The Temple Nil

The Temple Nil, is the central Church of the Gods-From-Nowhere located in The First City of the First Fansus. Called forth from Nowhere, it serves as both a meeting place for their servants as well as a center of worship for their mortal congregations.

History

The Temple Nil's exact origin and nature is largely a mystery. Occult scholars place its arrival sometime during the FNORD, lured out of Nowhere by the gathering power of the Gods-From-Nowhere. After arriving, it settled and attached itself partially to [The First City]. Not belonging to any one of them in particular, the Nowheres agreed to use it as a sort of neutral ground.

It is in many ways the twisted reflection of Shesha. Where the First City was created by the Hours, the Temple Nil rose of its own accord. The First City is a sanctuary where the servants of the Hours freely intermingle with mortals, whereas Nil seems indifferent at best and hostile at worst to those that attempt to inhabit it. Where the One Sanctum and the True Hours seek to instate order in the chaos of the Histories, the Temple and Nowhere's Emissaries spread confusion and defy explanation wherever they act.

Layout

Much anything that comes from Nowhere, the little is clear of the Temple's nature other than that it does indeed exist in some capacity. Throughout the Histories occult explorers and servants of both The Doors and The Keys have ventured into its halls in the hopes of either eradicating the threats hiding within it, or at the very least gaining some measure of its layout.

Of those that returned from these ill-fated expeditions, the few that remained coherent enough to speak offered widely different accounts of the Temple's interior. Some reported chambers whose contents seemed to squirm, and walls that appeared to "breathe" like the internals of some massive animal. Others reported a vast nothingness, a black void bereft of anything other than the occasional island where the servants of Nowhere reside. It is likely that the Temple is all of these, constantly changing as in accordance with its own whims or the wills of the Hours that command each section of its halls.

• The Upper Rooms- Mortal worshipers of the Nowheres that risk the Temple generally agree The Upper Rooms are the "safest" rooms in the Temple due to their close proximity to reality. These are the rooms of the Temple where the mortals congregate, holding services in empty halls or wandering alone into the dark for silent prayer. Some have even managed to erect idols and effigies to their patrons in more "stable" areas of the Temple, less likely to vanish or suddenly change in layout due to the traffic of mortals.
• Death is Down- Far enough from where the variety of Nowhere cults gather lies the edge where laws of reality abruptly begin to "drop off". Halls begin to stretch on longer, and rooms of stairs leading down into the nothingness become more common sights. Congregations looking to draw the attention of their gods tend to practice their rituals on the border of man's unofficial foothold in the Temple, looking to differentiate themselves from the rest. The Temple is still not without risks here. Maddened cultists, shifting geography, and beings from the lower levels looking to emerge into Shesha or just for a snack can easily run into a lost cultist just as easily as an intruder, and do not discriminate in their wrath. Accredited occultists agree that unless one has received summons or has an especially good reason, descending any further is asking for death. Nowhere worshipers being what they are however, rarely 'do' stop here.
• On the Precipice of Madness- Accounts of the lower temple rapidly deteriorate in coherency at this point as reality is left behind. Rooms rapidly shift in layout, content, and composition. Here the ownership of the Hours is more easily defined, but are different from room to room, which can easily disorient and endanger the occultist. Rooms of red silk and hookah smoke that clearly bear the touch of The Peacock, shattered halls that look made of broken mirror can be walked with the ease of The Snake Tail with Appendages. FNORD. Rooms here are attended by Long servants of the Nowheres.
• FNORD- FNORD
• At the Edge of Oblivion- Rooms only mentioned in passing by the servants of the Nowheres, the fabled Lowest Rooms are home to beings of Nowhere, who either arrived with the Temple or use it as a "rest stop" on their way to wherever it may be they're going. Beings that defy description, bearing an alien malice towards reality, or perhaps genuine lack of understanding of it. Humans are not welcome here, although whatever manages to ascend this low can no longer be clearly called human. To stand this close to Nowhere while still being technically alive can blur the line between nightmare and reality, life and death. Things that stand here are forever changed. It is here the Deep-Venturer has been said to frequent.
• -mutcnaS enO ehT The gathering place of the Nine Emissaries of Nowhere, where they organize the movements of Nowhere and coordinate their efforts to make the Mansus Nowhere as well. Many a fool has sought them out, seeking to prove themselves worthy servants. To succeed might be marginally better than simply going Nowhere.

Inhabitants

The Temple Nil is not officially acknowledged by any "proper" Hour-fearing citizen of Shesha, but it is still the home to many dangers. Occasionally these dangers venture out of the Temple to hunt or wander out of Openings made by foolish occultists in their illegal rites, necessitating the Watchers, city watch, and the Bounty Hunters of The Collection Office to remain on high alert.

• Nowhere Spawn- The Not-People. Some of the more bizarre denizen of the Temple, and among the more problematic nuisances in the city above. Scraps of Nowhere that have somehow managed to take a human form... or perhaps were once human but were hollowed out. They speak in a strange, nonsensical word-salad that only seems to make sense at first glimpse. They attempt to get true humans to follow them into the domain of Nowhere, but rarely succeed due to their sheer uncanniness. They do, however, tend to attract more Nowhere to them where they walk, necessitating their hunting and extermination.