The Lady of Pain is a title held by one bearer at a time, who rules the gates of Sigil. The only known bearer is Tel, the last to wear the helm and the first to die wearing it.
| Type | Entity / title |
| Seat | Sigil |
| Spanish entry | Dama del Dolor |
Office
While a Lady is active, she alone decides which gates of Sigil open or close, without appeal. She imprisons in mazes on the ethereal plane. Her presence blocks teleportation and manifestation in Sigil; after her death, that magic works there.
Appearance
Black skin, red eyes, white (or sea-colored) hair, long robes in yellows, greens and sea tones. She always wears the helm, a mask covering her whole face. Her bearing is elven but above all celestial: the eternal youth and the heaviness of ancient beings. There is also a hand-sized lady of black basalt.
Silence
No one speaks to her: it means death, the ethereal mazes, or both. She may not have spoken for “at least tens of years”. She is dangerous “because she saw many things”.
Early life
Raised in Loviatar as “a very hurt girl”, she was kidnapped and harmed. Offered the erasure of it, she answered: «No, quiero recordar todo» (“No, I want to remember everything”).
Elías is her brother. She calls Ariel “son”, from which Ariel speculates that Arian would be his father.
Death
Attacking her was held “almost impossible”. She was nevertheless killed — presumably — by Helter possessed by Graz’zt, with an obsidian knife: the first death of a Lady of Pain in Antiterra’s history. Her helm fell down a staircase; Ariel wants to recover it. Her only recorded words, before dying: “the end of times was coming”, and Ariel must abandon what he thought most sacred.
Succession
The title survives its bearer. Her soul “is in the sea”, carried to an unnamed candidate. An unidentified voice says it is protecting her and asks others to help care for her.
Conflicting accounts
- In Paris, before Notre-Dame, a Lady of Pain is invoked to ask forgiveness in extremis; whether this is the same power or a namesake of another faith is disputed.
Open questions
- Which gates she controls: Sigil’s portals, planar accesses, or both.
- The relation of the basalt figure to the living Lady.
- Whether Ariel is her son by blood or by office, and what “most sacred” thing he must abandon.
- How succession works; who the candidate and the guardian are.
- The Ladies before Tel.