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Planescape is a fictional campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Planescape is unique among D&D settings in that it encompasses an entire cosmology, which itself encompasses all of the other Dungeons and Dragons worlds, linking them all via inter-dimensional magical portals. Planescape, as it name suggests, is comprised of numerous planes of existence.
Cosmology
The Dungeons & Dragons cosmology as reflected in Planescape consists of a number of planes:
Sigil
Sigil, the "City of the Planes", is located atop the Spire in the Outer Planes. Geometrically, Sigil is a torus; the city itself is located on the inside of the ring. There is no sky, simply an all-pervasive light; over the edge of the ring is an infinite, impenetrable void. Sigil cannot be entered or exited save via portals; although this makes it quite safe from any would-be invader, it also makes it a prison of sorts for those not possessing a portal key. Thus, many call Sigil "The Cage". Though Sigil is commonly held to be positioned atop the infinitely tall Spire, some argue that this is impossible since the planes are infinite in all dimensions, and therefore there can never truly be a center to any of them, let alone all of them; thus, Sigil is of no special importance. Curiously, from the Outlands one can see Sigil atop the supposedly infinite Spire.
Sigil contains an innumerable number of portals: any bounded opening (a doorway, an arch, a barrel hoop, a picture frame) could possibly be a portal to another plane, or to another point in Sigil itself. Thus, the city is a paradox: it touches all planes at once, yet ultimately belongs to none; from these characteristics it draws another of its names, "The City of Doors."
The ruler of Sigil is the mysterious Lady of Pain. The Lady is sometimes seen in Sigil as a floating, robed Lady with a face bearing a mantle of blades. The Lady does not concern herself with the laws of the city; she typically only interferes when something threatens the stability of Sigil itself. However, she is an entity of inscrutable motives, and often those who cross her path, even accidentally, are flayed to death or teleported to her hidden Mazes, lost forever.
Sigil is, theoretically, a completely neutral ground: no wars are waged there and no armies pass through. Furthermore, no deities can enter into Sigil; the Lady has barred them from the Cage. Of course, Sigil is hardly peaceful; with such a condensed population, consisting of everything from devas to demons, violence is common, usually befalling the foolhardy and incautious. Most natives of Sigil ("Cagers") are quite jaded as a result of living there.
People coming to Sigil from the Prime Material Plane are often treated as clueless inferiors by the planar elitists who dwell there.
Sigil is divided into six districts, called wards:
- The Hive Ward, the slum and the ghetto, home to the poor, the rogues, and the unwanted dregs of the city.
- The Lower Ward, an industrial district, clogged up with the smoke from the foundries and from the portals to the Lower Planes.
- The Clerk's Ward, an affluent district, home to most of the city's lower-rung bureaucrats and middlemen.
- The Market and Guildhall Wards are the home to the traders, craftsmen, artisans, guild members and other members of the middle class.
- The Lady's Ward, the richest and most exclusive section of the city, is home to the elites of society and of its government.
The Factions
The Factions are the philosophically-derived power groups of the planes. In particular, the factions controlled, until recently, the political climate of the city of Sigil. Each of the factions is based around one particular belief system; many of the factions' beliefs make them enemies where their other goals and actions might have made them allies. There are fifteen factions in total, per a decree of the Lady of Pain; any additional factions emerging would be subject to her wrath. The fifteen factions are:
- The Athar ("Defiers", "The Lost"), who deny not only the gods' right to pass judgment over mortals, but their very divinity. They claim that the gods (who they call "powers") are powerful but do not deserve worship. The Athar are broadly derived from real-world atheists and agnostics.
- The Believers of the Source ("Godsmen"), who believe that each life is a test, and that every person has the potential to become a god.
- The Bleak Cabal ("Bleakers", "Madmen"), who deny that any belief system has any merit; as they see it, the universe has physical rules, but no metaphysical or philosophical ones.
- The Doomguard ("Sinkers"), who believe in the sanctity and inevitability of entropy. They see the decay and destruction of the universe as necessary; for once it is destroyed all imperfections will be gone with it, paving the way for a perfect new world.
- The Dustmen ("The Dead") believe that both life and death are false states of existence, that there is a state of True Death which can only be accomplished by denying one's emotions and physical wants and needs.
- The Fated ("Takers", "The Heartless") believe that those with power and ability have the right to own what they control and to take what they can from those who are unable to keep it, and that it is their right to exploit any situation to their advantage, regardless of how it affects anyone else.
- The Fraternity of Order ("Guvners"), who believe that knowledge is power; they learn and exploit both the natural laws of the universe and the laws of society.
- The Free League ("Indeps"), who reject the other factions and their bureaucratic, hierarchical dogmatism.
- The Harmonium ("Hardheads"), who believe that peace and stability can only be estalished under one rule--theirs.
- The Mercykillers ("The Red Death"), who believe in justice and retribution at the expense of all else.
- The Revolutionary League ("Anarchists"), who believe that social order and man-made laws are inherently corrupt and must be destroyed--though none of their members can agree on what, if anything, should replace them.
- The Sign of One ("Signers"), who believe that the entire universe is a figment of someone's imagination; most of them are solipsists.
- The Society of Sensation ("Sensates"), who believe that personal experience is the only way to become enlightened.
- The Transcendent Order ("Ciphers"), who believe that physical action and mental thought are individually weak but, when combined, are pure and perfect, becoming more than the sum of their parts.
- The Xaositects ("Chaosmen"), who believe that the only truth is revealed in chaos.
Published Material
Planescape is an expansion of ideas presented in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide (First Edition) and the original Manual of the Planes. It in turn inspired the Planescape: Torment computer role-playing game and the revised edition of the Manual of the Planes; material from the latter has been incorporated into the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide (Third Edition Revised).
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