more exotic beasts, might roost or lie skewered. As you walk you might be jostled by a passing bariaur, or a human and a golden skinned aasimar speaking at length, and then notice that the buildings, regardless of grandeur or condition, all tend to bear a unique and common style.
You see, Sigil’s buildings, from its most glorious and gilded structures of the wealthy and powerful to the rotting ramshackle shanties of its slums, all have a distinct style and appearance in common. Several features typify Sigil’s architectural tradition: blades, spiked fences, iron and stone ornamentation, and razorvine. Of these features, the first three have practical uses for the buildings they decorate, while the last is a widespread nuisance that is dealt with and has accommodated some function only in order to put a positive spin on the hellish vegetation. While some of the racial enclaves and ghettos may deviate from this typical architectural style, a building from Sigil is recognizable and distinct from most anywhere else on the planes.
Blades sprout from many of the buildings in Sigil, rising up as razor-edged fingers to glimmer in the hazy light. These ornaments likely originate in imitation of, and deference to the blades of Sigil’s enigmatic ruler and protector, Her Dread Majesty, the Lady of Pain. But besides this likely origin, the blades are just as much for protection against thieves and intruders.
The spiked fences common to most of the larger buildings in Sigil, and to a lesser extent the smaller and less cared for buildings of the poorer wards of the city, have both a decorative function as well as practical ones for the buildings they grace. Thieves find their grips and potential handholds topped by spikes, and windows and shutters girded with iron. The spikes also deter some of Sigil’s indigenous birds such as executioner’s ravens and some types of grayish green pigeons from roosting atop a berk’s kip. [To say nothing of mephits… – The Editor]
Ornamentation in the form of either abstract designs or carved imitations of perched figures and gargoyles in both iron and worked stone is common. The more prominent the building – or the more wealthy the occupant – the more elaborate the ornamentation. Decorative waterspouts, eaves and gables are common in the more wealthy areas of Sigil, but are not restricted to them. Iron and stone are the most common building material used because they can be created through magic, rather than imported at great expense by way of Sigil’s portals. However, in the richer wards of the Cage, special and unique varieties of stone, metal and wood have been imported from places ranging from Mount Celestia, to Gehenna, to the Quasielemental Plane of Mineral. But most commonly used as building materials across all of Sigil are varieties of simple grayish or white stone, iron, slate, and rough-hewn wood.
Location
Everyone seems to take at face value the chant that Sigil sits atop the great Spire in the exact center of the Outlands. This’d place Sigil at arguably the very center of the Outer Planes, and, by some cutters’ reckoning, the center of the multiverse. Any resident of Sigil however will dismiss this notion as pure screed, despite its attractiveness. Nothing is at the center of everything. Ask any planewalker and they’ll tell you the same: that it’s the rule of the Center of All showing through. Every point in the multiverse sits in the midst of a sea of everything, infinite and vast. From that perspective, every point is the same and at the center of everything as far as it’s concerned. It’s just the fact that Sigil’s portals connect it to every plane of existence that leads to the mistaken idea that it sits at the center of everything.
Of course, some even question the assumption that it sits atop the Spire in the first place. Thing is, the Spire is supposedly infinitely tall. So how then can there be a top of the Spire for something to be placed at? [Indeed, Sigil is a mystery among mysteries. Some would even say THE mystery. – The Editor]
Entering and Leaving the Cage
Getting to and from Sigil is at the same time both simple and complex. The lowliest prime can slip into and out of the city with but the Lady’s whimsy and the right key, while the gods themselves are barred from entering no matter how long they rage in impotence at doorways forever sealed to them. There’s something poetic about the reality of Sigil, with so many things stark and definite, but coexisting with the enigmatic and unknown.
That said; Sigil’s hallmark is the nigh uncountable portals that are the reason behind its name, the City of Doors. A door, a window, a flagstone, a tracing of cracks in a stone wall, a painted circle left by a barmy Xaositect on the side of a tree. All of these are bounded spaces, and all of them potentially portals. Any bound space within Sigil has the potential to be a portal to effectively anywhere in existence from the Outer to Inner planes, the Prime, even demiplanes hidden throughout the multiverse. All that matters is having the correct key.
A portal key can be anything. A leaf from a cutting of razorvine, a golden ring, a silver rose dipped in blood. All of these could be portals keys. And indeed a portal key need not be material. It could be a certain song hummed while walking backwards through the bound space, or even a thought in passing while crossing the portal’s threshold. At the will of Her Serenity, all of these could be the keys to activating any of Sigil’s portals.
Indeed, the portals of Sigil are the only way in or out. Without the knowledge of the proper portal, and the proper key to that portal, a body can’t enter or exit Sigil. There is no other way to enter or leave the city, though some have attempted to do so by leaping from Sigil’s ring in the spot called ‘Suicide Alley’ where the outer wall is low enough to climb over. What happens to those is dark; none have ever been proven to return. If Sigil sits atop the infinite Spire, one might simply fall for infinity after jumping clear from the ring to eventually die of starvation or thirst. Some have even suggested that the poor sods might be thrown to a random plane, but again this is unproven. Curious? Try to look over the walls and see what lies beyond. Some have done so, especially those cutters who have the ability to fly, and they see neither the Spire, nor even a void. Nothingness. Try as they might, those who’ve seen over Sigil’s walls say only that nothing lies beyond them, and leave it at that, words failing to fully describe the concept. The multiverse has its mysteries, and Sigil lies at the heart of many of them.
The portals of Sigil have an even more unique, and humbling feature. The powers may not enter Sigil. Powers, deities, gods, whatever your name for them, they are barred from entering the City of Doors. Rage though they might to take the gateway to the planes, they may not so much as step a foot through a portal into Sigil. Of everything on the planes, little may be held as a true constant save this: Gods may not enter Sigil. Perhaps this is a byproduct of Sigil’s location atop the spire, or its place at the so-called center of the planes, but most graybeards acknowledge but one answer to this dark: Her Serenity, the Lady of Pain.
There is no way around the limitations imposed upon Sigil, though many have tried. Sigil is coexistent upon the Astral Plane, though planewalkers upon the Astral have said that the city is surrounded by a palely luminescent, and utterly impenetrable bubble that sears the mind and defies proper explanation. This astral barrier wholly prevents passage into Sigil through the Astral Plane, leaving only the Lady’s portals as viable entry. Still, the city isn’t so much separated as, well, caged off from the Astral. Spells and even psionics that work by connecting to that plane do work within Sigil. It’s just impossible to enter or exit the city, or even observe anything but its mysterious shielded boundary by means of the Silver Void.
Other spells such as summoning and similar conjuration magic fail spectacularly within Sigil, although some wizards are said to know of spots within the city where by chance, or more likely the Lady’s will, such spells do work, within limitation. Plane shift spells fail, though teleportation works within the confines of the city. Again such spells work, but nothing may cross into or out of the city, except by way of the portals. Even such powerful spells as gate and wish fail to breach the limitations imposed upon Sigil. Indeed, if even the powers cannot breach the wards set around the City of Doors, what hope does mortal magic hold to accomplish the same? Some say that the portals of Sigil appear at the whimsy of the Lady, others that they are all random and She only controls the keys to open them. Others still say that nothing is random and indeed, She creates Her portals not at whimsy but with deft, measured strokes of will. As with most things regarding the Bladed Queen, the matter remains dark. But what is known is that the Lady of Pain has the ability to shut down the portals of the city, even all of them at once. She has done so before, and could do so again. And with that, mind this: the City of Doors has but so much air.
Shape and Direction
The City of Doors, being built along the inside of a great torus atop the Spire, has a rather unique shape. Indeed standing upon any of the streets of the burg, given enough clear space to see for any decent stretch, one can see the city curving up and along the circumference of the ring. Looking up at night, when a basher can see through the perpetual haze, you can see the twinkling lamps, fires and other lights from the streets and buildings clear across the ring on the other side of the city. One big ring sitting at the very center of the Great Wheel of the Outer Planes. Coincidence, or the Unity of Rings shining through? Let graybeards ponder over that question. Allow the clueless to stare and wonder. The rest of us just accept it and live out our days without giving it much thought.
Shape aside, the size of Sigil, from one end to the other, as determined in the past by Harmonium and Guvner surveys, places the Cage at roughly five miles across, and twenty miles in circumference. However, these are simply approximations and an average of the myriad values they found. See, the actual size of Sigil is not set to any value. The Lady can alter the size of the City of Doors at Her whim, making it larger or smaller for whatever mysterious reasons and purposes She has. Likely if the population of Sigil exceeded a certain amount Her Serenity might simply allow the city to grow in size to accommodate these changes, with her servants, the dabus, creating new buildings and paving new streets.
Another artifact of the unique ring shape of Sigil is that, like most planes, there’s no easy way to orient yourself for directions. There’s no north and south, no east or west. All directions end up being relative to specific points in the city and to the Spire (not that it can be seen from within Sigil, but it’s assumed to be there, somewhere). In this manner, you give direction by which wards to pass through or go towards. For instance, to get to the Gatehouse from the Lower Ward, you would travel to the Hive. With the ring “laying on its side” above the Spire, there also exist up and down, commonly known as spireward and downward, corresponding o up and down respectively, which govern direction to the edges of the city.
Modrons and certain lawful cutters, such as the former members of the Fraternity of Order, break from this system of relative direction and favor a system of radial and chord wise coordinates. Most bloods don’t tend to bother with this exact system, favoring the more common, and while less exact, easier to use methods of giving directions relative to the wards and the spire.
Telling Time
Time in the City of Doors is measured along a convention that’s been in place for about as long as anyone can remember. Though admittedly, records of the history of Sigil itself are rather sketchy beyond a thousand years or so, and grow even dimmer the further back a cutter delves. Now, while most Primes will tell you that their own worlds are ruled by a clear cut day and night, alternating between a blazing star in the day sky and various numbers of moons at night, Sigil has no real sky with heavenly bodies by which to tell the time. Yet there still exists something akin to day and night in the burg. Here it’s called peak and antipeak, for the times when the dim, hazy light that seems to spring out of the very air above the ring of Sigil is waxing or waning to its highest or lowest points. That said it’s never truly bright in the city save for the hours surrounding peak. Otherwise, it’s usually a subdued glow of early morning or growing twilight, filtering through the haze, or, during the hours around antipeak, when the sky is a more or less an artificial night. And although Sigil has no sun or moon or stars, being that the city is ring shaped, during the hours around antipeak, a cutter looking up can see the faint twinkle and glimmer of lights on the streets and in buildings clear opposite of them on the other side of Sigil. Well, when the air is suitably clear of fog or haze anyways.
