Into the Reservoir

Your main question is ……. Where and how this anima thing works?. Shot answer is in your Covenant Reservoir.
But is also important how is this related to the covenant experience, and im gonna explain you this in the next big text.

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But before going deep into the covenant experience, I will drop you here two links to another two interesting themes that you may want to look later (check into the comments):
- How to choose your covenant (not the typical guide perspective)
- How and in which way level up alts and how this impact into your gameplay and covenant

And remember to upvote this comment with the arrows in the left if you find it useful. (thanks)
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COVENANT EXPERIENCE
There is two main resources you will be farming and stockpiling, Reservoir Anima [currency=1813] and Renown [currency=1822]. You can farm Anima in a unlimited amount like you did with artifact power but with Renow you have a limited amount to farm per week.
You will gain Anima with various activities (world quest, pve activities, pvp activities) and will gain Renown mostly with weekly quests.

With one of this resources (anima) you will not autoacumulate, you will earn items that goes into your bags and you have to use in order to stock the amount of currency that they give you. But you cant use those items anywhere, there is a determinate point to use em, one of the seven big points into your covenant.
The covenant is the faction you choose to work for, is linked to one of the maps in the shadowlands so your main hub will be in that map, your Sanctum. Works in a similar way to the class halls in legion, everyone had one with more or less the same utilities but not placed in the same spot because their “internal arquitecture” was different.
Seven Big Points into your Covenant: SCOUTING MAP, FORGE OF BONDS, COVENANT RESERVOIR, KEEPER OF RENOWN, ANIMA CONDUCTOR, TELEPORTATION NETWORK, COVENANT SPECIFIC AREA
Here you can see an example video in kyrian sanctum and an example video in night fae sanctum, but first take a fast read into the descriptions bellow.

SCOUTING MAP – As you can guess is where you start and finish the missions as you did with your followers before. The main difference is that now they fight in a similar way to hearthstone matches so you have to choose their positioning and influence between em. Someone will build an addon for this stuff for sure, don’t care xD.
Every Covenant has the same followers no matter with class you play.
To use this and set missions you need Reservoir Anima [currency=1813]

FORGE OF BOND – This works in a similar way to previous forges and will allow you to choose traits that will empower some of your habilities or stats. In previous expansions this was “inside” your artifact weapon or inside your heart of azeroth necklace, now traits are “inside” your followers but as they are soulbinded to you, the power gained with trait is for both, you and your follower.
You will start with one Soulbind (follower) but will end with 3. Each one has his own traits. You can only share the powers of those traits with one of your soulbinds (followers) but you can swap the one to share.
The powers a Soulbind Follower offers are fixed and remain the same regardless of the class or spec you play, take a look in here. To allow for customization within each Soulbind, there is a new item type called a Conduit that allows you to alter some of the powers in the denizen's power structure. When applied to a single tree power, it will not only alter that ability, but may also open up or cut off possible selections down the tree.
Conduits are similar to the Relics in Legion artifact weapons or to the Azerite Essences you used inside your Heart of Azeroth. Conduits are stored inside your forge, Conduits arrives to you as items so you must go to your Forge and use em and that will storage em inside the forge in a side-list as essences where storage inside Heart so you can use em and may be swapped around once per week.
The traits in your soulbind has different levels, as in a tree. You will nedd Conduits to open the patch from a level to another and you will also need to unlock every level. To unlock em you will need to gain levels of [currency=1822] in a similar way as you gained levels into your heart when farming azerite.

COVENANT RESERVOIR – This is the place where you will come to use your Reservoir Anima [currency=1813] items to deposit and stockpile em.
The Anima tab will allow you to check how many you have in deposit and will allow you to use your anima and willing soulds deposited to upgrade four different things.
Upgrade your scouting map, and you will have more and better missions and will make your followers stronger.
Upgrade a transport system into your faction map that will allow you to move faster and smoother (portals, gateways, etc)
Upgrade your Anima Conductor
Upgrade and allow the access to a zone that is unique per covenant.

KEEPER OF RENOWN – This npc wil show you your current Renown [currency=1822] level and the rewards for next renown levels you will gain.
The Renown tab will allow to check how many you have stocked and wich level of Renown you have. Every level of renown will unlock things like…. A new chapter into your campaign, A increased itemlevel in world quest rewards, toys pets transmogs legenday recipes, the Pathfinder achivment to fly later, and two important things, will unlock new levels into the trait tree inside your soulbinds and will unlock the possibility to improve different things into your sanctum, this things to improve are in the covenant reservoir tab.

ANIMA CONDUCTOR - Anima Conductors control and direct the anima streams to key areas in your Covenant's map. By improving these Anima Conductors located in your Covenant Sanctum, you can open the flow of Anima, revealing new daily and world quests, treasures, enemy champions, and enhancements just for members of your Covenant.

TELEPORTATION NETWORK- In the map where your covenant is, as in any other map, you will have to move flying around with gryphons. This will consume a lot of time. So, upgrading this tool with your anima, you will unlock a way to travel around the map with an insta teleportation system. Works with a different animation in every covenant but is something similar to a gateway system.

COVENANT SPECIFIC AREA – Every covenant has a unique zone that only members of that covenant can reach and use.
Take a look in here for QUEENS CONSERVATORY EXPLANATION and QUEENS CONSERVATORY SHORT VIDEO
Take a look in here for PATCH OF ASCENSION EXPLANATION and PATH OF ASCENSION SHORT VIDEO

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You will likely need to complete a calling to get a [item=181475] (or your covenants equivalent) to open and receive your anima before adding it to your reservoir. Callings show up on your map under the covenant campaign (I had to expand mine to see it).

If you're doing this on alts, you will know that regular Tribute boxes doesn't reward anima, so you might get tricked into thinking you have to collect 375 anima from other sources. This is not the case though, the special Calling quest you get at the same time as this one, will reward you with 500 anima from the box.