Bejeweled Sigil - A Setting within a Setting

Ah, sorry, my vision of this Sigil is a bit dream-state at the moment!

This Sigil would have a better system for removing filth generally, and I don't feel there would be as many open portals to Ooze etc.

The Lower Ward may be run down, but the actually buildings could be quite classy, Tudor-like manor houses and wooden long halls, the only difference is they might be home to two families and be used as a shop by day and have an imp that hangs out in the attic.
The Hive would have strange structures, some that might even have Far Realm influences (are they even houses or are people just living there?), but Sigil would have plumbing and under floor heating in most places and magical versions of technology so the actual standard of living would be higher.

The hustle and bussel is more like lots of mad shouting in languages you don't understand, people argueing in the streets and merchants hawking gear about in your face, its just as if not more busy than usual. This Sigil may even be bigger overall! I imagine lots more carriages and magical vehicles darting about; the roads may be wide but driving laws are hardly policed. Add to that the fact that some races might be at home using the rooftops to travel and the odd flier and you have a action packed set of streets.

There is still an underclass (and even under races e.g goblins) but there are several education systems in place in Sigil, meaning that even the poorest will at least attend a school in his youth to learn to read and write. Teachers are given a lot of freedom, so a Literature teacher may sneak in a bit of minor cantrip lessons if he wishes. The poor can, with some hardship and a lot of working to pay for it, get into a collage which will eventually earn him a place in higher society. Joining a faction or sect can be a method of getting out of povety, some factions actually place new members into a collage.

Calmar wrote:

Hehe, that's how I imagined Sigil when I first heard of the fabulous city at the center of the multiverse...

I like what you're doing and I really like the idea of new factions!

However, I have some suggestions.
I think the core-philosophy of the Brotherhood of Foundations sound too similar to that of the Fraternity of Order.

The Antiquarian Society should have a precise "Golden Age" of the past that it tries to revive. Otherwise it'd be too vague for me.

The House of Clay to me seems to be, at it's core, just another form of racism. That might work, but it could become annoying if one of your players is inherently hostile towards non-humanoids.

Thanks for the support! I'm always open to suggestions too.

The Brotherhood of Foundations is intentionally like that of the Fraternity of Order. It's basically their name strung through a thesaurus! The idea being that as any number of factions can exist, these two can stand side by side without actually being the same. Indeed once I create a Factol for the Brotherhood, *that* is where the difference will lie. The Fraternity are experimental theory to the Brotherhood's practical tests.

The Antiquarian Society are...a bloody good reason for all those dungeon crawls everyone goes on, they pay you too. But apart from that they're looking into all lose massive ruins that seem to run on magic, it is a constant question for them as to how the people of all did it all. The Golden Age I suppose is the time when people were more likely to become gods, when empires were massive world spanning things (every setting says some race ruled everything at some point, don't they?). Also they don't make vases like they used to, you know?

The House of Clay are bad guys, perhaps in their view justified? Most races are humaniod. But yes, they're racists.

It is difficult for me to say at the moment Palomides, but under floor heating and plumbing were of Roman design, well *before* medieval times.

I would say it is closer to Victorian that medieval, but the level of technology is all over the place; for instance I think Sigil would know of and widely use the Printing Press, as it would not be a difficulty to make them (you must take into account races like gnomes loving to invent more than we do and dwarves have a naturally higher standard of craftsmanship, and we did alright just by ourselves!) and the resources to make them would be fairly easy to get a hold of, however, things like cars would require a lot of work, resources and enough people making spare parts that magic using Sigilians just wouldn't care for it.

This setting is not steam punk (mainly 'cos 'm sure someone around here is doing that), inventions can run on just about anything and they most often run on magic.

As a general note I imagine magic to be more common in Sigil and anywhere else, picture hobos vanishing in shadows, drunkly! Picture a busy clerk having a letter flap over to him on tiny wings and him tuting about another bill. Picture a group of children carrying a bag of newts to take to her grandmother, a high ranking witch. Picture a chimney sweep invoking the spirits of dust to get a move on.

While an adeventurer might opt for one path (fighter, avenger, barbarian) Sigilian mostly go the route of learning to fight (or get out of one quick enough), how to hide and a few cantrips to help with their chores and careers (and something fun to do at a party).

Oh, and there will be taxi drivers. What they're driving is another question. Chariot? magic carpet? giant millipede instead of a tram? "Horseless Carriage" etc.

Oh please do, I just don't want to set anything in stone before I know where I want to go with this, thats all.

I like your ideas in fact! A Sherlock type could easily be the factol of the Order of the Clear Lens.

Yeah, Ankh-Morporkian would be a way of describing it. The guilds of Ankh are vaguely like factions actually.

I imagine Sigil as run by unelected officials, much to the annoyance of the population, but since they can form pretty decent militia and some of them are powerful (in a fight), people don't get that oppressed.

So far it is slightly lighter in tone, just because I find it easy to make things sinister, I don' want it to be too dark when GM's can add that themselves...so I'll add horror and the criminal aspects later.

Here, have a title or two for no reason:

Subject to change, I jus' like making them.

That is very clever! Yep, thats canon as it were.

I'll be at work all week so my next update will be next weekend, I'm sorry, however that is quite fast for a Planewalker project!