The roll of years is something of a mixed bag in Sigil and frequently comes to confuse the clueless and graybeard alike. For while Sigil is, or is presumed to be, eternal in every sense of the word, written records of history in the City of Doors are hard to come by the further back one looks. Without accurate and longstanding historical records there exists nothing by which to judge the flow of time, or by which to date against. The latest convention for keeping track of the years has been giving the date by the number of the year of the current factol of the Fraternity of Order.
Inhabitants
Being the nominal center of the Outer Planes (at least from the Cagers’ perspective), and with links to points across the multiverse, the Cage is populated by members of nearly every race and culture imaginable. While the list of different races is much too exhausting to write down in this limited space, suffice to say, the exemplars and planar branches of the prime races abound and form the majority of the population of Sigil. The planetouched races are represented largely by aasimar and tieflings within the City of Doors. While there also exists a smaller and visible amount of the various genasi races, any of the more exotic planetouched races are a small minority collectively. Also of note is the fact that the Outer Planar races vastly outnumber the natives of the Inner Planes, despite Sigil’s portals to every plane in the multiverse.
From ward to ward, the population of the City of Doors varies with respect to composition by both planars or primes, as well as the types of bashers that populate the ward. Many of the more exotic races, and those who have been historically more insular, persecuted within Sigil, or across the planes in general, tend to accumulate among themselves in their own racially distinct neighborhoods. Indeed, a number of racial enclaves across Sigil have grown large enough to merit distinction as districts of their own within a given ward.
The Lady’s Ward is nearly free of the fiendish races, and relatively few tieflings grace its streets or call the ward kip except for the touts of the city, which number many tieflings among their number. Humans, half-elves, various genasi (particularly air genasi, who appreciate the cleaner air of the ward), aasimar, zenythri, and bariaur make up the stock of the ward in number from largest to smallest. The powerful and the opportunistic reside in this ward alongside the honest and the upstanding. By crime or by the law, a blood may find themself fleeced of his jink one way or the other if they’re not careful within the ward. Alongside the crosstrade, the wealthy, and the knights of the post are the various members of the clergy. They abound in The Lady’s Ward in numbers larger than in any other section of the city, with even the occasional divine proxy traversing the wide avenues.
Within the Lower Ward a cutter will find the most diverse collection of racial types within Sigil, though true to its name, the number of portals to the Lower Planar tends to skew this mix of races towards a more fiendish bent. Regardless, humans are the largest group, followed almost equally by tieflings, githzerai, and bariaur. Less numerous, but still represented in numbers one cannot dismiss, are elves, dwarves, gnomes, half-elves, and rogue modron. Indeed, the Lower Ward, unbeknownst to many, was ages ago called the Prime Ward, for the ghettos of the Clueless herded and sequestered there. [An idea which Cirily of the Sigil Advisory Council would likely find attractive once again. – The Editor] And here, within the racially diverse atmosphere of the ward, most bashers tend towards common labor, most of them having little training in sorcery or swordplay. Forge workers, pot menders, and tailors have little use for such crafts. More often than not the populace trends more to mundane means than in most wards.
In the Hive, the poorest and most crime-ridden ward of all of Sigil, the racial mix becomes much different from the other wards. Humans are hardly the most common race, and are a considerable minority when compared with the number of tieflings, githzerai, chaonds, bariaur, half-elves, monstrous humanoids, giant-kin, and full-blown fiends. Celestials and aasimar are virtually a rarity within the ward, for good reason with the number of fiends and bashers of a criminal nature.
Within the utter squalor of the Hive, the masses of living detritus tend towards little to no education, and so the educated and the rich tend to be a rarity in most areas, except for those few who have moved into the ward either to exploit, employ, or preach to the population. Some berks find that they can make a name for themselves with their skill or magical prowess in the ward’s criminal circles. The unorganized, or organized and less powerful, criminal elements of Sigil reside in the Hive. Here thievery can allow even a relatively unskilled leatherhead to make quite a living for themselves inside the ward, or to venture outside, make their jink, and then flee back to avoid the rule of law outside the Hive.
The Clerk’s Ward, home of the bureaucracy that daily greases the wheels of Sigil’s government, tends to be rather drab when compared to the other wards of Sigil. Its citizens comprise a population made up largely of humans, with smaller numbers of githzerai, tieflings, zenythri, bariaur, dwarves and halflings. Most exemplars tend to avoid the ward for whatever reason, maybe considering the mundane lot of little importance in their schemes.
The citizens of the Clerk’s Ward tend to be a bit higher educated than in many of the other wards, with more skill using a pen than a sword for many. However, that’s not to say that the unskilled have no use in the ward. They simply won’t have any chance of gaining much influence, but they can, and do manage to make a living serving as guards, servants, and laborers.
The Guildhall Ward stands in marked contrast to the Lower Ward, but also in startling similarity in terms of racial complexion. While the ward is just as diverse as the Lower Ward, the population tends towards a mirror opposite of it, with the fiends and fiend-touched races replaced by celestials and aasimar; and here, even more so than in the Clerk’s Ward, a large number of spellslingers and magical artisans call the ward kip.
The Market Ward is fairly diverse with regards to racial composition, though much of the diversity comes from the daily influx of buyers. After all, every cutter in Sigil has things they like or need to purchase, and the Great Bazaar of the Market Ward has the largest selection of merchants and vendors within all of Sigil. Among the merchants themselves, there’s more than a fair share of bariaur and half-elves along with the human population. Here, fiends can be seen passing by celestials on a daily basis, and none seem to give it much a second thought. Still, the occasional fight between passing Baatezu and Tanar’ri makes way for an opening in any crowd within the ward.
Most cutters of any background can find a use for themselves within the ward, be it for the security of the merchants, creation of items, preaching to the crowds in the Bazaar, or bobbing some sod for his coin. The ward takes all kinds and passes little judgment upon them. This facet of daily life remains one of the most lingering influences of the Free League.
Buying/Selling/Services
Sigil, as with any other city of its size and population, has a wide variety of services hawked by those canny bloods with skills, ranging from the common to rare, and abilities, ranging from unskilled to masters of their craft. From the portals come flooding into the burg a vast diversity of products, wares, and raw goods from all corners of the planes. From street corner vendors’ carts, to shops, to whatever a berk can hold in his hands, the wares of commerce are to be had by those with the jink for it, or the quickness to bob it off those who do.
Most of the business within Sigil, or at least the vast bulk of it, takes place within the Great Bazaar inside the appropriately named Market Ward. Of course, to find something within the ward isn’t always quite so easy. One must consider the size of the area it occupies and that most of the shops are pitched upon the ground in a haphazardly manner and may change position slightly depending on the circumstances and the goods they sell. [Illegal goods move fast, in every sense of the word. – The Editor] Most products sold in the Market Ward are on the up and up, though other areas such as the Night Market within the Hive sell to customers unconcerned with prior ownership or price.
Other shops are dotted throughout Sigil, in each and every ward, with the wards in turn giving a bit of flavor to each shop, and the shops themselves giving something back to their districts. Poignant examples that serve to exemplify this range from the Friendly Fiend in the Lower Ward, Parts & Pieces in the Market Ward [With the ever so added benefit of being run by Seamusxanthuszenus, Slayer of Fiends and Merchant Most Excellent! Aka ‘That Mephit with the Hat’. Need I say more? – The Editor], Tivvum’s Antiquities in the Market Ward, and Traban’s Forge within The Lady’s Ward. All of these shops have their own unique flavor that adds to, and derives itself from their ward of residence. Indeed, so do most of the small, independent merchants within Sigil to an extent.
But shops aside, all manner of services are available within the City of Doors, such as tours of the city available from the Tout and Escorts guild, entertainment provided by the Civic Festhall and Entertainers Guild, and the location of desired portals provided by the members of the Doorsnoop’s Guild.
Across the city, a blood can find sedan chair rides or Arcadian pony drawn carriages to ferry him over or through the crowds, and young scaps called light boys carry glowing staves to light the way for a cutter walking in Sigil after dark. Life is much easier for those with jink to freely spend on their own luxury.
Magical items of all types and manufacture may be bought from the merchants or spell-slingers of the city. At the same time, arcane knowledge itself can be found in both the Great Library, the Sensory stones of the Civic Festhall, and smaller and more private groups like the Society of Luminiferous Aether. And bub… a hundred different alehouses, bub taps, and watering holes can be found across the breadth of the city. Each of them with their own unique atmosphere, clientele, and price range, to say nothing of other entertainment provided to the patrons. [The Fortunes Wheel in The Lady’s Ward, and the Bottle and Jug in the Hive are perhaps the two most polar opposites in this regard, though under the surface they have much more in common than the patrons of the former are likely to admit. – The Editor]
Stepping into Sigil, regardless of which ward you enter, is always a unique, and not always an altogether pleasant experience. Be that as it may, it is always remarkable and not easily forgotten. The first thing you’ll probably notice is the sting in your eyes as you cough, and maybe struggle for your first breath of the thin, soot-laden air mixed with the sounds and smells of a thousand worlds, planes, and their inhabitants. And then you start to marvel at the place despite the dense blanket of haze that hovers like fog, mixed with the low hanging clouds that form the city’s own weather. In a word: Sigil can be utterly dreary at the same time it amazes and confounds.
That nearly constant haze and high hanging fog very well constitutes the average weather of Sigil. While the city isn’t truly large enough to create its own weather patterns, a presumed number of portals exist that link it to the Elemental Plane of Air, as well as the Paraelemental Plane of Steam, and perhaps even the Quasielemental Planes of Lightning and Smoke. All of this, in combination with the influx of air from all other portals in the city, and the combined cooking fires, exhalations of the residents, and any other similar things combine to form the unique atmosphere of the City of Doors. It isn’t exactly pretty berk, even by a fiend’s ideals. While the air in The Lady’s Ward might be a bit clearer most days, down towards the Lower Ward the exhaust and smoke from the Great Foundry and all the other myriad workshops and forges combine to form a yellowish, sickening blanket of smog over the city that spreads out to the other wards.
Now if this all kept up, eventually the air in the city would be “unbreathable”, or so the graybeards say. Every so often when the smog seems like it can’t get any worse, it all improves in the space of a day; the air seems cleaner, a blood can see further up into the “sky”, and the ring opposite seems much more detailed than before. At these intervals the air is downright pleasant to breathe too. Not that it lasts all that long, but the chant is that either winds blowing up off the Spire purge Sigil of its worst smog, or the Lady opens the portals in such a fashion as to flush the air and replenish it anew when needed.
