Hello everybody Jorphdan here the PH is silent.
And today we’re finishing our planescape journey by visiting the very center of the
great wheel.
The Outlands and Sigil.
Now the Outlands is a flat disc of land that is the center of the Great Wheel Cosmology.
It’s kind of the spokes of the wheel, the fulcrum of the Outer Planes.
It is a plane of neutrality, incorporating a little bits of the planes but keeping them
all in balance.
The terrain varies with prairies, mountains, and shallow rivers.
Around the outside edge are gate-towns, Sixteen settlements built around a portal that leads
to an Outer Plane.
Each town shares the characteristics of the plane where the gate leads.
So if one knows where these portals are it is possible to travel across the great wheel
rather than around it.
So far we’ve talked about planar travel as floating along the River Styx or River Oceanus
and there are various portals that lead to adjacent realms.
But to travel directly from Arborea to the Abyss would be impossible unless there somehow
existed a connecting portal between the two.
If adventurers find the right path they can cut across the Outlands to reach their destination
rather than going around the great wheel.
The Plane has a neutralizing effect that keeps it true neutral.
Although the law, chaos, good and evil can bleed through, overall the plane is neutral.
Balancing these forces with one another.
This neutralizing effect touches weapons and spells too.
Reducing all healing and damage to the minimum possible while having no effect on Strength
or magical bonuses.
Magic itself is gradually neutralized as you approached the center of the plane.
High level spells ceased to function and the closer you get to the center lower level spells
would begin to fail.
Until finally even first-level spells would not function.
This applies to divine magic as well and because of this the center has become a meeting place
or common ground used by intelligent species of the outer planes.
Creatures of differing alignments meet here to be on equal ground.
There are no native species to the Outlands but plenty of other creatures native to the
planes make their lives here.
The center of this plane contains a giant spire on top of which is Sigil.
Sigil, also known as the Cage or The City of Doors is a city-state and supposedly the
center of the multiverse.
It’s a donut shaped realm that hovers just above the giant spire at the center of the
Outlands.
That donut shape in mathematical terms is called a Torus.
A Torus is the product of two circles, one touching another creating that familiar shape.
I won’t get into all the math here because well it’s probably above me and it’s not
important.
Still it’s kind of cool that they took this shape to represent sigil rather than a traditional
sphere.
There is no sky in Sigil, just an all-pervasive light that waxes and wanes to create night
and day.
There are no entrances to Sigil, except via portals.
This gives it the name of “The Cage” as the place can become a prison if you don’t
have a portal key.
Anything could be a portal, really, an archway, a door, a barrel hoop, a picture frame.
They could take you anywhere in the multiverse or into the next room, which I guess is what doorways do already…
but you get my point.
Having a portal key is very important, regular teleportation spells are blocked in Sigil.
Also you’re unable to conjure anything from another plane of existence here.
The city of doors could easily be considered the city of locked doors.
The ability to travel anywhere, if you have the correct key.
Sigil is divided up into six districts or wards.
The Clerk’s Ward which is home to the bureaucrats and middlemen.
The Hive Ward which is the slum and home to the poor and rogues.
The Lady’s Ward home to the richest elites and Sigil’s government officials.
The Lower Ward which is the industrial district.
And the Market, home to well a market.
Traders, craftsmen, guild members etc.
The city is a plane unto itself, existing outside the rest of the universe but intricately
connected to it through unnumbered planar portals.
It’s a filthy, noisy city with smoke choked alleyways and crowded streets.
The residents in Sigil are diverse to say the least.
All manner of creatures live here.
It’s not uncommon to see angels and devils, drow and eladrin, githyanki and mind flayers
pass one another on the street with barely a glance.
The inhabitants of Sigil reflect the inhabitants of the universe.
There is no-one native to Sigil, all have migrated there but those that do live there
live in peace out of fear of the Lady of Pain.
Sigil is controlled, or run by an entity known as The Lady of Pain.
She runs the show, but not in a direct way like a mayor or a queen.
However never forget, Sigil is hers.
Many people believe she is the one that keeps everything running.
Some say she pulls fresh air from the plane of air, and water from the plane of water
to keep Sigil alive.
The touch of her gaze causes wounds to spout blood, and her smallest gesture can banish
someone or something into an endless maze spawned in a pocket dimension.
Her presence is said to prevent deities, demon princes, and primordials from entering the
City of Doors.
Finally I’d like to briefly talk about the Far Realm.
Also called the outside, it’s the plane that is outside the standard cosmology.
It’s comprised of an infinite number of very thin layers.
Ranging from an inch to a mile in thickness each separated from the next about ten feet.
It’s the space beyond the planes; a terrifying alien realm.
The Far Realm is beyond the already difficult-to-comprehend multiverse.
Mortal or immortal who has attempted to comprehend the truth of the Far Realm eventually concludes
that endeavor with a shattered mind at best.
At worst, such people are subsumed and corrupted, becoming monsters themselves.
Monsters exist here, gelatinous worms that work their way through the layers.
Aboleths, mind flayers, and beholders all come from the Far Realm.
Aboleths appear not unlike the forms that still exist in the Far Realm, but creatures
such as beholders and mind flayers have changed since being on the Material Plane for so long.
Mind Flayers have adopted a much more humanoid presence since being on the Prime Material
Plane.
Where the realm touches the rational world the warping pressure of the Far Realm transmutes
previously inert substances.
Blending realities result in horrifying corruptions, disruptions, and sometimes even birth squiggling
aberrant monstrosities.
The Far Realm is D&D’s version of HP Lovecraft.
The weird ancient gods that are as big as cities living out in the Far Realm unaware
of the Prime Material Plane.
Us small players can’t even comprehend their existence.
And that’s it, we finished all the cosmology.
Maybe in the future I’ll expand on some of these realms.
I know I got a lot of comments on missing information, or just wanting more in information.
For now I think I’m done, but we can always revisit them in the future.
I think I’ll go back to what random Forgotten Realms lore I can dig up.
I’ll keep researching if you keep watching.
Thanks everyone and I’ll see you in the next video.