Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Lady of Pain

The lady of Pain, mysterious, eternal, serene and deadly ruler, owner, protector and legend of the Interdimensional city of Sigil.
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[@WilliamSyler]

Stat block for the Lady of Pain: You lose. Horrifically. Painfully. Endlessly.

[@shanerooney7288]

Special ability: *Lingering pain* The player is cursed to auto-lose the next 1+ 2d4 games. The player may attempt to break the curse at the start of each new game. The only way to break the curse is to achieve _TPK_ within the first 15 minutes of game play.

[@charliec.1347]

The Lady of Pain sounds like what would happen if they made the word "no" into a person.

[@mosshivenetwork117]

Yea! XD

[@edfreeman4202]

😂 literally the best summarization I've ever read

[@CarsonZXY]

She strikes me as the interdimensional version of the rolled up newspaper.

[@StevetheWizard2591]

Legend says that if you cast Wish, then utter the words "I wish this wish wouldn't come true", time will stop, and the Lady of Pain will appear and slap you across the face before responding to the wish by telling you to come up with another wish.

[@jacobvanveit3437]

I love it, except the slap should put you back to level 1, where you effectively become Sisyphus, having to push the boulder of experience grinding back to level 18, to yet again cast wish if you dare. At which point you will reappear back to the original point of casting wish to “rethink” your wish 😂

[@Diditallforthexp]

Tried it. Got pegged.

[@dreammirrorbrony1240]

One correction concerning her never talking to anyone. In Polyhedron Magizine #127(1997, Volume 17, #2), Monte Cook wrote a short article about the Lady of Pain, and a holiday centered around her; their new year's day, called the day of grace, where everyone shows mercy at least once. The story goes one day, The lady was walking down the streets of Sigil with everyone running to get out out of her way & avoid attention, when a little girl came face to face with the lady, causing her to stop and look down at the child. The young girl held up a single flower innocently to the lady. A few utter moments of silence occured, and then the lady knelt down, received the flower, and whispered something in the girls ear. She then rose and left the girl unharmed, much to the shock & awe of those who witnessed this. Its unknown what was said; the girl never told, but the holiday sprang up thereafter as a day of mercy. As the lady showed mercy, so shall you on that day thereafter. To my knowledge, this was the only time the lady of pain ever spoke to anyone in a canon appearance source.

[@dogle9258]

Dreammirror Brony thankyou for not only adding to the discussion but for the source also. I love the story so much I think AJ will have to redo this video in the coming years to include it.

[@JohnDowson100]

Does she ever speak at the end of Die Vecna Die?

[@naughtseeingeye7767]

I think the girl who lived is in the Irretrievably Insane wing of the Gatehouse Asylum

[@Junkzillabox]

It's canon her stat block is: Automatically throw away your character sheet and re-roll a new character when attempting to engage or interact with her.

[@krispalermo8133]

20 some years ago at my first game shop I went to, we did Planescape and the Blood War. Are group were near demi god level. DM pulled a fast one on our shop, "like broke the rule regarding LOP interaction." LOP shows up to our group, send a telepathic message to us, then teleports us away on a Quest ! The locals of Sigil though/ knew we were F!. Complete the task, or you can't use ANY Portal ! The creature that we brought to her was NOT happy to see her. The Demon Lord learn a whole new meaning to Pain ! Star Wars : your crew works for Darth Vader or the Emperor, off the book. They call you, you do not call them. If you call them, it better be important , and you better not tell them that You FAIL in your mission.

[@yawnos]

it should be mentioned that when you get mazed its not supposed to be possible to die or age, your forced to stay alive and lost in a maze until you find your way out.

[@EdMcStinko]

I think what makes her terrifying is how she seems totally indifferent about the terrible abuses she inflicts; at least that was the impression I got from Planescape Torment.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Yes, death is no escape.

[@gwyndolin1536]

"Says nothing"....I don't know, but there is one "cannon" (as cannon as something across infinite realities can be) legend that tells about the one and only time she ever spoke. They say she uttered but single word, and as she did everyone within a 100 mile radius face melted away, most everyone within 1000 mile radius was banging their heads trying to comprehend. The few survivors tried in vain to relate the experience but mere mortal words where not enough, in their final attempt to convey Heavy Metal Music was forged. Some bard bands, like "Iron Maiden" named themselves in her honor.

[@fenrirswolh3]

A Legend worthy of the Lady. Your tale is most welcome in these dark times, Champion.

[@Veridiansolar]

Graz'zt: I shall unite all of the forces of Evil and tear down the heavens! All of existence shall join the Abyss! Demon: Even Sigil my Lord? Graz'zt: Nooooooope.

[@joshuazane3210]

I agree that she shouldn't have a stat block. I feel like attempting to numerically quantify her power is kind of missing the point of the character.

[@Olimar92]

I say it is a grave insult.

[@WhiteBorderMTG]

@@Olimar92 stat blocks are for things you can actually fight. you can't fight the lady of pain. she can casually erase gods from existence. her stat block is this: you lose.

[@zacharyhawley1693]

It's also worth mentioning she's the ultimate embodiment of I'm not trapped here with you. You are trapped here with me. Considering she might be the avatar of the multiverse.

