Hallowed Collective's Council Building

Æshren, we need a central location, a place all Finders can call home. A place we can grow to achieve more.

Ledeel, acolyte, after the Nectar flood

Hallowed Collective Council Building
Background City by Nikita Shirokov from Unsplash

All images by Shanda Nelson unless otherwise stated
banner imageby Giammarco from Unsplash

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Imposing in its plainness on top of a lone hill, the Hallowed Council Building is the only structure in the central square of Evening. Æshren Gerant, founder of the Finders and then the city of Evening, designed and began construction 10,876 years previous.
As a building dedicated to the deceased, and devastated by the trouble the living natives gave him and his organization by damming the Nectar, Gerant chose to make it accessible only to spirits. In his designs, he neglected outer doors and buried the majority of the structure below ground. The only beings who could get in were ghosts employing Ether Touch.
Befuddled but unwilling to ask after it, ghosts with exceptional Physical Touch built what their leader desired.

Description

The Hallowed Council Building looks like a crab with a hat. The bottom story is squat and wide, with multiple windows to allow light in, but no doors. There is no entrance sidewalk, nothing to indicate where or how to get inside. Finder historians claim Gerant took the idea from elfine coastal architecture found in Carewelde and dating from 15,460 years previous, during Old Man Death's Reign.
There are several levels, mostly underground. No one but the leaders of the Collective knows the exact extent of the structure because they refuse to release the blueprints. Common ghosts only interact with the levels designated as training centers. The rest are for Collective and Finder purposes.
An essence collection center sits at the very top, with the large fountain training center below. The neck of the hat holds classrooms for both newly deceased and Finders. The first few stories above ground are the living quarters and Relocation Center. Below ground is the museum, Finder Center and expansive library. Even further down are the Hallowed Collective Council levels, but no one other than the Collective knows their extent or what, exactly, they house there other than offices and meeting rooms.
The building has fountains everywhere except the library and archive, providing plentiful mists for ghosts to consume for energy.

The building houses:

• training center for ghosts
• Finder Center
• main library for Finders researching evidence of their Candidate's essences
• Finder archive and history center
• Hallowed Collective's governing body

Fountain, Evenacht instruction room
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Museum Display from Uka's Grace
Caroline Crystal from Pexels

Training Center for Ghosts

Gerant created the Greeters, ghosts of various populations and languages, who would greet the newly deceased at Death's Arch and guide them to Evening. They would provide the initial instruction in Ether Touch, then guide them to the training center after they made it inside the building.
To enter the building, ghosts must have some control over their Ether Touch. This is the fundamental way all spirits interact with the Evenacht. Before the Collective, they had to figure the Evenacht out on their own if they did not have willing family or friends to explain the intricacies of Touch. It is not an easy endeavor and can discourage new arrivals from even wanting to reside in the Evenacht, rather than seeking the Final Death.
Greeters instruct the newly deceased that entering the structure is their first test. With guidance, they must manipulate their essence to get inside. Once there, they are led to educational rooms and instructed on the Evenacht and rules they need to abide by, and given help in resettlement. For those so inclined, they can also take classes in the fundamentals of Physical and Mental Touch.
The Collective is the only entity that trains newly deceased spirits on how to interact with their new environment. Their way of looking at and doing things is the first, and only, exposure the spirits have until they enter the Evenacht proper. It is why so many younger spirits have outsized respect for Finders and the Hallowed Collective, and how the Collective has kept the reins of evening lands power firmly in their grasp.

Finder Center

Finders are ghosts dedicated to Redeeming the Condemned whose punishment is carried out in the Fields of the UnRedeemed. To accomplish this effectively, The Collective's building provides a common space for study, materials, and a means for ghosts, under the guidance of a sage, to develop skills in Ether, Physical and Mental Touch.
Items required for Redemption journeys are stored here, including badges, bags to designed to carry the Candidates, storage containers for energy in case mists are scarce where the Finder travels, maps, and other necessary things.
Finder scholars, historians, and sages, all have a space here. Finders returning from the field collect here and give testimony to scribes about their experiences, and share their journals and notes for prosperity. Most of this information is transferred to the Main Library.

Main Library

Finders collect evidence of essences discovered through happenstance by the general populations in the Evenacht. These discoveries make their way into newspapers, journals, etc., and the librarians dutifully collect the references and organize them by continent then location.
When Finders Chose a Candidate to Redeem, they use the library to research essences as well as the environment in which those essences reside. This is a long, boring process, and it can take years for a Finder to discover information on the correct essence. If they are not careful and meticulous, they might go after the wrong essence, which can cause all sorts of difficulties.
The library has undergone extreme renovation using modern technology. While the Evenacht does not have the same materials as the living world, ghosts use alternatives to create equivalent tech, including electronic storage and retrieval devices. The library is in the process of copying millions of documents, putting the originals in storage while providing electronic copies for Finders. Elder Finders without the want to learn the new computerized process are upset at the development, while the younger lot are relieved to have a faster way of discovering information. The library, as it currently stands, is a mix of old and new, and a mess as a result.

Finder Archive and History Center

Finders need a place to store information. They collect info on Redemptions (successful or not), Finder rolls, and essential historical aspects. They have a large collection of artifacts and memorabilia from across the Evenacht, which are displayed in a museum open to the ghostly public.

Finder Library
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Woman by Ali Pazani from Pexels
Background by Aleksandar Pasaric from Pexels

Hallowed Collective

The Collective's governing offices and meeting rooms are found here. Only Collective members are allowed to enter this space, which excludes most ghosts in the Evenacht (for governing purposes, another building, the Hallowed Grounds, was built to accommodate ghostly and native representatives from various constituencies).
Because so few have intimate knowledge of the Collective's levels, gossip abounds about what is found there. Conspiracies abound about a forgotten temple at the bottom, or that the Collective hides technology there that is far more advanced than any other seen in the Evenacht. No one speaks of it, and darker gossip about the spells used to keep ghosts silent on the topic flouishes.
The Collective sees themselves as the leaders of the spiritual in the Evenacht, and carry themselves accordingly; most spirits see them as glorified parents wagging their fingers at whatever they dislike. Still, the Collective is the only entity universally recognized by the population as a leader for ghosts in general, regardless of culture, ethnicity or time period.
Why? They maintain the Finders.