Planescape
Planescape is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, originally published in 1994 by TSR, Inc., as a boxed set for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition, designed by David "Zeb" Cook.[1] The setting explores the multiverse of planes of existence, providing a framework for adventures across infinite realities that connect various Dungeons & Dragons worlds through portals and pathways.[1] At its core is Sigil, the City of Doors, a vast, neutral metropolis located atop an infinite spire in the Outlands plane, serving as a central hub where portals lead to every corner of the multiverse.[2] The Planescape cosmology is based on the Great Wheel model, which organizes the multiverse into the Prime Material Plane (home to mortal worlds like the Forgotten Realms), the Inner Planes (elemental realms of fire, water, air, and earth), the Transitive Planes (connecting realms like the Ethereal and Astral), and the Outer Planes (alignment-based realms embodying moral and ethical philosophies, inhabited by gods, celestials, fiends, and the souls of the dead).[1] The Outlands, a neutral plane bordering the Outer Planes, features gate-towns that serve as entry points to specific Outer Planes, each reflecting the alignment and nature of their connected realm.[2] This structure allows for diverse storytelling, from philosophical debates and planar politics to epic conflicts involving immortals and cosmic forces.[1] A defining feature of Planescape is its emphasis on philosophy and belief, embodied by the factions—organized groups in Sigil that represent competing worldviews on the nature of the multiverse, such as the Athar (who deny the gods' divinity) or the Society of Sensation (who seek ultimate sensory experience).[3] Characters often align with a faction, influencing their motivations, alliances, and access to planar lore, while the setting's distinctive slang (e.g., "berk" for fool, "cutter" for person) and hard-edged, Victorian-inspired aesthetic add to its immersive, intrigue-filled tone.[1] Travel between planes occurs via portals in Sigil, planar pathways like the River Styx, or magical means, enabling crossovers with other Dungeons & Dragons settings.[2] Planescape has influenced Dungeons & Dragons through supplements, novels, and the 1999 video game Planescape: Torment, and was revived in 2023 by Wizards of the Coast with Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse, a 5th edition boxed set including a setting guide for Sigil and the Outlands, a bestiary of planar creatures, and an adventure module for levels 3–10. The 2024 revised core rulebooks further integrated Planescape's cosmology as the standard multiverse structure for Dungeons & Dragons.[4] This release updates the setting for modern play while preserving its focus on multiversal exploration and philosophical depth, offering new character options, spells, and feats tied to planar themes.[3]Setting Overview
Core Concepts and Themes
Planescape, released in 1994 as a campaign setting for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) 2nd edition, centers on interdimensional travel across an expansive multiverse and engages players in philosophical debates that influence the fabric of reality. Developed by TSR, it expands beyond typical fantasy adventures on a single world, emphasizing exploration of diverse planes where abstract ideas manifest tangibly. This setting reorients gameplay toward the consequences of belief, morality, and belief-driven conflicts, with the multiverse structured around the Great Wheel cosmology that connects infinite realms.[5] Key themes in Planescape revolve around the exploration of morality as a subjective force rather than an absolute, where alignments and ethical choices propel eternal struggles like the Blood War between demons and devils.[5] Belief shapes reality, particularly on the Outer Planes, where collective convictions can alter landscapes and summon powers, underscoring the interplay between infinite planes and the mortal mind.[5] This philosophical depth encourages narratives that question existence, free will, and the nature of divinity, moving away from heroic quests toward introspective journeys across planar boundaries. The setting introduces unique jargon known as "cant" or planar slang, which immerses players in its urban, multicultural atmosphere; for instance, "berk" denotes a fool or naive newcomer, while "cutter" refers to a competent individual or person in general.[6] This lexicon, drawn from historical thieves' argot, enhances role-playing in Sigil, the neutral hub city at the multiverse's center.[6] Planescape shifts focus from rural fantasy tropes to sophisticated urban intrigue in this City of Doors, where portals connect realms and philosophical factions vie for influence through rhetoric and alliances rather than brute force.[5]Philosophical Foundations
