The Planes: Gate-Towns
Our final stop in The Planes series are the Gate-Towns -
the towns who border the sixteen major planes of the Outer Planes.
What are the Gate-Towns?
Located around the Outlands are 16 towns that link to the Outer Planes by portals, also referred to as gates. These towns often take on many aspects of the planes they connect to, with the surrounding lands stretching out dozens of miles from them also having many similarities to those planes. A lawful plane will have a gate-town that is orderly and well structured, with laws and creeds in equal force to the lawfulness of its plane. The surrounding land will be well maintained with clean crop rows in vast farmlands arrayed out in an orderly and well thought out fashion. A chaotic plane may have a jumble of buildings sloppily falling over each other, untaken care of with streets twisting in on themselves.
Each of these gate-towns is spaced equally around the central spire of the Outlands, forming a representation of the Great Wheel. Each gate-town is 1,000 miles from the spire and is located on the 10th ring where all magic functions as normal. Due to the mutable nature of the Outlands, the distance between each gate-town changes constantly and for some travelers, it may only take 3 days to travel from an adjacent gate-town to the another, while others may require up to 18 days for the same journey.
A Player’s Primer to the Outlands, 1995 TSR Inc.
History
The gate-towns are first hinted at in the Manual of the Planes (1987) though there are no set towns. Instead, there are only the 16 white disk portals that can lead to any Outer Plane based on the desires of whoever is using it, or in the general area. If a party were to travel through one of these white disks, it is based on where the majority of individuals wanted to travel to, regardless of what the minority might want. If a group of three paladins entered a portal, hoping to go to Mount Celestia, but four imps quickly joined them, all hoping for the Nine Hells, all seven creatures would end up on the top layer of the Nine Hells.
By 2nd edition with the Planescape Campaign Setting (1994), towns can now be found around each gate, with each town focused on the Outer Plane that their gate represented to the group. This makes it so that a portal in Automata will always lead to Mechanus due to the majority of the town connected to that plane. If a gate-town becomes too connected to a plane, it might slide off of the Outlands and end up in the plane it holds the portal to. When this happens, a new town suddenly appears in the old town's spot, sometimes with pre-built buildings if the town is more law and order focused, or it could be a crumbling mess for places devoted to chaos and destruction. The old town then ends up as a town inside of the plane with the portal linking it to the Outlands and the new town that forms in its previous space.
This movement is the ultimate goal of most powerful creatures, for as their plane gains more ‘ground’, the more powerful the plane’s influence becomes. It is the hope of many to have their plane, and its influence, grow in the multiverse, making them stronger in the process.
An Outsider’s Perspective
For outsiders, these gate-towns are a strange experience to wander through as the inhabitants may act weirdly or have strange customs that make little sense. Many of the individuals from the Material Plane may find such towns as odd, especially if they don’t understand the factions or that the Outer Planes are as much focused on belief as they are about living. Petitioners, those who have already died and this is their afterlife, make up much of the inhabitants of these towns, making them alien to outsiders as well.
Outsiders can be seen as threats by these communities for they are accustomed to how these towns operate. A town focused on good works and helping others won’t allow evil creatures in their town for long, just as evil towns won’t let a bunch of paladins of light last very long in their town. The safest way for outsiders to travel from one gate-town to the next is to be a traveling merchant bringing in much-needed supplies from across the multiverse to each of these towns.
A Native’s Perspective
Many of the inhabitants of the gate-towns are often petitioners but can be any creature from the plane that they are connected to. Modrons, inevitables, and others might reside in Automata, while demons largely reside in Plague-Mort along with the unlucky souls whose afterlife is the chaotic evil nature of the Abyss. There are no true natives to the Outlands, beyond the petitioners whose afterlife is that of the true neutral affinity of the Outlands, and so all who eventually settle down here are from the Outer Planes or have shown up here from other locations across the multiverse.
The petitioners have little to no knowledge of their past life, though they can have strong feelings towards things they once loved or hated in their mortal life. Instead, these petitioners begin life anew, seeking ways of aligning themselves even closer to the plane of existence that is closest to their beliefs, personality, morals, creeds, and more. It is the goal of the inhabitants in each of these gate-towns to pull the land of the Outlands into their preferred Outer Plane, though some have taken a more disingenuous path and are hoping to stop other gate-towns from sliding into another plane.
