The
Lady of Pain is the protector of the city of
Sigil. She is also known as
Her Serenity, for the permanently vacant expression on her face,
The Bladed Queen, or simply
The Lady. She is only a lady insofar as she is characterized as female in her countenance. The Lady may as well have been male or sexless, or such a type that traditional gender classification is impossible.
A very powerful being, many of the hive dwellers consider the Lady of Pain to be a deity. The Lady is sometimes seen as a floating, robed woman with a mantle of blades around her expressionless face. No one knows how she came to be or what her true purpose is. Her obvious objective is maintaining the balance within Sigil, by throwing defilers and denizens who anger her into one of her magical mazes. Often, she will only interfere when the very balance and stability of Sigil is threatened.
The Lady is an entity of inscrutable motives, and often those who cross her path, even if accidentally, are flayed to death or
teleported to one of her
Mazes (an almost inescapable pocket universe). Rumor has it that even greater
deities have fallen before the Lady, and she was able to kill the otherwise immortal
Nameless One.
The Shattered Temple in Sigil was a major temple of
Aoskar, the god of portals, who attempted to bring the city under his control. After one of the
dabus abandoned its duty to worship Aoskar, she killed him with a thought, shattering the grand temple and throwing his priests into the Mazes of her making. The ruined temple eventually became the headquarters of the
Athar. The vast majority of Sigil's denizens dread her apparitions, and avoid mentioning her name aloud for fear of drawing her attention.
The Lady has the power to control each and every portal in Sigil, opening and barring them at will. The dabus, her servants, maintain the city, forever fixing and patching its streets. For all her power, she apparently refuses to be worshiped as a goddess, and anyone brave (or careless) enough to worship her has met a grisly demise in the shadow of her blades.
The closest the Lady of Pain ever came to being overthrown was by
Vecna, as one of the final steps in his plan to reshape the
multiverse and make himself supreme (recounted in
Die Vecna
A theory that appears late in the computer game
Planescape: Torment is that the Lady is a prisoner and that Sigil is her cage. This theory is plausible in that its coiner,
Ravel Puzzlewell, who would refer to herself as "the solver of puzzles not needing solving", had a level of understanding about the mechanics of the
planes incomprehensible by men. Unfortunately (or consequently), she was also insane; whether her insanity set in before or after being "mazed" by the Lady is unknown.
Additionally, the novel
Pages of Pain suggests that she may be the daughter of
Poseidon from the
Greek Pantheon of
Arborea. However this is not made clear and even suggested that the memories of her early life released from an amphora may have been faked by the god himself in order to potentially sway the
Protector of the Cage towards his way of thinking.
According to
Die Vecna Die! she is a being of the same origin as
The Serpent (representation of magic itself).
Here's what you should know about the Lady of Pain:
- She is fifteen feet tall, hovers, never speaks and has a halo of blades around her face.
- She is the ruler and protector of Sigil.
- She has the power to keep gods, primordials, demon lords and etc. out of Sigil.
- Just a glance from her can cause cuts to form all over your body.
- She is served by goat-men known as the Dabus. They clean and repair Sigil, and they speak in hovering symbols.
- She has the ability to send victims to a Maze - an individualized dimensional prison.
- She Mazes or kills anyone who tries to worship her.
The Dabus: These creatures are servants and lords of Sigil. Some people think that they are living manifestations of the city. They repair what's broken in Sigil. They trim razorvine, patch cobblestone, and repair crumbling facades.
They sometime act as agents of the Lady. They put down riots or show up when there's a threat to the Lady.
The Mazes: The Lady makes a copy of a piece of Sigil and puts it in a demiplane. A portal of her making carries the copy into the ethereal plane. There, it grows into an endless twisting maze with no beginning or end. Then some poor sap is stuck in there, maybe forever.
Outsiders can get in to a selected maze, but it is difficult to get out. Food and water appear so the prisoner doesn't starve. Prisoners know there is a way out, as the Lady of Pain always leaves a portal back to Sigil hidden somewhere.
Here's a few past threats to the Lady of Pain's control of Sigil.
The Communals: There was once a faction called The Communals. They believed that everything belonged to everyone, including the Lady's power. One day, all of The Communals disappeared. Many assumed they were all trapped in a single maze.
Aoskar: Long ago, the worship of Aoskar, god of portals became very big in Sigil. A great "Temple of Doors" was created in the city - a church of Aoskar. The worship became so widespread that a dabus became a priest of Aoskar (!).
One night soon after the dabus became a priest, the Temple of Doors and buildings for blocks around were destroyed by a force unknown. Aoskar died. His giant corpse now floats in the astral plane.