But I’ve gone down quite a tangent, and forgotten the scene at hand. Past the mildly acidic drizzle from overhead on most every other day, you can stand and gawk at both deva and fiend conversing with one another as they stride past you on the wide cobblestone street between two high eaved buildings. Glancing at the surrounding structures themselves, you will notice the blades and ornate spikes that might decorate the surrounding walls and terraces from which ravens and pigeons, among more exotic beasts, might roost or lie skewered. As you walk you might be jostled by a passing bariaur, or a human and a golden skinned aasimar speaking at length, and then notice that the buildings, regardless of grandeur or condition, all tend to bear a unique and common style.
You see, Sigil’s buildings, from its most glorious and gilded structures of the wealthy and powerful to the rotting ramshackle shanties of its slums, all have a distinct style and appearance in common. Several features typify Sigil’s architectural tradition: blades, spiked fences, iron and stone ornamentation, and razorvine. Of these features, the first three have practical uses for the buildings they decorate, while the last is a widespread nuisance that is dealt with and has accommodated some function only in order to put a positive spin on the hellish vegetation. While some of the racial enclaves and ghettos may deviate from this typical architectural style, a building from Sigil is recognizable and distinct from most anywhere else on the planes.
Blades sprout from many of the buildings in Sigil, rising up as razor-edged fingers to glimmer in the hazy light. These ornaments likely originate in imitation of, and deference to the blades of Sigil’s enigmatic ruler and protector, Her Dread Majesty, the Lady of Pain. But besides this likely origin, the blades are just as much for protection against thieves and intruders.
The spiked fences common to most of the larger buildings in Sigil, and to a lesser extent the smaller and less cared for buildings of the poorer wards of the city, have both a decorative function as well as practical ones for the buildings they grace. Thieves find their grips and potential handholds topped by spikes, and windows and shutters girded with iron. The spikes also deter some of Sigil’s indigenous birds such as executioner’s ravens and some types of grayish green pigeons from roosting atop a berk’s kip. [To say nothing of mephits… – The Editor]
Ornamentation in the form of either abstract designs or carved imitations of perched figures and gargoyles in both iron and worked stone is common. The more prominent the building – or the more wealthy the occupant – the more elaborate the ornamentation. Decorative waterspouts, eaves and gables are common in the more wealthy areas of Sigil, but are not restricted to them. Iron and stone are the most common building material used because they can be created through magic, rather than imported at great expense by way of Sigil’s portals. However, in the richer wards of the Cage, special and unique varieties of stone, metal and wood have been imported from places ranging from Mount Celestia, to Gehenna, to the Quasielemental Plane of Mineral. But most commonly used as building materials across all of Sigil are varieties of simple grayish or white stone, iron, slate, and rough-hewn wood.
Location
Everyone seems to take at face value the chant that Sigil sits atop the great Spire in the exact center of the Outlands. This’d place Sigil at arguably the very center of the Outer Planes, and, by some cutters’ reckoning, the center of the multiverse. Any resident of Sigil however will dismiss this notion as pure screed, despite its attractiveness. Nothing is at the center of everything. Ask any planewalker and they’ll tell you the same: that it’s the rule of the Center of All showing through. Every point in the multiverse sits in the midst of a sea of everything, infinite and vast. From that perspective, every point is the same and at the center of everything as far as it’s concerned. It’s just the fact that Sigil’s portals connect it to every plane of existence that leads to the mistaken idea that it sits at the center of everything.
Of course, some even question the assumption that it sits atop the Spire in the first place. Thing is, the Spire is supposedly infinitely tall. So how then can there be a top of the Spire for something to be placed at? [Indeed, Sigil is a mystery among mysteries. Some would even say THE mystery. – The Editor]
Entering and Leaving the Cage
Getting to and from Sigil is at the same time both simple and complex. The lowliest prime can slip into and out of the city with but the Lady’s whimsy and the right key, while the gods themselves are barred from entering no matter how long they rage in impotence at doorways forever sealed to them. There’s something poetic about the reality of Sigil, with so many things stark and definite, but coexisting with the enigmatic and unknown.
That said; Sigil’s hallmark is the nigh uncountable portals that are the reason behind its name, the City of Doors. A door, a window, a flagstone, a tracing of cracks in a stone wall, a painted circle left by a barmy Xaositect on the side of a tree. All of these are bounded spaces, and all of them potentially portals. Any bound space within Sigil has the potential to be a portal to effectively anywhere in existence from the Outer to Inner planes, the Prime, even demiplanes hidden throughout the multiverse. All that matters is having the correct key.
A portal key can be anything. A leaf from a cutting of razorvine, a golden ring, a silver rose dipped in blood. All of these could be portals keys. And indeed a portal key need not be material. It could be a certain song hummed while walking backwards through the bound space, or even a thought in passing while crossing the portal’s threshold. At the will of Her Serenity, all of these could be the keys to activating any of Sigil’s portals.
Indeed, the portals of Sigil are the only way in or out. Without the knowledge of the proper portal, and the proper key to that portal, a body can’t enter or exit Sigil. There is no other way to enter or leave the city, though some have attempted to do so by leaping from Sigil’s ring in the spot called ‘Suicide Alley’ where the outer wall is low enough to climb over. What happens to those is dark; none have ever been proven to return. If Sigil sits atop the infinite Spire, one might simply fall for infinity after jumping clear from the ring to eventually die of starvation or thirst. Some have even suggested that the poor sods might be thrown to a random plane, but again this is unproven. Curious? Try to look over the walls and see what lies beyond. Some have done so, especially those cutters who have the ability to fly, and they see neither the Spire, nor even a void. Nothingness. Try as they might, those who’ve seen over Sigil’s walls say only that nothing lies beyond them, and leave it at that, words failing to fully describe the concept. The multiverse has its mysteries, and Sigil lies at the heart of many of them.
The portals of Sigil have an even more unique, and humbling feature. The powers may not enter Sigil. Powers, deities, gods, whatever your name for them, they are barred from entering the City of Doors. Rage though they might to take the gateway to the planes, they may not so much as step a foot through a portal into Sigil. Of everything on the planes, little may be held as a true constant save this: Gods may not enter Sigil. Perhaps this is a byproduct of Sigil’s location atop the spire, or its place at the so-called center of the planes, but most graybeards acknowledge but one answer to this dark: Her Serenity, the Lady of Pain.
There is no way around the limitations imposed upon Sigil, though many have tried. Sigil is coexistent upon the Astral Plane, though planewalkers upon the Astral have said that the city is surrounded by a palely luminescent, and utterly impenetrable bubble that sears the mind and defies proper explanation. This astral barrier wholly prevents passage into Sigil through the Astral Plane, leaving only the Lady’s portals as viable entry. Still, the city isn’t so much separated as, well, caged off from the Astral. Spells and even psionics that work by connecting to that plane do work within Sigil. It’s just impossible to enter or exit the city, or even observe anything but its mysterious shielded boundary by means of the Silver Void.
Other spells such as summoning and similar conjuration magic fail spectacularly within Sigil, although some wizards are said to know of spots within the city where by chance, or more likely the Lady’s will, such spells do work, within limitation. Plane shift spells fail, though teleportation works within the confines of the city. Again such spells work, but nothing may cross into or out of the city, except by way of the portals. Even such powerful spells as gate and wish fail to breach the limitations imposed upon Sigil. Indeed, if even the powers cannot breach the wards set around the City of Doors, what hope does mortal magic hold to accomplish the same? Some say that the portals of Sigil appear at the whimsy of the Lady, others that they are all random and She only controls the keys to open them. Others still say that nothing is random and indeed, She creates Her portals not at whimsy but with deft, measured strokes of will. As with most things regarding the Bladed Queen, the matter remains dark. But what is known is that the Lady of Pain has the ability to shut down the portals of the city, even all of them at once. She has done so before, and could do so again. And with that, mind this: the City of Doors has but so much air.
Shape and Direction
The City of Doors, being built along the inside of a great torus atop the Spire, has a rather unique shape. Indeed standing upon any of the streets of the burg, given enough clear space to see for any decent stretch, one can see the city curving up and along the circumference of the ring. Looking up at night, when a basher can see through the perpetual haze, you can see the twinkling lamps, fires and other lights from the streets and buildings clear across the ring on the other side of the city. One big ring sitting at the very center of the Great Wheel of the Outer Planes. Coincidence, or the Unity of Rings shining through? Let graybeards ponder over that question. Allow the clueless to stare and wonder. The rest of us just accept it and live out our days without giving it much thought.
Shape aside, the size of Sigil, from one end to the other, as determined in the past by Harmonium and Guvner surveys, places the Cage at roughly five miles across, and twenty miles in circumference. However, these are simply approximations and an average of the myriad values they found. See, the actual size of Sigil is not set to any value. The Lady can alter the size of the City of Doors at Her whim, making it larger or smaller for whatever mysterious reasons and purposes She has. Likely if the population of Sigil exceeded a certain amount Her Serenity might simply allow the city to grow in size to accommodate these changes, with her servants, the dabus, creating new buildings and paving new streets.
Another artifact of the unique ring shape of Sigil is that, like most planes, there’s no easy way to orient yourself for directions. There’s no north and south, no east or west. All directions end up being relative to specific points in the city and to the Spire (not that it can be seen from within Sigil, but it’s assumed to be there, somewhere). In this manner, you give direction by which wards to pass through or go towards. For instance, to get to the Gatehouse from the Lower Ward, you would travel to the Hive. With the ring “laying on its side” above the Spire, there also exist up and down, commonly known as spireward and downward, corresponding o up and down respectively, which govern direction to the edges of the city.
Modrons and certain lawful cutters, such as the former members of the Fraternity of Order, break from this system of relative direction and favor a system of radial and chord wise coordinates. Most bloods don’t tend to bother with this exact system, favoring the more common, and while less exact, easier to use methods of giving directions relative to the wards and the spire.