If there are too many in a gate-town opposed to the connected Outer Plane, the gate-town remains in the Outlands. For those who are in charge of a gate-town, be it a mayor, crime lord, or simply a community leader, their ultimate goal is to bring the gate-town into the plane that they are connected to.
Gate-Towns
There are sixteen gate-towns, each connected to one of the Outer Planes.
Automata
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Connected: Mechanus
Leader: Council of Order; Captain Arstimis in charge of the guards, Pelnis the Clockmaker in charge of the crafters, Serafil the Priestess of Lei Kung in charge of the temples
A Player’s Primer to the Outlands, 1995 TSR Inc.
Lawful and orderly, this town is carefully laid out in a grid with neat buildings all made of the same gray-red stone. There are set districts located in specific locations in this town meaning that all smiths are found in a single area, all taverns in the same block, all homes and communities in their blocks, and so on. The petitioners of this town all wear the same gray-red robes with a single white sash and are in charge of many of the businesses in Automata and have important roles in the governance. Each of the buildings appears like stamps of each other, though they range in carefully ordered height of 1 story to 4 stories tall, with each story exactly 12 feet in height. The only small splashes of color appear on signs, and any color must have the appropriate documentation from the town or be removed immediately and the owner fined.
The gate to Mechanus is located in a central building that is closely watched over by the guards, for only authorized individuals are allowed access to the gate. It appears as a vertical gear slowly spinning a few feet off the ground and the portal links to many different places in Mechanus based on a schedule that only the workers in Automata know, and they aren’t willing to share that knowledge. For travelers to utilize the gate, they must go through piles of documentation notating exact details about their life, and if the results not to the liking of Automata, they’ll be refused access to the gate.
Acting in opposition to the ordered nature of this town, there is an underground section of the city where all illegal activity happens. The Underground only comes to life during the night when the governance of Automata thinks that all citizens should be asleep. This underground area is the only thing keeping Automata from sliding into Mechanus and the Council of Order would like nothing more than to see the Council of Anarchy which does everything it can to upset the order of this town. Most outsiders find the Underground to much easier to get what they need done as they offer falsified documents, illegal goods, and more.
Bedlam
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Evil
Connected: Pandemonium
Leader: Tharick Bleakshadow, Keeper of Bedlam
A Player’s Primer to the Outlands, 1995 TSR Inc.
Perched on the side of a hill, this town is splayed out like a great fan with the base of the fan, its smallest part, where the portal to Pandemonium is located. At this site is a great black tower with a stone hand grasping out, as if trying to escape from the plane the portal is connected to. It is said that it is all the remains of a god who tried to escape Pandemonium but was unsuccessful, that is imprisoned beneath the city, and that eventually, it may escape, destroying anyone who happens to live here. Moving up the side of the hill, and away from the howling portal, the town loses some of its jumbled chaos and the roads become better maintained and the buildings better constructed.
Planescape Campaign Setting Box, 1994 TSR Inc.
The people of this town are said to be all crazy, or barmy as the locals from Sigil call it. While many are chaotic, they aren’t as insane as outsiders are first led to believe. They have plans and can be careful, it's just more difficult for them to stick to their plans, especially with the howling winds of Pandemonium leaking out of the portal, driving those closer to the winds mad with its screams. The barmiest of the inhabitants here is supposedly Tharick Bleakshadow, a withered old wizard who drove off the previous rulers of this town, a group of planars who tried to maintain some sense of order here. Tharick seems to be only descending further into madness, launching his fireballs across the town and destroying buildings in fits of rage and madness.
Beyond Tharick, there is a shadow ruler who has been trying to plunge Bedlam into Pandemonium and is said to be quite close to seeing his dreams become a reality. Havra, a shadow demon, rarely makes himself known in the town, but rather talks to people from the shadows, giving them new ideas and allowing them to take credit. He is slowly spreading his madness across the town, with the ultimate goal of growing his power and influence.
Curst
Alignment: Chaotic Evil, Neutral Evil
Connected: Carceri
Leader: Burgher Tovus Giljaf
This city has a circular wall that wraps around it and is covered in a dangerous plant known as razorvine that can cut through even the thickest leather armor. Inside the walls are five districts that wrap around the portal like rings. The outermost district holds houses, taverns, and stables, the next district, or ring, holds workshops and craftsmen. The third ring in holds warehouses and merchants, while the fourth ring holds the mansions and accommodations of the wealthy and titled. The final ring holds the governance buildings, guard barracks, and the portal to Carceri, which takes on the appearance of a four-sided arch made of black razorvine. Of all the gate-towns and their portals, this portal sees the least amount of traffic going in and out, probably because of Carceri’s reputation of being a prison-plane.