In Planescape, the multiverse operates on the principle that belief and conviction profoundly influence reality, with collective convictions shaping the nature of planes, the afterlife, and even the prominence of deities. Strong, widespread beliefs can alter physical and metaphysical landscapes; for instance, gods derive their power primarily from the worship and faith of their followers, potentially elevating minor entities to divine status or diminishing others into obscurity if devotion wanes. This belief-driven metaphysics underscores the setting's emphasis on philosophy as a tangible force, where ideological conflicts among inhabitants seek to impose their worldviews to gain influence or reshape existence for the better.[7] A cornerstone of this system is the Rule of Three, a fundamental law asserting that phenomena in the multiverse manifest in triads, reflecting alignments (law, chaos, neutrality) and moralities (good, evil, neutrality), as well as broader patterns in events and structures. Applied to mortality, the Rule of Three dictates that death occurs in three stages: the physical demise of the body, the dissipation of the spirit to its aligned afterlife, and a final true death leading to oblivion if the soul is not reformed or reincarnated. This progression reinforces the impermanence of existence and ties into the belief that conviction can sometimes defy or accelerate these stages, such as through powerful magics or philosophical enlightenment aimed at achieving "true death" as release.[7] Complementing this is the Unity of Rings, which posits that all elements of the multiverse are interconnected in cyclical patterns without true beginnings or ends, evident in the ring-shaped geography of locations like Sigil and the layered structure of the Outlands. This interconnectedness implies a holistic web where actions on one plane ripple across others, emphasizing the futility of isolation and the power of shared beliefs to maintain or disrupt these cycles.[7] At the heart of this philosophy lies the Center of All, the notion that no single point dominates the multiverse; instead, every location holds potential centrality based on perspective, with Sigil serving as a neutral nexus where diverse beliefs converge without one overshadowing the rest. Enigmatic higher powers enforce balance, intervening subtly to prevent any philosophy or entity from monopolizing reality, thereby preserving the multiverse's dynamic equilibrium. These principles drive character motivations, compelling adventurers to align with or challenge beliefs not merely for personal gain, but to wield philosophy as the ultimate tool for navigating and influencing the planes.[7]Cosmology
Multiverse Structure
The Planescape multiverse is structured according to the Great Wheel cosmology, a model that arranges the 17 Outer Planes in concentric rings around the Outlands, facilitating planar travel and interactions through conceptual and magical means.[8] This framework encompasses the Prime Material Plane at its core (home to mortal worlds), the Inner Planes (elemental and energy realms), the Transitive Planes (conduits like the Astral, Ethereal, and Shadow), and the Outer Planes (alignment-based realms embodying moral and ethical philosophies).[8] The arrangement emphasizes the interplay between physical existence on the Prime and the abstract, belief-driven natures of the outer realms, with the entire structure visualized as a wheel to represent cycles of alignment and opposition.[9] The Inner Planes represent the raw building blocks of creation, comprising the four elemental planes of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, along with the planes of Positive and Negative Energy that fuel life and death, respectively.[8] These planes connect directly to the Prime Material Plane, infusing it with natural forces, and are distinct from the more ideological Outer Planes. Transitive Planes, including the Astral Plane—which links the Prime Material and Outer Planes for thought-based travel—the Ethereal Plane, which overlaps the Prime and Inner Planes to enable ghostly phasing and exploration, and the Plane of Shadow, which borders the Material Plane for journeys into darkness and illusion—act as bridges across the multiverse.[8] Together, these divisions provide the foundational pathways for adventurers navigating beyond the mortal world. The Outer Planes form the outermost ring of the Great Wheel, consisting of 16 aligned realms arranged in opposition to reflect the spectrum of good, evil, law, and chaos, each serving as divine domains for deities and their petitioners.[8] Bordering these is the Outlands, a neutral plane that acts as a transitional hub where alignment forces balance, preventing direct access to the Outer Planes from within its borders except through specific portals.[9] At the heart of the Outlands rises the Spire, an immense, unreachable peak symbolizing infinite neutrality, upon which the city of Sigil is paradoxically perched, serving as the multiverse's central nexus. Many Outer Planes, such as the Abyss, feature infinite layers that extend endlessly, allowing for vast, ever-shifting landscapes shaped by the plane's dominant philosophy.[8]Planes and Their Inhabitants