Telling Time
Time in the City of Doors is measured along a convention that’s been in place for about as long as anyone can remember. Though admittedly, records of the history of Sigil itself are rather sketchy beyond a thousand years or so, and grow even dimmer the further back a cutter delves. Now, while most Primes will tell you that their own worlds are ruled by a clear cut day and night, alternating between a blazing star in the day sky and various numbers of moons at night, Sigil has no real sky with heavenly bodies by which to tell the time. Yet there still exists something akin to day and night in the burg. Here it’s called peak and antipeak, for the times when the dim, hazy light that seems to spring out of the very air above the ring of Sigil is waxing or waning to its highest or lowest points. That said it’s never truly bright in the city save for the hours surrounding peak. Otherwise, it’s usually a subdued glow of early morning or growing twilight, filtering through the haze, or, during the hours around antipeak, when the sky is a more or less an artificial night. And although Sigil has no sun or moon or stars, being that the city is ring shaped, during the hours around antipeak, a cutter looking up can see the faint twinkle and glimmer of lights on the streets and in buildings clear opposite of them on the other side of Sigil. Well, when the air is suitably clear of fog or haze anyways.
The roll of years is something of a mixed bag in Sigil and frequently comes to confuse the clueless and graybeard alike. For while Sigil is, or is presumed to be, eternal in every sense of the word, written records of history in the City of Doors are hard to come by the further back one looks. Without accurate and longstanding historical records there exists nothing by which to judge the flow of time, or by which to date against. The latest convention for keeping track of the years has been giving the date by the number of the year of the current factol of the Fraternity of Order.
Inhabitants
Being the nominal center of the Outer Planes (at least from the Cagers’ perspective), and with links to points across the multiverse, the Cage is populated by members of nearly every race and culture imaginable. While the list of different races is much too exhausting to write down in this limited space, suffice to say, the exemplars and planar branches of the prime races abound and form the majority of the population of Sigil. The planetouched races are represented largely by aasimar and tieflings within the City of Doors. While there also exists a smaller and visible amount of the various genasi races, any of the more exotic planetouched races are a small minority collectively. Also of note is the fact that the Outer Planar races vastly outnumber the natives of the Inner Planes, despite Sigil’s portals to every plane in the multiverse.
From ward to ward, the population of the City of Doors varies with respect to composition by both planars or primes, as well as the types of bashers that populate the ward. Many of the more exotic races, and those who have been historically more insular, persecuted within Sigil, or across the planes in general, tend to accumulate among themselves in their own racially distinct neighborhoods. Indeed, a number of racial enclaves across Sigil have grown large enough to merit distinction as districts of their own within a given ward.
The Lady’s Ward is nearly free of the fiendish races, and relatively few tieflings grace its streets or call the ward kip except for the touts of the city, which number many tieflings among their number. Humans, half-elves, various genasi (particularly air genasi, who appreciate the cleaner air of the ward), aasimar, zenythri, and bariaur make up the stock of the ward in number from largest to smallest. The powerful and the opportunistic reside in this ward alongside the honest and the upstanding. By crime or by the law, a blood may find themself fleeced of his jink one way or the other if they’re not careful within the ward. Alongside the crosstrade, the wealthy, and the knights of the post are the various members of the clergy. They abound in The Lady’s Ward in numbers larger than in any other section of the city, with even the occasional divine proxy traversing the wide avenues.
Within the Lower Ward a cutter will find the most diverse collection of racial types within Sigil, though true to its name, the number of portals to the Lower Planar tends to skew this mix of races towards a more fiendish bent. Regardless, humans are the largest group, followed almost equally by tieflings, githzerai, and bariaur. Less numerous, but still represented in numbers one cannot dismiss, are elves, dwarves, gnomes, half-elves, and rogue modron. Indeed, the Lower Ward, unbeknownst to many, was ages ago called the Prime Ward, for the ghettos of the Clueless herded and sequestered there. [An idea which Cirily of the Sigil Advisory Council would likely find attractive once again. – The Editor] And here, within the racially diverse atmosphere of the ward, most bashers tend towards common labor, most of them having little training in sorcery or swordplay. Forge workers, pot menders, and tailors have little use for such crafts. More often than not the populace trends more to mundane means than in most wards.
In the Hive, the poorest and most crime-ridden ward of all of Sigil, the racial mix becomes much different from the other wards. Humans are hardly the most common race, and are a considerable minority when compared with the number of tieflings, githzerai, chaonds, bariaur, half-elves, monstrous humanoids, giant-kin, and full-blown fiends. Celestials and aasimar are virtually a rarity within the ward, for good reason with the number of fiends and bashers of a criminal nature.
Within the utter squalor of the Hive, the masses of living detritus tend towards little to no education, and so the educated and the rich tend to be a rarity in most areas, except for those few who have moved into the ward either to exploit, employ, or preach to the population. Some berks find that they can make a name for themselves with their skill or magical prowess in the ward’s criminal circles. The unorganized, or organized and less powerful, criminal elements of Sigil reside in the Hive. Here thievery can allow even a relatively unskilled leatherhead to make quite a living for themselves inside the ward, or to venture outside, make their jink, and then flee back to avoid the rule of law outside the Hive.
The Clerk’s Ward, home of the bureaucracy that daily greases the wheels of Sigil’s government, tends to be rather drab when compared to the other wards of Sigil. Its citizens comprise a population made up largely of humans, with smaller numbers of githzerai, tieflings, zenythri, bariaur, dwarves and halflings. Most exemplars tend to avoid the ward for whatever reason, maybe considering the mundane lot of little importance in their schemes.
The citizens of the Clerk’s Ward tend to be a bit higher educated than in many of the other wards, with more skill using a pen than a sword for many. However, that’s not to say that the unskilled have no use in the ward. They simply won’t have any chance of gaining much influence, but they can, and do manage to make a living serving as guards, servants, and laborers.
The Guildhall Ward stands in marked contrast to the Lower Ward, but also in startling similarity in terms of racial complexion. While the ward is just as diverse as the Lower Ward, the population tends towards a mirror opposite of it, with the fiends and fiend-touched races replaced by celestials and aasimar; and here, even more so than in the Clerk’s Ward, a large number of spellslingers and magical artisans call the ward kip.
The Market Ward is fairly diverse with regards to racial composition, though much of the diversity comes from the daily influx of buyers. After all, every cutter in Sigil has things they like or need to purchase, and the Great Bazaar of the Market Ward has the largest selection of merchants and vendors within all of Sigil. Among the merchants themselves, there’s more than a fair share of bariaur and half-elves along with the human population. Here, fiends can be seen passing by celestials on a daily basis, and none seem to give it much a second thought. Still, the occasional fight between passing Baatezu and Tanar’ri makes way for an opening in any crowd within the ward.
Most cutters of any background can find a use for themselves within the ward, be it for the security of the merchants, creation of items, preaching to the crowds in the Bazaar, or bobbing some sod for his coin. The ward takes all kinds and passes little judgment upon them. This facet of daily life remains one of the most lingering influences of the Free League.
Buying/Selling/Services
Sigil, as with any other city of its size and population, has a wide variety of services hawked by those canny bloods with skills, ranging from the common to rare, and abilities, ranging from unskilled to masters of their craft. From the portals come flooding into the burg a vast diversity of products, wares, and raw goods from all corners of the planes. From street corner vendors’ carts, to shops, to whatever a berk can hold in his hands, the wares of commerce are to be had by those with the jink for it, or the quickness to bob it off those who do.
Most of the business within Sigil, or at least the vast bulk of it, takes place within the Great Bazaar inside the appropriately named Market Ward. Of course, to find something within the ward isn’t always quite so easy. One must consider the size of the area it occupies and that most of the shops are pitched upon the ground in a haphazardly manner and may change position slightly depending on the circumstances and the goods they sell. [Illegal goods move fast, in every sense of the word. – The Editor] Most products sold in the Market Ward are on the up and up, though other areas such as the Night Market within the Hive sell to customers unconcerned with prior ownership or price.
Other shops are dotted throughout Sigil, in each and every ward, with the wards in turn giving a bit of flavor to each shop, and the shops themselves giving something back to their districts. Poignant examples that serve to exemplify this range from the Friendly Fiend in the Lower Ward, Parts & Pieces in the Market Ward [With the ever so added benefit of being run by Seamusxanthuszenus, Slayer of Fiends and Merchant Most Excellent! Aka ‘That Mephit with the Hat’. Need I say more? – The Editor], Tivvum’s Antiquities in the Market Ward, and Traban’s Forge within The Lady’s Ward. All of these shops have their own unique flavor that adds to, and derives itself from their ward of residence. Indeed, so do most of the small, independent merchants within Sigil to an extent.
But shops aside, all manner of services are available within the City of Doors, such as tours of the city available from the Tout and Escorts guild, entertainment provided by the Civic Festhall and Entertainers Guild, and the location of desired portals provided by the members of the Doorsnoop’s Guild.
Across the city, a blood can find sedan chair rides or Arcadian pony drawn carriages to ferry him over or through the crowds, and young scaps called light boys carry glowing staves to light the way for a cutter walking in Sigil after dark. Life is much easier for those with jink to freely spend on their own luxury.
Magical items of all types and manufacture may be bought from the merchants or spell-slingers of the city. At the same time, arcane knowledge itself can be found in both the Great Library, the Sensory stones of the Civic Festhall, and smaller and more private groups like the Society of Luminiferous Aether. And bub… a hundred different alehouses, bub taps, and watering holes can be found across the breadth of the city. Each of them with their own unique atmosphere, clientele, and price range, to say nothing of other entertainment provided to the patrons. [The Fortunes Wheel in The Lady’s Ward, and the Bottle and Jug in the Hive are perhaps the two most polar opposites in this regard, though under the surface they have much more in common than the patrons of the former are likely to admit. – The Editor]
GM | Doer of The Thing | Red Username Means I'm Important | Mastery over Sardonicism| Recovering Procrastinator | "You cannot understand a man's actions unless you understand his beliefs."
Razorvine
The most tenacious plant in the multiverse, razorvine — often referred to as the "kudzu of the planes" — is an icon of Sigil, and any illustrations of the city don't seem complete without the image of razorvine climbing the walls or wrapping itself around the wrought-iron work of the city. Indeed, much of the ironwork of Sigil is designed to mimic razorvine, both in appearance and in effect. However, it's hardly limited to that city; after all, a single cutting of the plant is enough to infest an entire town in mere weeks, and often has.
