Is there something that keeps technology in check within the setting?

As for electronic-age stuff, well, probably because
1. The races with that advanced level of technology probably have little interest in Sigil.
2. Manufacture of the parts needed to supply a factory have to be shipped from the Prime World or wildspace region it originates from.
The race(s) with the technology are going to have the same degree of misconceptions and biases about the planes as their magic-using bretheren, and therefore only a select handfull of folks on their prime world will even be interested in planar travel. Of them, only a small percentage are likely to possess the skills and knowledge needed to build a factory.
3. The Lady of Pain might not approve.
4. The factions might not approve.
5. Advanced electronics emit various frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as high-pitched noises (esp. the older stuff-- e.g. the stuff from the 60's-mid 90's) Several races are likely to find these noises and frequencies to be highly noxious. For another example, fluorescent lightbulbs (which emit infared, visible, AND ultraviolet light) are very likely to hurt the eyes of drow and other light-sensitive beings, and probably cause skin blistering for vampires. Lighting the streets of Sigil with these things is likely to garner many complaints and possibly even decrease trade revenue, at least from the underdark races.
6. Mages are going to have a chip on their shoulders about electronics, which would seriously cut into their revenues. So you can bet that they, along with the clerics of magic deities, and druids are going to develop spells such as "Protection from Electronics, 10 ft. Radius", "Anti-electronics shell", "Halt Electronics" and "Destroy Electronics, Mass"
Unfortunately, 'nilla electronics do not gain a saving throw against spells or damage. It's not very profitable if a wizard can use a 4th level spell to permanently destroy the circuitry of your 1000gp piece of equipment, and the druid can simply cast a spell to make all micromissiles die upon coming within 10 feet of her (although that obviously wouldn't be enough to stop a bullet or laser.)

Yesterday when I read the title "Is there something that keeps technology in check?" I was tempted to be snarky and write
"Yes, it's called a DM"
But seriously, this is a point that I've always wavered on.

Just to play batezu's advocate-
A lot of the arguments against tech development could actually be considered as agruments for tech development if viewed from a different perspective.

For example, the lack of power sources was a major hindrance to a lot of technological innovation. But in a world where Unseen Servants can be created, elementals can be binded and generic magic could be used as an unlimited power source; no such hindrance would exist.
Sure the end result would be a magic-tech hybrid rather than the pure technology that we have in the real world but I don't see anything that would prevent an Eberron equivalent of Leonardo daVinci to power his inventions with a simple "engine" spell
Yes, it would be easier to learn to cast "Fly" than to build and then power a daVinci flying machine but for other less specific uses, such invention could prove useful.
No mage wants to waste the time on researching a spell that would bale hay and place it in the barn loft. But I could see some inventive gnome mage, or an inventor that works for a good mage, inventing some simple inventions to do these tasks and then just getting an Unseen Servant to power them (and the same generic Servant could be moved from one simple engine to another so that one known spell could be used to accomplish multiple sundry tasks)

The mage might even appreciate this arrangement better as the inventions allow the wizard to be bothered LESS often. He just powers a Unseen Servant or an "engine" spell in the morning, leaves it with his lackey to use as needed and the tasks around the kingdom get done (and more work overall gets done) without interupting his reasearch for the rest of the day

Even consider the benefits of that would result from an industrious low-level mage selling off rocks upon which he has cast "Continual Light".
Suddenly simple farmers (for a realatively low cost - I imagine) could buy something that would light their homes at night (at least one room) This would allow more work to be accomplished (normally limited during the nighttime hours) and might even result in his family becoming better educated which in turn might lead to more magic-tech advancement
[BTW - in my campaign, I frequently make wizards (but not sorcerors) come from a higher strata of society as they are the only ones with the spare time to study the Art]

But more to the point of what I think was the spirit of the original question, why isn't there more tech in Sigil and the planes in general?

Sure we can place whatever deus ex machina solution we want in place (i.e. The Lady/the gods/etc. won't allow it); but I always dislike using these solutions as it is an obvious imposition by the DM and seems clunky.