[@rexreg]

If you can find a copy of it, Polyhedron 127 has an article by Monte Cook about a Sigil holiday called The Day of Grace. It commemorates the time a small girl walked up to The Lady, spoke to The Lady, & wasn't destroyed by Her; no one knows what the child said, but Her Serenity passed the girl by without hurting her

[@AJPickett]

Thank you.

[@Tiniuc]

Neat!

[@evolution031680]

Must have been the same thing the guy said in that Radiohead song.

[@zacharyhawley1693]

The Lady Of Pain. I make a point to place flowers where she has been. She has a hard job and I think she's appreciate that others acknowledge it. Purely as a measure of healthy respect.

[@johntheherbalistg8756]

I think the Lady of Pain, Ao and Thurizdin are a sort of trinity of over gods. Ao creates, Thurizdin destroys and the Lady of Pain maintains.

[@nickr1818]

Rule of 3 right there.

[@agentchaos9332]

I feel like thurizdun is significantly weaker then the other two, seeing as he was defeated, and is currently restrained. I series question if the lady could've been overcome by oberyths& demon lords in that manner. And I'm even more dubious that anything short of every God in the known multiverse banding together could restrain Ao

[@SuperLlama42]

One of the best parts about Planescape Torment is that the devs fulfilled the "No stats, ever" rule for the Lady of Pain by having her only appear in FMV cutscenes, where they'll never need to make any kind of stats for her.

[@Nabo42]

We all know she's actually 4 squirrels with a ring of levitation and a ring of polymorph.

[@AJPickett]

Lich Squirrels

[@interestin9720]

@@AJPickettnot squirrels but the Chippetes after learning no one liked their music.

[@ZACY29]

Rule one: Thou shalt not fuck with the lady of pain.

[@That80sGuy1972]

Rule two: Thou shalt not even speaketh about violating rule one.

[@shanerooney7288]

Rule three: If thou shalt hear another speaketh about violating rule one, RUN.

[@bentalexranebundgaard4867]

Well her stats is easy, it is like Caine, the storyteller/GM reaches over and gives the players a card whereupon it is written. "You LOSE"

[@EdMcStinko]

She is a big reason why Sigil's tourism industry is practically nonexistent.

[@JohnDowson100]

The Lady of Pain was created to teach 2nd Editions players that there are entities you just can't beat. The whole ethos of Planescape is centered around subverting the fantasy RPG stereotype of the looting adventurer and learning that brute force is not always possible.

[@polyquaternium7]

Reminds me of this story about an obsessed Cutter running around The Cage rattling his bonebox, that he was in Love with The Lady. Bashers tried to shit him up or talk him out of it or just avoided him in case She showed up. This addlecove proclaimed his love on the streets, wrote her pages upon pages of poetry and asked the Dabus around town where she could be found. This went on for a few months, until he disappeared and people almost forgot about him. Eventually he was found in an alley. His body eviscerated, mangled and bloody beyond all recognition except for his face, which still had a grinning expression of pure bliss on it.

[@charlesxavier3757]

Holy shit is this cannon?

[@stonepilot1]

@@charlesxavier3757 That story it´s told in the game.

[@TheMimiSard]

Random thought that came to me about the Lady of Pain, what if she is the manifestation of the Multiverse's pain when it was broken back during the Dawn War? Because she is a multiversal manifestation, she also has a huge multiversal presence, therefore her personal dominion, the City of Doors, can have access to every corner of the multiverse. Sigil is also called "The Cage" and I have heard the idea mentioned, what if Sigil is "The Cage" of the Lady Of Pain? She cannot leave it, but inside of Sigil, she is the ultimate power and she will not let anyone take that power from her. But in the end I rather like that is remains such a mystery - weirdly a bit like Tom Bombadil is a mystery in Tolkien (albeit a far nicer mystery). The Lady of Pain comes across to me as more potentially Lovecraftian than any Far Realm monster, simply because maybe knowing as much as is known about her puts how much is unknown in stark relief, making it obvious how little is known about her.

[@EvelynNdenial]

so would she be the prisoner or the guard?

[@thedarkmaster4747]

"The cage" IS for her. i like it.

[@TheMimiSard]

pvtblue - I think she is both. She is the prisoner, yes, but she also guards what is the ultimate strategic location in the multiverse as well.

[@denewst01]

Surely everybody knows the lady of pain is just 6 giant squirrels with a headdress, robe & a ring of levitation?

[@AnewishWarlok]

Wonderful, and I agree wholeheartedly, the lady should never be statted.

[@bretsheeley4034]

I don't mind so long as she has the following: Feat: Ignores Stat Block

[@Yuudaddy]

One could say that her greatest job was to keep Sigil out of the Blood War.

[@joseywales7463]

Demons and devil's are free to do business in Sigil. And that bussiness is the blood war.

[@Olimar92]

The Lady of Pain, someone with a gaze that says "Fuck You" so strongly you go to a different dimension.

[@Xcyper33]

Lady of Pain reminds me of the Chaos Gods of Warhammer-verse because she's more like a concept-given form.

[@cthulhluftagn3812]

Here's how to run a encounter with the lady of pain. Have players roll initiative. Use this as the order they die in. Encounter ends.

[@chrisnichols9014]

The fact Lolth and other gods/goddesses fear her mean's you need to run the fuck away when she's near. This Lady of Pain is something far older and more deadlier than they are.