Outside Sigil, razorvine is most often found in the Lower Planes or Low Outlands. It's somewhat well-associated with Plague-Mort — where razorvine patches are often used to dispose of dying victims, and where the toughest cultivar is said to grow — and Ribcage — where a massive years-long project to clear the city of the weed was finally completed in Hashkar 126, after which extreme penalties were put into law against any who would bring even a single cutting into the city — but by far the city most well-known for razorvine beyond the Cage is Curst. Not only is the Gate to Carceri made out of nothing but razorvine, and not only are the walls covered in a variety that seems linked to the city itself, reaching up as needed to keep citizens from escaping over the walls, but the Cilenei vineyards are the only known source of heartwine, a sour wine somehow made from the plant. Though its true origins are lost to time, because of its common association with the lower planes razorvine is often thought to have originated there, likely either the Abyss or Carceri.
Razorvine is a clinging vine with glossy black, heart-shaped leaves with serrated edges that grow in dense clumps near the stem on short, wiry sprigs. Each leaf grows about an inch or two across, and though inedible to humanoids, are edible for certain grazing animals — Fhorge and quill are commonly found grazing on wild razorvine in the Lower Outlands. The plant will grow quickly across any surface, averaging a foot of growth a day, with some reports of up to six; it's been found in nearly every environment. Thankfully, razorvine cannot take root in open water, and extreme temperatures, such as those found in deserts or tundras, prevent its growth. Much as kudzu, the quick growth of razorvine will quickly kill other plants through light deprivation, growing over top of them so thick that no sunlight can pass through.
Though the leaves of razorvine look dangerous, they're harmless to the touch. The true danger of razorvine is the stiff, triangular stem, its edges blade-sharp; sharp enough to slice flesh, cloth, and even uncured leather with a touch. So dangerous is razorvine, it's occasionally purposefully cultivated beneath the windows or across the walls of manorhouses; though not an especially attractive plant, it's an excellent deterrent for thieves. On incidental contact with razorvine, a creature takes 1d6 points of slashing damage. If pushed into or falling onto an especially large patch, a creature takes 3d6 points of slashing damage, plus 1d6 for every round they remain within it afterwards.
The vine, when alive, is highly resistant to fire and herbicide, with physical clearing the only reliable way of removing it. Not that cutting it is easy. Each individual root system can produce anywhere from 2 to 20 separate vines, each twisting on one another so much that identifying the actual source is incredibly difficult. It's also naturally quite tough and difficult to cut through, and the sharp edges tend to wear gardening tools down more quickly than other plants. Razorvine has resistance to fire, slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing from nonmagical weapons, immunity to poison, and 60 hp per five feet of depth. If clearing from a wall or object, treat each two foot wide section of the growth as its own patch with 2 hp.
Thankfully, when cut, razorvine quickly turns brittle, within ten to fifteen minutes losing all sharpness and good for little more than kindling. Before reaching that point, though, it can still be quite the danger; in fact, using a quick razorvine cutting as a makeshift garrote or lash is a common trick amongst thugs or assassins in Lower cities or Sigil. A razorvine whip or garrote deals an additional 1d4 damage on a successful hit and grants advantage on the attack.
GM | Doer of The Thing | Red Username Means I'm Important | Mastery over Sardonicism| Recovering Procrastinator | "You cannot understand a man's actions unless you understand his beliefs."
The Cons and the Cross-Trade
THE CONS AND THE CROSS-TRADE
As Sigil has no set legal code, the specifics as to what constitutes a crime are fluid, depending on circumstances and how quick a berk can spin a yarn. Still, a murder’s a murder anywhere one goes, and so a few general guidelines can be said to exist. When in doubt, characters can make a Investigation check DC 10 to determine whether an action is legal.
Crimes of Aggression:
Some of the most serious crimes are those actions that bring direct physical arm to another being.
Crimes of Deception:
Deception is the stuff of coney-catchers, the purview of the knights of the post. The crimes that follow, however, are those where the deception itself is the crime.
The most common classification of crime, crimes of property are those where someone tries to steal, smuggle, or harm property over people. However, despite their commonality, these crimes are taken seriously.
Sometimes, magic isn’t used to harm or threaten anyone, and yet some spells remain dangerous in the minds of the lawful faction, and their use should be curved.
The most serious body of crimes, treason is a category that encompasses a broad range of capital felonies, all of which are thematically bound by a violation of the inherent trust the Lady has placed in the Cagers.
As Sigil has no set legal code, the specifics as to what constitutes a crime are fluid, depending on circumstances and how quick a berk can spin a yarn. Still, a murder’s a murder anywhere one goes, and so a few general guidelines can be said to exist. When in doubt, characters can make a Investigation check DC 10 to determine whether an action is legal.
Crimes of Aggression:
Some of the most serious crimes are those actions that bring direct physical arm to another being.
- Assault and Battery: This crime covers your common brawl – no weapons are used and no one was grievously harmed. So long as the fight is small and relatively quiet, no Hardheads need to be called. However, if a fight gets out of hand – probably by lasting more than a couple of rounds and involving a large number of tavern patrons or simply leading to property damage – the Hardheads are called to scrag the involved parties. Assault and Battery is considered a minor felony unless the aggrieved party is a high-up; then the aggressor might well face serious punishment.
- Armed Assault: A step up from the brawl, this is what happens when a brawler draws a lethal weapon (or simply starts dealing lethal damage in some manner.) Once blood is shed, the Hardheads are called faster than a Cipher’s answer. The Harmonium are likely to bust up an armed fight with brute as much brute force as necessary, leading to unpleasant circumstances to all involved. Armed assault is a serious felony in the courts – but often enough smaller fights can be overlooked with the right amount of garnish.
- Magical Assault: Assault with magic is when a spellslinger uses a spell on a victim that does not lead to direct harm (charms, dominate spells, even technically a cure spell, so long as the spell does not harm the victim and the victim did not ask for the spell to be cast on them). Magical assault is considered a minor felony, unless the victim is a high up.
- Magical Battery: When the spell used in the assault leads to actual physical damage – your basic fireballs, magic missiles and the like – then the crime is upgraded to a magical battery. All magical batteries are considered serious felonies in the court, and a reckless evoker could even face the Leafless Tree if he showed callous disregard for the public around him.
- Murder: Murder is a serious offense in the Cage. Murder is committed whenever a body takes a life with intent to kill –regardless of the method used (magic, blade or subtlety, a sod’s dead either way). (If a sod dies but the attacker didn’t intend to kill, the crime is downgraded to manslaughter – which might save the accused from the leafless tree.) Murder is punishable by death.
- Rape: Almost as denigrated in Sigil as murder is rape, the sexual battery of an unwitting individual. Given the unpleasant circumstances surrounding rape, the crime is taken very seriously in the Cage. Rape is punishable by death.
Crimes of Deception:
Deception is the stuff of coney-catchers, the purview of the knights of the post. The crimes that follow, however, are those where the deception itself is the crime.
- Forgery: Counterfeit coins and papers are the most common forms of forgery, but there are many others. Most minor offenses are mere misdemeanors and punished by a fine equal to the property being forged. Serious acts of forgery – such as participating in a counterfeiting ring – is a felony requiring major fines, branding, and perhaps even incarceration or indentured servitude.
- Fraud: Attempting to deceive another is considered a crime in Sigil so long as the fraud causes some harm – usually economic – to the defrauded. Like major acts of forgery, all fraud is considered a felony punishable by fines, branding, and even
incarceration or indentured servitude to the defrauded.
The most common classification of crime, crimes of property are those where someone tries to steal, smuggle, or harm property over people. However, despite their commonality, these crimes are taken seriously.
- Theft: The most common form of crime in Sigil is theft. The seriousness of the crime depends on the amount of money stolen – the theft of a few silvers is a misdemeanor, whereas the theft of tens of thousands of gold pieces is a capital felony punishable by death. More often, the thief faces imprisonment or even indentured servitude to the victim.
- Smuggling and Contraband: Characters who sell or possess prohibited goods can find themselves in trouble with the law. Typically, contraband goods are confiscated and the criminal is ordered to pay a fine up to twice the value of the contraband. Large smuggling operations might result in a greater fine, along with imprisonment.
- Tax Evasion: Evading the taxes of the Fated is treated more or less as a slightly more serious form of theft. Evasion of a minor amount of silver or gold pieces might result in a small fine equal to the amount owed; more serious forms of evasion might be treated as a capital felony.
Sometimes, magic isn’t used to harm or threaten anyone, and yet some spells remain dangerous in the minds of the lawful faction, and their use should be curved.
- Teleportation: Teleportation in the city of Sigil is possible, although teleporting out of Sigil isn’t allowed. The lawful authorities, however, have ruled that unlicensed teleportations – including short range effects like dimension door – are illegal. They therefore attempt to curve the sale of items of teleportation and such devices, although they are still available through questionable channels. Anyone caught using teleportation spells without a license can be fined a fee (or face felony charges, if the spell is used in the advancement of a flight from the authorities.)
- Invisibility: Under a similar logical rubric, invisibility and its kin and progeny allows for too many criminal purposes. Anyone caught using invisibility and similar spells that help to thwart detection (this includes nondetection, but not purely defensive spells such as mirror image or displacement) can face a stiff fine.
The most serious body of crimes, treason is a category that encompasses a broad range of capital felonies, all of which are thematically bound by a violation of the inherent trust the Lady has placed in the Cagers.
- Killing a Dabus: Killing a Dabus is a capital offense, punishable by death. This is seen as an extension of the Lady’s will – if a Dabus-killer is not caught by the authorities and continues the wanton slayings of the Lady’s handmaidens, the Lady herself will soon come calling, flaying the victim alive and displaying the remains for all to see near the killing spot.
- Closing a Portal: Probably the hardest crime to prosecute in the list, those who close portals serve to irritate the Lady’s plans. Closing a portal is simple – one need only destroy the frame that binds the portal to do so. If such is impossible, there are spells available that will seal a portal for good available to the right spellslinger. What makes the crime difficult to prosecute is that, unless the portal is particularly well known, it’s rare that anyone will miss the portal, unless its importance is vital to the Lady’s purposes – in which case, the Lady herself will make sure to pay the sod a visit. Closing a portal is punishable by death.
- Obstructing a Portal: Similar to closing a portal, charging a toll for the use of a portal is likewise seen as an obstruction upon the free use of a portal. This crime also encompasses a few other actions – such as sealing a portal away to render it inaccessible except to oneself. While the Lady herself doesn’t seem to mind this (unless the obstruction stands in the way of her plans, in which case the obstruction is usually brought down by the Dabus), the legislature believes that what was freely available should be freely available to all, and as such obstructing passage to a portal should be punishable just as closing said portal. (Note that charging for possession of a gate key, or some other bit of knowledge of the portal is entirely different from blocking access to said portal. This legal differentiation has allowed many canny cutters to control the flow of passersby in their portals such as the portals in the Bottle & Jug, which are theoretically available to anyone, but Huxon gives a key only to those who win in his famed
boxing matches.)