Even if a given world/plane hasn't reach a level of tech yet, it follows that in a multiverse with an infinite number of expiditions to an infinite number of Barrier Peaks (so to speak); that some tech would show up.
I haven't read "Tales of the Comet" which I believe had some rules concerning introducing sci-fi tech without unbalancing your campaign; so I don't know what some of the canon suggestions are to accomplish this.

Personally, the few times that I've added high-tech stuff; I've limited its usefulness by:
1) making it largely incomprehensible - if a laser blaster won't function 1 out of 4 times (or worse backfires); it may not seem so desirable
2) giving it a limited power source. All attempt to repower it with magic are either ineffectual or, at best, create more problems regarding point #1
E.g. maybe the PC can recharge the laser blaster with a Lightning Bolt; but with each recharge, the weapon become more unstable, less reliable and more likely to backfire
3) making such items highly desirably by more powerful forces. In this way, it may be like an artifact. The PCs with a laser blaster might be hounded by a grasping demon lord who wants the item himself

I can only speak for my particular campaigns/gaming groups - but for us the artificial "cap" on technology to a pre-gunpowder age is purely based on preference.

None of us like the thought of mixing tech and magic, we like to keep them far separated. We could play a futuristic Gamma World type campaign, but if I tried to sneak in even a hint of magic, the players would get pretty upset. Similarly, when playing a D&D fantasy setting, if I ever put a robot or a laser blaster anywhere near that campaign, I'm pretty sure the players would get up and leave.

That's just the unwritten rule we've all agreed to. No mixing of genres. Though I must admit at times it's very hard for me to justify in my mind. Let's think for a moment - if Einstein had a natural INT of 18, and boosted it up at level 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 [using 3rd ed. and assuming he's a level 20 inventor/ physicist] he would have a final score of 23.

Now in D&D, through the use of spells, items and other means, mainly races with a higher starting INT - you could very well have creatures with intelligence ratings of 25... 30.... 40?

To such an almost godly intelligent creature, wouldn't things like the internal combustion engine and circuit boards be so naturally intuitive as to almost seem like child's play?

Again, for my crew there's really no tech higher than say, crossbows. But that's just because it's the way we like it. I don't expect other groups to follow suit.

Another problem is that many tech devices are designed to work only in tech-friendly worlds. Example: I find a portal to Sigil and decide to move there. Naturally I take all my stuff with me, including my electric razor, my TV, DVD player, etc. Once I get there, I immediately have a insurmountable problem: NO ELECTRIC OUTLETS!!! Now, maybe my radio is battery-powered, but all I get is static. Few, if any, of my goods are going to be useable in Sigil or anywhere else in a typical D&D-style setting. Even Ebberon, the most advanced tech setting so far, still won't have AC outlets or batteries to replace the ones in my (useless) radio. Hypothetically, I could take a crew of enginners to Sigil and have them install wall sockets, etc. and work out a way to supply the needed volts, but my home would still be a unique curiosity to the other residents. It would take years if not centuries of work to teach the citizens enough about modern tech for them to be able to switch over to a modern tech society - assuming they wanted to. (And no way in the Nine Hells is the Lady gonna let anybody built or bring in a nuke or other weapon of mass destruction!)

I heard Sigil had free wi-fi for all citizens.

I'm not sure I buy that. Kids today grow up with cellphones and laptops in their hands, and operate them with an almost astonishing degree of natural intuition, and my mother can't operate a VCR without help (let's not even talk about a DVD player). So in one or two generations we have a complete transformation of how pervasive a role tech plays in our society. It's this simple: If it's available, people will master it.

Except the Hive, they're still stuck with DSL.

The technology limit is up to the DMs and players, some want only the Dark Ages, some it might be acceptable up to the Renaissance, for me I sort of like the 19th century as the upper limit. I don't have excuse for why that would be the upper limit of technology, for me it just is because I said so.

I find this "not mixing genres" to be a troubling development, because early sci-fi and fantasy at the beginning of the 20th century, the lines were a lot more blurred. After all John Carter of Mars had swordfights on Mars. I don't think it was until the latter half of that century that there was a clear dividing line between the two.

