I haven't really updated this blog in a good long time, and that's because I haven't been roleplaying as much. My Vampire game was in good swing and has reached its close (I will potentially put recaps of that up if all the players are feeling fine about it) and soon, I will be GMing a one-man Planescape game with one of my best and most frequent players. I thought here would be a good idea to outline my personal Planescape setting, as every time I try to run a game, I try to create a unique and interesting world for my players to inhabit. This post is something of a work in progress, and as such, is a bit disorganized.
Just a warning, to those of you not familiar with the Planescape setting, this post will not make a huge amount of sense, however, a very brief overview, Sigil is a city in the DnD universe and the primary location of the Planescape setting. Known as the City of Doors, it's a city at the centre of the multiverse, where beings from all planes mingle. It is very easy to get to Sigil, and as almost everything is a portal, it is very easy to end up lost.
Outside of Sigil there are 17 planes, each adhering to a specific alignment (along with a true neutral wilderness called the Outlands, with towns that connect to various planes called Gate Towns). and home to some kind of native Outsider, be they Lawful Good angels to Chaotic Evil demons. Each one has their own ecology and politics, however, in Sigil, there is no war. Angels and demons and devils mingle freely, and while they don't get along, they are civil. The city is watched over by a mysterious being called the Lady of Pain, an omnipotent entity that keeps other gods out of Sigil and ensures that no one attempts to destroy it or conquer it.
Sigil, City of Doors
My interpretation of Sigil isn't much different from the published version with a few exceptions. For a start, I interpret EVERY setting within Dungeons and Dragons, and hell, Pathfinder and Magic: The Gathering as various different Prime Material planes. In my version of the setting, there is not merely one Prime, but an infinite number of them, and thus, ANY character concept goes. Good Mindflayers, Evil Unicorns, non-angsty Drow, if you can think of it, there's probably a Prime where that's just how reality works. The only exception to this is Outsiders and the Outer Planes. There are no non-evil Devils or non-Lawful Inevitables, as there is only one of each of those realities.
The implications of this are that a player can visit Goralon, Dominaria, Krynn, Eberron and any of an innumerable amount of fantasy settings, and even perhaps settings from other RPG's, like Vampire: The Masquerade and Warhammer 40k (though they had best be careful, as magic works very differently there). They can even meet themselves and find different versions of who they are, with different classes and different alignments.
The main difference from other DnD settings like Prime worlds is that Sigil is a very mutable place. Planes react to sentient beings, and operate on a weird kind of dream logic. Getting from one place to another is more than simply a quest from one point to another. It is a spiritual and mental journey as much as a physical one, and if one is unprepared to make that journey, the destination can never be reached.
Unlike Primes (creatures that come from Material Worlds) Gods and other Outsiders like Angels, Devils and Slaadi are not merely life-forms, but literal personifications of their native plane's alignment. In this sense, they lack the free will of Primers, despite having an incredible amount of power. A Devil is not simply averse to performing chaotic good acts, they are quite literally incapable of conceiving of any act that is not lawful or evil. Explaining it to the creature won't help, as they are simply incapable of thinking outside of their native paradigm.
One of the main areas in my Planescape game is the Pact, a bar that is something of my answer to the Smoldering Corpse Bar, a canon bar within the setting and the video game. The Pact is a bar for Fiends and mortals who wish to truck with them, and all the devils, demons and Yugoloths within the place are hungry and fully authorized to bargain for mortal souls. Run by the Chain Devil Eviscewrack, The Pact offers a truly unique service for mortals who truly despise each other, yet for one reason or another cannot kill each other. Mutually assured damnation, where both sell their souls to the same Fiend for the privilege of designing the others torture.
Gate Towns
For those unfamiliar with the Planescape setting, Sigil is not the only city in it. The Outland, the true neutral plane that sits between all the others, has small settlements called Gate Towns, each of which, contains a Gate to the plane which it is primarily influenced by. Most of the inhabitants share the alignment of the plane closest to them, however, if the towns ever align fully with it's plane's native philosophy, it is sucked into the plane and a new one arises. I have my own versions of all the Gate Towns in the Outlands, partially to simply be contrary, but mostly because I wanted to define the idea of towns allied to a certain alignment, with my own touch. Included among the 17 outer planar Gate Towns, I also have 6 Inner Planar gate towns that are built of a certain element, and lead to one of the elemental planes, or to the plane of positive and negative energy. I'll admit, I heard of the concept of Gate Towns before I actually got into the setting, so some of these are a bit similar to the ones in canon, however, I keep them mostly out of nostalgia and the fact that I think that some have their own valid secrets to share.
