> [!infobox] > ![[Pain Queen.png]] > ###### Information > ||| > |---|---| > |**Titles**|The Silent Sovereign, She Who Forbids Worship, The Eternal Guardian, The Floating Lady| > |**Domain**|Sigil, Portals, Neutrality, Order, Balance| > |**Gender**|Feminine| > |**Alignment**|True Neutral| > |**Artifact(s)**|The Bladed Crown| > > # Symbol > ![[Pain Queen Symbol.png]] ### **Description** The Lady of Pain stands as perhaps the most enigmatic and powerful of the Outsider Queens, ruling over Sigil, the City of Doors, at the center of the multiverse. Unlike other deities who seek worship, followers, or even acknowledgment, the Lady actively forbids veneration and punishes those who attempt to worship her. She exists as the ultimate embodiment of neutrality, maintaining Sigil as a place where all philosophies, alignments, and powers can coexist—whether they wish to or not. The Lady's power transcends normal divine classifications. She can maze gods, ban entire factions from her city, and alter the very nature of Sigil's infinite portals with her will alone. Yet she remains silent, never speaking, never explaining her actions, and never revealing her true nature or motivations. Her presence ensures that Sigil remains the neutral ground of the multiverse, a place where even the most bitter enemies must observe an uneasy peace. ### **Appearance** The Lady of Pain manifests as a tall, imposing humanoid figure that floats several feet above the ground, never touching Sigil's streets directly. Her most distinctive feature is an elaborate crown of blades that orbits her head—sharp, metallic extensions that shift and rotate constantly, creating an aura of beautiful yet deadly geometry. These blades can extend to lethal lengths when she is threatened or angered. Her body appears feminine in shape but is draped in flowing robes that obscure all details except her general silhouette. No one has ever seen her face, as it is hidden in the shadow cast by her crown of blades. When she moves, reality seems to bend slightly around her, and her mere presence causes minor alterations in local space—doorways may briefly lead to different locations, shadows fall in impossible directions, and the very air becomes heavy with unspoken authority. She casts no reflection, leaves no footprints (as she never touches the ground), and her shadow is said to show not her form but glimpses of the infinite portals under her dominion. ### **Worshippers and Clergy** The Lady of Pain has no worshippers—by design and by deadly enforcement. Any who attempt to worship her, build temples in her honor, or even speak prayers to her are subject to immediate and terrible punishment. Those who persist in worship despite warnings are "mazed"—transported to personal pocket dimensions of endless, shifting corridors from which most never return. However, she does have servants who maintain order in Sigil: the **Dabus**, strange humanoid creatures with ram horns who speak only in floating rebuses (picture-symbols) and maintain the city's infrastructure. The Dabus are not worshippers but extensions of the Lady's will, appearing whenever repairs or maintenance are needed throughout the city. Some scholars, philosophers, and planar theorists study the Lady's actions and attempt to divine her motivations, but they are careful never to cross the line into actual veneration. The **Sigil Advisory Council** and various faction leaders acknowledge her authority while maintaining respectful distance. ### **Dogma** The Lady of Pain has no formal dogma, as she forbids worship entirely. However, her actions demonstrate clear principles: - Neutrality must be maintained at all costs; no single philosophy or power may dominate Sigil - Order serves neutrality; chaos that threatens the city's function will be eliminated - Worship corrupts; divine attention brings unwanted complications to the multiverse's center - Authority requires no explanation; power speaks for itself - The City of Doors serves all who respect its rules, regardless of their nature or origin - Balance must be preserved between all opposing forces Essentially, her "doctrine" is the absence of doctrine—the enforcement of a space where all beliefs can coexist without any single one achieving dominance. ### **Manifestations** The Lady of Pain rarely manifests directly, preferring to work through subtle alterations to Sigil itself. Her displeasure might cause portals to malfunction, sending offenders to unpleasant destinations, or roads to rearrange themselves to lead troublemakers away from their goals. When she does appear personally, it signals that something has threatened Sigil's fundamental nature or balance. Her most feared manifestation is the **shadow of her blades**—when her silhouette falls across someone, the shadow of her crown can literally flay them alive, reducing them to ribbons of flesh in seconds. This is reserved for the most severe violations of her unspoken rules. **Mazing** is her signature punishment for persistent worship or serious threats to Sigil's neutrality. Victims are transported to personalized labyrinths that reflect their own minds and obsessions, where they must confront their deepest fears and flaws to find escape—if escape is even possible. ### **Relations with Other Deities** The Lady of Pain maintains no relationships with other deities—she exists apart from divine politics entirely. Gods who enter Sigil must abide by her rules like any other visitor, regardless of their power level. She has been known to maze deities who attempt to establish temples or claim dominion within her city. She appears completely uninterested in the conflicts between the Modern Pantheon and the Old Gods, the machinations of the Outsider Queens, or any other divine politics. Her sole concern is maintaining Sigil's function as the neutral hub of the multiverse. Even entities like [[Hadar]] or the Far Realm's influences are subject to her authority within Sigil's bounds. Other Outsider Queens—the Raven Queen, Spider Queen, and Titania—give her a wide berth, recognizing that her power operates on a different level entirely. She neither aids nor opposes them, existing in a state of perfect cosmic indifference. ### **Holy Days and Rituals** The Lady of Pain has no holy days or rituals, as she forbids worship. However, Sigil itself observes several important events: **Portal Maintenance Day** occurs regularly when the Dabus perform major repairs to the city's infrastructure. Citizens know to stay indoors when the rebuses floating through the air become particularly complex and numerous. **The Day of Doors** is an unofficial celebration when particularly stable or beneficial portals are discovered, though citizens are careful never to thank the Lady directly for these improvements. **Faction Truce Days** happen spontaneously when the Lady's influence forces temporary ceasefires between warring philosophical factions, usually marked by an unusual number of portals leading to peaceful destinations. ### **Favored Weapons and Tools** The Lady of Pain wields no conventional weapons—her crown of blades serves as both symbol and armament. The blades can extend to incredible lengths, slice through any material (including concepts and abstractions), and their shadows alone can prove lethal. The Dabus use specialized tools that appear to be extensions of the Lady's will—hammers that can reshape reality, chisels that carve new doorways between worlds, and measuring devices that ensure Sigil's impossible geometry remains stable. ### **Myths and Legends** The origin of the Lady of Pain remains one of the multiverse's greatest mysteries. Some theories suggest she is: - **The multiverse's immune system**, a natural force that arose to protect the cosmic center - **A being from before creation**, predating even the concepts of gods and mortals - **The multiverse's consciousness given form**, representing the neutral observation point needed for reality to function - **A imprisoned cosmic force**, bound to Sigil as both guardian and prisoner **The Great Upheaval** tells of a time when multiple pantheons attempted to claim Sigil simultaneously. The Lady's response was swift and absolute—entire divine realms were temporarily mazed, and the affected gods emerged centuries later with no memory of their time in the labyrinth and a permanent reluctance to challenge her authority. **The Silent Bargain** is a legend claiming that the Lady made a deal with the multiverse itself—eternal silence and isolation in exchange for the power to maintain cosmic balance. This would explain why she never speaks and forbids worship. **The Door That Leads Home** suggests that somewhere in Sigil exists a portal that would return the Lady to wherever she originally came from, but that opening it would either destroy the multiverse or transform it beyond recognition. Some say the Lady herself has forgotten which door it is, making her search both eternal and futile. Most disturbing is **The Theory of Necessary Evil**—that the Lady's cruelty and arbitrary punishments are not character flaws but cosmic requirements, and that a kind or merciful ruler of Sigil would inevitably lead to the multiverse's collapse through favoritism and bias.