Sigil in Dungeon Master's Guide II

Ok., now for the rest of the Sigil details. The permanent population (those who live in Sigil full-time) is given as 50,000 with transients coming thru raising the total to 250,000 present in the city at any one time. The weather, day and night, flora and fauna, and architecture in Sigil are briefly discussed ("If it's not raining in Sigil when you arrive - wait a few minutes"!) The Lady of Pain (no stats thank the gods) and the Dabus receive a good write up, and the wards of Sigil each get a section and with some of the shops and services detailed (i.e. the Bones of the Night gets good space). All the Faction headquarters are technically mentioned, but only the ones in actual use after the Faction War get written about (i.e. the Mortuary, Civil Festhall, and the Hall of Records - which see below). The Sigil Advisory Counsil and Sons of Mercy are laid out and explained for the benefit of clueless berks, as is the newly-founded Mutual Trade Association, run by Shemeshka, Estavan, and Zadara (though they ain't exactly pals now by any stretch of the imagination - they still each are looking to stab each other in the back.) Touts and couriers get a good section, and portals are exaustively explained. Even the catacombs and sewers are mentioned. And somebody clearly was paying attention while reading "Faction War", because the Bladelings are mentioned as running the Great Foundry now. There are are few details that are new and different, however. These include the new Mutual Trade Association, the fact that the Order of Master Clerks and Scribes is running the Hall of Records and re-instituted taxes (but much lighter than the Fated, and with strict accountability as to how the money is spent), and the fact that the Shattered Temple is now occupied by undead, including a vampire clan. (If you remember, "Faction War" had it torn down and replaced by a temple to a death god. This could be reconciled by just assuming that the undead eventually get driven off or killed and the temple then built as decribed.) That's about it - oh, and there is a map of Sigil that includes the wards and districts. This is the best write-up of Sigil since 2nd edition, a considerable improvement over 3e and 4e's Manual of the Planes and the Planar Handbook.

Only in the Forgotten Realms material, which moved forward about 100 years. Other settings do not seem to have been changed beyond what was neccessary to make them into 4e settings (i.e. adding Dragonborn to the settings). Sigil appears to be almost just as it was right after "Faction War", with the exception of such things as having the Order of Master Clerks and Scribes taking over the Hall of Records and the formation of the Mutual Trade Association. And there's undead haunting the Shattered Temple, including a vampire clan, which contradicts "Faction War" which has the Shattered Temple razed and a temple to Hades put up in the spot. (This could still happen, however... but it's likely that in 4e it'd be a temple to the Raven Queen.) Other than those details, there appear to be no major changes to Sigil, other than the addition of the Dragonborn, Angels, Archons, etc... to the setting. There is one important race missing, however - the Bauriars. (Oddly enough, their racial neighborhood of Ghundarhavel is present on the map of Sigil - so maybe they will appear later somewhere?) And there are no Faction feats or Paragon paths, either... but at least that absence means that Faction stuff made up HERE isn't contradicted by the books. There are several locations on the overhead-view map of Sigil that will be recognised by savvy cutters here but which aren't described in the text, leaving clueless berks no doubt scratching their heads. (Most of the buildings are recognisable by shape and location as being the Faction Headquarters, but there's a few buildings I couldn't identify - anybody care to help?)

That's correct. I had to do research on my own to find out what they were - Rethevar is "a transplanted Elf grove" according to the 3.5E Planar Handbook. Swordhold is where you can hire mercenaries and assasins, but I don't recall offhand where I read that. So yeah, a newbie looking at the map is going to be (literally) Clueless. I believe Rethevar as a location in Sigil was invented in 3.5E, but I could be wrong. The Sigil map itself looks kind of like one of those aeriel views you've seen of big cities from straight overhead, with lotsa itty-bitty buildings and a few big ones (mainly, Faction Headquarters - the Great Gymnasium is easily indentifiable by shape alone, for instance.) Some of the buildings are labled, but some are not, leading me to have to guess just which buildings they are meant to represent. ("Gee - is that the Temple of the Abyss? Hmm...") That said, it's still a much better map of the city than anything that came out in 3E - 3.5E - with the possible exception of the map (?) in 3.5's Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, which I haven't seen.