Directions in the Outlands are pretty difficult to come by, as there are no stable maps. One traverses the Outlands by setting a destination and, eventually, if the destination wants you there and you mean it no harm, you will find it. The various Gate Towns and Cities haven't killed each other yet because if the settlement rejects a traveler, that traveler will never come across it, instead wandering the hungry jungle of the Outland forever.
Gorre, the Meat Grinder (Abyss, Chaotic Evil): Gorre is a massive, nightmarish settlement built of iron, bones, patchwork and rags, and anything else that its denizens could get their hands on and pull apart. Industrial, slave powered factories constantly expel a thick haze of smog into the sky, and inside, everyone has their price. Civilization and culture in Gorre is very much a Mad-Max style rule by fear and power, where the strong enslave the weak and the weak kill each other to get scraps of food and clothing. Fashion usually favors bones, spiked armor and human skin. Preferably all of the above.
Atrocia (Acheron, Lawful Neutral Evil): Atrocia is a large, near impenetrable fortress, built of black steel and adorned with the heads of those who foolishly tried to invade. Soldiers of every kind march in inexplicably complex patterns across almost every public area. The entire city is uniformly grey and black, with some small hints of red where torture is performed on prisoners. Surveillance is everywhere, and dark Paladins await any who would break the innumerable laws. Atrocia is constantly training armies to take part in the wars on Acheron and every month, sends a new battalion through the Gate, from which no one has ever returned.
Vineweft (Arborea, Chaotic Good): The free elf village of Vineweft is a village created entirely of vines that hangs in the canopies of the Outland's forests. There is nothing artificial here, and the forest and the town itself provides for its people. Everyone and everything is welcome in Vineweft, and the villagers will have no problem with a person provided they do no harm. Every night, celebration and parties happen, to commemorate the passing of a day. Alcohol from every plane is available here, and there is no taboo on anything that does not harm another sentient being. Vineweft is probably the freest place in all the planes.
Oligarch, the Ivory Cage (Arcadia, Lawful Neutral Good): Oligarch is probably the safest place in the Outlands. A city with ancient Roman architecture, Oligarch is a place for conformists and those who feel that family comes first. Law enforcement is very much of the 'father knows best' kind, however, repeat offenders will find that the city has little tolerance for dissent. While the people of Oligarch are a polite and kind bunch, always willing to offer people the benefit of the doubt and offer sanctuary, they are distrustful of people who show that they can't fit in and more chaotically aligned guests would get a very stifling, prim and proper vibe from the place.
Encephalon, the Iron Library (Baator, Lawful Evil): Ruled over by the Sensate Illithid Lich Thorthalix, Encephalon is a city built to resemble the contours of the human brain. A true Magocracy, nowhere in the mutliverse is the phrase 'knowledge is power' more appropriate. In Encephalon, a visitor can find records of almost anything from any plane, however, the jealous Alhoon and the other mages, archivists and adepts that rule the city insist that visitors leave behind one of their own memories for each piece of information taken, for just like the hellish domain of Baator, nothing in Encephalon is free.
Wyldlight (Beastlands, Neutral Good Chaotic): A peaceful tribal village, Wyldlight is a place where man's relationship to nature is at its most idealistic and symbiotic. Hunters hunt, farmers farm, and no one upsets the balance with greed. Wyldlight is a place where there is no currency, and everyone simply shares, with the needy free to take and the prosperous generous with their resources. Wyldlighters expect all outsiders to adhere to these standards however, and anti-social behavior will merit retribution in turn.
Forgehome, the Twin Towns (Bytopia, Neutral Good Lawful): A place of industrious artifice, Forgehome is a mining town and that directly smelts everything it digs up and crafts it superbly. Largely inhabited by Dwarves, Forgehome mimics the plane that it connects to by selling its wares to Sigil and to the other Gate Towns, ensuring that everyone has access to good wares and equipment. Artifice is king and commerce a very distant second in Forgehome, however, and everything is judged by its artistic and pragmatic value rather than its value in coin. The culture, however, is quite intolerant of waste or laziness, and even visitors are expected to earn their keep.
Knifesong (Carceri, Neutral Evil Chaotic): Much like Carceri, no one who is in Knifesong wants to be in Knifesong, and yet, curiously, no one seems able to leave. Knifesong is a hungry town, that calls people with darkness in their hearts and keeps them there, forcing them to form a society to survive. Those not directly called by the town may leave at will, however may find themselves feeling rather dirty. The fetid swamps that lie just to the north of the town lend a healthy mist and a sense of decay to the urban environment, and naturally occurring undead lurk in the marshes.
