Epic Level Handbook

CHAPTER 6:AN EPICSETTINGCITY OF UNIONINTRODUCTIONThe city of Union is a cultural crossroads, a trading centerthat connects to many other planes but exists outsidethem all. It is a city that has few resources of its own, yetit thrives because its masters, the mercanes, wish it so.The mercanes have arranged circumstances so that anyand all are welcome to visit and do business, so long asbusiness is not disrupted. It is an ideal locale to acquiremany beautiful, unusual, and rare things, to meet interestingtravelers from across the multiverse, and to getsomewhere else. It is often said that anyone going anywhereusually finds the going quicker when one passesthrough Union.Union is one of a few recognized planar metropolises,but of course in a near infinite multiverse, the truenumber may be likewise quite large.HISTORYThe mercantile-minded mercanes have trading empiresthat stretch through many worlds and planes. The mercanesare not a monopolistic group—the race is split intohundreds of competing cartels. Long ago one cartelknown simply as the Union, wanted to maximize its business dealings without losing valuable time (or profits)physically traveling from plane to plane. In essence, thePLANAR METROPOLISESThe most famous planar metropolis of all is undoubtedly thecity of Sigil. Located at the center of the Outer Planes and builton inner surface of a gargantuan ring, Sigil claims to be thetrue crossroads of the multiverse. Certainly, of any realm ofmortals, it is the most concerned with gods and divine agendas.The dreaded Lady of Pain rules the city. She is an enigmacredited with enormous power, including the ability to bardivine beings from her realm.The City of Brass, home to powerful efreet lords, is found onthe Elemental Plane of Fire. Cradled in a brass hemisphereforty miles across, the city floats above a plate of crackedobsidian. Here, trade flourishes between the Inner Planes. Inaddition, travelers and merchants from every corner of themultiverse conduct business. The Grand Sultan rules from hisCharcoal Throne in the Burning Palace of the Grand Sultan ofAll the Efreet at the center of the city.Tu’narath is the largest and greatest githyanki city in any dimension.It is found on the Astral Plane, built upon the petrified bodyof an unnamed dead god. Here dwells the lich-queen, theabsolute ruler of all githyanki. The lich-queen allows trade withother races, but nongithyanki merchants and visitors to Tu’narathmust first secure special visas personally from the queen.More xenophobic even than Tu’narath is dark Ilkkool Rrem,a city of mind flayers found deep in the bowels of a materialworld. Down below the surface the mind flayers deal withhundreds of other planes, pursuing their evil plots and advancingtheir stratagems of doom. Thousands of members of racesother than mind flayers are found in Ilkkool Rrem, but all are inthrall to illithid masters.248