The Inner Planes encompass the fundamental elemental realms that underpin the material world, comprising the four primary planes of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. These planes exist as vast, infinite expanses dominated by their respective elements, where air manifests as endless skies filled with floating citadels and storms, earth as labyrinthine caverns of shifting stone and crystal, fire as roiling seas of flame and lava rivers, and water as boundless oceans teeming with currents and abyssal depths.[10] Far from the Material Plane, the elements remain pure and unmixed, creating environments lethally hostile to outsiders through extreme conditions like suffocating voids or crushing pressures.[10] Primary inhabitants include elementals, incorporeal or physical embodiments of the elements themselves—such as air elementals that whirl like living tornadoes or fire elementals that blaze with sentient fury—and genies, the noble rulers who command elemental forces with innate magic and establish sultanates or courts within these realms. For instance, djinni soar through the Plane of Air, weaving wishes from winds, while efreet forge empires in the Plane of Fire's infernal heat. Bordering these elemental planes are the para-elemental planes, formed at the intersections with the Negative Energy Plane and blending elements in hybrid forms, such as the Plane of Smoke where air meets negative energy in choking clouds of ash and cinders, or the Plane of Ice where water freezes into eternal glaciers amid biting cold. These border realms amplify the dangers of their parent planes, with corrosive mists or razor-sharp shards posing constant threats to travelers. Inhabitants here include specialized elementals adapted to the mixtures, like smoke mephits that dart through toxic fumes, alongside genie-kin who vie for control over these volatile territories. The unique challenges of the Inner Planes lie in their raw, primordial nature, demanding adaptation to elemental dominance that can overwhelm unprepared adventurers with exhaustion, sensory overload, or spontaneous combustion. The Outer Planes represent the infinite layers of moral and philosophical extremes, shaped by the alignments that influence their landscapes and societies, with each plane serving as a divine domain tied to specific ethical paradigms. Mount Celestia, the lawful good plane, ascends in seven mounting heavens of pristine mountains, golden cities, and radiant skies, where order and mercy prevail amid trials of virtue.[10] Its inhabitants include archons, celestial guardians enforcing divine law with unyielding discipline, and petitioners—the souls of the faithful deceased—who labor in harmonious service to deities like those of justice and protection. In contrast, the Abyss embodies chaotic evil across countless ever-shifting layers of grotesque horrors, from festering swamps to volcanic wastelands teeming with betrayal and madness. Demons, fiendish hordes led by demon lords in perpetual wars, dominate here, preying on the weak amid the plane's inherent instability that warps reality into nightmarish forms.[10] Petitioners in the Abyss suffer eternal torment, twisted into manes or worse, while deities of destruction hold tenuous sway over fractured domains. Other outer planes, like the neutral battlegrounds of the Beastlands or the bureaucratic hells of Baator, host devils, yugoloths, and celestials in factional conflicts, with challenges arising from alignment-based magical dissonance that weakens opposing ideologies and provokes moral reckonings. The transitive planes facilitate movement across the multiverse, offering pathways that overlap or connect other realms without their own dominant themes. The Astral Plane appears as an endless silvery void of thought and memory, where physical bodies do not age and travelers project via mental focus, navigating by willpower amid floating debris of ancient battles and dead gods' corpses.[10] Inhabitants include githyanki raiders who hunt from astral ships and astral dreadnoughts, massive psychic predators that devour minds and sever silver cords linking to physical forms. Hazards involve psychic echoes that can trap the unwary in illusions or the risk of permanent severance from one's body. The Ethereal Plane, a foggy expanse of muted colors and whispers, overlaps the Material and Inner Planes, allowing phase-shifting through walls and borders via spells like etherealness. Ghostly entities such as phase spiders and ether cyclones roam its depths, with the Border Ethereal enabling stealthy reconnaissance but exposing intruders to ethereal haunters that drain life force. The Plane of Shadow mirrors the Material Plane in shadowy form, enabling travel through darkness and access to negative influences, inhabited by shadows, shadar-kai, and undead. These planes demand mental fortitude and protective magic, as disorientation or predatory ambushes can strand explorers in limbo. The Positive and Negative Energy Planes stand as the ultimate sources of creation and entropy, enveloping the Inner Planes and infusing all existence with vital forces, yet posing existential threats through their unchecked energies. The Positive Energy Plane radiates blinding light and explosive vitality, accelerating growth and healing living creatures at an overwhelming rate—minor exposure restores wounds rapidly, but major dominance risks spontaneous combustion as bodies overload with life force.[11] Inhabitants are rare, including guardians like solars who channel its power, but the plane's essence destroys undead on contact, making it a bastion against necromancy. Conversely, the Negative Energy Plane is a lightless void of decay and cold, siphoning vitality from the living to fuel entropy, where even brief exposure causes exhaustion and hit point drain, while empowering undead with regenerative strength against the living. Undead lords and night hags thrive here, harvesting necrotic energy, but mortals require wards like death ward to survive its life-draining aura. These planes highlight the multiverse's balance, where excess life or death warps reality into hazardous extremes, challenging adventurers with survival mechanics tied to their fundamental opposition to undeath and vitality.Sigil: The City of Doors