[@Lightzy1]

Dont forget: "the city is a cage. And the lady, its prisoner". The lady gets her immense power from Sigil. Sigil has trapped her and made her into its incarnate protector. That's how i see it.

[@styxdragoncharon4003]

My favorite NPC in D&D

[@BruderSenf]

thou shalt not fuck with the lady of pain

[@codywest3879]

You left out that one person did successfully speak with the Lady. The exchange left them mortally wounded and they died before they could reveal what was said.

[@dreammirrorbrony1240]

Citation?

[@codywest3879]

I don't know exactly, all I remember is a page on tvtropes regarding people using nonstandard materials to write. One entry was about a person who talked to the lady of pain, the result of which was the person getting torn to shreds. When asked what they heard the lady say, they attempted to spell out the words with their own intestines, but died before they could get anything meaningful out. Keep in mind that my memory is garbage, so I could be misremembering the whole thing.

[@thomasalegredelasoujeole9998]

Dammit, 5e needs to publish a planescape pre-WotF setting !

[@AJPickett]

Agreed

[@yaelz6043]

Pleasantly surprised to see planescape and the lady getting some attention for whatever reason. Always loved the idea of some Elder Evil, major hotshot God or other apocalypse getting turned into a flayed and screaming PSA by the Lady of Pain in under a minute and everyone else just going back to their business. Sigil is not just one more place, it can't be invaded and it's not your highway to hell. Knifey space mom says play nice or you either get out into a timeout maze or killed so hard there won't be enough left to resurrect.

[@HumbleMemeFarmer]

Lady of Pain's holy day must be Monday.

[@TheMimiSard]

No, because if anyone declared any day a holy day to her, she'd punish them.

[@vizerandevir6422]

So the Lady of Pain is basically Hastur and the city of doors is Carcosa.

[@DemonicWombat]

I understood that reference!

[@archam777]

I bet Loviatar (goddess of agony/pain/torture) has some messed up fantasies about being tied up and the "Lady", giving her some oooohhh so nasty stares 🤣

[@IVIaskerade]

Maybe the Dabus communicate in symbols to avoid speaking the name of the Lady and attracting her attention.

[@dingusdangus9299]

"if anyone is a threat to the lady of pain" lmao

[@jamesgordon364]

The link to pandemonium is interesting. The tunnels and chambers of Cocytus are described as being carved by hands unknown to even gods.

[@naughtseeingeye7767]

Her gilded birdcage keeps her in as much as it keeps gods out

[@brantnuttall]

"Who's a pretty Lady of Pain? You are! Oh yes, you are! What a pretty Lady of Pain!" And..............you're mazed!

[@MasterZebulin]

And then perma-deded.

[@hardgay7537]

I'd let you keep going. That's the sort of PC who likes digging his holes deeper. Please. The longer you keep up the insults the longer the maze. Long =/= intricate, mile long featureless corridors are always an option.

[@HammarPwnsYourFace]

The Lady of Pain: The Original Dominatrix....

[@IanPanth]

My players are on Cyre 1313 destination Sigil. They have been travelling the Mists and this will be the first place they may be able to spend gold since they started.

[@tarazzzs]

Every god, primorial, or demon prince is a gangsta, until they cross the Lady of Pain.

[@lordInquisitor]

I like the idea of her basically being the Ao of the miltiverse that came before the current one

[@lucifiaofthefreecouncil1312]

Dear AJ Pickett, I'm pleased to inform you The Scourge Mistress; The Maiden of Pain; The Divine Glory Loviatar would like words with you about this blasphemy. -Briali Tabryn, Sister in Torment. P.s lmfao dnd is fun.

[@christophermzdenek]

In my game, I have a background theory that there are 3 Overgods. Ao, Tharizdoon, and The Lady of Pain. Order (form), Chaos (creation), and Balance (existence). With the fall of Tharizdoon, the multiverse was broken and existence became painful. Ao continues to oversee the multiverse, but actual power flows from the universal balance. In my little corner of the mind, that's why Gods can't enter Sigil. It's where their power originates. As long as the Abyss is overflowing, and The Chained God continues to be nutters, The Balance remains unbalanced, thus, The Lady of Pain. Just a fun little thought experiment that turned into my own Campaign setting. Thankfully, my players seem to enjoy exploring it.

[@dreammirrorbrony1240]

Nice!

[@user-qd8yy9lc4g]

It could be possible that it is not just "Ao" and "Tharizdun", but very embodiments of ideas of creation and destruction, known across planes under different names. Ao of Abeir-Toril may as well be Highgod and Siberis; Tharizdun may be Chaos, Khyber, Rovagug, and who knows what else. Lady of Pain remains Lady of Pain, because it is time of balance in the Multiverse.

