Description

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Ah, Her Serenity, the Lady of Pain. She's the shadowy ruler of Sigil, the City of Doors, but for even the oldest of greybeards, the Lady's a mystery wrapped in an enigma. See, she doesn't speak a word. Nobody knows what she wants, what she is, or where she came from. Sigil's an ancient burg, and the Lady's always been there, a hovering presence of dread in the streets, not governing so much as haunting the place. She's thankfully rarely seen, because when she does show, it's always bad news. All a cutter can do is try to run, but if she's come for you, running won't help. Most who get on the Lady's bad side are torn to ribbons by something unseen. The rest are reduced to screeching, gibbering barmies.

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On her home turf, the Lady's the deadliest creature in existence. She's been known to slay greater gods who dare to muscle in on her city. The guvner's history books are thick with harrowing tales of her massacring whole buildings of sods in an instant, wiping out city factions overnight, and sending demon princes scrambling like roaches back to the abyss.

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And when a berk really deserves it, she'll imprison them in a demiplane created on a whim - one of the Lady's many mazes. They're worse than a death sentence, it's said; a body can suffer many lifetimes in a maze, looking for a way out and slowly going mad. Rumor is every maze has an exit, if a blood can just find it, but anyone who claims to have escaped the Lady's clutches is either lying or barmy.

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The Lady controls all the city's portals, and who - or what - gets in or out. She doesn't compromise, and when she shows up to lay down the law, it is absolutely brutal, but a lot of greybeards argue that it's all for a reason.

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See, Sigil's a tempting strategic prize to every god, arch-devil, and planar power there is. Whoever controls the city has routes to all places in existence. If Sigil were yours, you could use it as a breach head to conquer the planes, so a lot of high-up bloods are hungry to lay siege, if they could only stand up to the Lady of Pain.

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Ironically, the terror of the Lady ends up protecting a lot of innocent folk. She doesn't seem to care for conquest, beyond the Cage itself. In fact, she never leaves Sigil at all, far as anyone knows. Some believe the Lady's trapped inside the City of Doors - another reason they call it the Cage - but if she is stuck in Sigil, that might be a good thing. After all, she keeps the evil gods and powers out. She's the reason why cosmic wars haven't breached the city, and why angels and devils can cross paths without bloodying the streets - the Lady keeps it civil, or you're in the dead book.

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Still, plenty of awful stuff goes down in the Cage, things you'd think the Lady would put a stop to - murder, crime, wretched poverty, the ugliest sorts of politics - but most of the time she doesn't seem to give a fig, and lets the city's ruling factions sort it out. And if those factions misbehave, she makes them disappear.

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Locals are superstitious when it comes to the Lady. Folks try not to mention her in conversation, lest she appear. And according to these frightened sods, there's a few acts Her Serenity finds especially offensive - if you do these things, she'll show up right quick, they say, and then you're a deader.

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Don't block the portals around town. Don't mess with the Dabus, her servants. Don't threaten the city's stability. Don't mention a particular deity she murdered, whose name shall not be repeated here. And whatever you do, do not offer the Lady your worship. Never, ever call her a god. Word is she takes it personal.

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Heed those warnings, berk, because you never want to meet the Lady of Pain.