Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Lady of Pain

[Music] hey there everybody AJ back again for the mighty glue stick channel I make videos about Dungeons & Dragons law full time thanks to your generous support shares and views with multiple uploads every week to help share the rich history of monsters locations and mythologies of D&D the Lady of pain one of the most mysterious and often theorized and argued about figures in the D&D multiverse and the entire game infect an essential component of the Planescape setting an absolute ruler of the hub of the multiverse the planet marvel and ultimate cosmopolitan center singled the city of doors otherwise known as the cage in this video I'll talk about what little is known about the lady of pain and give a brief instruction to some of the factions of Cygnus ago and the greater politics they represent an interdimensional interdimensional of his obviously just name a couple of them and we'll get to videos about them at a later date the lady a pain first appeared in the Planescape campaign setting in 1994 but she was inspired by the line lines of a poem written by AC Swinburne first published in 1866 the poem called Dolores L lay Our Lady of pain actually more correctly translated it reads as Our Lady of seven pains the theme of the poem touches on aspects of worship of the feminine divine near eye allegories to the Virgin Mary and pagan goddesses in total there are four hundred and forty lines to the poem but here is the often quoted part a beautiful passionate body that never has act with a heart o thy mouth though the kisses are bloody though they sting till it shadow n smart more kind than the love we adore is they hurt not the heart or the brain Oh bitter and tender Dolores Our Lady of pain but the real motivator for her inception is a simple sketch by Donna Knudsen who was the principal artist for the Planescape campaign setting working with zip cook when they saw that iconic doodle of Dana's the Lady of pain and the logo for the campaign sitting was born she if indeed the lady of pain is a she is sometimes seen as a floating robed monolithic and gargantuan woman with her impassive expressionless face bracketed by an imposing mantle of sharpened blades no reliable witness has ever heard her speak although she can communicate through her servants the DA boos the DA boos are extremely interesting beings completely devoted to the service to the lady of pain and the city of sickle they are constantly building and rebuilding the scratches of the city some would say obsessively they tend to keep the vicious predatory razor vines in check they clear out some of the more lethal bourbon from the unturned tunnels they maintain the cobbles and overpass bridges they remove impediments to the flow of traffic in the streets and just as Street Science if I tended them streetlights physically the derbies resemble tall thin humanoid with yellow tan skin goat bike horns short coat like ones and a shock of fuzzy white hair de Bru's float off the ground never touching their feet down upon it they wear clothing that is both flying robe and functional work smock they never speak out loud although it is rumored that they can and the usual sense because they Bruce have the natural ability to project their thoughts and communicate in illusionary light constructs called rebuses an example would be asking them directions and they reply with the image of a compass some feet and the number 15 so it is both a learning process to understand what they're saying in fact some people think that the WS do this just a mess with people and it's actually a sort of a light-hearted way of ensuring their superiority to others but also a fairly Universal means of getting their message across because once you can understand these symbologies that they use and these rebuses it's fairly universal anybody with language can understand them dub is are both servants of the lady but also the Lords of the city they protect and serve the city not the inhabitants they occasionally appear to lay the smackdown on participants at a riot or show up when there's an actual screech to the lady of pain the lady also protects the taboos and will show up if anyone is in the act of murdering taboos for any reason she also appears if anyone is trying to incite rebellion against her rule or if anyone is trying to help a deity into the city or if anyone is significantly damaging the city so if you're tearing up cobblestones and destroying them or stealing material and taking out through portals she will shut you down she also shows up when when she shows up she's not there to converse with you she's there to punish you at best at very best scenario is that she shows up and pays no attention to you a glare from the idea pane is enough to paralyze the vast majority of living beings with stupendously enormous waves of the most brutal and inventive agony what I mean inventive I'm talking about every single time this happens and every second of it it's an entirely new Orchestra of pain I can't attest to the veracity but I hear some heal someone saw her drop a stone column to the ground with a look long ago and the screams coming from it or all the worse because this was an entity which had no idea what pain was up until that very moment merely touched had been being physically touched by her shadow will cause severe wounding described best as rapid spasms of body warping