[@christophermzdenek]

@@user-qd8yy9lc4g Agreed. There are a number of different ways it can be looked at, including that Ao and Therizdoon are both the same being (a la Janus, the two-faced god) and the Lady of pain is a result of the abyssal interruption. I think the best thing that D&D has done has to never clarify. It leaves it wide open to any DM's interpretation. I appreciate the addition of Rovagug, too, in your example. My home game is based on PF 1.0 rules, so its inclusion makes my heart happy :)

[@user-qd8yy9lc4g]

Speaking of mashing up Pathfinder and Planescape, once in a short 5e Planescape campaign I was in to break the pace I played as an elf warlock of qlippoth/obyrith lord Chavazvug. He was kinda supposed to be an elf who lost his home to demons and thus sought any help to end demons once and for all - and found it in demigod from a race of antideluvian, demon- and mortal-hating fiends whose insistence on exterminating demons before mortals was more of a quirk of a personality than anything, and it really took toll on his mind. He poised himself as a demon hunter, but his odd manners, obsession with fire and complete disregard of collateral damage rang the bell - before it was revealed that he was way below Chaotic Neutral on ethical scale and all his quirks were inspired by his patron (even his love for resting in hot baths - that's the way he connected himself with Chavazvug being reborn in firey lakes of his realm after fighting demons).

[@christophermzdenek]

@@user-qd8yy9lc4g Very nice piece of cross-pollination!

[@Sebasti44n]

Now this is D&D lore. I really liked it AJ. A lot of information I did not know. I like the speculations and details you added. We all have our guesses as to what she is. And that is truely an astoundingly well written character.

[@TheJerkMeister]

Well bloody hell.... Now I gotta bust out "Torment"

[@rizuopal8153]

The lady of pain endorses the free razor promotion

[@dracorex426]

What happens if someone accidentally ascends to godhood in Sigil?

[@AJPickett]

Instantly evicted... just "POP" they are now outside.

[@JaneAria]

Veccna used that to become a deity in Sigl but that bug was patched out when he was evicted so ya, *POP*

[@dracorex426]

@@AJPickett Well that's significantly nicer than what I had assumed.

[@krispalermo8133]

Plot device of the Lady of Pain, whatever you do when the DM trying to be funny, .. avoid any drama or story regarding the Lady.

[@Daimon-X]

"Pain is an illusion of the senses, despair an illusion of the mind." Lady of Pain, sooo she's single?^^

[@gwyndolin1536]

Yeah go for it! Just look deeply into her eyes and tell her how you feel!

[@briancorvello3620]

Actually, I heard one myth claim that she and Aoskar once ruled Sigil as King and Queen before he turned on her some way. Guess it's not as valid as any of the others, though.

[@agentchaos9332]

A moment of silence for all those bards, who were brave or stupid enough to make that seduction roll

[@AdamBoozer]

My favorite lore from D&D. A weird portal city controlled by an entity perhaps more powerful than anyone in the D&D universe. Her main attack of throwing troublesome things into a maze they can't get out of is the same kind of thing that is holding in Therizdun, right? lol. You do not want to piss her off.

[@salmaniyabahrain1802]

Awesome video. The campaign setting and lore is perhaps one of the greatest fantasy narratives put to paper. Owned every box, book, and adventure back in the late 90's.

[@machariamuragori9587]

ur old...

[@salmaniyabahrain1802]

@@machariamuragori9587 Aptly stated.

[@scorpinok3006]

@@machariamuragori9587 You're ignorant...

[@jessicaslater4243]

The people saying "The Lady of Pain should have stats!" are failing to grasp the concept of just what she is. If you're a DM and you want her to have stats, you can give her stats. Canonically, she doesn't have stats, but every campaign is essentially an alternate universe anyway, so there's no reason why you, as a DM, can't convert the Lady of Pain into a deity for your campaign world. The fact that the canon Lady is virtually omnipotent is irrelevant. Make the Lady a goddess, make Lolth shun evil and become a Goddess of Sunshine, make all dragons good-aligned...it's your campaign world, do whatever you want with it.

[@liger04]

My favorite stat block for Her Serenity is: HP: Irrelevant AC: you missed Speed: If she needs to be somewhere in Sigil, she's already there. Stats: STR Irrelevant - DEX Irrelevant - CON Irrelevant - INT Irrelevant - WIS Irrelevant - CHA Irrelevant Resistances: No. Immunities: Yes. Damage cannot bypass her immunities, either. Bonuses to saves: If she rolls any number higher than a 1, she automatically saves. If she rolls a 1, she automatically saves as well. Multiattack: The Lady of Pain attacks as many times as she wants to using whatever attack she wants. "Kill them dead": Automatically hits at any range on any number of targets. Deals as much damage as the Lady of Pain wants to deal in a type the Lady of Pain wants to inflict. These attacks ignore resistances and immunity. Maze: Target creature is flung into a maze, equivalent to the Maze spell. This ability, however, is not magical and has no components. Don't Touch Her Shadow: Touching her shadow causes a player to take as much damage as the DM wants to inflict. Thou Shalt Not Fuck With The Lady Of Pain: If a player character attempts to injure the Lady of Pain, remove their character sheet from the game. They're done now.

[@feudela4357]

Her only weakness would be if somehow they released her from her Cage like Ravel tried to do in Torment, opening the city and the plane of true neutrality to outside powers.

[@markbenand]

THOU SHALT NOT FUCK WITH THE LADY OF PAIN!

[@Nyghtking]

An immortal masochist would probably love her.

[@vardellsfolly5200]

Rumors have it, that even for daring to speak about the Lady of Pain, AJ Pickett mysteriously disappeared after uploading this video to youtube, never to be seen or heard of, ever again.

