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#1 lormador Feb 28, 2006 20:37:25

Hey, there are other planar metropolai than just Sigil! Does anyone have some good lore on them? One day I got tired of wondering what happened when someone walks off the edge of Sigil and what happened when someone tunnels deep into the ground. I came up with an alternative arrangement that changes none of the substance of the City of Doors, but will freak out players who have been to Sigil before. Maybe it could find a home in your game as an alternate Sigil, a Sigil in an alternate dimension, or whatever. Here it goes. My Sigil is defined as an air-filled unbound but finite spherical space. Gravity seeks the edge of the sphere. Walking outwards from the center towards the edge of the sphere, when you reach the edge of the sphere (you'd be falling actually) you pass through to the opposite point on the sphere. That is, draw a line from your point through the center and where it intersects the other side, that's where you're going. Hence you can fly around forever, crossing the same space again and again. Now, let's put in the doors and the Lady of Pain and let some people discover the city. When they realize that the Lady of Pain will leave them alone and the gods can't get them (where else can't the gods get you?) they set up shop, importing materials through the portals of Sigil. It's possible to build, by going to the place where gravity switches directions and building equally weighted things on either side. (Even if unequal, they will find a balance point quickly.) Time passes and more and more beings come to set up shop in the city, and the city fills up. At first it is possible to just spread out, but one day the last bit of free space is filled, and the only way to build is toward the center of the space. Enterprising wizards build taller buildings and huge walkways to access their new levels, always reaching higher as real estate (so precious) gets more scarce. As the city ages and the population grows, trash falls downward right? The lower layers become filthy as garbage sinks down. Eventually cave and cavern-like areas are formed from the garbage, a bizarre undercity inhabited by rogues and fantastical creatures. There can be discreet layers above forming wards of the city, and the uppermost layer is where the mightiest beings of the city dwell, mega-wizards or whatever it is you like to play with. I enjoy the vertical element this adds to the game, and the 'endless city' effect is fun to describe. It's also easy to define different flavors based on the layers, if a little tougher to map than the doughnut thing. And hey, if you don't like it for Sigil, try it in another planar metropolis. I used the City of Brass as the 'Center of All' in another campaign... but then I always let the players argue about cosmologies and shrug when the subject of the 'one truth' comes up.