disintegration some are under the impression there needs to be some form of physical contact with her Sheriff for physical harm to take place I assure you this is not true those who cross your path even by accident are either flayed to death their flesh too sliced and carved from the bones or for reasons that remain unknown they will be teleported to one of whom mazes from what it has been reported these mazes of pocket dimensions with their own laws and geographies located in the ethereal plane many rumors and legends claim that even while quite powerful deities have fallen before her so she can teleport gods to these people to these mazes and construct them in such a way that is very difficult for cause to get out of them the shattered temple located in sigil was once a very prominent fain dictated dedicated to ace a Oscar a god of portals at one point he attempted to bring the city under their control even causing one of the derbies who took the name failed to convert to their faith or talk more about their in the moment when Oscar did manage to accumulate some power the lady decided to intervene slaying Oscar with a mere thought in a grotesque demonstration of her power simultaneously shattering the temple and flinging every single one of our scares priests and to her mazes in the processes this then decrepit temple eventually became the headquarters of the aether affection at one point there were numerous factions attempting to control various parts of sigil resulting in a thoroughly bloodied and relentless pointless merciless war of attrition basically a war of philosophy once the war finally concluded the devastation was immense and at this the lady elected to spontaneously appear emerging before a pacified amalgam of eerie factions leader through the Davos as she commanded the factions to disband or die the factions naturally complied and have honored the decision ever since the vast majority of settles denizens dreaded the ladies appearance they vehemently avoid speaking to your name for the fear that this will draw their to her attention to them those of you who like myself decided to set your circle adventures before the faction war Willa you can just ignore that last but as it's part of the conclusion of a set adventure which I prefer I prefer running the games in the city with us the factions still form the foundation of its unique culture and you know from where it can descend rapidly into complete chaos centered around a small group of unlikely companions who seem to know very little about each other are out of work but extremely highly skilled and trained and tend to risk their lives for each other for no apparent reason in a powder keg situation like the city of doors were the portals to literally anywhere the need for the ultimate deterrent has never been more real the Lady of pain is that deterrent where there is a problem that lady of pain is the solution when she shows up the player characters had best not have been or even remotely seem like they were part of the problem and I know there are many of you who want to know the step lock for the Lady of pain I could provide a link for you but the thing is there should not be one circle has existed for hundreds of thousands of years nearly everything that can be that you can find there now has arrived comparatively recently which seems incredibly old to a mortal like you or I but it's fashionably fresh to sigil and the Lady of paint in all of that time across the March of eons every major power in the multiverse both lore and chaos good and evil has schemed plotted and constantly worked on every kind of plans who take the city of doors for themselves it is the ultimate strategic prize a tool of cosmic dominance that could tip the scales of power and forever changed the dynamics of countless worlds of Dien date but in all that time with all of those genius gods and demons working towards the problem from every possible angle not one of them not even once has unseated the lady of pain not once not even victor they're relatively recent event with the god Oscar was a reminder that the lady is not a god she is not a primordial for all intents and purposes she is a manifestation of a cosmic principle and she can never be destroyed the worship of ask our God of portals once extremely popular and residents of the cage even constructed the temple of doors and at its height one of the ladies owned a booze converted and took a name and walked on the ground thus taboo named fel is still around and he crafts incredible tattoos for people in the grand bazaar mostly tourists or you know the clueless one night soon after Feld became de a priest of the temple of doors the temple of doors and the building blocks are buildings four blocks around were destroyed obliterated by a force unknown I Oscar just died his corpse was found floating in the astral plane all that remains of him is a legendary liquid called the blood of Oscar which can be used as a universal portal key and which is now vanishingly rare there also these artifacts created by us church called the heart of a scar which clockwork hats the size of the human head or slightly larger which are very ornate and intricate and they all these panels and internal workings that can be opened and closed moved around in the manipulators so they were extremely complicated master with locks that was somebody with sufficient lock-picking Sybil will use just right to open a portal