[@AJPickett]

Then who am I? *Vecna sounds*

[@vardellsfolly5200]

@@AJPickett You are trapped, in that damn maze, with the Nameless One, and a goaty Dabbus replaced you.

[@mrl9418]

D&D universe is kept together by a Lady of Pain, ours is kept together by a Lady of Glad : Hello Kitty. Should she reveal herself in her true form, reality would be disassembled in its most fundamental parts - a rainbow of candies - and fall apart.

[@naughtseeingeye7767]

during the seige of Sigil, she decapitated the 500' reanimated corpse of her lover ( the previous Cat Lord, Leonan. Yes, she had a lover ) with a mere twist of her wrist. 500' is actually a SMALL dead God. You see the dead book doesn't have room for the name of a God, so instead, the " corpses" of dead or forgotten gods lie sleeping in the astral plane, watched over by a mysterious being who renounced his godhood to watch eternally watch over his sleeping brothers, sisters & forgotten entities

[@jat1668]

I always find it amusing when PCs want to fight even a lessor god. Ok. You have entered their palace in the plain of their existence. You have fought your way past the countless creatures that guard this god. Bloodied and tired you kick open the door to this small unassuming house. Inside you see rolling green hills with small mountains in the distance. You realize that your adventure is just beginning. Or! You plain shift to the gods reality. You are immediately surprised by torrents of fire and light. Roll save or take 200 points of damage. If you save, half that. Roll initiative. No...it was just the order that the PC will go in. The god will go first. The god decides that you are all healed. Roll save. If you fail you are asleep. If you are pass, you are asleep. Cause the god wants it that way. Now you wake up. The god is sitting there on wooden bar stool, intently watching you. Roll initiative. The god turns the ground beneath you into lava. ...you all die. My point is, a PC can not beat a god without another gods help/protection.

[@Zarnirox]

The god shines a blinding light on you. Your eyes slowly adjust to see an overcast sky and large pine trees. You look around confused to find yourself in a moving wagon with your hands bound. Then a passenger breaks the silence. "Ah, so you're finally awake..."

[@rouge-ish324]

Zarnirox i hate you rn

[@JanusHoW]

_The Rise of Tiamat_ campaign gives you a chance to fight Tiamat and win. But you have to do some stuff before she's summoned in order to reduce her stats. But even when she's reduced to 0 HP, all you do is banish her back to Avernus.

[@JanusHoW]

_The Rise of Tiamat_ campaign gives you a chance to fight Tiamat and win. But you have to do some stuff before she's summoned in order to reduce her stats. But even when she's reduced to 0 HP, all you do is banish her back to Avernus.

[@dubuyajay9964]

@@JanusHoW That's a weaker avatar and you don't "kill her." Just banish her.

[@Atrak8]

I also always prefer to set my Planescape games before the Faction War. It's just such a fascinating melting pot of philosophies and power struggles that is too tempting to pass up setting a game in.

[@AJPickett]

Same, I totally ignore the faction war.

[@Greenscyth22]

She's like the Living Tribunal. The physical embodiment of a universal aspect. I'd love to see her send Olidammara, Kurtulmak and Garl Glittergold to a pocket dimension just to see them try and escape.

[@Olimar92]

Wait, Isn't Kurtulmak already stuck in a maze for eternity?

[@dpme3fan193]

In know that this is a bit out there but please bear with me. Souls & true names are two of the most powerful & important currencies of the planes in d&d and pathfinder. In neverwinter nights you could bind mephistopheles with his true name. Well, what if the wizard who died 10,0000 years before, who was mentioned in the video, went in search of the lady of pain's true name?

[@jacobfreeman5444]

That sounds like something Vecna would get involved in.

[@relkin11]

The Prime Cenobite

[@jacobwilson8579]

When you just wanna scare gods and make them piss themselves in fear

[@joseywales7463]

She can't touch the gods and they can't touch her.

[@agentchaos9332]

@@joseywales7463 she can touch them if they set food in sigil though. She can and has straight up killed gods who came to her city. Not just avatars. Blasted gods with so much energy that their God-corpse float through the Aether

[@icydeath0000]

"Sssssssymbolissm, ssssssyyyymbolism!" - Boondock. Saints. lol Kidding AJ, I think both work in the context you're speaking, I just hear 'symbology' and immediately go back to that scene.

[@viperck2428]

You know Orcus is gonna try it... Poor, pathetic, naive demon

[@AJPickett]

I imagine Grazz't has agents in Sigil who ask those who have felt the agony of the Lady's gaze, exactly what sort of pains they experienced, taking detailed notes.

[@viperck2428]

@@AJPickett Possibly knowing full well such pain cannot be described

[@user-qd8yy9lc4g]

In my opinion, one of the most intresting tidbits about Sigil is the possibility that Sigil and the donut-shaped thingy above the Spire in Outlands are NOT one and the same. It is hard to observe the Sigil above the Spire in great detail due to arbitrarily-infinite height, but on the days when the sky is clear in Sigil itself (a rare ocurrence in a city where locals can distinguish up to 16 different kinds of bad weather, including soot falling from the sky, smog, oily brown and alchemical rains) one can look from the edge, but cannot see Spire nor Outlands nor anything but evenly-colored void, so this thought may have some merit.. Not the theory of Sigil's existance one hears much, but it only adds up to the mystery of whole place and its ruler.

