Great Library of Alraq
The Great Library of Alraq was once the crowning jewel of Old Meridia, three spiraling architectural masterpieces that could have easily formed the seat of government of any other nation. Together, they formed a grand statement of both the wealth of Old Meridia, and a reminder that knowledge and education were the core pillars of continuing Meridian power. A fourth tower was originally planned which would serve as a royal residence within Alraq, but was never constructed due to political concerns.
During the Fall of Meridia, scholars around Meridia worked tirelessly to evacuate treatises, books, and other works of knowledge to Alraq, while the Meridian government used many of its classrooms to store an ever-increasing number of evacuated governmental and diplomatic documents. Especially instrumental to this effort was a large force of able scholars from Evahia, who were responsible for rescuing hundreds of thousands of tomes from lost Meridian territory, often paying their lives to do so. To this day, despite geographic difficulties, Evahia and Meridia share a special diplomatic relationship born of the blood of these scholars.
By the end of the Fall of Meridia, the library stored over 80 million items of one form or another, most of which are still being sorted through and organized into the modern day. Nearly two centuries after the fall, the Great Library still remains one of the largest and most prestigious universities and libraries of the modern world, with professors and scholars traveling from around the world to lecture, learn, and sift through forgotten knowledge.