GM | Doer of The Thing | Red Username Means I'm Important | Mastery over Sardonicism| Recovering Procrastinator | "You cannot understand a man's actions unless you understand his beliefs."
Law & Order
Before you begin reading this, I want to take a moment to emphasize that you, as players, shouldn’t be worried that the Hardheads will come crashing into the building you just stormed into simply because they happen to use a knock spell to gain access. However, as this is a Urban Adventure, the law should be kept in mind.
That being said, you're PCs and I have little interest in running a hard-hitting legal drama. So, while it's good to have a idea of how things occur in this regard of Sigil life, the chances of all of you actually having to deal with ANY of this are, well, slim.
If your characters are addle-coves, however, and simply storm a Hardhead barracks like a blind slaad, that’s your problem. Just remember: Hardheads scrag first, ask questions later.
LAW & ORDER
Sigil’s a tough burg, and lures more than its fair share of knights of the post, coney-catchers, cross traders and bootpullers. From full blooded fiend to misanthropic halfling, it’s apparent to most canny cutters who live in the Cage that the cross trade is seen as the path to power and influence in the City of Doors – leastwise, the fast path. A dangerous city needs a powerful group of bashers willing to enforce order, and Sigil has a complex system set up to do just that.
The Harmonium: The Thin Line of Pink:
All criminal matters in Sigil begin with an encounter with a Harmonium patrol. Only the Harmonium are given free dispensation to arrest individuals for breaking the laws of Sigil. This is because it’s what the Hardheads care about: maintaining order. Sure, the Hardhead’s definition of Order and the city’s definition of order aren’t always eye to eye, but often enough the Hardheads get the job done right.
A Harmonium agent can arrest anyone for any reason, and take them before a magistrate of the City Court for further judicial proceedings. Of course, if what the agent arrested the berk for isn’t a crime, the berk is set free with an apology and a stern reprimand to the Hardhead. Most Cagers think this a little unfair – after all, the Hardhead’s already arrested and humiliated a sod by charging him with a crime, and now all he gets is a pat on the head and the Hardhead a slap on the wrist? What’s to stop the leatherhead basher from simply arresting someone else on the same trumped up charge?
The answer is, of course, nothing. Hardheads didn’t earn their nickname for nothing, berk.
‘Course, the type of Hardhead that fails to learn his lesson is a rare breed. Fact is, most of ‘em learn the laws of Sigil by rote – at least, what there is to learn of ‘em – from the moment they entered boot camp. And a basher that gets called out too many times is just causin’ trouble – and the Hardheads don’t like trouble as a rule. Ironically, this same attitude that leads them to dislike trouble leads towards an odd form of corruption. Many Hardheads – those of Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil persuasion, especially – aren’t too concerned with the rehabilitation of the criminal they scrag. Their concern is simply that a wrong be redressed. As such many canny cutters can slip the Hardheads the blinds by garnishing their palm with gold. All a cutter needs to do is ask if there’s a fine or something he can pay to redress his grievances. If he’s the sort to take a garnish, the patrol sergeant will name a fee, and a wise cutter will pay double that, no questions asked. Better to lose a bit of jink than a few years in the Prison, after all.
The Harmonium patrol constantly, day and night, throughout most of Sigil. They patrol major thoroughfares, and battlecasters do fly-bys of alleyways and smaller side streets looking for trouble makers. The only areas they avoid are the Hive and some of the nastier neighborhoods of the Lower Ward. These areas are effectively no-man’s land, areas controlled by their own local thugs and power groups. While PCs might feel safer acting in these areas, they do so only because the PCs lack the relative safety of legal back up.
After a Hardhead makes an arrest, he takes the sod to the nearest garrison station. Each ward (except, again, the Hive) has at least one garrison station that houses a few hundred Hardheads. These garrisons are smaller fortresses with cells down below for holding the recently arrested or those too drunk and rowdy to let walk the streets. Of course, Hardheads in The Lady’s Ward head directly to the City Barracks, which serves as the garrison for the entire Ward, as it holds over a two thousand active Harmonium troops at any given time.
As soon as it is convenient, the Hardheads transport the arrested to the City Courts for further judicial proceedings. This transport is often in the form of chain gangs, or perhaps transported in a locked wagon pulled by a horse or magic, depending on the distance that must be crossed. Those escorting such a group always equal in number to four patrols, and include a pair of battlecasters to keep things under control.
THE COURTS
Once a body’s to the City Courts, he is taken to the criminal session of the Ward Court, Sigil’s lowest court. There, a magistrate goes through a list of the day’s arrestees, determining from the arrest report whether there was cause to arrest. Cause to arrest requires a minimum of proof that some crime has been committed by the individual brought before the magistrate. If proof cannot be shown – the proof need not be direct, it could be circumstantial – then the sod is freed with no further worry of harassment, cleared of charges. If the magistrate feels there is sufficient proof of the commission of a crime, he has one of two options: fine or jail time.
He Said, She Said... Oftentimes, situations arise where a group of adventurers are pitted against another group before a Hardhead patrol. Hardheads are trained to scrag first and ask questions later, letting the Guvners sort out all of the technicalities. However, a fast talkin’ berk can give the Hardheads the slip by selling them on the hard line. This requires a little silver on the tongue, and some garnish doesn’t help. Whenever a situation arises where two groups are attempting to convince a Harmonium patrol of what happened, each group chooses one speaker to make a Persuasion or Deception check opposed to the other side’s check. The guards believe the group with the highest check. Both sides may apply advantage or disadvantage if evidence is present, depending on who it favors.
Incarceration or Bail: Bail is often given to those who face only misdemeanor charges, or high ups with obvious ties to Sigil that they are unlikely to upend. Those facing felony charges aren’t likely to receive bail, as they face some hard time. For those without bail, a long, cold wait at the Tower of the Wyrm awaits them at the hands of the Mercykillers.
This period of pretrial detention is something of a wake-up call to the accused. A trial has not yet occurred, and they have been convicted of no crimes, but they stay at one of the most infamous locales in all of Sigil. Nightly, the wails from the nearby prison, as well as the scratching, clawing, and snarling of the Wyrm below, sing their lullabies to the prisoners within. It’s intended as a mild form of punishment from the Mercykillers – in the hopes that those who are guilty would confess to their crime and avoid a long trial for the chance of amnesty or lenience by the Mercykillers.
During this detention, the accused is allowed to hire an advocate on his behalf, and work with the advocate in building his case. If he doesn’t have an advocate, he’s offered a pro bono advocate associated with his faction or the Fraternity of Order. He can’t actually leave the Tower, of course, but the advocate is allowed to bring in evidence and witnesses that might help with the presentation of the case. (Of course, all items and witnesses are screened psychically and magically before being allowed entrance. Obviously dangerous objects – such as weapons – are not allowed in.)
At the predetermined date, the accused and his advocate are expected to make an appearance before a judge and a prosecutor, who works on behalf of the city. The prosecutors are always advocates who are members of the Fraternity of Order assigned specifically to the Criminal Bureau of the City Courts, whose offices are located in one of the towers of the building. Both sides then do their level best to convince the judge that they are correct. Sigil has no codified set of laws. Instead, the Guvners model their trials after the Baatezu common law, with precedential value given to the countless number of decisions that have been borne before in the countless cases that have occurred in Sigil’s history. Every decision has been recorded by Court scribes and clerks and kept in the Law Library of the Guvners. Of course, thousands of years of jurisprudence allow advocated plenty of maneuvering space. The two advocates are allowed to present evidence and arguments in a swinging manner. The prosecution begins by framing its major arguments and its case in chief. The defense then rebuts.
Writs and Warrants: As stated earlier in this guide, only the Harmonium has the legal right to arrest any wrongdoers. Not even the Mercykillers are allowed to do this job – if a member of the Red Death witnesses a crime being committed before him, he is procedurally required to merely make a mental note of the fact in the hopes that some day the transgressor shall have the weight of justice put upon them. However, special circumstances might arise when an average citizen can have the right to enforce the laws of Sigil.
Two such methods exist. The first is called a writ of execution. A writ is a piece of paper ordered by a magistrate allowing someone to enforce a given law in a given situation, on pain of arrest or forfeiture. For example, a lender might seek a writ of execution as against an obstinate debtor, requiring him to pay his debt or face arrest or worse. Writs of execution are also used to evict people from homes and to enjoin others from participating in an event or activity. Writs of execution are given the full weight of the law, and violators often face a quick trial once arrested.
The second is a warrant, which gives special permission to an individual to break the law under limited circumstances. The warrant authorizes a non-Harmonium citizen to arrest someone, or to search a place and seize contraband without the permission of the owner. Sometimes, Mercykillers will receive special arrest warrants on particularly dangerous or fleeing criminals, automatically authorizing an member of the faction to arrest the outlaw.
In order to obtain either a writ or a warrant, an individual must prepare a written request an file it with the clerk of the court. The magistrate must then review the report and determine whether or not there is cause to issue a writ or warrant. The more specific the request, the easier it is to prove cause – general warrants are frowned upon, as they equate to a carte blanche to break the law. The process after filing takes 1d4 days.
A successful Investigation check DC 15 provides a cutter enough knowledge to bypass some of the bureaucratic red tape, granting him the answer within 1d4+1 hours. A noble can also obtain a writ or warrant within 1d4+1 hours with a Persuasion check, DC 10 (or higher, depending on the circumstances of the warrant or writ) explaining why the framing is wrong or why the case in chief should fail. This is followed by a round of evidence introduction – the prosecution is allowed to enter in a piece of evidence to discuss, and the defense is allowed to argue against the piece of evidence. The defense then gets a chance to put on a rebuttal piece of evidence. Notably, “piece of evidence”, as used here, refers to not only physical objects, but also witnesses and testimonials. Value of authority of the evidence is governed by an arcane and complex number of rules.
At the end of each session before the judge, the two advocates make a Investigation check, adding special modifiers according to the evidence presented (determined by the DM). The advocate who succeeds in two such checks in a row convinces the judge of the righteousness of their side’s cause and wins the case. Advocates of equal skill can go at each other for multiple sessions, as neither side gains the necessary two “wins” in a row.