The people of Curst are exiles and refugees, escaped prisoners, and those cast out of their homes and lands by others. They are bitter and hateful, often making plans of revenge that will never see a conclusion simply because the plane of Carceri is enough to drive all hope out of them. Anyone who wants to enter this town is free to do so, unlike all other gate-towns who are very picky about who keep a closer eye on those who enter their town. On the other hand, it's incredibly hard to leave this town as the Wall Guards have to be persuaded to allow inhabitants to leave, often requiring proof of business outside their walls. The inhabitants don’t care, whether because they have accepted their exile in this town, or because they feel like it keeps the rest of the multiverse from them.
All of the buildings and walls are covered in razorvine, making it quite dangerous to escape by going over the walls. Most travelers and merchants avoid this town, not that the inhabitants care much. Mercenaries are highly valued in this town as there is always someone looking to get revenge on those who wronged them, whether real or perceived.
Ecstasy
Alignment: Neutral Good
Connected: Elysium
Leader: Regialia Tonn the Sun Master, Karo Jantar the Night Hunter
A Player’s Primer to the Outlands, 1995 TSR Inc.
Known as the City of Plinths, due to the countless number of monoliths made of iron and stone that dot across the landscape, this town is made up of inhabitants seeking enlightenment. The gate to Elysium takes the form of a bone-white monolith and requires a traveler to ascend to its sides to the top, a common sight on many of the other plinths where the inhabitants go to think. The people here are good-natured, though many outsiders find them quite tiring since the people always act on their first thought and never waste time thinking about social norms, laws, or anything as complicated as thinking twice. If you are holding something that interests someone, they’ll pick it out of your hands, inspect it, and then hand it back if they remember to do so. This can be incredibly annoying for outsiders trying to trade goods, or simply walking through, but the inhabitants simply don’t waste their time on the feelings of outsiders, they are focused on themselves.
There are laws in Ecstasy, though those with a quick tongue can easily skirt these laws. It's illegal to trespass, but not to explore. It's illegal to steal, but not to burrow. Thieves might find this town to be easy to steal from, but many don’t bother to stick around as the inhabitants are always asking what others are doing without thought or care about how offensive it might come across. If they think a crime has been committed, they will gather up the closest 10 people and immediately begin a court proceeding against the convicted with each of the 10 giving their first impressions, whether for good or ill.
The two individuals who are supposedly in charge, the Sun Master and Night Hunter, only show up for important matters that threaten the spread out pastoral town. The Sun Master wears golden robes and a large golden mask, wielding a brilliant blade that is incredibly sharp. Regialia inherited the title and rides through the town with three solars as her servants, striking down creatures of evil who threaten the town, but only during the day. At night, it is the Night Hunter who is responsible for protecting the farmlands that make up most of this village, and he has a large entourage of moon dogs that can tear creatures apart while he fills them full of arrows before pulling out his sword and finishing them off. Both only rule this town in the sense that they protect it and no one else can best them in combat to take their positions of leadership over the town.
Excelsior
Alignment: Lawful Good
Connected: Mount Celestia
Leader: High Chancellor Migualla abd-al Ragarin
A Player’s Primer to the Outlands, 1995 TSR Inc.
This town gives off a warm glow with streets paved with bricks flecked with actual gold. No wall protects this town from outsiders, but rather three to twelve floating castles manned by powerful individuals known as the Paladin Lords who ensure the protection of this town. Occasionally these towers rise and land in spots around this town, allowing its holy warriors to leave and gather up needed supplies for their vigils over Excelsior. At the center of this town is a massive tower made of marble, and in it is a white marble staircase that ascends high into the tower. If someone begins the journey up the staircase, eventually they’ll simply walk out of Excelsior and arrive in Mount Celestia, about 20 feet over the ocean made of holy water and a few dozen feet from the mountain’s shore.
Many find the residents of this town to be pompous, who always speak about doing the right thing, but don’t often leave their perfect town to destroy darkness and fiends. Paladins from all across the multiverse travel to this town to preach about the fight against the darkness, and how they must rise to destroy those who would practice evil and subjugate others. While many might think such holy warriors would work well together, they often have disagreements over what they see as lawful that end up bloody brawls with one or more paladins laying dead. This is even how the paladin lords have gained their floating towers, by challenging those who previously owned them and taking over if they think their superiors are doing a poor job in defending the town or taking on the forces of evil.
