Gate-TownsThe Outlands have sixteen naturally-occuring portals leading to the sixteen planes of the Great Ring, all situated just outside the magic-deadening rings of the plane. Around these portals have grown towns. Part of the reason for this is that there is wealth to be had in trade between the Outlands and the Ring; another reason is that the portals represent weak points in the fabric of the Land, where strongly aligned terrain can slide out into the plane it mostly closely resembles. Of course, terrain can slide into the Outlands as well, if the population gets too neutral.
This is why the gate-towns are filled with people either trying to shift towns out of the Land or trying to keep it in; a loss of a gate-town represents a substantial loss for the Balance and a substantial gain for the champions of a given alignment. As a result, there have been many Fortitudes, many Plague-Morts, many Xaoses, many Gloriums, and so on as a burg is lost and replaced with another. Of course, the merchants and landlords of a town make a profit whether people are there to trade goods or ideologies.
Excelsior is the Gate-town in the Outlands that leads to Mount Celestia. It is noted for its paladins' Floating Keeps. The portal to Celestia is at the top of a tall stairway.
Tradegate is only the greatest trading-town in the Outlands, not counting Sigil, of course. Even the Marketplace Eternal falls short, claim some. It's also the gate-town to Bytopia.
Tradegate is shaped like a star, with a massive marketplace in the middle neatly paved in tiles of purple and gold. Tradegate combines Bytopia's love of an honest deal with a hard-nosed Outlandish attitude; it allows traders of all stripes to benefit from Bytopia's fairness without having to step into an Upper Plane. Unlike most gate-towns, there aren't a lot of people trying to get Tradegate to slide out of its plane - most think it's too valuable right where it is. This town is favored by the Free League, and is one of that faction's largest centers of business. The Merkhant sect likes it just as much, and their members compete with the free Indep merchants with great vigor.
The portal to Bytopia is a living bariaur known as the Master Trader. He seems to know exactly what people who meet with him need and what they can pay; those willing to deal with him mysteriously end up in Bytopia at the end of the transaction. His prices are steep, but fair. The Master Trader may be some sort of godlike, archetypal being empowered by the planes themselves, though he seems normal enough when you talk to him.
Ecstasy, the City of Plinths, is the gate-town to Elysium. The landscape of and around Ecstasy is dotted with tall monoliths of stone and iron, which the local petitioners use for meditation.
Ecstasy is open and sprawling, a collection of buildings and large manors built around a crossroads. The people of Ecstasy are mostly placid and in no hurry to get things done, peaceful like the plane they border. The locals define "evil" as anything that stunts personal growth, and nothing else is considered a crime. The Transcendent Order is popular here. The three high-ups of the burg are mysterious bashers with flamboyant names: the Sun Master, the Dark Hunter, and the Philosopher King.
In the center of the burg is a tower of ivory known as the Bone Plinth. On top of the Bone Plinth is a pool of quicksilver, the portal to Elysium.
Faunel, the gate-town to the Beastlands seems like a half-ruined city reclaimed by the jungle. Yet it has a thriving population of humanoids, sentient animals, lycanthropes, shifters, and other planar creatures, dwelling among the ruins, caves, and in colorful tents.
The "ruins" were never whole, at least not in the Outlands. If you believe the chant, ruined cities on the Prime Material Plane sometimes spontaneously shift into the Outlands, ending up here as part of an eternally expanding metropolis of ruins. The ruins are supposed to have natural portals in them, too, leading to the worlds from which they came.
The portal to the Beastlands is a huge stone face called Wrath. They say he was once a mortai - a living, laughing cloud - who committed some crime and was banished here in petrified form. It's up to Wrath's discretion where people end up in the Beastlands, so best deal with him honestly and politely.
The Sign of One faction maintains a ruined cathedral here, and the Vile Hunt sect lurks in Faunel as well.
