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Sigil is the hub of the Great Wheel, a city at the center of the Outlands, the most balanced of neutral areas at the center of the planes. Also known as the "City of Doors" for the multitude of portals to other planes of existence and the Cage since those portals are the only way in or out, it is the setting for most of Planescape: Torment.

Structure and location[]

Sigil is located at the very top of an infinitely tall spire in the middle of the Outlands. The fact that the city is at the center of the multiverse is up for debate: some think it is at the center, due to it being connected to every possible plane through its portals, and its geographical location in the Outlands. Others believe that since the multiverse is infinite in all dimensions, there can be no center to it, thus giving Sigil no particular importance.

The city has the shape of a torus, a closed structure. Since no sun can light the inside of the torus, the city is illuminated artificially, becoming brighter during the day, and dimmer at night. The brightest hour of the day, equivalent to noon, is called peak, and the darkest hour of night (midnight) is named antipeak.

Portals to the Inner Planes such as the Elemental Plane of Water and the Elemental Plane of Air provide Sigil with drinking water, a sewage system, and a ventilation system.

Wards[]

SigilMap

Map of Sigil, the City of Doors in the Planescape setting (Click to enlarge)

The Hive
Main article: Hive
The Hive forms the slums of the city. Largely forgotten and rarely maintained by the dabus, it is the home of the poor and the destitute, as well as many criminals looking to escape the law. The Xaositects and the Dustmen factions maintain their headquarters there.
The Lower Ward
Main article: Lower Ward
The Lower Ward is the industrial ward and the source of much of the city's pollution. Smog, steam and sulphurous gasses emanate not only from the foundries but also the portals to the Lower Planes. The Ward is home to the Godsmen faction, headquartered in their Great Foundry.
The Clerk's Ward
Main article: Clerk's Ward
The Clerk's Ward is an affluent ward, and the center of bureaucracy. The Society of Sensation faction make their headquarters in the ward's Civic Festhall.

The Market and Guildhall Wards are the wards of the middle-class merchants and craftsmen, and the center of trade not only in the city, but in the multiverse as well.

The Lady's Ward, although not actually home to the Lady of Pain, is the richest section of the city, home to the elites of society and the highest ranking government officials.


Portals[]

Naturally, the City of Doors has portals to many different locations, including Baator, Carceri, the Outlands to name a few. These portals can be anywhere: a doorway, the gap between a chair and a wall, a window, in the middle of a street, and are hard to detect unless one knows what to look for. Portals need keys to activate and open them, which can be anything from a physical object such as a specific shoe or a piece of random junk, to immaterial things like a hummed tune, a thought or a gesture.

Planewalkers like Candrian Illborne strive to collect information about as many portals as they can to facilitate their travels, but their task is made harder by the portals coming and going at the whim of the Lady of Pain.

Sometimes, people wander into the city by mistake, some not even aware of having walked through a portal, as in Alais' case. Some people, like Ingress, find themselves unable to return to their home planes, and since the only way in or out of the city is through portals, Sigil is often nicknamed the Cage.

Government[]

Main article: Lady of Pain

The sole ruler of Sigil is the mysterious Lady of Pain. She rarely if ever communicates with her citizens and punishes any who cross her path or attempt to worship her with flaying to death or mazing, making the denizens very supersticious and wary of drawing her attention.

Leaving every day laws and the running of the city up to her citizens, the Lady only interferes when the stability of Sigil is in jeopardy. She keeps the powers (deities) who would take advantage of the city's unique location and its many portals and endanger its neutrality, out of the city, destroying any who wander in.

Denizens and neutrality[]

Sigil is the epitome of a cosmopolitan city, with people from a wide variety of backgrounds and alignments: from chaotic evil tanar'ri from the Abyss to lawful good devas from the Celestial Planes. Violence between these disparate groups is common.

Despite this, the city itself maintains its neutrality. No armies and no wars are allowed in.

See also[]


The Hive
Mortuary Area (Mortuary | Gathering Dust Bar | Mausoleum) • Northwestern AreaMarketplace AreaSmoldering Corpse Area (Smoldering Corpse Bar | Fell's Tattoo Parlor) • Alley of Dangerous AnglesRagpicker's Square
Under the Hive
Trash WarrensBuried Village (Pharod's Court) • Weeping Stone CatacombsDead NationsWarrens of ThoughtDrowned NationsTomb of the Nameless One
Other Wards
Tenement of ThugsAlley of Lingering SighsLower Ward (Great Foundry | Bones of the Night) • Clerk's Ward (Brothel for Slaking Intellectual Lusts | Civic Festhall) • Undersigil
Mazes
Player's MazeModron MazeBlack-Barbed Maze
Outlands and Hells
Outer Curst (Traitor's Gate Tavern) • Inner CurstCurst UndergroundCurst PrisonOutlandsBaator (Pillar of Skulls) • Curst GoneCurst in CarceriCurst Administration
Fortress of Regrets
Fortress EntranceFortress Main HallTrial of ImpulseMaze of ReflectionsFortress Roof
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