Hollow

The Hollow serves as a criminal network hub: contract distribution, black-market trading, surveillance operations, and a fortified safe house. It is the beating heart of Ethlon's underworld and the foundation from which Boss maintains his quiet rule.

The structure follows a spider-web-like design: circular rings representing different levels of clearance, connected by branching pathways. But the Hollow does not simply stretch outward. It goes deep. The lower one descends, the more access is restricted and movement controlled. Dark grey reinforced concrete forms the outer shell, while the interior walls are metal, creating a cold and clinical atmosphere. Lighting is kept mid-dim: bright enough for humans to see comfortably, but low enough to maintain stealth and privacy. Triangular-arched hallways remain wide, enough for three adults to walk side-by-side

There are many entrance points, most concealed within the luxury hotels above. These elevators descend into the Hollow’s outer rings—elegant, efficient, and deadly discreet. Other access points include disguised delivery corridors and drain routes used only as desperate last resorts.

Every entrance leads through a different “welcoming” lobby, each designed to assess, those who dare to enter.

To those with heightened senses, the Hollow reeks faintly of sweat, gunpowder, and blood. The air rests at a controlled coolness, and the uniform grey surfaces offer no comfort. Nothing is soft, nothing is warm, and nothing belongs to anyone who isn’t willing to bleed for it.

Despite housing killers, the Hollow is immaculate. Pests are nearly nonexistent, and sanitation is enforced as strictly as loyalty.

Multi-species operatives reside here: Humans and Maiaaks alike. For many, this is the only place where they can sleep deeply without fear.

Each sector reflects its function:

• Command & Surveillance: cameras everywhere.
• Containment & Interrogation: bare, reinforced cells; minimal comforts
• Armory: Firearm customization, maiaak compatible weaponry, and firing ranges.
• Medical Wing: equipped for rapid trauma care
• Training Halls: physical, mental, and tactical preparation
• Science Division: laboratories dedicated to experimentation, analysis, artifact study, and biological enhancement; highly restricted and always monitored
• Housing Quarters: simple but comfortable; adjustable lighting; no carpet for hygiene
• Trade Hub: intel boards, gear lockers, mission briefings
• The Archive: A library with digital intelligence, private dossiers, psychological profiles, criminal history, and more.

The greatest hub of activity is the NightSpire, the underground city within the Hollow, offering the closest thing to normalcy any hitman may ever know.

Information is the most precious commodity stored here. Classified files, target profiles, and black-market intelligence are locked behind layered security. Rare artifacts—confiscated, stolen, or studied, are secured deeper below, accessible only to high-ranking personnel.

The Hollow does not rely on flashy death traps. It doesn't need to. The building itself is designed to control, separate, and elimiante threats long before they become problems. Secuitry systems constantly monitor identity, movement, and behavior. Anyone flagged as suspicious will find hallways shifting, doors locking, and elevators refuding to take them anywhere expect deeper into restricted sections. Some corridors lead nowhere useful at all, ending abruptly in reinforced kill zxones meant to stall intruders until security arrives. Silence is another weapon. Select rooms and floors are acoustaically sealed and structrually reinforced to ensure that whatever happens inside them never escapes.
In short, the greatest hazard with the Hollow is assuming you are safe simply because the walls are not visibly trying to kill you. If the Hollow decides you don't belong, you won't realize you're trapped until it's already done with you.

The building analyzes everyone inside it in real time. Most of the Hollow exists directly beneath luxury hotels, using their infrastrucutre for transport, power, and silence. The Hollow's internal structure and access systems can change dynamically based on clearance level and threat assessment. Rooms shift from public spaces to containment zones without warning.

A descending architectural web stretching wide and deep beneath the city. Reinforced concrete protects from the massive earth load overhead, while the metal interior supports surveillance, modular security, and seamless lockdowns.

Walls, cameras, and listening devices form the first line. The hitmen who live here are the second. The restricted-access system continuously logs every authorized presence, and erases those who are not. Escaping unnoticed is far more difficult than entering.

No record exists of when the Hollow was built or who designed it. It simply is. For as long as the underworld has needed a home, it has stood strong: the lair of Boss, and the sanctuary of those who serve him. No one has ever successfully breached it.