Hallowed Collective

We stand for justice and Redemption. Hallowed is our directive, our direction, our duty. ~Æshren Gerant, 11880 years previous

All images by Shanda Nelson unless otherwise stated

In this article:

The Hallowed Collective

Just over two hundred years after Æshren Gerant founded the Grail, he and his advisors realized they needed a formal distinction. They had gathered a large following dedicated to Redeeming the Condemned, and "those ghosts helping the Condemned" did not have the nicest of rings to it.
He formed the Hallowed Collective.
He desired to cast his organization in a positive and holy light, for he believed the Great Syimlin had charged him with the sacred task of Redemption. He chose a name that reflected what he wanted the Evenacht to see; a hallowed organziation communally dedicated to helping the Condemned.
The Hallowed attracted even more acolytes eager to complete syimlin-blessed works. Gerant created strict rules about initiate acceptance because he wished the organization to continue their focus on Redemptions, not on honoring particular syimlin and creating strife among the members. Despite that, the Grail grew, because the Redeemed remained and sought to help others punished in the Fields, and their families joined them.
The Grail became a sprawling community of ghosts who hailed from all corners of Talis when alive, with a singular purpose of helping the Condemned. Their name was synonymous with spiritual leadership and holy works.

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The Grail, Evening

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Nectar flood

The Nectar Flood

Gerant and his advisors heard the rumblings of the living natives annoyed that he usurped their farmland to house ghosts. Could he not have found a different locale? But the waters of the Nectar brought the pleas of the Condemned to the Grail, and they did not want to lose the best way for acolytes to hear the cries for help.
Denz Chak, a disenchanted native, gathered together the discontents and dammed the Nectar right before the spring thaw. Powerful spiritesti kept the angry ghosts who attempted to halt the construction at bay, and flooded the Fields of the Condemned with meltwaters. Furious at the act, the current Death, the Beast, personally arrived to shatter the dam.
Flood waters rushed downstream, taking the Condemned heads with it. They washed away spirit, native, houses, farmland, the Collective, everything. Without the aid of the Healer, Zibwa, and his followers, the disaster might have spiraled out of control, killing more natives and dumping the UnRedeemed and unlucky ghosts into Veer's Embrace, a bay whose depths would make retrieval of them difficult.
Because the Hallowed Collective could not halt a farmer and a collection of living spiritesti from damaging the Fields and harming head and ghost, their reputation dove into the ground. The reverence reserved for them dissipated; they were no longer the helpers of the UnRedeemed, but the failed protectors of the Fields.

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Evening

Evening

Smarting from the abrupt fall from grace, but undeterred, Gerant and his remaining aides founded Evening. The flood obliterated the Grail, and he rebuilt the community on higher ground. He chose the top of the tallest hill for the seat of the Hallowed Collective, and designed the structure as a center for Redemptions as well as his council. He constructed most of it underground, a precaution against native attack, as well as the Beast and another rageful act.
Gerant wanted the Collective's Council Building to become the Evenacht center for Redemptions. Due to this, he created a training center for the newly deceased. All of the dead arriving in the Evenacht from Talis were met at Death's Arch by Greeters, who spoke their language and knew their culture. They were ushered to Evening and the Council building and told they needed to learn the fundamentals of Ether Touch to enter. Once they had enough control over their essences to drift through the walls, they entered into training that informed them about the Evenacht, spiritual requirements, Physical and Mental Touch, and helped them find communities in which to live, as well as friends and family.
The Hallowed Collective, as the only entity that ever showed that much interest in settling the newly deceased, became a household name. Their view of the Evenacht became the primary one for younger spirits because they provided their first exposure in how to navigate the evening lands. Older communities resented the change but found their voices drowned in the goodwill created.

Imparik the Keelsland Bard

Despite the enthusiastic support of the newly deceased, the Hallowed Collective's overall reputation remained damaged by the Nectar flood. Around eight thousand years previous, Imparik the Keelsland Bard, a renowned poet and Collective member, decided to do something about rejuvenating the organization's influence. He disliked the growing numbers of non-Finder adventurers accepting money from families and friends to Redeem the Condemned.
He wrote numerous poems and songs about the Nectar and how the Collective's members used the waters to hear the calls of the UnRedeemed. He emphasized how they only followed those calls which led to appropriately punished spirits. His works gained popularity throughout the evening lands, and Redemptions outside sanctioned Collective agents dwindled.
Unexpectedly, an influx of recruits who wished to help the UnRedeemed had the organization scrambling to accept them. Gerant, under advisement, formed the Finders and sanctioned them to Choose the Condemned to Redeem.
The Finders proved exceedingly popular, and by the time Erse Parr began her reign as Death 6119 years previous, they had become the only spirits who Redeemed the UnRedeemed. Unfortunately, the numbers of Condemned grew faster than Finders could Redeem them, leading to a cacophony of calls rushing with the Nectar's waters that no individual could tell apart.
Thus Imparik, with the Hallowed Collective's blessing, started the training centers for the newly deceased. He instructed the educators to tell their students that dipping their hands into the Nectar was to Touch the Evenacht, and to promote the study of Physical Touch on the river's shores. He meant for the spirits to absorb the calls, diluting them to the point Finders could hear them, but so many followed the suggestion, no Finder could detect them. Due to need, acolytes developed other methods for selecting a Candidate.
The most popular became bribes because accepting money to Redeem a Condemned was simpler than searching for an appropriately remorseful one in the Fields.

Modern Collective

The Hallowed Collective has an outsized influence in politics in the Evenacht due to Gerant's push. He feels the Collective should be better respected than it is. Cultures not beholden to Keel traditions find that belief insufferable, especially elden elfine and nymph populations who believe the Keel upstarts annoying.
Despite the Collective's attempts to repress the gossip, rumors have spread about the special technology and magic that they hide in the bowels of their Council Building. The chatter has sparked more than one adventurer and thief to attempt to enter the depths of the structure and gain access to the wondrous things they have heard about. Many of these ghosts are never heard from again.
At some point after the creation of the Finders, another, secret organization came into being. The Collective sanctioned a tiny number of Finders to hunt down ghosts who had committed great sins, and sunder their essences with Death's Mark. They called these acolytes Knights, and told them Death authorized their order.
Under the leadership of Lequorik, a Finder sage and First Shield, they roam the Evenacht in search of evil. Not much more is known about them.

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Imparik the Keelsland Bard

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Knight of the Finders