I did enjoy your jokes though

I agree with you VanWormer up to a point.
I do think that if daVinci, etc. had known of convenient sources of oil; then they probably could/would have invented primitive combustion engines.

Also, given the infinite nature of the planes, infinite zeitgeists exist. Sure the Europeans didn't have the chemistry knowledge/zeitgeist to invent gunpowder firearms; but the Chinese did (and that was just on one limited planet).
Once the Europeans knew about it, they definitely jumped on it.

So by the same logic, a large number of inventions would reach Sigil (a major trade hub - or a least a travel hub) and people would latch on to the inventions that would serve their needs. This cross-pollination of ideas would create the zeitgeist.

On the otherhand, some zeitgeist of a magic-infused universe would impede some science (IMHO)
For example, if electricity is just viewed as a magical/elemental force that can be harnessed via magic; then it is unlikely that a Ben Franklin/Tesla/etc. would investigate the underlying scientific principles of electron flow.
And for that reason, electronics as a science would probably never develop

I guess that in a universe with demonstratrable elemental planes, one might argue that across the multiverse, there wouldn't be much of the modern (atomic/molecular) chemistry we have today

Sure, if you assume there are infinite combinations of planes available, and they're all equally accessible from Sigil, it's impossible to argue that technology doesn't reach it, and commonly, assuming technology works as well there as it does on their worlds of origin.

But there's no reason to assume all those things. And I think you're crazy if you do assume them. I can't imagine a Sigil with a completely unlimited connection to every kind of world, not if it's going to continue to feel like Sigil (or anything, really; it'd be hard for a mish-mash of Jedi knights, Bugs Bunny, and Marvel Comics to have much of a character of its own, awesome as it might be). Sigil only has portals to worlds the Lady of Pain (and DM) wants it to have portals to. For my own sanity, I tend to assume it mostly touches only a few worlds commonly; I tend to imagine a smaller multiverse for convenience's sake. There's no hard limit on how many worlds the Cage's portals can touch, and there can certainly be some brief, weird sojourns to anywhere and everywhere, but I like the idea that it generally sticks to worlds that are at least vaguely recognizable as D&D-esque.

Since I'm looking through the first edition Manual of the Planes, I'll note the solution it imposes. Different alternate Material Planes have different physical and magical factors. Alternate worlds with high technology do exist, but the outer and inner planes seem to have the same technological limit as "typical" D&D worlds. Beyond that, the local laws of physics seem to conspire to keep the multiverse mired in medieval times.

Also, given the infinite nature of the planes, infinite zeitgeists exist. Sure the Europeans didn't have the chemistry knowledge/zeitgeist to invent gunpowder firearms; but the Chinese did (and that was just on one limited planet).
Once the Europeans knew about it, they definitely jumped on it.
Gunpowder doesn't require specialized micro-tools to manufacture. Circuitry does, and it would be impossible to create a working circuit using mideval blacksmithing technology.

I guess that in a universe with demonstratrable elemental planes, one might argue that across the multiverse, there wouldn't be much of the modern (atomic/molecular) chemistry we have today
That was another thing I considered. Arcanists might still study electrons, etc. as such insight might make it easier for them to manipulate electrical energy, but anything as or more advanced than the internal combustion engine would be seen as too much of a hassle when you can pay a bit more and have a magical construct with an unlimited energy supply.
Practical Planetology tells us that supernatural powers as defined in D&D don't work in the Sol system.
We also see the Giff from the Spelljammer setting, who use gunpowder and simple firearms instead of supernatural powers, which their race is physically unable to harness.
So perhaps advanced technology only becomes invented and spreads to crystal spheres and among races whereupon magic and psionics do not function.
These races will have no interest in visiting Sigil because its societies are based on magic or psionics rather than technology-- energy sources which these races are unable to harness either on their homeworld or anywhere.

There are "stats" for the Earth System in the Concordance of Arcane Space (part of the original Spelljammer boxed set), page 90, but the information is limited to telling us how far apart the system's planets are. There's nothing about magic. Practical Planetology has nothing to say about Earth or its system.