Sylvania is the gate-town to Arborea. The site is often described as a big party, and seems to twist and turn to no end; the buildings are more works of art than practical structures. Prominent locations include the Sensate embassy and the temples to the Greek powers and the Seldarine. The "portal" to Arborea is simply getting oneself lost in the local woods. Once you're thoroughly lost, Arborea finds you. On the other side of the portal is Thrassos.
Sylvania is ruled by a group of posessor entities known as the Seven Spiritors.
Glorium is a small burg on the shores of a deep fjord, part of a sea that extends into the infinite Hinterlands. It's the gate-town to Ysgard.
There are actually two ways to Ysgard in Glorium: one's a maelstrom in the savage waters of the fjord, leading to one of Ysgard's own seas. The other is a root of Yggdrasil, the World Ash, located in a cavern in the mountains outside town.
The people of Glorium are rowdy but hospitable, though they have an antagonistic relationship with the local bariaurs. The biggest threat to Glorium's safety are the beholder worshippers of the god Gzemnid, whose realm is nearby.
Xaos (also called sXoa) is a Gate-town in the Outlands leading to Limbo.
aXso (also called oaXs) is constantly in flux, never the same twice. The Land around the burg is a harsh, confusing mixture of all terrains, all lit by rainbows and light. The rulers of soXa (pronounced Kay-oss) are whoever happens to decide they are, or not decide they are, as the situations demerit. The portal to Limbo is also never the same person, place, or thing.
What remains constant in SoaX (pronounced "Bob")? The attitude of the populace, joyously random, contrary, and ever-changing. The slaadi who bring piles of raw chaos and strange constructs in an attempt to get the burg to shift permanently over to Limbo (also called Bobobo-Limbobob0?), and the modrons and Outlands petitioners who try to keep Xoas (pronounced "soak-sah") where it is (wherever that might be...)
Bedlam is the gate-town to Pandemonium. Perhaps madness runs downhill; that would explain why most of the burg's barmies dwell on the lower slopes of Maraush, the volcanic hill on which Bedlam is built. In the maddest sections, the walls are strangely curved and seem to defy space and time. 'Course, most think Bedlam's ruler, Tharick Bleakshadow, is the barmiest of them all.
The portal to Pandemonium is in a great tower at the hill's base, which is capped with something that looks like a gigantic human hand - perhaps, some say, the petrified remains of a god who tried to escape the Howling Plane and failed.
The people of Bedlam - humans, bugbears, gnolls, tieflings, githzerai, and others - are by and large as mad as those of Xaos, but more petty and hateful. Unlike the people of zoaS, they don't enjoy being mad. The Bleak Cabal is very influential in this town, as is a sinister shadow demon who seems to lurk in every shadow, in every addled mind.
Plague-Mort, the gate-town to the Abyss, is a collection of shacks, kips, and ruins huddled about the shining silver tower where the burg's ruler, the Arch-Lector Byrri Yarmoril, holds court. The portal to the Abyss is in the tower; it leads near the town of Broken Reach in the Plain of Infinite Portals.
Plague-Mort is dingy, dangerous, diseased, and full of evil humanoids as well as tanar'ri. Despite this, the town is a fairly popular spot for those intending to trade with the Abyss or other Lower Planes. Perhaps the portal convenient, or the taxes are low. Byrri Yarmoril, a tiefling priest of some secretive and destructive goddess, is eager for visitors.
Every Arch-Lector Plague-Mort has ever had has pledged to deliver the town to the Abyss, and all of them - save one, who according to local legend was the Lady of Pain herself - has fulfilled that promise. Most think the loss of this version of Plague-Mort is only a matter of time.
Plague-Mort is kept in terrified submission by the Arch-Lector's guard of human/tanar'ri crossbreeds, known as the Hounds. A planar sect called the Illuminated also calls Plague-Mort home.
Curst is the gate-town in the Outlands built around the portal to Carceri.
Curst is a circular walled city. The portal to Carceri is right in the center of town. The inhabitants of Carceri are all exiles and the descendents of exiles; they put a tremendous effort into locking out the rest of the multiverse, but really they're only locking themselves in. The lawmen of Curst are brutal and often unfair. They're tools of the local strongman, Tovus Giljaf, in keeping the people of Curst miserable and plotting.