It was soon after declared that worshiping Aoskar is illegal in Sigil, punishable by death.
In the Cage - A Guide to Sigil
We learn a few more factoids:
- Some think the Lady is one of the dabus, or perhaps she is their god. "When the dabus are disturbed, the Lady's mind is troubled."
- Apparently, the Lady used to send enemies to Agathion, the third layer of Pandeonium, rather than use the Mazes.
- During the time when Aoskar was worshiped in Sigil, followers of Aoskar began making sacrifices in the name of the Lady of Pain. They considered the Lady to be an exarch or aspect of Aoskar.
We also learn about some more past threats:
Shekelor: 10,000 years ago, there was a wizard named Shekelor. He wanted to seize the Lady's throne. He sought an almost-successful usurper in Agathion, but the plane's dangers killed him.
The Expansionists: Recently, there was a faction known as the Expansionists. They were led by a man named Vartus Timlin, who had a powerful sword called Lightbringer. When he began speaking openly of seizing power, he was cast into a Maze.
This is a novel written from the perspective of the Lady of Pain. In Dragon Magazine #245, there was a bit of discussion about the book:
"...Take Denning’s PLANESCAPE® hardcover Pages of Pain (1996). The editor assigned it to him in good-news/bad-news terms: “I want you to write a hardback. The bad news is, its about the Lady of Pain.”
Denning recalls the difficulty. “It had to be from the Lady of Pain’s viewpoint - which is something of a problem, since (as every PLANESCAPE player knows) she never speaks - and (this was the really good part) the reader must know less about her at the end of the book than he does at the beginning, and nobody knows anything about her at the beginning.”
Would you cry defeat? Denning rose to the task, showing his characteristic desire to improve his craft. Pages of Pain “really made me rethink the way I approach stories, and for that reason alone it was worth writing. It also ended up being a much deeper book than I had ever written before, which I think was a result of the extreme approach I was forced to take. Those who have [read it] seem to think it’s my best work. It was certainly the most challenging and - forgive the pun - ‘painful’ to write.”
I don't own this book, so I did a lot of searching and read reviews. I found
a couple of sample chapters on overdrive.com.
The main character has amnesia (apparently this book is a retelling of the greek myth of Theseus in D&D form). He has made a deal with the god Poseidon to deliver a gift (a trapped amphora) to the Lady of Pain. He ends up in a Maze and that's where most of the book takes place.
It's all written from the Lady of Pain's perspective. Apparently she actually addresses the reader on a number of occasions in this book.
We learn:
- The Lady of Pain apparently can travel Sigil invisibly as long as her feet don't touch the ground.
- She is the source of all pain in the multiverse.
- She is obsessed with mental and physical pain of different kinds.
- She might be a physical incarnation of the city itself.
- The Lady may not know her own origin. A question posed in the book: "Is it better to know who you are, or to forget?"
- It is possible she is the daughter of Poseidon.
- There are four pains spread through the multiverse: Agony, anguish, misery and despair. Apparently the source of all of the pain in the multiverse comes from the void in her chest where he heart should be.
Reaction to the book is very mixed. Some amazon reviewers call it a "classic", while others have scathing remarks, like this:
"It's been a while since I last read something as bad and deceptive as this novel. First of all, and my biggest issue with this piece of literary junk, is that the book flat-out lies to you. Yes, the book actually says that it's going to reveal the backstory of the Lady of Pain, her origins, etc. Heck, a tag line was "The silence broken!".
Not only does it reveal NOTHING about the Lady of Pain, it opens stupid and unnecessary questions about her that are actually pretty pointless. So, there goes my main reason for purchasing this new doorstop of mine."
The sample chapters that I read seemed fine and breezy.
This is a crazy adventure meant to signal the end of 2nd edition and usher in the 3rd edition cosmology. I always liked the whole concept of a final edition-ending adventure.. I wish they'd have done it at the end of 4th edition.
In this gigantic adventure, Vecna uses a ritual to become a god, and then forces the Dark Powers of Ravenloft to funnel him into Sigil. Vecna wants to bring down the current planar order and become the supreme deity of a new multiverse in his image.
It is suggested that the Lady of Pain is one of the Ancient Brethren, as is The Serpent, an entity that advises Vecna.
Vecna holes up in The Armory in Sigil, and it is explained that the multiverse could unravel. "...
should the Lady reveal herself in her true form in all its aching majesty to do battle with the waxing god, the multiverse would come undone like a mobile whose strings are simultaneously severed."
The heroes will have the Hand of Vecna and possibly other Vecna relics, which apparently means they can take Vecna down. The Lady has a dabus tell the heroes to go kill him. There's a note in the module that if the PCs try to attack the Lady of Pain, she is invulnerable to any attack and a single glance from her will cause the aggressor to vanish.