Well, I know I read it in one of the Spelljammer books. It's in a paragraph/area of text that warns DMs to think long and hard before encorporating the Sol system into their campaign, and I'm quite certain it was in a book rather than on the SpellJammer fansite. Concordance of Arcane Space sounds like the source I was thinking of, because the book DID give the stats for the Sol System planets-- namely the distances between them. The warning, in addition to mentioning that supernatural powers don't work-- therefore a Spelljammer will go dead on the spot upon entering Solspace, also states that the physics within the crystal sphere are completely different.

Module X2 Castle Amber allowed player characters to take a portal into the Earth described by Clark Ashton Smith in his Averoigne stories. Magic worked fine there.
That's the Mystara setting however, which followed vastly different rules. I mean, you have the ruins of Blackmoor which house nuclear reactors and such.

The "Historical Reference" or HR series described various historical and legendary eras of Earth in 2nd edition terms. Usually various options were given ranging from no magic to unlimited magic, depending on the DM's preference.
Those were for playing historical settings, though, which wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with the canon.

Also, the parralel earths was primarily a 1E thing, where originally Oerth and Abeir-Toril were supposed to be parralel earths. This idea was abandoned at some point in 2E.

I can't imagine a Sigil with a completely unlimited connection to every kind of world, not if it's going to continue to feel like Sigil (or anything, really; it'd be hard for a mish-mash of Jedi knights, Bugs Bunny, and Marvel Comics to have much of a character of its own, awesome as it might be).
Don't forget the Xmen and Final Fantasy settings (which would be a nightmare to represent using any version of D&D or AD&D rules...)

Different alternate Material Planes have different physical and magical factors.
Which prettymuch jives with what I read in whatever sourcebook it was about the Sol System-- the physics vary by Crystal Sphere. Whereas in the plogiston you don't have these limitations, except on technology to a lesser extent (however, the spacefarers in technological settings probably end up in an alternate 'deep space', which could very well overlap with the phlogiston.)

I have to admit I'm a sucker for Magi-tech. Spend enough time with Programmed Image and you'll produce an operating system. A high level mage/illusionist with the time and patience to make the spells permanent could effectively produce the equivalent of the computers we're using to access this very website. On that note... I think I'm going to have a really corny moment and make an NPC whose name is an anagram of Bill Gates.

You're not from the US, are you?

For one, I think there are a lot of elevators in Sigil, operated by whatever magical or mechanical means possible.

Elevators aren't all that technically advanced, really. It's just an automatic/electric dumbwaiter, is all, and we've had dumbwaiters at least since the middle ages if not before. You can accomplish that with fiendish hamsters running in their wheels. Or by enchanting a dumbwaiter.

There is paper, as the modern paper, notebooks, pencils, and mass printing machines, and probably typing machines of some sort used by guvners.
Yeah, it's called a wizard and his animated inkquill (or animated printing press-- they'd have those, too, and the animation spell would only be like 1st level for an NPC wizard running a printing press and 0th level for a wizard running an inkpen).

The Fated needed these things and some good calculator-like computers
Just use a magic 8 ball variant and a cantrip. Keyboards require circuitry which is far beyond 19th century-level/steampunk technology.

They could have been electrical(lightning operated), and, if they were indeed electrical, there may be some sort of underground power grid in the city that people didn't know what to do with.
Doubtful. Using the 3x item enchantment rules (including those from Stronghold Builder's Guidebook), all you'd have to do is use a light spell and some costly materials, and you have yourself a permanent street light. Electricity requires bundled, fine, plastic-covered wiring that would not have been available in the early to mid 19th century.

A few berks were electrocuted, so people destroyed whatever outlets they came accross. More clever cutters on the Lady's Ward may find uses for them for small household applications or even traps.
Actually, if your theory were actually correct, all that wiring would be long, long gone by now-- melted down into spell components and spare metals for smithies, much like what happens in real life in industrialized nations with a heavy abundance in such resources. Once the Sigilians discover the circuitry, they'll be gutting it for their own personal use or to sell, recognizing the copper.