to anywhere regardless of any normal restrictions although they can't control exactly where their portal leads to but as an escape mechanism it can't be faulted there are some small links between the lady of pain and the Derby's and the plane of pandemonium though first it is said that the lady used to just send her enemies deep into the caverns of the howling tunnels of a goth e'en the third layer of pandemonium also she never talks and the darboux is userform of visual communication rather than bother talking out loud which would seem to make sense given it could be an adaption to living in an environment of constant noise for howling winds of pandemonium one was it names Shakeel or 10,000 years ago even traveled to get in to seek out a rumor of an almost end of an almost successful a super to the lady of pain that was located there imprisoned but he was killed by one of the great many terrible dangers found there in a secrets unfortunately we're lost with him so perhaps there is some way of unseating the lady of pain that was too close to call and she took care of the threatened imprisoned it forever the dubbers do have a number of potent psychic powers for example they can shoot rays that days targets and lob psychic grenades that burst and stun everybody in the vicinity they can also grab the mind of a target and physically rend them sliding the body across the ground and stunning the victim finally they can craft a mine cage which inflicts a great deal of psychic damage and traps the target's mind in and vivid hallucination it is known that secret passages inside the deep ring of Siddal is where the Derby's are located though none know if they are simply created when needed or there is a permanent population that lives there I'm more inclined to think of the former because of owls continues a continued existence back to fill the non hovering Dabu for a moment this creature is a lot less popular than has recently gone mo rogue mordrem it's just sad but understandable as everyone thinks he is about to get deleted violently by the lady of pain at any moment he would be completely shunned except for the remarkable ability he has to create Medical tattoos that can become real such as bowl of Jim Jim's that you can pluck a gemstone from or a gate key that you can take off your arm and actually use meanwhile he secretly gathers with the will of one a splinter group of affection called the sign of one he tells them the fervent tales of our scars might and has become even more quirky over the years and fel has retained the power to cast any spell any priests spell clerical spell that relates to enter plan a travel even though the god he served is dead based on his tales and the actual information he has the sight of one has an individual prepared to be a vessel a very scarce energy this is Omata the link were a link were is a creature created by a God in this case sohn jung-in one of the gods of the Silesia Court and they can draw power from their God to cast spells and boost his strength to nineteen most link has become addicted to the god energy that flows through them and no mater is no exception the plan here is to have our all power from the floating corpse of our scar and use that energy to somehow resurrect os car which is about as hopeless as it sounds since nobody actually knows exactly how Oscar was murdered in the first place but between fells and amounts tales and powers they have gathered a fair number of dupes to the little cult that will probably end badly mark my words then we have the enterprising gift Yankee who dresses an X in public as though she were Agatha Sariah named Jin Joo Koon la she operates a very shady and risky business selling maps to the mazes that the lady of pain occasionally sends people to the maps are legitimate though of questionable real worth the method she has for creating these maps is ingenious and that she hires and arranges with people to try and get themselves mazed by the lady of pain and remember more often than not they just get murdered she then tracks the silver cord of these individuals through the astral plane until she reaches the maze that they attract and maps it out and then escapes back the way she came following her psychic trail back to sigil even though the map a person has sent to the maze that somebody has sent to could be one of me thousands and the map that they've purchased could be just one of many of these thousands of mazes so potentially worthless the documents are valuable for many other reasons such as possible lost positions of those who have been condemned to wander them dying and leaving behind whatever valuables we're on the menu at the time not always but often the maze will take the form of a large circular fine Choate labyrinth which we have to pass through a series of portals to escape each one more ingeniously devilish than the last and these mazes are not isolation torture no no there are Horrors located them particularly demons trolls and other Hardy immortal very long-lived creatures and of course other creatures or enemies that lady of pain is trapped long ago the lady pain is truly an ancient being she predates most of the Pantheon's of the multiverse and there is some truth to the rumor that she is the source of all pain in the multiverse it is said that from the void within here where living creatures hat would be there is only for that the four aspects of pain agony anguish misery