The Shattered Temple

The faction headquarters of the Athar stand at the heart of a zone of destruction several blocks across. They've only repaired what little they had to in order to make the temple useable, preferring the broken look of the place. (They are the Lost, after all.) The area's been a ruin for a long time, as anyone who knows anything about Sigil can testify, but there's no clear hint as to what caused it. The best guess is that it involved the Lady of Pain and a conflict with a rival power. That would explain the broken temple, once belonging to the power Aoskar, which is now the Athars' home. Whatever the cause, the area's considered ill-omened by most, and nobody has ever built there since. Only a bunch like the Lost would ignore these superstitions.   Still, even they can't overcome other folks' fears. The few Athar merchants who've tried rebuilding in the blasted zone have all gone out of business for lack of customers - only other Athar'd even consider dealing with the berks. Wagoners stop at the very edge of the ruins, porters with sedan chairs won't enter, and moneylenders refuse to give out loans to those foolish enough to ignore the tradition. While all this makes good security for the Athar, it's lousy for business.   Yet there's always a way to turn trouble into profit, folks figure. Packed at the outer edges of the ruin are a whole host of shops and inns catering to the Lost and their visitors. These form a ring of gaudy nightlife around the ruin. Over the years, the reputation of the area's grown enough to attract even wealthy lords looking for a little low-life fun.  

Description

At first glance, the Temple is not much more than a ruin in a part of the Lower Ward that most bashers avoid on account of its bad omens. After all, there’s a reason it’s ruined. Looks like a cataclysm - some say the Lady’s wrath - razed not only the Shattered Temple, but the entire surrounding neighborhood in a blocks-wide area. The bustle and hubbub of the city fades as one approaches the temple. A breeze whispers through coarse grasses littered with tumbled stone and splintered wood. Some of Sigil’s poor wander here and there, gathering up loose stones and beams from the surrounding falling-down buildings. The sods look more than a little uneasy, and they don’t linger.   The tilted skeleton of the Shattered Temple looms above these and other, lesser ruins. Razorvine curtains its ragged walls, listing buttresses, and cracked towers. The Lost have shored up the remains of the crumbling sanctuary, but they like the ravaged mood of the place. They gain comfort from this mute witness to the fact that powers can die - as did Aoskar, the near-forgotten god of portals once worshiped here when the place was still called the Great Temple of Doors.   Inside of the main building - or at least, the part of it which still has a roof - are offices for the factol, his factors, and the various scribes who work hard on the Athar's latest pamphlets. But if one ventures down the long hallway that must once have been the nave of a grand cathedral, one will find a door that leads to a courtyard. Inside the courtyard grows the treasure of the Athar: the magical tree known as the Bois Verdurous.   It is said that none but Factol Terrance may touch the Bois Verdurous, and some folk whisper that the Factol's powers come from this tree.

Services

The Athar have a massive library on many topics of religion and divinity. Their scriptorium also proves to be a great place to learn to write, or to earn a bit of coin copying tracts. The Shattered Temple also houses many devotees of the Great Unknown, so it's a fine place to go for healing if one doesn't mind the eerie atmosphere and the preaching of the Athar clerics.   The vicinity of the Shattered Temple once contained a portal to the Astral plane, but now contains a portal to the Outlands. There is also a popular tavern (the Soused Duck) and mercantile house (the Generous Coin) in the nearby neighborhood that specialize in serving faction members.  

Residents

The sociable tiefling Factotum Caylean  serves as a guide for the rare visitors to the temple. Enthusiastic and cheerful, Caylean joined the faction after he was miraculously healed. A cripple from birth, he prayed to various gods to remove his affliction, but none seemed willing or able to intervene. When he denounced the gods for their cruel apathy and joined the Athar, he was miraculously healed.One of Sigil's homeless, he dwells with a poor Athar family who appreciate the joy he brings, and he works hard to be a friendly face for the faction. The Athar librarian, Factotum Hobard , is a drab, pessimistic character with a flair for getting the job done with remarkable effectiveness, for all he complains about it. He enjoys petty nastiness and sneaky, underhanded tactics, and he is often recruited for adventures, being quite able, though more than a little insufferable.   The factol of the Athar is Factol Terrance , a calm, nurturing figure who abandoned his faith gradually, calmly, and rationally. He works to support his faction against their enemies, to advocate for their needs, and to ensure their safety, but he is prone to deliberation and thoughtful action - he's no firebrand, and he doesn't go looking for fights.