Welcome to Gaia! ::

▐▐ THE INSTITUTES>>The institutes are the facilities within the human world which offer Hosts of the respective factions a place to live if they fall upon hard times or have not established a foothold on Earth. They straddle Purgatory and Earth and are access points to the human world and as such no combat is permitted within their grounds, a rule strictly and brutally enforced, if a Host wishes to settle a conflict it must be done elsewhere.

Within the institute of their respective faction all Hosts are entitled to -

• A single dormitory style room fitted to suit their respective needs in a generally very basic manner.
  
• Access to a bar/dining area outfitted in a human fashion with free low quality human world food (to help those new to the plane adjust or - in the case of Nephilim - to keep their body alive.
  
• Notifications of events and missions. There are various mission boards within these areas and generally they are seen as a hub for operations and socialising by the Hosts in the world.
  

Beyond this the Institutes vary greatly, a summary of their respective locations and style follow below.

▐▐ HELL’S INSTITUTE>>
Located in the heart of sunny California, Hell’s Institute is a technological wonderland.

Mostly billed as being “cooler than Heaven’s, like, way cooler”, it is stuffed with everything a vice and sin oriented demon could possibly want. Also, really good internet access. There is a frankly shady bath house, an aquarium that seems to mainly be full of sharks, and a cafeteria that is loaded with donut burgers, chili cheese fries, chocolate fountains, and anything that delights the senses and clogs the arteries. There is no library, because books are outdated, but there are plenty of corporate seminars and videos that explain the deal (usually with the help of the latest pop artists).

Humans are welcomed (and encouraged) on the ground floor, where demons can practice their tempting in a friendly environment. Angels are also welcome to explore the ground floor if they follow the rules and don't get too preachy, although the Angelic Institute strictly forbids them going over to the Hell Institute at all.

If Heaven’s Institute announces any remodeling or new features, Hell’s Institute is sure to reveal their own heavily modified upgrade a week later to upstage them. Above the Institute is their slogan, “WIDE IS THE PATH” and below that, “better satisfaction rates since forever B.C.!”

▐▐ HEAVEN’S INSTITUTE>>

Heaven’s institute is in a very upscale area of the British Countryside, within what seems like a large mansion turned country club with its own attached grounds. It is inaccessible to humans and anyone accidentally crossing the boundary or entering the gates will find themselves politely but forcefully turned away with a sudden desire to go do something else pressing in their lives (often something inexplicably kind) For some likewise inexplicable reason, this repelling charm seems to have failed to work on one very old lady who lives in the reading room most of the time, has a room in the facility and thinks that it is a care home (and is tended to by some of the denizens too guilty to turn her out). She is very polite to the “young men and women” who inhabit the institute and is too short sighted to note strange natural forms. Her name is Aggie.

The decor within the institute is grand and very old, a lot of mahogany and natural furnishings - which were never /actually/ trees so not cruel obviously the management assert. The building is larger inside than the outside and it seems to spawn strange branching staircases and corridors as required by its residents. The sun seems to almost always be shining in the large windows looking over the gorgeous landscape (strange, given the location)

As far as facilities go, the heavenly institute has an enormous library which tends to have books which should probably not be on earth but are anyway and seems to have some books which slip in and out of time, predicting future events or unrecorded past ones.

There are computers but most of them seem to still be running windows 95 and the wifi access is frankly abominable. It is almost always better to use the books, writing a query in a libram can on occasion return an answer with the accuracy of a google search. With less porn and piracy.

The dining room is a large Hogwarts style affair with trestle tables and pews. The food is clean, fresh, and vegetarian, with a definite aversion to sugar and over-indulgence, likely at the request of the more temperance-leaning angels.

▐▐ NEPHILIM INSTITUTE>>

The Nephilim’s Institute is summed up in one word. Frugal. Based in a run down area in Florida the building is a large but run down repurposed mall, complete with its own enormous car park. The rooms offered to the inhabitants range from small converted retail areas divided into dorms or optionally are communal bunk areas. Everything they do costs money and money has to be generated from somewhere, without the influence and long-standing established resources of Heaven or Hell. Nephilim have not been around for long and their needs are more urgent, their Institute reflects this.

The fountain at the entrance to the mall still works, which is frankly a miracle given the state of the other facilities.

Meals are served in the food court, where the facilities are made use of. The Nephilim, being most well versed in interactions with humans do manage to maintain several of the old mall franchises, staffing them themselves. This means that they do have the option to purchase some Chick-Fil-A, McDonalds, Subway or the like if the ration-grade standard meals are not quite to their liking.

In terms of facilities, they do have an ice rink which came with the mall and is maintained out of a hopeless sense of why the hell not.

Parking is free.

Singularly of all the Institutes, the Nephilim Mall Institute has its own cemetary, located where the garden center once was.

When it comes to missions however, The Nephilim Institute is highly organised and competent. Knowing the value of energy and money to their cause they dedicate a large area of the Mall solely to focus on missions, training areas exist to instruct in the gathering of SIN or LIFE, combat proficiency (in human forms) and a small library of entirely mission and mission report oriented documentation. Bounties are tracked with exact administrative clarity and fierce competition exists for the high paying dangerous missions and merc work which come in.