Hall of Urns

Overview

The Hall of Urns is the main temple to worship of Sarconis in Novus and the largest crematorium in Novus. It is the primary place where deceased meet their final resting place, regardless of if they patronized the Tombsmith in life. As a deity, Sarconis's primary concern is for the construction of pure, hallowed tombs that seal the dead souls away from the corrupting effects of undeath, sealing the dead in whatever lies ahead for them. The Hall of Urns is more of a repository for the consecrated ashes of the dead, as there is a fundamental lack of earth to inter the dead in.

Purpose / Function

The Hall of Urns exists primarily to inter the dead of Novus. Most people understand it as a place of burial and funeral rather than expressedly a temple to Sarconis. Secondariliy, it is a place of training, worship, and devotion for clerics and acolytes of Sarconis.

Architecture

The building itself is a set of high ceilinged corridors with elaborate stone collumn and shelving where the purified urns of cremated ashes reside. The urns are labeled meticulously and the is a reserved, library like atmosphere to the chambers. The stone structure gives causes sound to easily reverberate and resound, and so people within the chamber speak in hushed tones. The chambers are attended to by clerics to Sarconis who maintain divine wards and purification chambers. Elsewhere there a variety of cloistered chambers, which often serve for sites of devotion, worship, and mediation, or as places where the family of the deceased may congregate for services before their loved one is interred. The is a harsh austerity to the architecture here, like a fortress. This is no mistake. Undead were a rampant problem in Novus in the early post fall days. It was thanks to the worshippers of Sarconis who constructed the temple to ensure that dead souls would never rise again.

Defenses

Much like the Black Ossuary, the Hall of Urns also features wards that prevent the casting of necromantic magic within the walls. Clerics of Sarconis administer sacred, non-magical rites to invoke Sarconis's touch upon the deceased, ensuring they remain at rest. Revivification spells are considered to be taboo amongst followers of Sarconis and souls who are consecrated by these rites sealed within enchanted urns that block any magic that would seek to return the dead to life, speak with a lost soul, or animate the dead for nefarious purposes. Clerics of Sarconis are prepared to fight the undead at a moments notice if a a ward were to fail or a the temple were to be breached by a necromancer.

History

The Hall of Urns was first constructed in the earliest days of post fall Novus. Before, Sarconis was considered to be a much less significant god within the pantheon of Vespala, but as the traumatic and magically strange circumstances of the fall caused the dead to be more susceptible to rise again, the followers of Sarconis were considered indesposible in those days. They built the Hall of Urns and continued to expand it ever since then.

Miasma's propensity to raise the dead or corrupt the living was particularly challenging in the early days of Novus, when miasma breached the walls more often. In those days, the Brass Spears of Novus suffered many casualties. To memorialize these efforts, the Hall of Urns contains a special wing of the structure devoted to fall soldiers.

As time passed and efforts to retake Vespala began to rise (and inevitably fall), the clerics of Sarconis petitioned the Brass Ring of Novus to build and outpost of the Hall of Urns in the Outer Wilds, in order to properly care for the dead civilians and Adamantine Wayfinders in the wilds beyond and to apply their ideals of purification to the word at large. The most pure rights of Sarconis rely on proper burial, something not as feasible now as it once was. While the petitions have been placed on hold, rumors abound of secret meetings deep within the Hall of Urns to move forward with these plans, whether the Seven sanction it or not.

Type

Cathedral / Great temple

Parent Location

Foundry District