The current ruler, High Chancellor Migualla abd-al Ragarin, is often having to deal with paladins who dislike how she is handling the town and the local thieves guild, known as the Holy Shadow who only preys on non-good and non-lawful creatures. She has remained in power though, her fighting prowess makes her a dangerous foe to anger, and her countless years in charge have only made her more powerful.
Faunel
Alignment: Neutral Good, Chaotic Good
Connected: the Beastlands
Leader: Wrath
This ruin and vine-choked town is the entrance to the Beastlands, though many might think this town is in desperate need of fixing. The fact of the matter is that this town is supposed to be overrun by the wilds, it's supposed to be a ruined mess and any who try to fix it and make it civilized are missing the point of the Beastlands, as well as probably won’t survive very long as the inhabitants don’t take kindly to such individuals. Instead, many of the residents who need shelter to survive put up large, brightly colored tents throughout the ruins, setting up shops, homes, and more underneath. Everyone else, namely the beast petitioners from the Beastlands, simply live in the jungle and trees, watching over the town and stopping anything that would try to ruin their homes.
Overseeing this town is a mysterious figure known as Wrath, a large stone statue that is said to have once been human but was transformed into a large monolith of stone. He stands over the pool of water that acts as the portal to the Beastlands and interrogates any who wishes to pass on to the plane. He acts as the guardian and gives his blessings to those who wish to experience the Beastlands for its wild, untamed self. Those who wish to exploit the happy hunting grounds find themselves in horrible spots within the Beastlands after using the portal, often being killed by the petitioners there. Many believe Wrath has some ability to control the portal’s destination or has friends among the petitioners, but it has yet to be fully proven.
Covered in vines and thick foliage, new ruins are constantly being uncovered in the town, with many claiming that these ruins suddenly appear from the myriad of worlds located in the Material Plane. That there are portals within these ruins that lead to those worlds, though no one truly knows the truth of it yet. Many wonder if these ruins are the reason Faunel has yet to pass onto the Beastlands yet, that maybe it is the fault of Wrath that these ruins keep appearing and that his stewardship over the town keeps it firmly in the Outlands.
Fortitude
Alignment: Lawful Neutral, Lawful Good
Connected: Arcadia
Leader: Seven members of the Secret Conclave
Neatly ordered, this town is nicknamed the Egg thanks to the white wall that wraps around the town in a perfect oval. Those who reside here are focused on law and order, with enough good to make them assume they are better than other communities. They are quite suspicious of outsiders, often using their innate ability to detect alignments to quickly know who they are talking with or is intruding on their perfect community of perfectly laid out roads, neatly trimmed grass, and beautifully maintained gardens. Confessions is a popular pastime in this community, with a large arena at the bottom, or spire-ward, specifically built for confessing sins and wrong-doings.
The buildings of this community are well-ordered and similar to each other, though not to the extent of Automata. There is a sense of individuality, so long as it adheres to the community guidelines put forth by the elected members of the Secret Conclave and the rest of the neighbors. Those who try to bring too much individuality to this town are mistrusted by the populace who often call on the Harmonium guards who patrol their town to check up on suspicious individuals. Those individuals are then brought to the confessions arena, known simply as the Confessional, where they are forced on stage that magically compels them to admit their sins and evils. The crowd who floods this arena that gives their verdict, either by simply verbally attacking them or by sentencing them to hard labor or even to death if the sin, or the crowd’s mood, is extreme enough.
On the other side of the town is a four-sided ziggurat with a green flame at the very top that acts as the portal to Arcadia. Those who pass through the portal are said to be cleansed and purified as they journey to Arcadia, and that those of an evil-alignment are burned pure by the fires. Others claim that evil creatures who use the portals are cast into the fire and burned away quite painfully. Due to these rumors, very few outsiders of questionable morals choose to use this portal but rather find other means if they truly wish to journey to Arcadia for some reason.
Glorium
Alignment: Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral
Connected: Ysgard
Leader: Flatnose Grim
Situated at the edge of a fjord, this small town is constructed of only a handful of longhouses and small wooden structures, providing very few reasons for travelers to visit. The inhabitants of this town prefer it that way, not caring for outsiders who don’t understand their way of life or that they prefer to live rough. They are used to outsiders turning their noses up at their way of life, which is a quick way for those outsiders to get a bloody nose or quick end as the inhabitants are quick-tempered and don’t take careless words or insults at all.
