The Outlands have sixteen naturally-occuring portals leading to the sixteen planes of the Great Ring, all situated just outside the magic-deadening rings of the plane. Around these portals have grown towns. Part of the reason for this is that there is wealth to be had in trade between the Outlands and the Ring; another reason is that the portals represent weak points in the fabric of the Land, where strongly aligned terrain can slide out into the plane it mostly closely resembles. Of course, terrain can slide into the Outlands as well, if the population gets too neutral.
This is why the gate-towns are filled with people either trying to shift towns out of the Land or trying to keep it in; a loss of a gate-town represents a substantial loss for the Balance and a substantial gain for the champions of a given alignment. As a result, there have been many Fortitudes, many Plague-Morts, many Xaoses, many Gloriums, and so on as a burg is lost and replaced with another. Of course, the merchants and landlords of a town make a profit whether people are there to trade goods or ideologies.
Currently, the Gatetowns and the Planes they lead to are:
Excelsior - Mount Celestia
Tradegate - Bytopia
Ecstasy - Elysium
Faunel - Beastlands
Sylvania - Arborea
Glorium - Ysgard
Xaos - Limbo
Bedlam - Pandemonium
Plague-Mort - Abyss
Curst - Carceri
Hopeless - Gray Waste
Torch - Gehenna
Ribcage - Baator
Rigus - Acheron
Automata - Mechanus
Fortitude - Arcadia
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