[@EvelynNdenial]

it's a crazy level of fantasy, having an infinite space contract in one direction but not the other (so the view looking from one way seems to have some measure of distance while the view from sigil is infinite) is fine. its magic i aint gotta explain shit kinda thing you know?

[@user-qd8yy9lc4g]

Well, Outer Planes ARE magic up the wazoo, on basis of being an embodiment of belief. The Spire is infinite because people believe it is so; special things come in threes because people believe three is a special number. Thus, Sigil above Outlands appears because people know and believe that Sigil (or at least the donut thing) can be seen there. If most people will think otherwise, it won't be so.

[@KingGoobus]

I love your videos for my commute! They're usually 20-25 mins long, and that's exactly how long it takes me to get to class! Just throwing it on my sound system and listen on my way makes it so much less of a tedious drive. Thank you for all of the fantastic content!

[@namenddr4172]

Great ideal. Local radio is terrible

[@mr.murlock9780]

I’m curious now if somewhere out there the Nameless One is still walking around... maybe with a certain chatterbox skull following him!

[@abdelrahmanmustafa8937]

AJ picket has some of the best cryptozoology videos on YT

[@nvfury13]

Lolth, Tiamat, Bane, all these fear her. Not to be fought.

[@michaelkelligan7931]

Yes,The Mistress of Hurt,Ive always been able to have my necromancer deal with her cult without any kind of retribution or shady dealings! They dig necromancers and death priests lots of fun interacting with her cult.....BDSM to the Nth degree! 😅 only problem with that,they dont use a safe word...lolx10...........heellp!

[@thedarkmaster4747]

😂🤣😅😆👍

[@MisterTutor2010]

It's Pinhead's mom :)

[@thedarkmaster4747]

I.K.R. XD i can't help but imagine a chain devil religion formed around her.

[@namenddr4172]

Best comment ever

[@AJPickett]

The Dark master Hell yes!

[@thedarkmaster4747]

AJ Pickett I supose solars and pit fiends would find their congregations unbearably cringy, and they'd enjoy that aswell. It's kind of complete actually... 🤔🤨😈

[@a15godzilla]

Based on the kind of group you have, you could potentially have the lady of pain single out a member of the party by making some sort of "gesture" that under any other circumstances, would seem kind, but because she is what she is, might end up being all the more frightening, not having the slightest clue why this immensely powerful being is even remotely interested in someone she hasn't spattered across the walls.

[@ejedwards988]

Lol. In a campaign I played Lady of Pain singled out our half-orc barbarian with a gesture. The city went down screaming and our half-orc barbarian did *NOT* die well. Spent something like 10,000 years subjected to horrific torments until his *soul* had been tortured to death. To be fair he had spent the whole campaign trying to get her attention for what he had only explained as reasons. Dumb barbarian fixated and the whole city got tortured for a bit and suffered just the worst thing for super sustained annoyance. Like our characters had spent something like twenty years in Sigil and he'd spent every waking moment of every day for 20 years trying to get her attention. At that point if she hadn't killed him the party would have. It was funny as hell though.

[@a15godzilla]

@@ejedwards988 Sounds like a typical Lady of Pain kill based on player error. I'm sure it was fun. I'm thinking it would be more fun to have her mess with someone who's done nothing to upset her, but not tell them that. No one dies, no one is tortured. That player character just happens to barely catch her image out of the corner of his eye before turning around to see nothing there. And if that player starts getting out of hand, she can still smite him or her.

[@pissedoffturtle7333]

Obviously you just need to find out her safeword and she can't hurt you.

[@jamesgorman5692]

Thanks for the video!

[@AJPickett]

Most welcome!

[@yangxiaolong1392]

My intuition is that the only way to get rid of the Lady of Pain is to unmake existence.

[@evgenigenov3433]

You tested your immortality on the wrong creature.

[@disfiguringthegoddess1102]

Makes me wonder if this is like...a foil to Ao.

[@AJPickett]

Ao is just a local overgod to one of the oldest crystal spheres in the prime. Probably respected in that quadrant, but in other places, totally unknown... the lady of Pain is a Multiverse Wide celebrity.

[@disfiguringthegoddess1102]

@@AJPickett damn. Thats crazy.. thanks for the reply and awesome video!

[@naughtseeingeye7767]

There is always something bigger & stronger. Her Grace decapitated a gargantuan skeleton, just by flicking her wrist back & forth, during the invasion of Sigil. She is functionally a Greater Power while in her cage. Pages of Pain is a great book

[@magapiff1]

if you think about it the lady of pain is just the manifestation of the DM, she knows everything, can inflict pain into beings that can't even feel, can kill you with a passing glance, can build pocket dimensions at will, she is more powerful then gods, can be anywhere at will, she kills her worshippers because having people worship you as a DM would be big headed.

[@AJPickett]

@Terror You are more than welcome to challenge my opinions, but my sources are many, and they are strong.