Hearthgrove (Elysium, Neutral Good): Often called the happiest place in the planes, Heartgrove is a rural village built in the center of a wide open field, where the sun is in a state of perpetual rising. The horizons are always orange, the feeling in the village is majestic, and the citizens are welcoming to all, and are charitable and honest. A weird side effect of living in Heartgrove makes people more pleasant, opens their minds up and instills in them a feeling of family and community. Much like Elysium itself, very few people who enter Heartgrove ever have the will to leave, and will often find love and start a family. Life brims from every street corner, and there are no signs of decay or rot.
Bloodgulch, the Burning Pit (Gehenna, Neutral Evil Lawful): A settlement built around a massive, open crag in the rocky mountains, over a never ending stream of lava, Bloodgulch is primarily inhabited by people wishing to test their strength. Laws and traditions are passed on by word of mouth, and a strong warrior culture pervades. Bloodgulch is primarily inhabited by Hobgoblins, who's strong, militaristic culture permeates everything in the place with iron fisted brutality along with frothing, primal barbarism. People who find themselves on the wrong side of the law find themselves hurled into one of the lakes of flame, or if they're really unlucky, into the crag itself, which is a portal to Gehenna.
Blacksand Wastes (Hades, Neutral Evil): Blacksand is a ragtag desert settlement, constantly roving in an endless sea of blackened sand, under a starry night sky. Blacksand villagers are nomads, raiders and slavers who set up ramshackle huts wherever they can, made of anything they can find, and sell slaves, drugs and weapons to anyone who finds them. Oddly, the settlement can move, but wherever it does move to degrades very quickly into the same endless waste of black sand. The gate to Hades is a subtle one, and is accessed simply by following the north star along the desert until one finds oneself in the Gray Wastes.
Patchwork (Limbo, Chaotic Neutral): Of all the Gate Towns, Patchwork is probably the most peculiar and one of the most dangerous. Looking like a truly bizarre conglomerate of almost every type of city haphazardly mashed together, people walking the streets of Patchwork may find themselves in a Victorian cityscape, a crumbling necropolis, or even a futuristic metropolis. Angles don't add up in Patchwork, and from the outside, the city just looks like an enormous pile of scrap. Every single corner, nook and cranny in Patchwork leads somewhere else, sometimes to other planes, and sometimes to areas that don't seem to exist in reality. The portal to Limbo is ever changing, and can be exceedingly difficult to find. Other times, it seeks out people in the city and hurls them into the ever-changing wastes.
Metronomos (Mechanus, Lawful Neutral): Metronomos is a city almost without life. Filled with crude replicas of people, the clockwork city ticks onward, a gigantic clock set against the sky of the Outlands. Numbers dot every surface, and every single building and spire is built to perfect dimensions. The city is maintained largely by spiderlike drones, their legs like the hands of a clock. Every part of the city is suffused by an endless ticking noise, and it moves slowly but surely in impossible directions. The citizens of Metronomos never get tired and never need to sleep, however they find it hard to change their behaviors and ways of thinking after spending too long within the Clockwork City As a curious quirk, in Metronomos, a person can instantly know the time to the second, and the exact measurements of any object, simply by looking at it.
Outlands (Neutral): No city beyond Sigil itself. The Outlands are an eternal, massive pastiche of every possible outdoor environment, representing nature at it's most primal.
Dementos (Pandemonium, Chaotic Neutral, Evil): Dementos is a city that no one can ever seem to reach if they are fully sane. It takes a touch of madness, some crippling flaw that plagues a person to reach the Gate Town to Pandemonium, which appears otherwise as just a city, eternally in the distance. Even when it is reached, Dementos is a city that changes according to the perceptions and fears of its inhabitants. Enormous, black and grey buildings loom over citizens, and the streets are lined with the fearful, and occasionally covered in their mad graffiti. Dementos operates like a nightmare, and manifests the fears of its citizens with hungry abandon. In the eternally twilight streets, incautious visitors may find themselves stalked by faceless strangers or sinking into a black morass of tar. No one knows who rules Dementos, an iron tower of spirals sits in the city center but no gate seems to lead to it. It is said that the Gate to Pandemomium is the town itself, and occasionally, people will go missing in its shadowy streets, never to return.
Runefyre (Ysgard, Chaotic Neutral, Good): Much like the plane of Ysgard, Runefyre is something of a strange settlement. Surrounded by a perpetual cold and snow, Runefyre is inhabited largely by boastful humans, elves and dwarven warriors. Surrounded by dangerous, terrifying monsters, the citizens of Runefyre are constantly hoping to prove themselves. While good natured, Runefyre is barely a society, and people are expected to take what they can, and are considered to own only what they are strong enough to hold. People are expected to be strong and the weak and meek very quickly find themselves trapped at the bottom of the social ladder.