If the verdict is that of innocent, the accused is once again free to go. His belongings are returned to him at the Tower of the Wyrm, he’s given an apology by the Mercykillers, and reminded to stay to the straight and narrow. Fact is, most Red Death are happy at this point – a court of law has determined this sod’s not in need of justice, and there are plenty of berks who are.
If the verdict is that of guilty, the accused is then sentenced by the judge. The cleverness of the judge will often determine the cleverness of the punishment, as there is no codified set of standards for punishments. Murders, rapes, and thefts of vast sums of property are often given the death penalty. Assaults and threats often see prison time, while thieves are often given over to indentured servitude. Regardless of the nature of the punishment, the criminal is then handed over to the Mercykillers, who ensure the sod receives his just desserts.
Judgments against an accused can be appealed to the High Courts, and then to the Bureau Chief of Appeals, and finally to the factol
himself. Appeals are difficult to win, however, as the High Court will often rely on the Ward judge’s decision on a given case. Remember – the Guvners are all experts on the way the law works, and there has to be a clear showing of favoritism to or against a party or some other major procedural default in order for the Ward judge’s ruling to be ruled improper.
Punishment and Imprisonment: Most forms of punishment end up in some period of imprisonment for the criminal. After the sentence is declared, the Mercykillers take full custody of the berk. (Remember, up until now the Mercykillers have only been minding the sod on behalf of the City Courts in expectation of justice.) Now that the will of justice has been made manifest by the judge’s ruling, the Mercykillers take their turn at ensuring the sod receives his full comeuppance.
The Prison is a grim, joyless building, filled with rows upon rows of cells along the walls of the castle-like structure. Up to 30,000 inmates can be fitted in the prison – though most of the time the prison population fluctuates between 10,000 to 20,000 inmates, depending on how fast the Guvners can try the sods and how fast the Mercykillers can put them to death. Punishment in the prison is severe – while the Courts might have sentenced a berk to six years in the Prison, they were nonspecific as to what exactly that sod would be doing in the prison. Prisoners are daily taken to the underground chambers beneath the Prison known as “the Cellars”. There, the prisoners work, clean, and cook, ensuring the day to day operation of the Prison runs smoothly. In other rooms of the Cellar, rooms called “Sentencing Chambers”, Inquisitors perform various tortures and punishments to prisoners. Prisoners live in constant fear of the Cellars, as they never know if they’ll be called down to mend a pair of pants or have a finger lopped off for shop lifting.
The most severe form of punishment, however, is death. Those sentenced to a public execution are those that have committed a serious crime: murder, rape, treason, or crimes against the city. (A few unlucky sods are scheduled for private execution – these berks are done in somewhere in a secret room in the Cellars.) Public executions are held in Petitioner’s Square, and on those occasions the entire city comes out to celebrate. It’s as close to a city-wide holiday as might come. The spectacle begins as the condemned is led out of the Prison into a tumbrel (a simple, two- wheeled cart) and taken to the place of execution. All along the way the crowds jeer at the prisoners, pelt them with stones and offal and mock their crimes (and their stupidity for getting caught.) Once the prisoners have been carted into the Square, the road out of town takes one of three main forms: by the noose, by the sword, or by the Wyrm.
Before the criminals are brought before the gallows or the block, they are always allowed a short speech, either to repent their crimes or to brag of them, or to curse their accusers or their executioner (ensuring a painful, lingering end.) Provided the condemned’s speeches are entertaining and relatively short, the crowd is generally indulgent at this point. The festive atmosphere is highlighted by the sales of meat pies and cheaply printed “life stories” of the accused (many of which are simply cobbled together from previous executions’ unsold pamplets.)
Death on the gallows has a hundred names: The Leafless Tree, the Rope, the Last Dance... by and large, hanging is reserved for deserters, embezzlers, murderers, and escaped slaves. The noose is considered both quick and quite entertaining, for unless the neck snaps immediately the victim always struggles. ‘Course, the prisoner’s expected to offer a garnish to the hangman to ensure a properly set rope: setting the knot at the side of the neck ensures a quick break.
Execution by the blade is generally reserved for nobles and powerful faction members – high-ups guilty of crimes such as seeking to close a portal to the Outlands, failing to provide taxes to the city treasury, libeling the Lady, or such like. The executioner’s swords are especially suited for the task: a pair of vorpal blades called Scythe and Raven. Endless debate rages among the Mercykillers as to which of the two cuts cleaner. Both are engraved with the same motto: “Justice reigns.”
Death by the Wyrm is an extremely rare, lingering, spectacular demise. The occasion is almost always declared a public holiday, so that the entire town can turn out to watch. The roar of the Wyrm, the terror of the victim (usually bound to a post, blindfolded if the executioner is given a bit of garnish), the impassiveness of the Guvners – all these things make for a spectacle few Cagers want to miss. Enormous crowds turn out, and brawls over seats can turn into small riots. Since only traitors to the city (those who betray the trust placed in them, such as those who slay dabus, those who reveal secret gates, or those who charge tolls and tariffs on the Lady’s portals) are sentenced to death by the Wyrm, the square is rarely treated to this show.
As with any entertainment, the crowds demand satisfaction from the executioners rather quickly, and so after the petitioner’s speeches, the whole matter is usually settled in 15 minutes or less. The law demands that the sentence be carried out promptly; for death by the blade, if an executioner fails to put the deader in the book after three tries, the criminal is pardoned and set free. Most prisoners don’t get this sort of pardon.
The bodies are put on displace on the square after the show. Most are simply put on pikes, but a few of the worst offenders are always displayed in iron cages, where the city’s ravens peck at them until nothing is left.
That being said, you're PCs and I have little interest in running a hard-hitting legal drama. So, while it's good to have a idea of how things occur in this regard of Sigil life, the chances of all of you actually having to deal with ANY of this are, well, slim.
If your characters are addle-coves, however, and simply storm a Hardhead barracks like a blind slaad, that’s your problem. Just remember: Hardheads scrag first, ask questions later.
LAW & ORDER
Sigil’s a tough burg, and lures more than its fair share of knights of the post, coney-catchers, cross traders and bootpullers. From full blooded fiend to misanthropic halfling, it’s apparent to most canny cutters who live in the Cage that the cross trade is seen as the path to power and influence in the City of Doors – leastwise, the fast path. A dangerous city needs a powerful group of bashers willing to enforce order, and Sigil has a complex system set up to do just that.
The Harmonium: The Thin Line of Pink:
All criminal matters in Sigil begin with an encounter with a Harmonium patrol. Only the Harmonium are given free dispensation to arrest individuals for breaking the laws of Sigil. This is because it’s what the Hardheads care about: maintaining order. Sure, the Hardhead’s definition of Order and the city’s definition of order aren’t always eye to eye, but often enough the Hardheads get the job done right.
A Harmonium agent can arrest anyone for any reason, and take them before a magistrate of the City Court for further judicial proceedings. Of course, if what the agent arrested the berk for isn’t a crime, the berk is set free with an apology and a stern reprimand to the Hardhead. Most Cagers think this a little unfair – after all, the Hardhead’s already arrested and humiliated a sod by charging him with a crime, and now all he gets is a pat on the head and the Hardhead a slap on the wrist? What’s to stop the leatherhead basher from simply arresting someone else on the same trumped up charge?
The answer is, of course, nothing. Hardheads didn’t earn their nickname for nothing, berk.
‘Course, the type of Hardhead that fails to learn his lesson is a rare breed. Fact is, most of ‘em learn the laws of Sigil by rote – at least, what there is to learn of ‘em – from the moment they entered boot camp. And a basher that gets called out too many times is just causin’ trouble – and the Hardheads don’t like trouble as a rule. Ironically, this same attitude that leads them to dislike trouble leads towards an odd form of corruption. Many Hardheads – those of Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil persuasion, especially – aren’t too concerned with the rehabilitation of the criminal they scrag. Their concern is simply that a wrong be redressed. As such many canny cutters can slip the Hardheads the blinds by garnishing their palm with gold. All a cutter needs to do is ask if there’s a fine or something he can pay to redress his grievances. If he’s the sort to take a garnish, the patrol sergeant will name a fee, and a wise cutter will pay double that, no questions asked. Better to lose a bit of jink than a few years in the Prison, after all.
The Harmonium patrol constantly, day and night, throughout most of Sigil. They patrol major thoroughfares, and battlecasters do fly-bys of alleyways and smaller side streets looking for trouble makers. The only areas they avoid are the Hive and some of the nastier neighborhoods of the Lower Ward. These areas are effectively no-man’s land, areas controlled by their own local thugs and power groups. While PCs might feel safer acting in these areas, they do so only because the PCs lack the relative safety of legal back up.
After a Hardhead makes an arrest, he takes the sod to the nearest garrison station. Each ward (except, again, the Hive) has at least one garrison station that houses a few hundred Hardheads. These garrisons are smaller fortresses with cells down below for holding the recently arrested or those too drunk and rowdy to let walk the streets. Of course, Hardheads in The Lady’s Ward head directly to the City Barracks, which serves as the garrison for the entire Ward, as it holds over a two thousand active Harmonium troops at any given time.
As soon as it is convenient, the Hardheads transport the arrested to the City Courts for further judicial proceedings. This transport is often in the form of chain gangs, or perhaps transported in a locked wagon pulled by a horse or magic, depending on the distance that must be crossed. Those escorting such a group always equal in number to four patrols, and include a pair of battlecasters to keep things under control.
THE COURTS
Once a body’s to the City Courts, he is taken to the criminal session of the Ward Court, Sigil’s lowest court. There, a magistrate goes through a list of the day’s arrestees, determining from the arrest report whether there was cause to arrest. Cause to arrest requires a minimum of proof that some crime has been committed by the individual brought before the magistrate. If proof cannot be shown – the proof need not be direct, it could be circumstantial – then the sod is freed with no further worry of harassment, cleared of charges. If the magistrate feels there is sufficient proof of the commission of a crime, he has one of two options: fine or jail time.
He Said, She Said... Oftentimes, situations arise where a group of adventurers are pitted against another group before a Hardhead patrol. Hardheads are trained to scrag first and ask questions later, letting the Guvners sort out all of the technicalities. However, a fast talkin’ berk can give the Hardheads the slip by selling them on the hard line. This requires a little silver on the tongue, and some garnish doesn’t help. Whenever a situation arises where two groups are attempting to convince a Harmonium patrol of what happened, each group chooses one speaker to make a Persuasion or Deception check opposed to the other side’s check. The guards believe the group with the highest check. Both sides may apply advantage or disadvantage if evidence is present, depending on who it favors.