Planescape Campaign Setting Box Set, 1994 TSR Inc.
What's unique about this town, besides the remote location and rough inhabitants, is that it has two portals to Ysgard. It has one portal at the beginning of the fjord that their village is set upon, and the current leads into the portal allowing trading vessels to enter into Ysgard easily. Twice a day the current changes, allowing those same vessels to sail out of Ysgard and bring needed trading supplies to Glorium and other larger towns in the Outlands. There is also a portal in the nearby mountains in a dark cave entrance where one of the roots of the Yggdrasil tree can be found. If a traveler begins climbing the root, they can end up in Ysgard wherever the tree touches, though travelers should be wary as numerous caves lead to dark lands beneath the Outlands where creatures of nightmare reside.
The leader of Glorium is self-proclaimed, but the inhabitants don’t seem to mind, or if they do, they have accepted they can’t do anything about it. Flatnose Grim, so named because his nose is almost completed flattened against his face from the number of times it has broken, is a powerful planar who has been in loads of fights against outsiders who said one careless insult about his village without realizing it. He is quick to draw his sword and never forgives careless words or insults about him, Glorium, or his wife, Kostbera, who is often called a nag, though never within earshot.
Hopeless
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Connected: Hades
Leader: High Cardinal of Hopeless, Thingol the Mocking
A Player’s Primer to the Outlands, 1995 TSR Inc.
As gray and dismal as the plane it is connected to, Hopeless is a spiraling town, literally, that descends into a pit. There is a single road that slowly spirals around until it reaches the bottom of this pit where a bright red-stone skull stares up to the sky above with blind eyes with tears that erode through the stone, making it appear as a weeping skull. It is known as the Screaming Gate, as its mouth is pulled open in a howl of pain, and is the brightest thing in this town as all bright colors have been outlawed since it hurts the resident’s eyes. Outsiders who visit this town wearing anything brighter than muddied gray clothes are immediately attacked by the residents as they rip and pull off the bright fabrics, and if they try to fight back, the crowd becomes violent and begins beating and flinging stones at them. It’s the law in Hopeless that no bright colors, fabrics, or anything can enter Hopeless.
A single large road spirals down this pit with several buildings sloppily constructed making it impossible to cut across the spiral and make their way down to the bottom faster. Travelers are forced to travel the entire road where businesses, homes, and taverns line the road, their facades slowly decaying into the gray mush of this town. At the very bottom of this road is the Screaming Gate whose mouth is full of a dark gray ooze with the consistency of stinking tar. Travelers only have to jump into the pool, arriving in the Gray Wastes of Hades, though why anyone would want to is beyond the understanding of most outsiders. Those who do make their homes here simply do so because they have nothing else to do or anywhere else to go, they are drawn to this place where they can fester in their misery.
The leader of this town is an ex-wizard who calls herself Thingol the Mocking, she claims she is an ex-wizard as she lost all of her magic, though that doesn’t stop her from being incredibly dangerous. She has seven beholder bodyguards that are fiercely devoted to her that fly over the city watching with their ten eyestalks the town below them, maintaining order and misery in this town. Those with any amount of cheer are soon visited by her guards, or the beholder if they are truly unlucky, where they are beaten down and reminded that Hopeless only has one emotion, hopeless. She has recently gotten into performance art, and is responsible for many grotesque imageries in the city, like the Child and the Boulder, or the Defenestrated Paladin. Her artwork acts as a reminder to the town, and visitors, that she is the law and that anyone who disobeys will end up becoming a new piece of art for her to abuse for weeks on end.
Plague-Mort
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Connected: the Abyss
Leader: Arch-Lector Byrri Yarmoril (currently)
A Player’s Primer to the Outlands, 1995 TSR Inc.
This town is the most active of all the gate-towns, often sending itself into the Abyss, and a new town, with the same name and same rundown buildings, suddenly springs in to take its place and be dragged into the Abyss again. The city is ruled by the iron fist of whoever currently is the Arch-Lector, a title that swaps heads as often as the gate-town slides into the Abyss, if not more so. The Arch-Lector, currently Byrri Yarmoril for who knows how long, is always on the lookout for traitors and betrayals, sending those they suspect into the dungeon where they are never heard of again. The Arch-Lector uses fear and power, their connection to the Abyss, to help control Plague-Mort so that they can send it in to the Abyss quickly, or else demons will spill up and help expedite the process for the Arch-Lector.