You're not from the US, are you?
Yeah, and it's even more common to be constantly armed in 3rd world countries.

Uh...Hyena, keyboard-style typewriters have been around since 1855. You can certainly make a keyboard with pre-19th-century technology even, it's just no one had thought of the design before that. If you really had to, you could use a dial-style interface, which has been around since 1829. Whichever style you go with, have it hooked up to a mechanical Analytical Engine-type design or something if you were really wanting to include a not-as-comparatively-high-tech-computer for use by the Fated (or the Guvners, for that matter).

I getcha Anime, but at the same time we're thinking in terms of what our single little planet of 6 billion souls can accomplish.

Technology doesn't grow slow and steady, it EXPLODES in great leaps and bounds. Throughout the entirety of civilization we relied on wind, currents, or horses to travel great distances. Then, in 1908 we come out with the Model-T Ford - a loud, smelly, clanking device that many thought wouldn't replace the horse and carriage.

Now, a mere 100 years later, we can fly to nearly any point on the planet (or indeed beyond it) in flying machines that break the sound barrier.

Now, place that frame of mind in a multiverse who's population of sentient/intelligent creatures absolutely dwarfs our own - filled with creatures like illithids, beholders, dragons, and many others with natural intelligence ratings that make our most brilliant scientists look like bumbling children. The cross-polinization of ideas that would take place would be simply mind boggling.

On top of that you have spells and items that can still further boost mental acuity, as well as physical skill and stamina for the purposes of producing goods.

I understand what you're saying though. Tech doesn't spring out of nowhere, you need the groundwork to be laid before newer and more complex principles can be added on. I just don't think in a multiverse as large and diverse as the Planescape setting, it would take nearly as long as it did on our own humble little backwater sphere of Earth.

To toot GURPS' horn a little, they have a system that talks about Tech Levels, with the levels differentiated in a society by the amount of knowledge a typical person has. Since the nutshell version is in their free pdf, GURPS Lite, I think I can safely reprint it here:

TL0 Stone Age (Prehistory and later)
TL1 Bronze Age (3500 B.C.+)
TL2 Iron Age (1200 B.C.+)
TL3 Medieval (600 A.D.+)
TL4 Age of Sail (1450+)
TL5 Industrial Revolution (1730+)
TL6 Mechanized Age (1880+)
TL8 Digital Age (1980+)
TL9 Microtech Age (2025+?)
TL10 Robotic Age (2070+?)
TL11 Age of Exotic Matter.
TL12+ Whatever the GM likes!

Tech Levels affect things, starting with what equipment is available: full plate was a fairly late medieval invention, and the rapier requires good steelsmithing which is actually early Renaissance, about TL4. Starting equipment for characters changes (GURPS doesn't attach equipment to power levels as much, though you can be rich for points). You, in the 20th-century world, could buy a masterwork sword that would have been a royal prerogative to a medieval king!

They're also attached to some skills: the skill of animal handling or shooting a bow hasn't changed too much over the centuries (though running a farm has), while an armourer from a Tech Level 2 Iron Age society like Rome will not have the knowledge needed to create full plate, or possibly even good steel armor, since his skill is Armoury/TL2. A sailor on Ahab's vessel wouldn't have the basic engine maintenance or radio skills a sailor of a modern cargo ship would need. Skills that can be used without training are also affected; a medieval peasant doesn't get a default Piloting (Helicopter).

Something that's especially relevant here is the timeline. The pace of Tech Level changes picks up madly at TL4 -- the reason is the invention of the printing press. Suddenly, information could move around and get where it was wanted, much more cheaply and widely disseminated.

As in the example Rip gave above, high Tech Level is great on worlds where physics is predictable, but less so in worlds like the Astral or the Ethereal, where thought makes things malleable. It's an optional rule that Tech Level is a penalty to skill use there, so that ancient tools like an axe (TL0) -- or your punch -- work just fine, while a rapier starts to lose that keen edge, a Colt .45 is more likely to misfire than not, and you can forget about the electronics in that laser gun or laptop computer.