Whirligig, The Frozen Cyclone (Air Plane): Whirligig is the first city that leads to an elemental plane to be established in the Outlands, and even compared to its inner planar brethren the city is spectacular. An immense cyclone, frozen by magic in the middle of the Outlands, the city of Whirligig is built of crystal and glass, twinkling along the walls of frozen air. Flight is an absolute necessity and even more land bound travelers find themselves hovering just a little. Citizens are extremely relaxed and flighty and don't like to be drawn into conflict. The immense gate to the Elemental Plane of Air lies at the very top of the cyclone, the farthest point from the ground.
Catacomb (Earth Plane): If Whirligig is the most extravagant of the inner planar cities, Catacomb is probably the most subtle. A subterranean series of tunnels, Catacomb is pitch black, and its citizens have adapted to its sightless environments, navigating by touch and hearing alone. New tunnels are constantly being dug in Catacomb, by a force that no one ever sees. Legend has it that there is gold and gemstones buried in those dark tunnels, but that those who disrespect the town find themselves swallowed by inexplicable landslides, as if devoured. The gate to the Earth Plane is a simple tunnel that goes on forever, eventually depositing the traveler into the Plane.
Fuego (Fire Plane): Constantly burning, bright and melting, the city of the Fuego caught fire long ago, and the unknown, superhard and almost nonconductive metal melts slowly even as citizens wander the streets. A spiraling metropolis of silver and gold, Fuego sits at a constant temperature of 40 degrees celsius, uncomfortably hot, and the lower a person goes, the hotter it gets. People in Fuego tend to be irritable and on edge, as they are well aware that the city's architecture alters itself constantly. Constant work is done to repair and reshape parts of the city, to keep it in one piece, and the stubborn citizens insist that the city is the only thing keeping the Elemental Plane of Fire from pouring outward and devouring the Outlands. The gateway to the Fire Plane is a white hot furnace that sits at the city's heart, not that anyone can approach it without an immunity to heat. it is surrounded by a lake of boiling, molten metal and constantly devours more of the city as the desperate citizens feed it with more raw material to keep it sated.
Cityport Maelstrom (Water Plane): Almost certainly the most inhabitable of the Inner Plane gate towns, Maelstroms is a city that exists in several luminous and magically solidified bubbles beneath Outland's vast oceans. Trade of all kinds goes on here, mystical, philosophical, and at its most base level, economic. Fluidity and adaptability are great virtues in Maelstrom, and the purpose of the city adapts to its needs, being a breezy resort town in times of peace and a near impenetrable fortress when in danger. Unlike many gate towns, who work against their denizens, Maelstrom works in the interest of its people. The Elemental Plane of Water sits in a single, mirrored bubble at the center of the city, and people who wish to enter must first wrestle past their own reflections.
Cyst (Positive Energy Plane): Cyst is a town that is among the strangest in all the planes, a statement that is really saying something when you think about it. Once a thriving city, the gate to the Plane of Positive Energy has prevented anyone from dying in this place, rather growing bulbous and tumorous with age before eventually fusing into the sediment and becoming part of the city. Everything in Cyst is covered by roiling, shuddering flesh, that moves and reacts to the touch and can be molded to hold objects or people in place. Denizens of Cyst know true immortality, and all manner of incredibly violent passtimes have become commonplace. While injuries and wounds are healed almost instantly in Cyst, adventurers are warned not to remain there for too long. The walls quite literally drink spilled blood and people find the flesh of the city molding to fit them whenever they stay in one place too long. The portal to the Plane of Positive Energy is a large, beating heart at the city's center, connected to all other parts of the city by enormous, pulsing veins.
Morthos (Negative Energy Plane): Not a city at all in most people's estimation, Morthos sits, amid the dried and desiccated salt flats of the Outlands. A crumbling ruin with no breeze, the only notable thing about the Dead City is a single altar at its center. A visitor can bleed him or herself unconscious there, and only once their mind leaves their body do they perceive the true Morthos, a city built just outside of material reality, forged from ectoplasm and inhabited by ghosts. More a memory than a physical location, Morthos is a place of death, memories and mourning. The ghosts and wraiths that stalk the streets repeat actions eternally, however the one thing that can get their attention is a living visitor walking their streets. The Negative Energy Plane's portal is a black sun in the sky, which draws all things not touching the ground toward it. While visitors to Morthos are rare, most come back changed, and it is whispered that their bodies have been stolen by one of the many creatures that haunt the empty streets.
- Kephn
