Sigil, the City of Doors

[Jherek Everfull]

SIGIL

According to the rules of the Multiverse, Sigil is the center of it.

Sigil itself is a planar megalopolis built on the inside of a torus (imagine a tire lying on its side with buildings all around the inside surface). From anywhere on the Outlands (the most neutral of the Outer Planes), Sigil can be seen floating above the great stone Spire, but since the Spire is infinitely high, the only way in or out is through the portals that manifest themselves inside of doorways, windows, and any other kind of bounded space. Because of this, Sigil is also called 'The Cage'.

Portals like those in Sigil exist all over the multiverse, linking distant planes to each other, but the concentration is highest in the Cage. This phenomenon makes Sigil one of the most coveted locations in the multiverse. Gods and fiends would love to take over, but Sigil is guarded by a being called the Lady of Pain, whose diligence bars would-be conquerors from entering the city. Those within the city that displease the Lady find themselves either flayed alive by her shadow or cast into Mazes from which few ever escape.

[Jherek Everfull]

Places of Interest

The Armory
The place where most of the weapons of the city are stored and made. The Doomguard run the place, because the use of weapons propagates entropy. The building is some 600' by 800', with the barbed construction around it reaching to almost 500'. The main building holds the storage for weapons and warmachines, the forge to make new ones, workshops to replaced damaged goods and the offices to buy and sell. The four corners hold square towers with smaller forges at the center, but there's more to them than that. The dark is that each of the towers has a portal to each of the Doomguard's four citadels in the Negative Energy Planes: one portal per citadel.

The Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts
Located in the Clerk's Ward, this a brothel with a difference; rather than selling sexual intercourse, it specializes in selling various forms of intellectual stimulation; people come here to inspire their minds and enjoy mental pleasures. It was founded and at least initially run by Fall-From-Grace, a redeemed succubus who belongs to the Society of Sensation. Known prostitutes of this brothel include:
Dolor: a sapient clockwork construct in the shape of a beautiful woman, who specializes in games of skill (chess, etc) and debate.
Ecco: a mute who is always willing to listen, and can never betray your secrets
Juliette: a human woman who specializes in unusual requests, the most common of which is acting as the sounding board for men and women seeking to end relationships
Kesai-Serris: a planetouched and/or changeling born from the union of a cambion and a powerful night hag.
Kimasxi Adder-Tongue: a tiefling "intellectual dominatrix", who scours those who patronize her with ruthlessly brutal insults and taunts.
Marissa:  a medusa, her specialty is 'scaring' those who seek her services
Nenny Nine-Eyes: whose specialty is showering people with positivity and optimism.
Vivian: The newest prostitute
Yves the Tale-Chaser: who will trade one of the many stories she has heard in exchange for a story told to her by her patron.

The City Barracks
Sigil doesn't have a standing army. But to be fair it doesn't really need one. Between the mix of volatile elements within the city, some of the very powerful people living there and the Lady of Pain herself, Sigil is more than capable of defending itself. But for everyday law enforcement a base of operations is needed, so Harmonium has set up kip in the barracks. The barracks are a square, squat building 360' on all sides and 60' tall, despite having only three floors. Most of the space is taken up by the large central courtyard used for drills and exercises. The building itself consists of four towers 60' in all directions, with four long hallways connecting them. The lower floor holds dormitories for the lower ranks (segregated by gender) and various classrooms in which The Law is taught, as well as training rooms, the mess hall, library and two auditoriums. The upper floor holds more classrooms, the records rooms, the quarters for officers as well as the quarters of Factol Sarin, his wife and their nine kids.