Another issue is what the Lady would allow to enter the city... if for some reason she just doesn't LIKE high-tech devices, then none will be entering, plain and simple. Or maybe She only allows in tech up to a certain level (i.e. flintlocks o.k., bazookas and hand grenades no.) It could be that She has a certain tech level She prefers, and inforces it. Of course, Sigil isn't the only place with portals, so this wouldn't prevent tech from speading to other planes or the Prime. Perhaps the Powers have seen what happens in alternate universes where tech was allowed, and chose to prevent it (i.e. maybe some alternate version of Oerth or Toril had a nuclear war, and the gods decided to keep this from happening on their turf.)

This thread has been quiet for coming up on a year, but I've been thinking about exactly basically this topic and so it was an interesting read and I'll go ahead and put some thoughts out there.

I've been trying to get to the bottom of what it is that rubs me the wrong way about mixing up technology with Planescape (and D&D more broadly). And while I side with the "flavor of the setting" crowd, the conclusion I've come to is that what upsets the flavor for me isn't technology per se, it's our technology. That is, contemporary Earth technology (and typical contemporary visions of future technology - laser blasters, etc). And I think the root of it all is that I'm utterly uninterested in bringing the real world into the game. It's a little tough for me to say why - maybe it's simply that D&D is a fantasy game (with Planescape being pretty freaky and alien on top of all that) and our world is fundamentally at odds with that. And if our artifacts are going to exist then it seems as if all of our banal crap must exist as well and suddenly it's Wal-Mart billboards in the Outlands.

Thinking about other settings that integrate technology into magic-having fantasy worlds, I feel as if the ones that do it well tend to veer the technology down crazy alternate paths. I was in a store today and glanced at 'Forces of Warmachine: Cryx', Cryx being the undead kingdom of the steampunk-y Warmachine world (about which I know nothing more than what I just said). Obviously steampunk has probably lost much of its exoticism at this point, but Necrotech? Yes please. Do tell me more.

What finally prompted me to try and sort this out for myself was going off on a random Jack Kirby kick and realizing that awesome images like this one seemed to provide some kind of peculiar inspirational fodder for something that might exist in a Planescape and/or Spelljammer world, technology intact (here's one by Tom Scioli that caught my attention).

None of this really answers the question that this thread posed in the first place. An easy answer I've thought about might be that physics (and possibly magic) conspire against technology in a similar way to how quantum mechanics is going to muck up your atomic-scale catapult. I suppose a more interesting answer is that the technology that I can get with is advanced and/or alien enough to meet Arthur C. Clarke's "indistinguishable from magic" declaration - and we're pretty good at dealing with magic. (Also, does the inverse of that apply? "Any sufficiently mundane magic is indistinguishable from technology." Not quite the inverse, but that seems like something to knock around.)

That's a lot more yammering than I planned on right there.

Actually, I believe that Thomas Jefferson invented (or at least had one of the first) dumbwaiters; but the point still holds as I don't see any technilogical limitation to have kept them from having been invented earlier in time
Uh, I'm pretty sure I've seen stuff about dumbwaiters in mideval castles (granted these generally only supported 25-50 lbs of weight) Like I said, it's just a pulley with a level platform. They had pulleys all the way back during King Ramses II's time.

Uh...Hyena, keyboard-style typewriters have been around since 1855. You can certainly make a keyboard with pre-19th-century technology even, it's just no one had thought of the design before that. If you really had to, you could use a dial-style interface, which has been around since 1829. Whichever style you go with, have it hooked up to a mechanical Analytical Engine-type design or something if you were really wanting to include a not-as-comparatively-high-tech-computer for use by the Fated (or the Guvners, for that matter).
Oh, yeah, I forgot that the first typewriters were nothing more than a panel full of levered buttons with a printing press at the other end.

As for Barrier Peaks and Tales of the Comet, the primary purpose behind those was to create a module and rules allowing players to transfer their D&D characters to the Alternity or (I can't remember what the other scifi setting was).