The people of Plague-Mort are vile and cruel, always seeking ways to one-up someone they see as weaker. The townsfolk care not for laws or order, but only follow what the current Arch-Lector has to say simply because to do otherwise would end with them being dismembered in the street by the Hounds, the personal guard of the Arch-Lector, or be dragged off into the dungeons where they rot until they die. The Hounds are vicious and cruel, maintaining terror and oppression in the streets, attacking anyone who even so much as looks at them a second too long.
The portal to the Abyss is located in the center of Plague-Mort's abandoned and crumbling town, in the only building maintained, the Arch-Lector's estates. On the west side of this great mansion with shining steel shingles and razorvine covered walls are three arches. The center and right one lead into the Arch-Lectors mansion, where no one escapes if the Hounds catch their scent, and the left one leads into a place far worse. The Abyss.
Ribcage
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Connected: the Nine Hells of Baator
Leader: Lord Quentill Paracs, Baron of the Great Pass, and Guardian of the Gate
A Player’s Primer to the Outlands, 1995 TSR Inc.
Nestled in a valley where the mountains curve in on themselves forming a terrain that appears like some great beasts' rib bones is the town of Ribcage. Ruled over by Lord Quentill Paracs, a powerful tiefling with a sword and magic, he keeps a strong hold over his city, ensuring that laws are followed, the order is maintained, and that he can exploit the laws as much as possible to retain his position in Ribcage. He has been the leader for countless years, maintaining his iron grip on his citadel, ensuring that the five senators, who are supposed to be able to check his power, are always in his debt and that are forced to follow his laws either by force, bribes, or even kidnappings.
Planescape Campaign Setting Box Set, 1994 TSR Inc.
The way of this town is that laws are important, they are important to exploit and find every loophole, and they are important to maintain order and power over others. Rules are meant to be exploited and everyone in this town is an expert on the law and the many loopholes that somehow appear throughout them. The blackguard, the personal militia Lord Paracs and the sole army of Ribcage, keep the peace by ensuring laws are adhered too, and with how many ways the laws can be interpreted, they have a lot of freedom to see laws in different lights depending on the circumstances they face. This isn’t to say that the city is dangerous, it is one of the most well-kept gate-towns filled with riches and order. The criminals who are caught are hung on the iron walls that restrict access to the city to only two places are a reminder to all that lawbreakers are dealt with harshly and with little mercy.
The only way to access the gate to Baator, or the Nine Hells as it is more commonly known, is to gain official access or to find someone willing to offer the appearance of official access. An archduke from one of the Nine Hells could offer admittance, Lord Paracs can personally offer safe passage to the Nine Hells, but not on the plane importantly, or there are a wide number of individuals who are capable of forging such needed documents to access the portal. The portal itself is a large red monolith housed in a section of Lord Paracs citadel, all to ensure that any who would try to exploit and sneak into the Nine Hells must pass through his home and under his nose to do so.
Rigus
Alignment: Lawful Evil, Lawful Neutral
Connected: Acheron
Leader: General Nagaro
Located on a great hill is the town of Rigus, divided into seven stacked rings that get smaller as they wrap around the hill. Separating each ring is a large octagonal wall of iron with the shortest wall being at the very top of the hill separating the Crown, the smallest and most influential ring that houses the leaders of Rigus, from the rest of Rigus. At the very base of this hill is another great wall of iron, though outsiders typically say this is used to keep Rigus out from the rest of the Outlands.
Instead of clans or families, every group is organized into military orders and each order is ruled by a general with officers below them. In each order are the soldiers, citizens, and even slave-soldiers who make up the bulk of their forces, and these orders vie for control over Rigus and to become the most powerful, the current order in charge is that of the Toll of Doom Brotherhood whose general is in direct communication with the rulers of Rigus. The rulers are ancient generals of Rigus who have died or been lost throughout the many years and wars that Rigus is always waging. These generals exist in a semi-life like state, similar to those of liches, and the most respected and well-known general is General Nagaro, a holy warrior that once hailed from Krynn before she found Rigus. In life, she was a powerful paladin, and in death, she is a horrifying force to behold.