The City Court
The City Court is where all legal matters are settled. Many a criminal is hauled in front of the court to stand trial and be sentenced, often without a good end for the suspect. Most crimes are solved with the payment of a fine or in one of the lesser courts, and only the most spectacular or heinous cases (rare) and appeals (even rarer) are held in the opulent grand courtroom. Being such a center of law, it's obvious that the courthouse is also the base of operations of the Fraternity of Order. The main building is an L shape of a rough 100' by 150', with a tower of 40' on all sides besides it. The main building is two stories containing the grand courtroom, record rooms, a few smaller courts as well as lesser buildings and workrooms and dormitories for aides. The tower contains several additional smaller courtrooms and support, as well as offices for the faction.

The Civic Festhall
Despite what your experience with other settings might tell you and what the reputation of the Society of Sensation might be, the Sensorium is not one of those kinds of festhalls you keep reading about in guidebooks. A cylindrical tower that's a good 1000 feet tall including all the spikes sticking out of it standing on grounds some 1000' by 750', the front of the Civic Festhall carries a somewhat ghoulish decoration displaying stylished eyes, noses, ears, mouths and hands to celebrate all the senses. The tower itself is made of the most wondrous, opulent, intense and interesting materials: touching the walls made of varied types of stone and unique kinds of wood is encouraged. Half of the main tower's ground floor is a series of quarters for the factions as well as classrooms and lecture halls. Part of the grounds housing a number of theatres for all sorts of shows. The other half of the ground floor is taken up by the Sensoriums: the libraries of the senses. There's two of them: one for Faction-only use and one for public access. Each take up a quarter of the full surface of the building, going up well over 20 floors. Here people can relive the experiences of others, sharing their senses to experience something in a way you could otherwise only experience yourself. Experiencing something here costs 10 gold for the basic package, and the place is always full despite being open 24/7. If you've got something new to offer that the Sensates don't have already you can expect to receive 500 gold to pass on this experience. Recording it merely makes a copy of your memory and can take anything from 1 hour to 1 day, depending on the complexity of the memory. The remaining half of the tower is filled with rooms where one can experience just about anything, from the smells to sights and tastes and more wonderful things still. The places is filled with taverns, museums, craftsmen and other services and diversions that one can barely imagine. At the center of the ground floor, accessible to only a few Sensates, is the faction's greatest secret: a series of portals leading to just about all of the Outer Planes and Inner Planes, granting the Sensates unmatched maneuverability across the multiverse.

The Gatehouse
The Gatehouse is an almshouse, sanitarium, orphanage, asylum for the criminally insane and soup kitchen all in one, as well as the headquarters of the Bleak Cabal. The building and grounds cover a semicircle some 800' wide and 3 stories tall. The left wing holds the almshouse on all three stories, with the right wing holding the insane asylum on the first two floors and the orphanage on the third. There are two other wings to the back: one sticking out at 90 degrees from the main building and one at 45 degrees towards the right. The first is the wing for the mad Bleakers who are under the effect of the Grim Retreat, while the other one holds a the criminally insane. 

The Great Foundry
Headquarters of the Believers of the Source, the Godsmen run the place part to generate revenue, part to build character. The place makes all sorts of metal objects and tools for the people of Sigil on a working-class budget. The compound is some 700' at its widest point, with the main foundry reading about 200' into the sky, belching out its dark fumes. Several towers stand together to melt metal and make it into boards, sheets, wires, molds. About half the compound is taken up by a storage and processing yard, bringing in rough materials and transporting finished products. As with any old-timey steel foundry the place is a horror for your health, and frequent healings are advised if you spend a lot of time in the area. Problem is that if you work in the place you probably can't afford the healing to not die of several kinds of lung disease.

The Great Gymnasium
The people of a dirty city like Sigil will want to get clean now and then, and the Great Gymnasium is a great place to do so. A 160' by 100' building, the Gymnasum can be used for all sorts of physical activity to master one's self, as befitting for the Transcendent Order. The main attraction of the large exercise field lay a trio of pools: one cold, one warm and one hot. Around the pools is plenty of space of all sorts of physical exercise, from fighting to athletics. Around three of the walls lay a large number of rooms used for steam baths, massages, more private baths but also rooms for the arts: painting, sculpting, dancing and music are all practiced here for their ability to perfect the self. The second floor houses a wide and narrow meditation chamber for those looking for peace and quiet to contemplate. The third floor is faction members only and houses the Cadence of the Planes chamber: a sensory deprivation room filled with a levitation field and magic to keep the place dark and quiet. Here a Cipher can come into contact with the Cadence of the Planes, the rhythm of the planes which connects them all. The Gymnasium does not hold any offices for the Ciphers: many of them have their own places to stay and Factol Rhys lives wherever she ends up.