Another problem I had not thought of earlier-- the tech graveyards contain items made of titanium, tungsten, and other elements that pre-industrial characters would not be familiar with (thus making it difficult to repair or rebuild such devices). Many of them will also contain rare earth elements-- many rare earth elements are highly unstable or volatile in their natural states, which would make it near impossible for a wizard to work with unless he knows exactly what he's doing-- which would require at least basic knowledge of molecular chemistry. The wizard might be able to rig up a battery or other industrial device using primitive technology, but such devices will be far too inefficient to power objects of modern or futuristic technology.
Typically, from what I recall of adventure modules (including Doors to the Unknown), technological devices are only usable so long as they're functional as-is. Once they use up all their charges or need repair, they are useless because the characters of the D&D world lack the technology needed to recharge or repair such items (simply infusing a battery or engine with electricity or a lightning quasielemental won't work any better then trying to recharge on IRL by getting it struck by lightning-- the circuitry will be fried, and in all likelihood any delicate parts will be blasted or burnt to bits)

Exactly. And I suppose in my personal version of this fiction, a fighter plane in the wreckage of Acheron is an ugly orange of epic proportions. Though obviously this wheels back around to the heart of my issue, which isn't so much technology as it is contemporary Earth stuff. I'm tentatively finding a place for cosmic space god tech, for crying out. Love your approach with the Titan, in any case.

It seems as if the original poster isn't around here anymore - I'm a little unsure if the original question was taking the existence of high-tech as canon (and asking, quite reasonably, why it hadn't overrun Sigil) or if this was a thought experiment of another kind.

Sauron and Voldemort take me back to an awesome memory from my first D&D experience - we were probably 9 or 10 years old, with a red box set passed down from someone's older brother. The DM (which changed basically every session) would completely make everything up as we went along, fielding characters like Lawful George and wielding awesome/stupid magic items like the Bag of Blending. One week the DM decided to run us up against Galactus (of Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer fame). To his credit, he didn't just say "It's Galactus!" since our characters wouldn't have known who that was. And I can still summon the image that I came up with based on his description of G's purple suit and fancy headgear.

We saved the world that day, from a giant in a purple tuxedo and an antique diving helmet.

(The following ranty bit is in-character, just for effect. ^_^ )

It's listening to Cagers getting like this that makes me glad I'm from a Prime.

"Tiny." I do not think that word means what you think it means, Cager. Tiny is a city wrapped around its own head a dozen miles through the long way, stuffed to the brim with two million people, playing at being a world. Those primordial evils you're so cocky about, they rule nations that could swallow Sigil, cities just as big, and populations that could drown every planar here in a sea of orcs or abominations if the Lady's defenses were ever breached.

Of course they won't be -- this is Her place of power, and she's mighty strong here. But when they win, they win bigger than one city, even a rich hub city. They kill and loot and torment on a scale that would make the Blood War proud, and they grow fat and powerful off of it. And then they turn their attention to the planes. It only took one prime's sins to create Ravenloft, if you believe the tales. And more than one evil prime has gotten what they wished for in putting their stamp on the planes: you may have heard of a little comedy pair by the name of Vecna and Orcus.

Gods aren't fighting holy wars over Sigil -- they're contesting worlds. The biggest religious festival in Sigil never matched the sights you can see of the masses thronging the countryside for the Kumbh Mela of the Hindus or the screaming acreage of people at the high sacrifices for the Inca. Even if some god managed to take over Sigil entire, they'd never be able to replicate that here: they can't. This place doesn't have a Ganges or a Delphi. Sure, you may say there's something like a Ganges on every world where the Hindu pantheon is powerful -- and it's a focus for a thrumming flow of devotion that puts anything this city can generate to shame. Place is powerful, and this city's just one place.

I think the reason planars dismiss all those Primes is that they can't wrap their head around the size, or the sheer numbers. Sigil, now, Sigil is an ambition a planar can handle. You can be somebody in this fishbowl. But you can't be a big someone on every one of those Primes, so you tell yourself that none of them are important.

Truth to tell, every fish picks his fishbowl. You got one thing better than most primes -- you had a choice. But don't think yours is so much better just because it has a view of all the others.

I got an estate to get back to. Autumn's our apple season. Y'all take care now.