Hall of Records

The Hall of Records stands in the Clerk's Ward of Sigil, serving as the headquarters of the Fated and the center of all Sigilian record-keeping and tax collection. This complex spans across a large courtyard found at the end of Scholar Row and along Crystal Dew Lane, holding six massive buildings, some standing hundreds of feet tall.

The Hall was first constructed in Hashkar -654 at the order of the Oerthian archmage Tzunk (the initial land lease cosigned by the Fated due to details of Sigilian law). It originally served as the Tzunk College of Academic Arts, an institution devoted to instruction both arcane and general. This school was intended mostly to provide a planar center of instruction for his lessers, but membership was open for all, and a number of Sigilians gained their education at this institution during the decades of its operation.

Upon his death in the City of Brass in Hashkar -629, the school was quickly repossessed by the Fated, exploiting a clause in the original lease agreement to take ownership once the primary party was no longer capable. The campus was soon closed, and within months another few months was repurposed to serve as a new headquarters for the faction. Its library building was sold to fund repair and remodeling efforts, and the rest were shortly reworked into faction lodging, offices, and records storage.

Today, the majority of the complex is kept private. The central building, the Hall of Records itself after which the complex is named, holds most faction business. This thirty-story building serves as the taxation offices and record holding for the entire city, as well as offices for the faction high-ups. Two other buildings, the faculty dormitory and the smaller of the two student dormitories, were similarly repurposed now into offices and records. The student dormitory now serves as the Hall of Property Records, holding all records of Sigilian real estate holding and contracts as well as the offices of the Fated officials, barristers, and agents charged with serving and arranging for such deals. The former faculty dormitory stands as the Hall of Census Records, tracking population figures for permanent residents, reports of births and deaths, and genealogies dating back as far as can be managed. While birth records are relatively accurate, the Dustmen have little care to keep other factions updated on a facet they see as under their sole purview, and so are often slow to communicate with the Fated.

The larger of the two former student dormitories was kept to its original purpose, however, now serving the Fated as the Faction Dormitory. This building holds residences for up to 2500 faction members at a time, full private suites for each. The former food hall, now the Faction Hall, serves as a cafeteria, meeting hall, lounge, and even short-term lodging. Even though its services are restricted for faction members only, given the Fated philosophy, it's no surprise that they charge even their own for such services; of course, prices are far lower than one would find anywhere else in Sigil for similar lodging, so factotums tend to have little complaint.

Finally, the recreation hall was modified into a general-purpose contest hall, serving as the center of challenges for those seeking new positions in the faction. A long-standing tradition in the Fated holds that any holding any position of significance in the faction can be challenged for their position in a contest decided by the challenged, and this hall serves as the home to those challenged for the more interesting subjects, as well as general demonstrations of combat or arcane skill performed for nothing but entertainment. The only hall wholly open to the public, the recently-renamed Rowan Academy of Training has, since Darkwood's capture of the position of factol, done its best to present itself as a competitor to the Civic Festhall. And while it's still not managed to achieve that level of prominence, it's drawn quite a bit more interest in recent years than previously, as Darkwood has encouraged far more challenges since his ascent than have been seen in years.

References

• Factol's Manifesto, pgs.62,64