and despair and they are all hers to command after thee if there is a divine portfolio pain then she is the master of it she's the greater God of pain she's also stated in the second edition that Nietzsche diving of what died that if she were ever to reveal herself in her true form fully unveiled in all her aching majesty then the multiverse would come undone like a marionette puppet where all strings have been simultaneously severed it was she then the fallen or recalled of creative before the original structure of the multiverse nobody really knows for sure she kills any who tried to worship it the closest anyone has got away with that is when the God Bain decided to model his minion Reis tube labelings after the ladies pull metal and bladed appearance they there is no doubt that there's countless structures works of art architectural styles songs poems fashion styles figures from other Pantheon's spells Helms shields and blades of every kind that can be directly influenced to homage to the lady of pain all across the multiverse she is the absolute master of every portal in the city of infinite doors to infinite realities she is aware through them of everything and she says nothing she is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma perhaps there is a key to access that as well but I assure you it will never be found just reminder if you have not subscribed already hit that button and while you're there give the video a like if you enjoyed it at all I sure would appreciate comment on your thoughts down below or if you have any questions about D&D law please far away if not me answering it I'm sure some of the other regulars to the channel who are getting quite skilled in this sort of thing will be able to answer it for you those who wish to explore the links in the description ticks down below you will see links to patreon my patreon my merchandise storefront and my link to my discord server as well as a link to patron blades for a mighty smooth and mighty convenient shave delivered to your home for a low monthly subscription also check out the link at the end of the video promo which is about to play for you a very special one a project I am particularly excited about and if he watched this video you 100% will be excited about this one as well I didn't create it though that was kept petiole Bane and his team so stay tuned as always thanks for listening and I'll be back with more for you very soon my father was a shoe repair man by trade he didn't go down a traditional path we're very poor at that time and then he creates this innovative game I think he knew he had something Gary Gygax who loved all kinds of games and he had a feel for what made a game that was fun to play I mean he did look like a wizard he had a facility with numbers a great man a creative visionary you couldn't talk to the guy for five minutes without getting pumped up welcome to 3:30 Centre Street this is Gary Gygax his house so he's living in Lake Geneva he had five kids at that point that he lost his job they were really living close to the edge at the same time he was banging away on a third hand typewriter writing what would eventually become Dungeons & Dragons this is a substantial breakthrough in intellectual history all the sudden you found a credible way to make fantasy real it's story time it's play time and Friends it's deep play you consciously collectively agreed to enter into an imaginal world it's wild this game isn't half bad this is a word-of-mouth phenomenon that spread like a mean before the Internet people are comparing it to heroin because they just couldn't believe how obsessed people became with that came the controversy of allegations Satanism that was terribly frightening to the dominant culture this game affects the most intelligent of our children it's white versus black witchcraft there was this menace of as some freak and try to get to Gary the disappearance of James down the site Burt there's no such thing as bad publicity make it forbidden and everybody wants it in 1976 it's 300 thousands 1977 at 700,000 B sales tripled one year and tripled the next year and now I've got a pile of money I'm going to Beverly Hills I'm gonna have fun carrying has an amazing mansion a Rolex watch and the matching ring is making cartoons he's having parties I walked back to the jacuzzi and they're like two playboy bunnies bubbling around in it he's living the dream Gary ultimately came to understand that he had a problem you are in danger of losing Dungeons & Dragons itself grudges certainly were produced real lives got affected and real people got hurt sometimes lightning strikes but lightning is a wild element this is not a man who has an MBA and 20 years of business experience this is a man who started it in his basement the stairs are very narrow and they're quite treacherous [Music] you

Channel: AJ Pickett

Views: 157,166

Keywords: aj pickett, the mighty gluestick, monsters, dungeons and dragons, 5E, DnD, Lady of Pain, sigil, planescape, Dabu, Bane, Bladeling, the cage, city of doors, outlands, githyanki, astral plane, ethereal plane, dungeons and dragons lore, d&d lore, dnd lore, 5th edition, monster ecology, d&d 5e, dungeons & dragons, d&d multiverse, role playing game, d&d monsters, dungeon master, d&d creatures, great wheel cosmology, the outer planes, dungeons & dragons (roleplaying game)

Id: QRyFLH2djeQ

Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 31 2018