Sigil is the central metropolis of the Planescape multiverse, known as the City of Doors for its innumerable portals that connect to every layer of existence.[12] This ring-shaped city encircles the infinite Spire at the heart of the Outlands, floating above its apex in a massive stone torus structure, rendering it inaccessible by conventional planar travel.[12] Portals to and from Sigil can manifest in any doorway, window, archway, or frame, activated by specific keys ranging from mundane objects to symbolic gestures, making the city a nexus for multiversal transit.[12] The city's geography divides into distinct wards, each reflecting its stratified society. The Hive serves as the overcrowded slums, a chaotic underbelly teeming with poverty, crime, and unlicensed portals that lead to perilous destinations.[12] In stark contrast, the Lady's Ward houses the elite, featuring grand estates, temples, and administrative centers amid manicured parks and fortified walls.[12] Notable landmarks include the Great Gymnasium, a sprawling complex dedicated to physical and magical training for adventurers and planar explorers, and the Prison, a foreboding maze where the Lady of Pain metes out eternal punishments to transgressors.[12] Governance in Sigil is enigmatic and absolute, enforced by the Lady of Pain, a mysterious, god-like figure who appears rarely but wields unchallenged authority to maintain order.[12] She is assisted by the dabus, her mute, ethereal servants who silently repair the city, inscribe its architecture with glowing runes, and execute her will through subtle manipulations of reality.[12] The Civic Festhall, located in the Clerk's Ward, functions as a neutral gathering place for discourse, entertainment, and information exchange, fostering the city's intellectual and social fabric without direct political power.[12] Sigil's economy revolves around the commodification of knowledge, arcane artifacts, and interplanar commerce, fueled by its unparalleled access to the multiverse.[12] Merchants and spies trade secrets as readily as goods, with markets overflowing from exotic spices of the Beastlands to enchanted relics from the Abyss, all bartered in a currency of jink or favors.[12] The population, estimated at 250,000 to 300,000 inhabitants, comprises an extraordinary diversity of beings, including humans, tieflings, modrons, and celestials, drawn from every plane to seek fortune, refuge, or intrigue in this neutral hub.[12]Society and Organizations
Factions
In the Planescape campaign setting, the factions represent fifteen distinct philosophical organizations that wield considerable influence over Sigil, the City of Doors, by embodying competing visions of the multiverse's nature and purpose. Established after the Great Upheaval approximately 600 years prior, these groups were limited to fifteen by decree of the Lady of Pain to prevent further chaos, allowing them to share governance through a delicate balance of power that permeates daily life, trade, and enforcement in the city. Each faction's ideology shapes its members' actions, from charitable endeavors to aggressive proselytizing, fostering a vibrant yet tense political landscape where beliefs directly impact planar affairs.[13] Membership in these factions generally demands alignment with their core philosophy, often involving oaths, tests of character, or practical demonstrations of commitment, which in turn provide access to specialized resources, safe houses, and alliances across the planes. Symbols unique to each faction—typically worn on clothing, etched on buildings, or used in official seals—serve as immediate identifiers, reinforcing group identity and deterring rivals. These organizations exert influence through control of key institutions in Sigil, such as courts, asylums, and markets, while their philosophies occasionally spill into broader planar politics, allying or clashing with extraplanar entities.[13] The following table summarizes the fifteen original factions, their philosophies, representative symbols (described textually where documented), and primary influences in Sigil:| Faction | Philosophy | Representative Symbol | Influence in Sigil |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athar (Defiers) | Gods are false pretenders, mere powerful mortals; true divinity lies beyond them. | Broken ring or wheel | Operates the Shattered Temple; challenges divine cults; resists magical divine effects.[13] |
| Believers of the Source (Godsmen) | All beings can achieve godhood through trials and reincarnation. | Circle with ascending spark | Manages the Great Foundry; promotes self-improvement; influences ethereal travel and ascension rites.[13] |