[@JK-ko6en]

@Terror Since you brought up Vecna, remember that even he did not challenge her directly-he was only able to enter Sigil at all because he was taught a few words from the Language Primeval by the Serpent, who is another deific being on par with the Lady of Pain-and was brought down by a group of adventurers (or 4-5 demigods, as I'll explain later). That same module, Die Vecna Die, describes the Lady of Pain as "a member of the Ancient Brethren, a group of omnipotent beings who predated the multiverse and know the Language Primeval, a magic greater than the gods." Emphasis on "a magic greater than the gods." She stood by while Vecna was in Sigil for unknown reasons, but the module does sort-of give a reason for her lack of direct intervention: "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." Note how it does not say "Sigil would come undone" or "the universe would come undone," but the multiverse. By the end of the module, she only opens her realm to up to five demigods if all of the PC's die within the armory, or in battle with Vecna, in which case the players play as these demigods. If it is bias to point out that she is too powerful to fight when the module itself says that revealing her true form would destroy the multiverse, then yes, call us biased.

[@jessicaslater4243]

@Terror It's hilarious how you just tried to compare fictional deities in a fantasy campaign to real-world humans. You realize there are quite a few deities whose backstories aren't fleshed out, right? You're assuming that deities like Ao and the Lady of Pain weren't mortal at some point in the past just because it hasn't been explicitly spelled out for you.

[@CJan65]

@Terror "Bill gates came from nothing" LMAO you mean the dude who went to a rich private school that bought computers for a high school when people in university at that point didn't have one? Acting as if Bill Gates didn't have major advantages is fucking low-tier. Also, Superman is amazing.

[@krispalermo8133]

@Terror , Superman is Trash, shoddily written. "Die, Vecna, Die !" was such "Shoddily" writing, it should not have been written in the location of Sigil. If you want Lady of Pain to have stats, pull up Titan for her Avatar. Just do not Fell your Initiative Roll. I do not have a Face Book Account, neither does Lady of Pain so you don't get to know any of our full back history.

[@xaosbob]

Powers love you for pronouncing the City's name correctly. The naysayers in the comments are just ignorant primes, it isn't their fault they're clueless. To all of said clueless--it is a hard G. It has always been a hard G, since the original boxed set, where the pronunciation was first written down. It was later confirmed in A Player's Primer to the Outlands. FWIW, I think Faction War was one of the most disappointing products in D&D history. My games ignore it completely.

[@mikewillis9537]

The faction war was an amazing module but it was never meant to be the final product for planescape, Monte cook had a plan to take the faction focus out of Sigil and more on to their planes of focus but TSR decided to tank it and focus of forgotten realms since they were plagued by bad management , but also THANK YOU for getting Sigil's name correctly pronounce, I cringe every time I hear someone call it sigil and not Sigil

[@xaosbob]

I thought the concept and general plot of Faction War was really cool, it just wound up feeling really anticlimactic to me. Like too small a scale, or not enough room for players to change things, particularly through belief as expressed in action. Also, I think the factions as political entities make a great setting contrast to most other D&D kingdoms or religions, and losing them takes a lot of the Cage's uniqueness out of Planescape. Just my take, but I am really glad you loved it! Did you get to actually play/run Faction War?

[@mikewillis9537]

Yeah we did run it all the way through, technically my group is still running planescape through pathfinder, after about 10 years we slowly brought the factions back to Sigil as they never went away they were just not allowed in the city so in game years about 40 years had passed since the faction war and we had a few pc's that became factols and the new dustman factol was kind of our long running villain who tried to trick some of the pcs into returning to the cage ( my pc was a sign of one, super arrogant so he took the bait) but once my guy and another player brought the believers of the source set up shop in Sigil nothing happened, they weren't flayed or kicked out, so slowly some of the other factions returned, the doomguard is still a fringe faction and the fated are still hated mostly due to their taxation of the city wasn't for anything, they were just taking money from people,

[@xaosbob]

Very cool!

[@jakefrost7404]

Reminiscent of an old saying I ran across while studying mythology, *_"Respect and fear the Gods, but stay away from them."_* It's a rough translation, but very apt in our Lady's case.

[@aristedes9449]

"If it has stats, the players can kill it."

[@LostInNumbers]

​ Rubastax Akaso This is the reason why In AD&D: Planescape the lady of pain intentionally _don't_ have any stats. There is a whole text segment about how the lady is more of an aspect of setting than a full character and players should not be able to interact with her, let alone affect her in any manner, so no stats will be given.

[@aristedes9449]

@@LostInNumbers If it has no stats, the players can stat it. The only true god in DnD is whoever is playing the game.

[@avarielblackwing6613]

I'm curious about the Lady's origins as Loviatar... who had an entry in Deities & Demigods.

[@aaronhumphrey2009]

They may look similar, but the Lady predates Loviatar and eschews the Gods in general. No dieties -or thier Avatars- are allowed into Sigil.

[@Darwyn4321]

To everyone saying he pronounced Sigil incorrectly, he didn't. The city's name is pronounced with a hard G. Check out A Player's Primer to the Outlands and all the tracks from the mimir for proof.

[@xaosbob]

This, this, THIS!

[@Arnsteel634]

i hate the hard g. i cant take the setting seriously when it rhymes with giggle.

[@kevinferreira6608]

Oh yes a fine crafted video for a finely made lore, yes indeed!

[@NoLoveSouth1st]

This is a great video! This explains the unexplainable, leaving enough questions to be utterly intriguing to players

[@sirwilliam4128]

So, the Lady of Pain is the Numina of Pain while Loviatar is the goddess of pain...? The Lady of Pain has intelligence but no identity thus she has no soul, is pure manifest spirit, and as such the embodiment of all pain in all of existence...?