The gate to Acheron, known as the Lion’s Gate, is located a mile below the surface of the town and requires a traveler to travel to the very top of the hill, where the Crown is located, and enter a mausoleum. From there, they must descend the mile-long staircase before they arrive at a great cavernous room that contains a massive archway made of bariaur bones, centaur-goat humanoids that seem to claim the Outlands as their native lands. In the center of this archway is a grat cat’s eye, a swirling mass of green and yellow with a single stripe of black cutting through its center. In this massive cavern are dozens of tunnels that carve their way through the underground of the Outlands towards the twisting layers of foul creatures who call this underground their home.
Sylvania
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Connected: Arborea
Leader: Seven Spiritors; Thought, Knowledge, Action, Passion, Reflection, Pain, Rest
A Player’s Primer to the Outlands, 1995 TSR Inc.
While this is a small town, sporting a population of just over a thousand, this town has a huge reputation for its festivities, all day and night partying, and its exotic buildings. With being so close to Arborea, and the Greek pantheon and the care-free nature of the elves, it's no surprise that this town seems to be on a constant binge with wine and food pouring out of taverns. Located in a large forest with massive flora, structures rise out of this forest in bright colors, strange architecture, and fascinating shapes that can only happen thanks to magic. One of the most well known of these structures, the Dipping Dragon Inn, has its upper floors in the shape of a dragon and mounted on a pivot so that it tilts forward and backward as if the inn is drinking from a nearby pool.
The people of this town take great pride in the fact that they have the most taverns of any other city in the Outlands, and maybe in all of the multiverse except for a few cities in Arborea itself. Travelers from all over can be found here, enjoying the party with petitioners of Olympus, the Greeks, and Arvandor, the elves. It isn’t an uncommon sight to see the two sides begin a bloody street battle as they try to prove that their gods are better or that they know how to experience and party better than the other side. The rulers of this town are the Seven Spiritors who are fairly unique in how they function. They are not quite alive, not quite dead, not quite gods, but not quite mortals. Instead, they are merely essence that must inhabit a body to be given form and most bodies they inhabit are from volunteers that get changed every few decades. Of course, not everybody they possess is so willingly given as any who breaks the rules of Sylvania or brings darkness to the town might also be forced into offering their bodies as punishment.
The gate for this town is difficult to access reliably as it is somewhere in the surrounding woods, is invisible, and it floats randomly through the forest, often compared to how someone tipsy walks. The inhabitants claim the only way to find the portal is to get lost in the woods and eventually the portal will stumble across you and you’ll find yourself in Arborea, though there is no guarantee where you will end up on that plane.
Torch
Alignment: Neutral Evil, Lawful Evil
Connected: Gehenna
Leader: Council of All
Built on the slopes of volcanic spires surrounded by a blood-red marsh, this town is not too often the destination for merchants wanting to make an easy living selling their wares. The people of this town are largely petitioners from Gehenna, or exiles from the rest of the Outland, and who think that the world owes them something. Most of the inhabitants are thought to be low-life and thieves, always taking what they want without caring who it affects as they believe it's their’s by right. Travelers are often taken advantage of, forced into surrendering all their money, or simply killed and their pockets looted regardless of how wealthy they might look.
The whole town is situated in a very troublesome spot in the Outlands, with the red-marsh flooding through the lower parts of the town bringing with it pestilence, plagues, death, boils, and even killer frogs, some kill through poison and others are just so large as to eat a man whole. The higher-ups, the ones with enough power and wealth to live further up the volcanic slopes and so don’t have to worry about the flooding, have their own problems they have to deal with. The volcanic spires that this town is built on are still active and spurts of volcanic rock and fire sometimes explode out from the top, crashing down onto the town and destroying lives and buildings. Most outsiders don’t see the appeal of living in such a horrible place, but natives of Torch find this town to their liking as it allows them to grab on to power and to take from others with little in the way of reprisals.
The gate for this town is quite troublesome and probably amounts to why the town has grown so large. No one can get into the gate since it is located hundreds of feet in the air. The best way of accessing this blood-red portal is to fly up there, though there are plenty of volcanic spires that hang above it with many of the locals swearing that if you drop into the portal, you’ll land safely on the other side. Of course, they give that advice for free so well-traveled individuals should know there is probably a catch. The people of Torch never give out something for free without profiting from it first.