"We say exactly what we think," Trias announced proudly. Can you say as much? How about 'trapped' - can you say that? Trapped in the cell, trapped in the town, can't go up, can't go down. You see, if you can't demonstrate a clear destination and purpose, the wall watch won't let you out of Curst. Curst won't let you out of Curst. The city sinks its hooks into your head, and you just can't leave."Hopeless is a gloomy, gray town in the Outlands, just on the edge of the Gray Waste.
The population of 20,000 here has an easy time of finding their way around, at least. The city is one huge spiral with but one entrance. The spiral ends in a deep pit in the center of a courtyard filled with a thick, black, tar-like ooze which is the gate to the Gray Waste. It’s patrolled constantly by seven beholders (or observers or spectators, some Guvners speculate) absolutely loyal to the town’s High Cardinal, Thingol the Mocking. On the gate's other side is the barren Wasteland, close enough to the Blood War front to feel uneasy but not close enough to feel excited.
Some find the entrance to the city itself more disturbing: A screaming face carved in red stone, its eyes blank and blind, red tears cut by erosion running down its cheeks. The red of the face's blood is the last color a body will see as she descends into the gloom.
The people of Hopeless are walking sorrow. Most drifted into town having nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. The poor sods have barely the energy to be nasty. There's no chance of anything getting any better, not here, not anywhere else, so why bother? The nearness of the Waste steals their passions away.
Torch is the gate-town in the Outlands to Gehenna. The city's built on three volcanoes rising out of a blood-red marsh filled with poisonous frogs, leeches, and death. The upper sections - one on each volcanic mountain, Karal, Maygel, and Dohin - are walled, connected to one another by bridges. The lower sections fester in the swamp, with no walls to protect them.
Torch has no less than six major thieves' guilds. Prominent locations in Torch include the Festhall of Falling Coins and Daubei's Obscure Woe.
The portal to Gehenna is a gigantic scarlet orb that hovers in the air like an unblinking eye, or a very close moon. It can be reached by flying, teleporting, or by dropping from a tall spire and trusting your luck.
Ribcage is the gate-town to Baator, built within the Vale of the Spine, a massive formation that looks for all the world like a spine and ribcage the size of a mountain. It's rumored to be part of the corpse of an ancient titan or god.
Ribcage is controlled by five powerful powerful families who constantly scheme against one another in an elaborate game of politics. Its leader is Lord Quentill Paracs, a tiefling, who rules with a council of five senators. Power and politics are the all-consuming goals of just about everyone in the anthill.
Baatezu are not welcome in Ribcage.
Rigus is a city in the Outlands, the gate-town to Acheron.
Rigus is a permanent military camp arranged in seven octagonal rings on a massive hill. Everyone who enters the city is given a rank, even guests. Guests who lose their identification can be demoted to slave-soldier status right quick.
The military orders of Rigus are ultimately controlled by a shadowy group of liches, or death knights, or something similar. They're all powerful generals who were killed; chant is the city itself prevents their souls from leaving the city's Crown or becoming petitioners, instead empowering them in an awful half-life so that they can continue to serve.
Automata, the gate-town to Mechanus, is a perfect grid, its homes and business arranged in a pattern too complex to easily discern. This unfortunately makes it complicated to find things sometimes, but rules are rules. At least the grid makes the streets easy enough to suss out. In the center of town is a great turning gear, the portal to Mechanus.
Automata is stifled and riddled with bureaucracy. It also has humans, baatezu, modrons, archons, rakshasa and many other races. The town's high-ups, the Council of Order, are countered by a group of underworld bosses known as the Council of Anarchy, who control what some see as the town's fun side, ruling the twisted passages underground. Without the Council of Anarchy, Automata would've slid into Mechanus long ago.
Fortitude is the Gate-town in the Outlands that leads to Arcadia. Called "The Egg" for its oval shape, its inhabitants publically and willingly state their sins in a public forum and await their peers judgements.