| Bleak Cabal (Bleakers) | The multiverse holds no inherent meaning; suffering reveals personal truth. | Inverted teardrop | Runs the Gatehouse asylum; provides aid to the downtrodden; fosters despair-based resilience.[13] |
| Doomguard (Sinkers) | Entropy and decay are the multiverse's ultimate state; preservation is futile. | Cracked hourglass | Controls armories on the Negative Energy Plane; sabotages preservation efforts; allies with nihilists.[13] |
| Dustmen (Dead Book) | Life is an illusion of death; true existence awaits in undeath or beyond. | Mummified hand or skull | Oversees the Mortuary; handles funerals and undead affairs; promotes detachment from life.[13] |
| Fated (Takers) | Might and personal effort determine fate; take what you can hold. | Clenched fist | Dominates the Hall of Records; hoards resources; emphasizes individual achievement in trade.[13] |
| Fraternity of Order (Guvners) | Universal laws govern all; understanding and exploiting them yields power. | Balanced scales | Administers City Courts; enforces regulations; leverages bureaucratic control.[13] |
| Free League (Indeps) | No single philosophy dominates; individualism and cooperation without dogma. | None (rejects formal symbols) | Influences the Grand Bazaar; promotes free trade; acts as neutral mediators.[13] |
| Harmonium (Hardheads) | Unity and peace require enforced order, even by force if necessary. | Five-pointed star | Maintains City Barracks; polices streets; pushes for standardized harmony.[13] |
| Mercykillers (Red Death) | Absolute justice demands punishment without mercy to purge imperfection. | Sword piercing scales | Runs the Prison; executes judgments; ensures swift legal retribution.[13] |
| Revolutionary League (Anarchists) | Factions corrupt the multiverse; chaos and revolution reveal true freedom. | Broken chain | Operates covertly; incites unrest; undermines faction structures.[13] |
| Sign of One (Signers) | The multiverse springs from individual imagination; each mind creates reality. | Single eye | Controls the Hall of Speakers; inspires artistic and illusory pursuits.[13] |
| Society of Sensation (Sensates) | Sensory experiences alone reveal the multiverse's truths. | Coiled spiral | Hosts the Civic Festhall; curates pleasures and explorations; enhances sensory trades.[13] |
| Transcendent Order (Ciphers) | Instinctual action without deliberation harmonizes one with the multiverse. | Interlocked circles (yin-yang variant) | Manages the Great Gymnasium; trains reflexes; promotes immediate, unthinking harmony.[13] |
| Xaositects (Chaosmen) | The multiverse is fundamentally chaotic; order is illusion, change eternal. | Tangled lines or scribble | Thrives in the Hive Ward; disrupts routines; studies random patterns.[13] |
Sects and Other Groups
In the Planescape setting, sects serve as smaller, philosophy-oriented groups that operate independently of the major factions, often emphasizing niche beliefs or practices across the planes. These organizations typically lack the political clout or official seats in Sigil held by factions, instead fostering communities bound by shared lifestyles or pursuits. Following the Faction War of 130 YFHR, which dissolved the formal power structures of the fifteen factions in 2nd edition, many sects gained prominence as survivors adapted their ideologies to a factionless Sigil, filling voids in philosophical discourse and planar exploration. In the 5th edition update, this evolution culminates in the twelve ascendant factions, blending classic and reformed groups.[14]5th Edition Ascendant Factions
The 2023 Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse introduces twelve ascendant factions that hold significant sway in Sigil, updating the setting's societal structure. These include remnants and evolutions of original factions alongside new groups:| Faction | Philosophy Summary | Key Role in Sigil |
|---|---|---|
| Athar | Gods are frauds; true power lies in the Great Unknown. | Monitors religious activities from the Shattered Temple. |
| Bleak Cabal | No grand plan exists; aid the suffering to find personal truth. | Operates healing sanctuaries like the Gatehouse. |
| Doomguard | Embrace entropy and destruction as natural forces. | Oversees weapons and decay-related industries. |
| Fated | What you can hold, you own through personal might. | Manages taxes and debts via the Hall of Records. |
| Fraternity of Order | Laws underpin reality; master them for control. | Adjudicates disputes and portals in courts. |
| Hands of Havoc | Dismantle oppressive systems through chaos and rebellion. | Sabotages unjust powers covertly. |
| Harmonium | Enforce unity and order for the greater good. | Polices streets from City Barracks. |
| Heralds of Dust | The multiverse is an illusion of life; seek true death. | Administers the Mortuary and funerals. |
| Mercykillers | Deliver absolute, merciless justice. | Runs the Prison and executions. |
| Mind's Eye | Harness mental power and visualization to shape reality. | Oversees the Great Foundry for ascension. |
| Society of Sensation | Truth comes from profound sensory experiences. | Hosts events at the Civic Festhall. |
| Transcendent Order | Achieve harmony through instinctive, unhesitating action. | Trains at the Great Gymnasium. |