The Hall of Records
The closest thing Sigil has to a city hall, the Hall of Records provides all sorts of civil services... for a price. Citizens are going to pay out the nose for the services provided here, both in official prices and below the table bribes. The Hall stands in a campus some 1000' wide containing six buildings: halls for property and census records, the faction hall and faction dormitory, a special academy for training promising Takers. The central building is a monstrous 30 story tower, 240' at the base and tapering up to a rough 200' at the top. 

The Hall of Speakers
The great debate hall of Sigil, the Hall of Speakers is where policy for the city is debated and voted for. An oval building some 800' long and 400' wide decorated with a spire almost as tall as the building is wide, the Hall of Speakers is both a public building where the law gets made and also the headquarters of the Sign of One. The most notable room here is the Speaker's Podium, where people of all kinds can plead their cases in order to get something done. Getting onto the list of speakers is difficult, and getting onto and keeping your enemies off of it is a battle in and of itself. On the far end of the Speaker's Podium is the tomb of Rilith, the founder of the Sign of One. Quite a few Signers are here at all times, concentrating on the urn of ashes because they believe that without them doing this it'll vanish, and with it the faction itself. Despite being the headquarters of the Sign of One there are few guards posted around and one even has a decent shot at getting to the Factol's personal quarters, but given the nature of the Signers there's not a lot to steal here.

The Mortuary
Where the dead go after they die. The Dustmen have set up shop here, and set out to collect the bodies in Sigil and bring them here. The main building is a semisphere of some 200' wide, with a motley assortment of towers connected to the main building via tunnels and corridors. The place has vaults to inter the dead, and also has portals various Prime Material planes and to Arcadia, Mechanus, Acheron, Ysgard, Limbo and Pandemonium (aka the six planes on the Whatever Neutral axis that aren't the Outlands); all destinations being near notable burial sites. The second floor is where a lot of the work gets done, and both Factol Skall and his right-hand man have their offices here. Near the top are portals to the Elemental Planes, and in some of the larger towers there are laboratories and storage rooms. At all times the Morturary is filled with the Dead and undead alike, with some of the more sensitive areas being guarded by powerful undead creatures.

The Prison
The prison is not a nice place, and especially so since Factol Nilesia of the Mercykillers took charge. The prison looks a lot like the Barracks, except larger: being 1100' wide on all sides and nine stories tall, with most of the room being reserved for the cells of inmates. The entrance holds the rooms of the high-ups: Factol Nilesia and her retinue have their rooms here. The central courtyard is part drill field and exercise grounds, and holds a massive set of gallows used for the daily hangings that prisoners are forced to watch as part of being let out to air. The cells are dark, damp and cold with little room for prisoners to move around: they're occasionally called to the dreaded cellars to perform work... or get tortured, maimed or executed in accordance to their sentencing. Its maximum capacity is 24000, but with the many executions and disappearances it's never quite full.

The Shattered Temple
The old temple of Aoskar, the god of portals who got his shit kicked in by the Lady of Pain. The ruins are believed to be cursed or still hold the ire of Her Serenity, and most folks will avoid the place. Whatever the case might be, the ruins are the headquarters of the Athar. The place's not much to look at being a 70' wide square with some of the old pillars going up to 100', but the Athar make do. In the center of the temple stands the Bois Verdurous. Rumor is a cutter can by touching the tree cast any divine spell he wants, and the fruit from the tree can provide the single casting of a spell on the move.