Incarceration or Bail: Bail is often given to those who face only misdemeanor charges, or high ups with obvious ties to Sigil that they are unlikely to upend. Those facing felony charges aren’t likely to receive bail, as they face some hard time. For those without bail, a long, cold wait at the Tower of the Wyrm awaits them at the hands of the Mercykillers.
This period of pretrial detention is something of a wake-up call to the accused. A trial has not yet occurred, and they have been convicted of no crimes, but they stay at one of the most infamous locales in all of Sigil. Nightly, the wails from the nearby prison, as well as the scratching, clawing, and snarling of the Wyrm below, sing their lullabies to the prisoners within. It’s intended as a mild form of punishment from the Mercykillers – in the hopes that those who are guilty would confess to their crime and avoid a long trial for the chance of amnesty or lenience by the Mercykillers.
During this detention, the accused is allowed to hire an advocate on his behalf, and work with the advocate in building his case. If he doesn’t have an advocate, he’s offered a pro bono advocate associated with his faction or the Fraternity of Order. He can’t actually leave the Tower, of course, but the advocate is allowed to bring in evidence and witnesses that might help with the presentation of the case. (Of course, all items and witnesses are screened psychically and magically before being allowed entrance. Obviously dangerous objects – such as weapons – are not allowed in.)
At the predetermined date, the accused and his advocate are expected to make an appearance before a judge and a prosecutor, who works on behalf of the city. The prosecutors are always advocates who are members of the Fraternity of Order assigned specifically to the Criminal Bureau of the City Courts, whose offices are located in one of the towers of the building. Both sides then do their level best to convince the judge that they are correct. Sigil has no codified set of laws. Instead, the Guvners model their trials after the Baatezu common law, with precedential value given to the countless number of decisions that have been borne before in the countless cases that have occurred in Sigil’s history. Every decision has been recorded by Court scribes and clerks and kept in the Law Library of the Guvners. Of course, thousands of years of jurisprudence allow advocated plenty of maneuvering space. The two advocates are allowed to present evidence and arguments in a swinging manner. The prosecution begins by framing its major arguments and its case in chief. The defense then rebuts.
Writs and Warrants: As stated earlier in this guide, only the Harmonium has the legal right to arrest any wrongdoers. Not even the Mercykillers are allowed to do this job – if a member of the Red Death witnesses a crime being committed before him, he is procedurally required to merely make a mental note of the fact in the hopes that some day the transgressor shall have the weight of justice put upon them. However, special circumstances might arise when an average citizen can have the right to enforce the laws of Sigil.
Two such methods exist. The first is called a writ of execution. A writ is a piece of paper ordered by a magistrate allowing someone to enforce a given law in a given situation, on pain of arrest or forfeiture. For example, a lender might seek a writ of execution as against an obstinate debtor, requiring him to pay his debt or face arrest or worse. Writs of execution are also used to evict people from homes and to enjoin others from participating in an event or activity. Writs of execution are given the full weight of the law, and violators often face a quick trial once arrested.
The second is a warrant, which gives special permission to an individual to break the law under limited circumstances. The warrant authorizes a non-Harmonium citizen to arrest someone, or to search a place and seize contraband without the permission of the owner. Sometimes, Mercykillers will receive special arrest warrants on particularly dangerous or fleeing criminals, automatically authorizing an member of the faction to arrest the outlaw.
In order to obtain either a writ or a warrant, an individual must prepare a written request an file it with the clerk of the court. The magistrate must then review the report and determine whether or not there is cause to issue a writ or warrant. The more specific the request, the easier it is to prove cause – general warrants are frowned upon, as they equate to a carte blanche to break the law. The process after filing takes 1d4 days.
A successful Investigation check DC 15 provides a cutter enough knowledge to bypass some of the bureaucratic red tape, granting him the answer within 1d4+1 hours. A noble can also obtain a writ or warrant within 1d4+1 hours with a Persuasion check, DC 10 (or higher, depending on the circumstances of the warrant or writ) explaining why the framing is wrong or why the case in chief should fail. This is followed by a round of evidence introduction – the prosecution is allowed to enter in a piece of evidence to discuss, and the defense is allowed to argue against the piece of evidence. The defense then gets a chance to put on a rebuttal piece of evidence. Notably, “piece of evidence”, as used here, refers to not only physical objects, but also witnesses and testimonials. Value of authority of the evidence is governed by an arcane and complex number of rules.
At the end of each session before the judge, the two advocates make a Investigation check, adding special modifiers according to the evidence presented (determined by the DM). The advocate who succeeds in two such checks in a row convinces the judge of the righteousness of their side’s cause and wins the case. Advocates of equal skill can go at each other for multiple sessions, as neither side gains the necessary two “wins” in a row.
If the verdict is that of innocent, the accused is once again free to go. His belongings are returned to him at the Tower of the Wyrm, he’s given an apology by the Mercykillers, and reminded to stay to the straight and narrow. Fact is, most Red Death are happy at this point – a court of law has determined this sod’s not in need of justice, and there are plenty of berks who are.
If the verdict is that of guilty, the accused is then sentenced by the judge. The cleverness of the judge will often determine the cleverness of the punishment, as there is no codified set of standards for punishments. Murders, rapes, and thefts of vast sums of property are often given the death penalty. Assaults and threats often see prison time, while thieves are often given over to indentured servitude. Regardless of the nature of the punishment, the criminal is then handed over to the Mercykillers, who ensure the sod receives his just desserts.
Judgments against an accused can be appealed to the High Courts, and then to the Bureau Chief of Appeals, and finally to the factol
himself. Appeals are difficult to win, however, as the High Court will often rely on the Ward judge’s decision on a given case. Remember – the Guvners are all experts on the way the law works, and there has to be a clear showing of favoritism to or against a party or some other major procedural default in order for the Ward judge’s ruling to be ruled improper.
Punishment and Imprisonment: Most forms of punishment end up in some period of imprisonment for the criminal. After the sentence is declared, the Mercykillers take full custody of the berk. (Remember, up until now the Mercykillers have only been minding the sod on behalf of the City Courts in expectation of justice.) Now that the will of justice has been made manifest by the judge’s ruling, the Mercykillers take their turn at ensuring the sod receives his full comeuppance.
The Prison is a grim, joyless building, filled with rows upon rows of cells along the walls of the castle-like structure. Up to 30,000 inmates can be fitted in the prison – though most of the time the prison population fluctuates between 10,000 to 20,000 inmates, depending on how fast the Guvners can try the sods and how fast the Mercykillers can put them to death. Punishment in the prison is severe – while the Courts might have sentenced a berk to six years in the Prison, they were nonspecific as to what exactly that sod would be doing in the prison. Prisoners are daily taken to the underground chambers beneath the Prison known as “the Cellars”. There, the prisoners work, clean, and cook, ensuring the day to day operation of the Prison runs smoothly. In other rooms of the Cellar, rooms called “Sentencing Chambers”, Inquisitors perform various tortures and punishments to prisoners. Prisoners live in constant fear of the Cellars, as they never know if they’ll be called down to mend a pair of pants or have a finger lopped off for shop lifting.
The most severe form of punishment, however, is death. Those sentenced to a public execution are those that have committed a serious crime: murder, rape, treason, or crimes against the city. (A few unlucky sods are scheduled for private execution – these berks are done in somewhere in a secret room in the Cellars.) Public executions are held in Petitioner’s Square, and on those occasions the entire city comes out to celebrate. It’s as close to a city-wide holiday as might come. The spectacle begins as the condemned is led out of the Prison into a tumbrel (a simple, two- wheeled cart) and taken to the place of execution. All along the way the crowds jeer at the prisoners, pelt them with stones and offal and mock their crimes (and their stupidity for getting caught.) Once the prisoners have been carted into the Square, the road out of town takes one of three main forms: by the noose, by the sword, or by the Wyrm.
Before the criminals are brought before the gallows or the block, they are always allowed a short speech, either to repent their crimes or to brag of them, or to curse their accusers or their executioner (ensuring a painful, lingering end.) Provided the condemned’s speeches are entertaining and relatively short, the crowd is generally indulgent at this point. The festive atmosphere is highlighted by the sales of meat pies and cheaply printed “life stories” of the accused (many of which are simply cobbled together from previous executions’ unsold pamplets.)
Death on the gallows has a hundred names: The Leafless Tree, the Rope, the Last Dance... by and large, hanging is reserved for deserters, embezzlers, murderers, and escaped slaves. The noose is considered both quick and quite entertaining, for unless the neck snaps immediately the victim always struggles. ‘Course, the prisoner’s expected to offer a garnish to the hangman to ensure a properly set rope: setting the knot at the side of the neck ensures a quick break.
Execution by the blade is generally reserved for nobles and powerful faction members – high-ups guilty of crimes such as seeking to close a portal to the Outlands, failing to provide taxes to the city treasury, libeling the Lady, or such like. The executioner’s swords are especially suited for the task: a pair of vorpal blades called Scythe and Raven. Endless debate rages among the Mercykillers as to which of the two cuts cleaner. Both are engraved with the same motto: “Justice reigns.”
Death by the Wyrm is an extremely rare, lingering, spectacular demise. The occasion is almost always declared a public holiday, so that the entire town can turn out to watch. The roar of the Wyrm, the terror of the victim (usually bound to a post, blindfolded if the executioner is given a bit of garnish), the impassiveness of the Guvners – all these things make for a spectacle few Cagers want to miss. Enormous crowds turn out, and brawls over seats can turn into small riots. Since only traitors to the city (those who betray the trust placed in them, such as those who slay dabus, those who reveal secret gates, or those who charge tolls and tariffs on the Lady’s portals) are sentenced to death by the Wyrm, the square is rarely treated to this show.
As with any entertainment, the crowds demand satisfaction from the executioners rather quickly, and so after the petitioner’s speeches, the whole matter is usually settled in 15 minutes or less. The law demands that the sentence be carried out promptly; for death by the blade, if an executioner fails to put the deader in the book after three tries, the criminal is pardoned and set free. Most prisoners don’t get this sort of pardon.
The bodies are put on displace on the square after the show. Most are simply put on pikes, but a few of the worst offenders are always displayed in iron cages, where the city’s ravens peck at them until nothing is left.
GM | Doer of The Thing | Red Username Means I'm Important | Mastery over Sardonicism| Recovering Procrastinator | "You cannot understand a man's actions unless you understand his beliefs."