The heroes hopefully reduce Vecna to 0 hit points and he is ejected from Sigil. His avatar is sucked down a whirlpool-like conduit.
The Lady of Pain rewards the heroes with a key to the city of doors - a magic item that basically creates a permanent portal to Sigil from anywhere.
The Lady of Pain reorders reality "
...while standing on the crux of the multiverse known as Sigil." Some planes drift off and are forever lost, others collide and merge. Some common spells begin to work differently.
Die Vecna Die is considered controversial as it breaks a number of established rules:
- "The Serpent" had previously been more of an abstract concept, not a type of OverGod related to the Lady.
- Vecna somehow escaped Ravenloft, something that is supposed to be impossible for a domain lord like Vecna. The whole point of the Domains of Dread is that the domain lords are trapped there.
- Gods are not supposed to be able to step foot in Sigil.
- The Lady of Pain was able to destroy Aoskar, god of portals with a thought, but somehow fighting Vecna is more difficult and could unravel the multiverse.
D&D 3rd Edition
Planar Handbook
This sourcebook has about 6 pages devoted to Sigil. It basically repeats what was written in 2nd edition. The one notable thing I found is that they gave the Lady of Pain an alignment:
From what I understand, this didn't go over so well with some fans, who feel that the Lady of Pain should never be statted out. Once she's statted out, PCs will be trying to kill her.
Expedition to the Demonweb Pits
This adventure takes place partly in Sigil. It reprints the Planar Handbook info, and also includes a pencil drawing of the Lady:
D&D 4th Edition
Manual of the Planes
This book has a nice section on Sigil and the Lady of Pain is summed up quite nicely here:
Dungeon Master's Guide 2
This book just reiterates what came before. "
She is just the wonder and mystery and danger of Sigil made manifest."
The Dabus are given stat blocks:
- They can shoot psychic rays that daze, and drop psychic bursts that stun.
- Dabus Enforcers have a power called "psychic rend", which slides a target and stuns them.
- They also have "Mind Cage", a burst that does a pile of psychic damage and immobilizes the target.
Then there's this: "
It is believed that the dabus live beneath Sigil, or that the city creates them when they are needed..."
There is a massive section on Sigil in this book. I'd forgotten all about it. There's even a complete 4e adventure in Sigil, which I ran way back in 2009, which I used to lead into Revenge of the Giants.
Dragon Magazine #419 - "Winning Races: Bladelings"
Is the Lady of Pain a bladeling?
Bladelings are a race of humanoids created by the evil deity Bane. They fought in the Dawn War, the ancient battle between gods and primordials.
Bladelings have metallic skeletons and skin, and they have blades and spines that sprout from their flesh. Check out this sidebar:
D&D 5th Edition
The Lady of Pain is mentioned on page 68 of the Dungeon Master's Guide:
Most lore was created in 2nd edition, and the later editions don't really add much. She's a very cool NPC. Every time I introduce her into a campaign, the players light up. I have a player right now who wants to kill her, and judging from what I am reading, that is pretty much impossible.
The Cage. The
Manifestation of Sigil. The Lady of Pain’s might is far greater while she is in her domain. While in Sigil, the Lady of Pain gains the following attributes:
- The Lady of Pain has advantage on all attack rolls.
- The Lady of Pain’s attacks do maximum damage if a creature fails a saving throw by 5 or more.
- The Lady of Pain regains 50 hit points at the start of her turn.
- The Lady of Pain can use domain actions.
- The range of the Lady of Pain’ truesight and telepathy is unlimited throughout Sigil.
- The Lady of Pain can cast any Abjuration, Divination, Illusion, or Transmutation spell of 6th level or lower at-will, of 7th level 2/day, of 8th level 2/day, and 9th level 1/day.
- The Lady of Pain can cast the Gate spell at-will.
Domain Actions
While anywhere within the Sigil, The Lady of Pain can take a domain action as long as she has at least 1 hit point.
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Lady of Pain can draw on the power Sigil to take a domain action to cause one of the following effects:
- The Lady of Pain teleports to any location within Sigil.
- The Lady of Pain summons 1d8 dabus.
- The Lady of Pain can reshape the terrain or any structure touching the surface of Sigil as in the spell Stone Shape, except she is not limited to stone and can shape a gargantuan area with each use.
- The Lady of Pain can open or close any portal in Sigil.
- (2/day) The Lady of Pain can open or close all portals in Sigil.
- (1/day) The Lady of Pain envelopes all of Sigil in her Shadow of Pain.