Tradegate
Alignment: Lawful Good, Neutral Good
Connected: Bytopia
Leader: Parliament (Membership requires 500,000 gp and a non-evil alignment)
Tradegate is quickly becoming a massive metropolis of trade and commerce, and it dreams of one day rivaling that of Sigil, the City of Brass, and other massive sites of trade. The city is a hive of activity with old buildings being pulled down and new rising in its place, all in the same architectural stylings and made of the same grayish stone. While most visitors won’t recognize a difference between the old and new buildings, the inhabitants swear the new one is improved and well worth the gold they were paid to build it. Most who reside in this town are focused on productivity and it's said that, of anywhere in the multiverse, the hardest working are the merchants of this town, always looking to increase their wealth and position in the city. The residents will also remind anyone who listens that they aren’t accumulating wealth just to have it, unlike some others they could think of, but rather because they want to prove to themselves and others that they can raise such wealth.
The town is ruled by the Parliament, a massive and informal council of merchants that decide on regulations and laws. They meet once every seven days and anyone who has joined the Parliament can show up and help decide on that week’s laws, regulations, and other issues. They don’t wait around to see if anyone else has an opinion, either you show up to that week's meeting or you miss out on everything they discuss and enact for that week. The governance of Tradegate is also responsible for maintaining the accounting house and mint, the armor and barracks, and the library. Tradegate produces its currency, a coin with a star on one side and the picture of Ilmater, one of the few powers of Bytopia. The library only houses the accounting records for the town and a master list of all the master merchants and their successes so far.
The gate to Bytopia is tricky to get to and requires a traveler to make a deal with a mysterious entity known as the Master Trader. The Master Trader is always on the move and has the form of a large bariaur with ornate and curved horns. He wanders the nearby forests, though sometimes moves dozens of miles away from the town to nearby settlements. Those who wish to travel to Bytopia must make a deal with him, and each deal he makes is tailored to each individual who approaches him. His prices are based on the individual and he always seems to know what travelers are needing or seeking.
Xaos
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Connected: Limbo
Leader: whoever is currently the Supreme Law-Giver
Xaos, pronounced, SACK-so or AX-oss or OCK-sa or bob or XOXO or soaks or AY-socks or a hundred other ways, is a town teetering on the edge of sliding into the ever-churning soup of matter that makes up Limbo. The inhabitants, according to outsiders looking in, are suffering from this raw and chaotic energy by going mad and losing their minds to the powerful energies. The inhabitants simply respond in their weird gibberish, which they all know to mean that they are fine and for outsiders to jump into the chaos. Speaking in their twisted and backward phrases, it requires intense concentration to even get the words correctly out, nevermind if they come out in any intelligible order.
Most who visit Xaos only do so by accident as it is incredibly hard to get out once you get in, and those who stay in the town for too long slowly start becoming madder and madder, their mind slipping away thanks to the chaotic energies of Limbo. Some swear that Xaos itself is almost ready to fall into Limbo, while others claim it keeps moving in and out of Limbo constantly, the inhabitants just never realize it. Regardless, the town is like no other and the buildings are constantly forming, reforming, and collapsing from moment to moment, with the buildings closest to the gate being influenced by change the most often. The gate itself is always on the move and always changing. It could appear as a green orb in the hands of a massive statue, or a swarm of killer bees shooting through the marketplace, or as a churning bowl of soup. Regardless of the shape it takes, everyone can tell that it is the gate to Limbo by just looking at it.
Encounters
It’s Slipping - A town is about to slip into the plane, everyone can feel it. This is a great time for outsiders and travelers to come visit the city and, from a safe distance, watch as it winks out and a new town takes its place. Whoever can secure control over the new town might get a lot of power very quickly, or simply get a knife in their back as others scramble to take control.
Joining the Ranks - A militia from Rigus has decided you need more order in your life and you should join their order. Of course, you never really had a choice as over a dozen individuals surround you and bind you in chains.
Portals in Ruins - It’s said there are ancient portals in the ruins inside of Faunel that can take travelers to distant worlds that have been long lost to time. Those ancient worlds may hold ancient artifacts, lost civilizations, and more just waiting to be discovered.
Trade Mission - A merchant doesn’t feel very safe visiting a few towns, but has heard that there are exotic goods that can only be fetched from certain places. In fact, Curst is said to have the best bottle of wine found anywhere known as heartwine. This wine is made from razorvine, if you could imagine that, and is only produced by the Cilenei brothers who refuse to share their secrets.
Resources & Further Reading
Planescape Campaign Setting (2nd edition)
For general information on the gate-towns and the Outlands.
A Player’s Primer ot the Outlands (2nd edition)
For more information on each of the gate-towns and their interactions with the Outlands.
The Planewalker’s Handbook (2nd edition)
For more information on the gate-towns.
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