Sigil

BACKSTORY

A few blocks from the Grand Bazaar is a small, mundane-looking curiosity shop that sells, sure enough, trinkets from the Prime Material Plane (Leave it to a prime to give such an obvious name to his shop!). Despite common sense, Prime Trinkets does attract enough customers to keep it in business; patrons include adventurers seeking gate-keys to specific prime worlds, Sensates seeking to sate their curiosity, wizards seeking spell components, and (of course) Outsiders seeking reminders of home.

(note that in the following essay, I'm making a lot of things up - I'm not attempting to stick to what is known in canon)

The issue here is Planar Common, the dominant language in the City of Doors and other human-dominated planewalker communities on the planes. Where did it come from?

The Planewalker's Handbook (page 101) said that Planar Common descends from the Prime Common tongue, brought to the planes by prime explorers. In fact, it says "the earliest planar settlers from the Prime," which suggests that this couldn't possibly be the modern Common Tongue of Toril or Oerth or Krynn.

Extracts from the memetic diary of Bryseis, known as “Rysse”, tiefling machinist – published in “Voices from the Hive” Issue 2, Revolution 12, Cycle 4.

Grey Sigil morning. The rain hits the panes like a Stygian drum. I have to start stocking up on food on my day off. The larder is sad and lonely and empty. A sodding void – so I finish off a half-bottle of Dispater-label firewater and pretend it's breakfast.

If I finally decide to buy food, I might as well remember to find a new tint of horn polish.

Quéssā [ kwEH-hsaah; etym: probably corruption of Quessir (people) in Faerunian High Elven or h'quhs (bawdy or irreverent speech) in Oeridian Wood Elven (disputed)]

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Sigismund Pandulf v. Dassau (Ed.) Subcultures and Counter-Cultures in Contemporary Sigil 6th Ed., Baying Arcanoloth Press