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The story begins in Sigil, City of Doors, when the player (The Nameless One) wakes up on a slab in the Mortuary. A chattering skull named Morte floats over and informs the player of writing on his back telling him to read his journal, and then find someone named Pharod. However, his journal is missing, because a previous incarnation of his, the Paranoid Incarnation, burned the journals because he believed them to be filled with lies.
In the Gathering Dust Bar TNO meets two other important characters, Ignus the burning man and Dak'kon the githzerai, who joins TNO. Dak'kon is a slave, who cannot be freed until Nameless dies, and since Nameless is immortal, there can never be rest for Dak'kon.
Through the help of some garbage, The Nameless One enters the portal into the Trash Warrens beneath the city. Through the Trash Warrens lies the Buried Village, a city that was bricked over by the Dabus, servants of the Lady of Pain. The self-styled "king" of the Buried Village is Pharod himself.
Pharod's first meeting with the player is short: he instructs TNO to go into the catacombs to find a certain bronze sphere, which Pharod believes will be the key to prevent himself from being damned to Hell.
The Nameless One travels through the catacombs and wanders into the Dead Nations, a small city populated by various undead. After he is allowed through, the player passes into the Drowned Nations, a place that is partially flooded with water because a Decanter of Endless Water has spilled. Further deeper into the Drowned Nations the Nameless One finds both the Decanter and the Bronze Sphere, as well as an unmarked tomb.
The player discovers that the unmarked tomb is in fact his own, and after passing through traps that would kill any normal person, finds writings from his destroyed journal. It is revealed that Morte lied to him, and did not read a final line that was tatooed onto his back: Don't trust the skull.
Going back to the Buried Village, Nameless confronts Pharod again, and, in search of his journal, asks Pharod whether something was taken from his body after death. Pharod replies that he doesn't know if anything was taken, and should ask his adopted tiefling daughter, Annah. Annah (who is conveniently hiding in the shadows), is instructed to show TNO where she found his body.
After the player leaves the Trash Warrens, Pharod is attacked by many shadows and perishes. Nameless later retrieves the Bronze Sphere from his corpse.
Annah the tiefling leads the Nameless One, Morte, and Dak'kon through the Starved Dogs Barking Lair and into the Alley of Lingering Sighs. In the Alley, Nameless has a memory of being attacked by many shadows that suddenly appeared after the Alley reminds him that he saw the protagonist die. TNO completes a minor deed for the alley which allows it to give birth to a new alley (which Nameless uses to travel to the Lower Ward).
Immediately upon entering the Lower Ward, Morte is kidnapped by a pair of wererats. After asking the locals, Nameless discovers that the kidnapper is most likely Lothar, Master of Bones.
The Nameless One pays a visit to Lothar, where he finds out that Morte has indeed been kidnapped by Lothar, and is in fact residing on one of his shelves (amongst other jabbering skulls). Lothar agrees to return Morte (whom he describes as "a chattering skull with half the grace and manners of any normal creature"), as long as he goes into the Drowned Nations into an extremely well-protected tomb.
The protagonist informs Lothar that the tomb is, in fact, his own, and it was quite empty. Lothar, surprised, orders Nameless to find "a greater skull" in return for Morte. After doing so, Lothar answers questions for TNO.
The Master of Bones tells Nameless that he is immortal because his "soul", aka mortality, has been stripped from him through magical means by the night hag Ravel Puzzlewall, who is now unfortunately imprisoned in one of the Lady's mazes.
Nameless retrieves Morte and journeys on to the Clerk's Ward.
In the Clerk's (or Upper) Ward, The Nameless One learns the command word for the Decanter of Endless Water, which he uses to free Ignus.
Ignus tells the player that he was the former master of a young boy, who, in a previous incarnation, was a great sorcerer (and Ignus his apprentice.) Ignus became a powerful sorcerer, but became so enamoured with his power that he burned down a large section of The Hive. A great group of magelings banded together and transformed Ignus into a conduit to the Elemental Plane of Fire, a transformation that would have killed many mortals.
Instead of being destroyed, Ignus thrived from the metamorphasis, and became the channel of the rage and hatred of an entire plane.
After learning Ignus's story, The Nameless One walks into the Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts, run by a succubus aptly named Fall-from-Grace. Grace has turned from her nature as a chaotic evil spawn of hell to an intelligent member of the Sensates, the biggest faction in Sigil.
The Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts is an establishment where its patrons do not engage in intercourse, except of the colliqual sort. It is here where the Nameless One learns key pieces of information, including the key to the portal that leads to Ravel's extradimensional maze.Synopsis
Sigil
The Hive
The Lower Ward
The Clerk's Ward