[@sirwilliam4128]

Fabius Maximus What do you mean?

[@JamesR1986]

The first commandment of D&D. Though shall not fuck with me lady of pain.

[@The_Ragman]

Reading the comments has made it... Painfully obvious who began this game in the TSR era vs who began in the WotC era, simply by how they view how powerful a PC is/"Should be".

[@krispalermo8133]

Hello Corey, or do you prefer Mr.Finney ? I am 42 years old, and at 12 ish or 13 years old I started with D&D and AD&D, then AD&D2e. as a teenager. Lost two collection due to the adults around me at that time. I started building another collection when I turn 21, and started going to the first game shop in the area. That had a campaign setting time line. Think table top World of Warcraft. A great time for AD&D2e. "Planescape," was the main campaign revolving around the Blood War. Then d20 Star Wars and D&D3e came out, I have none of the 3.5 core rule books. "Nothing is finer then smelling a 20 year old book you have not open for 10 months." AD&D: It was unreal to the mount of effect it took for a fighter to deal out 20 pts of damage on a singly hit with a +5 weapon. D&D3e: It took some effect and a little rule bending on creating Feats and Spells, then you could get a 10th-level fighter with an Improve Keen +5 weapon to do a crit hit on a roll of 14 on d20. to do 2d6 wpn +10(from+5wpn, 20pts/from Power Attack BAB+10, Str14+2=+4 slah dmg.) +5 scimitar 1d6 dmg, crit 18-20/x2 , with Scabbard of Keen Edges with Improve Critical Feat, crit roll on 14 d20. Damage 2d6 wpn + 34pts from bonuses. 4e: I have the 3 core books, after a month's play at my last game shop, they went back to playing AD&D2e and 3.5e. or VtM, d20 Star Wars. 5e: only what I have seen on the KZbin for the pass two weeks. The Damage is just," silly" video game b.s. Hit Point vs Damage is,"nuts" Like to difference between Yo-Gi-Oh card game and Magic the Gathering. Different art style and just add one or two 0, zeroes behind Atk/Ac. " I have been out of the game close to eight yeas now. Just picking 3.5e back up." How powerful is the "Lady of Pain" ? AD&D2e: unknown, she can just cast " Wish " to Gate/ Teleport your character to a Maze. Save vs Spell +9 DC to resist. D&D3.5e: she is a "Titan," 60 HD, RC:21x3 , Int:26+8DC to spells. Resist " Wish "spell DC:10+9spell level+8 Int modifier.= DC: 27 Plus what ever feat: School Focus +2 DC on chosen spell type.= DC:29 Spells: Wish, Power Word Kill, Teleport Other/ Gate, all base DC: 27 " This is without bending the rules on Spell Variants."

[@meyaenyo2593]

@@krispalermo8133 I remember in the blood war setting of ad&d that Lady of Pain was not Quantified, and any being that fights her and has stats, she will beat every time.

[@beyblademoses5379]

@@krispalermo8133 sorry I'm 8 months late but I would like to try to explain why 5e isn't so bad. First of all it's probably the most balanced edition of d&d so far. This alone obviously doesn't make it good but bear with me. The system is relatively simple which also isn't good necessarily but does mean that it's easier to tell a story because the players and gm have to worry less about the math and rules involved. This means it's good for players more interested in story based games with heavy roleplaying and peoplenew to the game. This in my opinion makes it LESS video game like because you can focus less on stats and be more immersed in the world. The system is also fairly compatible with rules from other systems. So if there is a rule you really like from a different rpg there is a good chance you can just put it in 5e (maybe with some minor changes). I also don't think the higher numbers is necessarily a bad thing as it was clearly done for balance reasons and not just for the hell of it. 5e obviously has issues like every other game out there and by no means is it even the best version of d&d but I think it's very important for players to be open to new editions of the game.

[@krispalermo8133]

@@beyblademoses5379 I like the way you paragraph your statement. As I listed in my earlier post, I played with a few different game systems. The group I played with could run a short story campaign with a normal stander deck of playing cards. Also we played d10 VtM from White Wolf/ Word of Darkness. As a meta plot for our vampire or changeling games, we would play a game within a game. It work very will for our changeling theme campaigns. For the height of meta play, run characters that are arch mages or lesser gods and the stander PC are your proxies. In one game shop there was a character name Brother Noris Brown, who was refer to Brother Brown Nose. Hes was our campaign Red Wizard Fizban, but a cleric.

[@MeretrixTricks]

Lady of Pain is my role model.

[@user-cw6kg8of6v]

Change this entities name to Fafo. And give them the portfolio of "Fk around and find out"

[@KevlarIlluminati]

The lady of pain is Faerun's One Punch Man. But more... Edgy. (BaDumTish)

[@defshepard7490]

KevlarIlluminati. Your being SUCH a dinglepoof right now.

[@seanthomas1214]

Loved this video!

[@williamshafer1996]

The Hellbound Heart = Clockwork Heart

[@weertangel7231]

I only ever read the manual of the Planes(said to be Sigil's inspiration) and played Planescape Torment, still one of my all time favorites so this is nice to see.