The Hive is a ward of the city of Sigil, and the first area in Planescape: Torment. Mostly comprised of slums and fallen to disrepair, the sector is home to the city's poor and destitute, forging a living as thugs, harlots or collectors.
The rest of the city's inhabitants give the Hive a wide berth.
Appearance[]
The Lady of Pain's dabus rarely, if ever, visit the Hive. As a result of their neglect, it has fallen to disrepair. Crumbling buildings and shanties are a common sight, and, because of the lack of space, new structures are built on top of the old, looking as though they are on the verge of collapse.
Brackish pools of nondescript water litter the forsaken streets, and an ever-present stench fills the air.
Areas[]
The Hive can be divided into several areas open for exploration in Planescape: Torment:
- The Mortuary Area to the north-east is Dustmen's slice of the Hive, with the Mortuary, the Mausoleum and the Gathering Dust Bar.
- The Smoldering Corpse Area lies to the south-east, dominated by the Smoldering Corpse Bar, and is where Fell, the Dabus outcast can be found in his Tattoo Parlor.
- The Marketplace Area was thrown together by the locals in the southwest, where merchants peddle their cheap, dubious wares. The Office of Vermin and Disease Control can be found there, with the impossible task of ridding the Hive of rats of all sorts.
- The Northwestern Area contains the Flophouse with its crowded, probably bug-ridden beds.
- The Alley of Dangerous Angles is the contested territory of two rival gangs, the Darkalley Shivs and the Razor Angels.
- Ragpicker's Square makes the rest of the Hive look like an upper-class paradise. It is the slums of the slums, the slums of the Hive. Sharegrave, one of the collector bosses and rival to Pharod makes his kip here.
Inhabitants[]
The downtrodden, the destitute and the desperate call the Hive home. With virtually no opportunities to increase their social standing, the Hivers turn to prostitution and crime to earn enough to scrape by a living.
Life is hard in this ward, and full of despair. The sheer poverty and hopelessness makes the people selfish, uncaring of others' well being. Picked pockets, muggings, even murders are commonplace.
Factions[]
- The Dustmen
The Hive is a perfect place for the Dustmen to set up their headquarters. The Mortuary, which deals with the dead, is in the ideal location to have their poorly payed collectors gather bodies, which are in plentiful supply in this ward thanks to the plethora of murders, gang fights gone wrong, diseases, etc.
Not to mention that the surrounding population is desperate enough to sell their bodies to be resurrected upon their deaths for a few coppers, bolstering the Dustmen's zombie workforce.
Their philosophy that claims that life has no meaning and tat the only release is the True Death also has a good chance of appealing to the weary inhabitants of the Hive.
- The Xaositects
Similarly, the Chaosmen feel right at home in the Hive, free to do as their whim dictates, without any form of law inforcement to stop them from barking at the top of their lungs in the middle of the street, scribbling gibberish all over walls or any of their other impulsive, chaotic activities.
It is also good recruitment grounds for them: getting drunken sods on the edge of madness to join their ranks is much easier to achieve than proper upper-class ladies.
| The Hive | |
| Mortuary Area (Mortuary | Gathering Dust Bar | Mausoleum) • Northwestern Area • Marketplace Area • Smoldering Corpse Area (Smoldering Corpse Bar | Fell's Tattoo Parlor) • Alley of Dangerous Angles • Ragpicker's Square | |
| Under the Hive | |
| Trash Warrens • Buried Village (Pharod's Court) • Weeping Stone Catacombs • Dead Nations • Warrens of Thought • Drowned Nations • Tomb of the Nameless One | |
| Other Wards | |
| Tenement of Thugs • Alley of Lingering Sighs • Lower Ward (Great Foundry | Bones of the Night) • Clerk's Ward (Brothel for Slaking Intellectual Lusts | Civic Festhall) • Undersigil | |
| Mazes | |
| Player's Maze • Modron Maze • Black-Barbed Maze | |
| Outlands and Hells | |
| Outer Curst (Traitor's Gate Tavern) • Inner Curst • Curst Underground • Curst Prison • Outlands • Baator (Pillar of Skulls) • Curst Gone • Curst in Carceri • Curst Administration | |
| Fortress of Regrets | |
| Fortress Entrance • Fortress Main Hall • Trial of Impulse • Maze of Reflections • Fortress Roof | |