Hall of Secrets

The Hall of Secrets in Viroconium is a grand temple devoted to the worship of Loviatar, the Goddess of Secrets. As the main temple of the Imperial Church of Loviatar, the only officially recognized church devoted to the dark deity, it is the largest Loviatarian temple in all the Heartlands.
Contents

Description

The Hall of Secrets is a dark and foreboding building, made out of black stone and reinforced with iron and adamantium. Its architecture is pointy, jagged and spiky, with several sharp spires rising from it like needles. There are few windows in the temple, giving its interior a shadowy atmosphere most fitting for the darkest deity of the Empyreal Faith.

Alternative Names

Grand Temple of Loviatar, Black Temple

Type

Temple / Church

Parent Location

Viroconium

Owning Organization

Imperial Church of Loviatar

Reputation

The evil reputation of Loviatar extends to the Hall of Secrets as well. As the patron deity of secrets and plots, the general public opinion is that Loviatar is worshipped only by evildoers such as traitors, criminals, murderers, and madmen. The Goddess of Secrets is the only Empyreal deity that is canonically considered truly and absolutely evil, and thus she is rarely if ever worshipped openly. In most civilized lands the worship of the Undying Goddess is banned, either by religious stigma or by the rule of law, forcing worshippers to use personal shrines or visit secret sanctuaries hidden in the underbelly of civilization. Many Egeans think of the mere existence of the Loviatarian Church and the presence of its temples in their cities as a subject of great shame.
The Hall of Secrets is visited daily by a great many worshippers of Loviatar. People from all walks of life visit the shadowy halls of the temple to pay their respects to the Keeper of Secrets, despite the social stigma they might suffer for being seen there by someone that recongnizes them. Indeed, most visitors of the temple conceal themselves with hoods and cloaks, giving them all a common air of sinister skullduggery. This only adds to the dark reputation of the temple.
Priests of the temple respect the privacy of their patrons to the utmost degree. Perhaps unsuprisingly, the servants of the Goddess of Secrets never betray any details about the visitors of the temple to anyone -- not the city guard, not to bureaucrats, and not even the Grand Cleric himself. It is a known fact that temple is visited by most of the criminals, gangsters, mass murderers and other lowlife delinquents of Viroconium, but due to the high degree of independence and protection afforded to the Imperial Church of Loviatar by law, the authorities can do little about it. In Egea, everyone is entitled to worship their gods in peace.