Spekat

Spekat was a city founded 232 years ago. It quickly became a hub of industry, its quarries, mines, fishing, and farming making it a profitable and industrialized area as Vatainians were born there, and more immigrated from the more martial cities to a calmer lifestyle. It was destroyed in a presumed dragon attack 130 years ago, becoming a husk of burned buildings, corpses, and a mark of failure on the Vatainian empire.

Not a traditionally Vatainian city, it was ruled by the rich merchants of the town, rather than military leaders. Today, its lack of discipline and military standing is taught as an example of what happens to the unprepared.

Founding and a quick growth
Founded by a trio of farmers looking for a new land where they could farm in peace away from the highly militaristic and strict Vatainian Empire, they brought with them enough workers to till fields and do other work as well. Starting from a population of about 300, the farmers via wise business decisions and some clever advertising in other cities, quickly greq their wealth, and the population of Spekat, doubling its denizens in just 5 years. This explosive growth, coupled with the wise decisions by the farmers, ensured they became rich and powerful. As more came to the new city, more merchants were added to the top circle of power, the merchants guild.

An expanse of industry
Over the course of the next 25 years, the natural resources and free culture drew more people, and made more people rich. The mines ensured that miners were added to the merchants guild, the fishers were added, and the quarry workers were all made valuable by the resources and the merchants guild, the entrepreneurs at the top being the hosts of power in this town. They kept a standing militia to enforce rules and protect themselves, but nothing quite so serious as any true Vatainian city.

At the end of 25 years, its population had grown to over 5000 people, making it larger than the closest cities of Vas, Vorch, and Tas.

Things continued becoming better and better for them until just 100 years after its founding. It had a population of around 15,000 at this time, it was one of the largest exporters of food and stone in the empire, and its reputation was becoming problematic for the empire as a whole, with anti-military advocates pointing to its success without a military industrial complex behind it as evidence that people could live differently. They were proved wrong within two years.

The destruction of Spekat
Spekat, never a highly militarized city, just 100 years after its founding, started facing attacks. Kobold cultists descended from the Short Mountains to the north, attacking ranchers livestock, and abducting lone people. They were said to be ruled by a powerful dragonborn mage. This was not the only issue however. The merfolk had grown tired of their seas being polluted by the industry of Spekat, and as such began launching raids against it, destroying ships at sea, and sabotaging factories and mills. These two sources of adversity, though they were attempted to be stopped, caused an incredible food shortage as the fish stopped coming in, and the ranchers livestock went missing and couldn't be guarded properly with the small militia. As more and more people starved, more left in droves. What had been a city of 15,000+ just 1.5 years ago was now a city of about 3,000 as some died, and most left.

The steady chipping away continued to harm the cities denizens until finally, the final hammer blow dropped that ended all hope. It is said that the Kobolds cultists stopped attacking for a month or so. Things were looking good. Then the city went dark, no messages came, no grain or meat or fish exported. Upon investigation by concerned parties, they found a city filled with burned and destroyed buildings, and not a soul alive to populate it.

Spekat now
Today, Spekat remains a husk of its once powerful industry, populated by no human and home to animals. It is said that following the destruction, a curse fell upon the town as the land was soured and turned to a cold, dank swamp. Any explorers who venture there find nothing valuable, nothing to want, and return empty handed. It is mostly overtaken by plant life and the swamp surrounding it as the buildings sink and are weathered into decay.

Vatain uses its destruction as a teaching point of just how necessary militarization is.

What about the people who fled
The people of Spekat who fled, roughly 10,000 in total, dispersed themselves mostly back into the Vatainian empire, though not all did this. Following Spekat's true destruction, a few hundred people traveled from their homes to seek a new land, one that could be closer to what Spekat was, though this time with a better military. And so Noch was founded.

New denizens
Spekat, following its destruction and abandonment, quickly gained new residents. An abandoned city is an excellent place for the more monstrous types to gather.

Big Sky
Big Sky is the oldest of the current residents of Spekat, a beholder. Summoned by a human cult in a ritual of sacrfice, Big Sky appeared, and promptly went to work on new plans in this place, as well as building an underground lair. His lair, which he calls Sky City, is built underneath the town of Spekat, and while it is unknown just how large it is, or how far it expands, it is confirmed to at least have passageways to the dwarven underdark cities.

Augusta the foul nosed
Augusta the foul nosed, a sea hag of little skill, moved into Spekat ~25 years after its destruction. As hags are drawn to beholders to serve their needs, and to gain power, Augusta was drawn to Big Sky. She quickly became his loyal servant, and while she would do whatever he asked, she mostly did magics, deals, and other things that benefited herself in her lighthouse lair.

This all changed in the year 3000. Following an errant and injured griffon landing in her home, she killed it and left it to rot, the smell pleasing her. A group of adventurers, chasing the griffon, collapsed the lighthouse and chopped off the griffon head. She bargained with the intruders, as the griffon head was rightfully hers, for a griffon egg. The adventurers left, seeking to lure her into a false sense of security, and then when she least expected it, attacked her from inside of her own home, brutally murdering her.

A power vacuum
Now, there is no official monster making its lair in Spekat. It is unknown how long this will last for.