"The historical significance of Queen's Meet cannot be denied, but I can't help but feel as though the city is defined by its past instead of embracing modernity. Museums are swell for a visit and a little sightseeing, but I wouldn't want to live in one." - from the memoirs of Lewin Von Treet, Vault: the Land of Stuff and Things
Population: ~1,400
Founded: 1980 (410 years ago)
The people of Queen's Meet consider their city the single most important place in Core Vandal. It was here Sabrina Sharp, later known as the Queen of Ash, sent the fleet of Ziggurat to the bottom of the Farewave Ocean. The people of Queen's Meet credit this event with ensuring the nation of Core Vandal's continued freedom, and it founded the town as a place where salvagers and scavengers could benefit from Ziggurat's tragedy. Over hundreds of years, the salvagers and scavengers decided to keep their oceanside community, not only as a beautiful locale for living out their days in wealth, but as a monument to the Queen who filled their pockets and won them their freedom.
Nowadays Queen's Meet is a strict stratocracy with generations growing up with the legend of the Queen of Ash, not as a cautionary tale, but as a guiding light. Sabrina Sharp is revered as the greatest military mind in history. The city sees itself as the only barrier between Core Vandal and another Ziggurat invasion, and has invested heavily in military infrastructure, including warships. Despite what many may think, the leaders of Queen's Meet consider the autonomous nature of the cities in Core Vandal to be a fundamental right worth dying for. They despise the idea of imparting their strict and regimented lifestyle on others, and consider themselves to be the watchers on the wall that all other peoples may be kept safe.
The city itself has precise curfews, mandatory military service, and involuntary free education which is heavily influenced by the Night When Water Burned. Being a citizen of Queen's Meet is to adhere to a code. However, the people of the city not only love visitors but rely on them. They welcome tourists and travelers alike and adore nothing more than regaling others with tales of their past victories and tours of the sunken fleet.
The Sunken Fleet - when the Queen of Ash sunk the Ziggurat fleet, it sent uncounted wealth in coin, weapons, materials, and technology to the bottom of the ocean. It also made for a beautiful and macabre undersea garden of sorts, with creatures both natural and magical taking up residence in the newly formed ecosystem. Queen's Meet offers underwater tours of the hundreds of ships comprising the Sunken Fleet, which sometimes run afoul of the creatures who have taken up residence there.
Statue of the Queen of Ash - lauded as the largest created statue in Core Vandal, the likeness of Sabrina Sharp is captured in red veined augite stone at the moment of her transformation into the Queen of Ash. It is rumored that standing at attention at the base of the statue will impart the gift of foresight. Thus it is often a place of quiet and strict observance,
The Tall and Terrible - the docks where the warships of Queen's Meet sit ever-vigilant, the masts towering above the town, reaching near the tips of the cliffs where the Queen of Ash created the Sunken Fleet. It is widely known that Queen's Meet fleet is the most powerful in Core Vandal, and could even stand up against the best in Vault, but they only ever leave port to patrol the waters of the southern Farewave, always looking for the threat from Ziggurat.
The Scorching Cliffs - just outside of town are the cliffs where the Queen of Ash stood when the brought ruin to Ziggurat. It is undeniable that standing at the cliffs, regardless of season, will cause anyone to begin to sweat and eventually come away with minor burns. The military of Queen's Meet will often try to endure the heat as a ritual, but whether this is the spirit of Sabrina lingering on or the effects of her magic over 500 years ago, none can say.
Relics and Ruins - when the fleet was first destroyed, salvagers recovered and sold what they could across all of Vault. This collection of artifacts near the center of Queen's Meet has made it a mission to bring back every piece associated with the Night When Water Burned. They display everything from ship planks to commanding officers' corpses, all in the name of what they call the greatest magical display in history.
Academy - the military of Queen's Meet takes their training very seriously, and will often have demonstrations against the warriors of Run'Thar. The Academy in Queen's Meet serves as both a place for education on tactics, lifestyles, and equipment to history, mathematics, and the sciences. In this way, Queen's Meet feels they are not just raising soldiers, but building a lifestyle conducive to a military life.
(Soldiers of Queen's Meet are given a first name when they are born, and when they graduate from the Academy, they take either their father or mother's name, depending on who lived the best life. Ton between names denoted the father's name while Tun denotes the mother's name.)
Grand Ser Killian tun Hargraves III: Male Human, leader of Queen's Meet
Grand Madam Azlain ton Zolo: Tiefling Female, second-in-command of Queen's Meet
Tarion tun Layt, the Burned: Male Human, has sat the longest at the Scorching Cliffs
Veek Voke: Female Tortle, lead excavator and tour guide
Dyne Bender: Male Human, outspoken opponent to Queen's Meet history
Domina tun Real: Female Human, former commander of Queen's Meet navy, local folk hero
Ser Magnus tun Carlsin: Male Dwarf, former commander of Queen's Meet navy, investigator for the militia, leader of the Listeners
Jacinta: Female Centaur, junior militia member and aspiring archer