Region: Credence Periphery
Position: Beyond the Broken Belt Front
Jurisdiction: Independent Installation
Primary Function: Casino–Resort, Financial Exchange, Neutral Arbitration Zone
Operational Status: Fully Active
The Gilded Meridian is a massive, self-contained casino complex situated beyond the Broken Belt Front, deliberately positioned outside Credence’s practical enforcement radius. Though physically close to Credence, it is politically distant, operating under its own charter, security doctrine, and internal law.
The Meridian is widely regarded as untouchable. It is not protected by treaties, fleets, or alliances, but by economic entanglement, private force, and the simple reality that too many powerful entities depend on its continued existence.
To Credence locals, the Meridian is excess made real.
To the Reach’s elite, it is a necessity.
The Meridian is built as a layered megastructure anchored to reinforced bedrock beneath the desert crust.
Key architectural features include:
A central spire housing the Grand Casino Floors
Suspended atrium rings with artificial sky cycling
Private docking towers with autonomous clearance systems
Subsurface vaults and infrastructure zones inaccessible to guests
Integrated defensive plating concealed beneath decorative alloy shells
Gravity, atmosphere, and lighting are finely tuned per section, creating subtle psychological separation between public luxury zones and restricted House areas.
The Grand Floor
A vast, multi-tiered casino space featuring high-visibility games, entertainment halls, and open Spur exchanges. Violence here is rare and swiftly ended.
The Meridian Suites
Private accommodations for high-value guests, diplomats, cartel representatives, and Freecrew captains. Suites are individually isolated, shielded, and monitored.
The Vault Spine
A restricted vertical corridor running beneath the complex. Houses sealed financial assets, legacy trusts, and non-liquid holdings. Entry authorization is extraordinarily limited.
The Quiet Galleries
Low-noise lounges where negotiations, wagers, and information trades occur under the pretense of leisure.
Velarium Noctis
Hidden within the upper atrium rings of the Gilded Meridian lies Velarium Noctis, an invitation-only adult lounge operated directly by House Meridian. It is not advertised, marked, or discussed openly; access is granted only to guests approved by the House’s internal ledgers. To outsiders, it is rumored to be decadent. In truth, it is controlled.
Velarium Noctis exists to provide indulgence without chaos and intimacy without scandal. The space favors privacy over spectacle—velvet-lit alcoves, sound-dampened chambers, and adaptive atmospherics designed to mask conversation and regulate mood. All entertainers are contracted, protected, and bound by strict codes of discretion. Guests, in turn, submit to House jurisdiction upon entry.
No recordings are permitted. No disputes are tolerated. What is said or shared within Velarium Noctis does not leave unless House Meridian decides it should. For many powerful figures in the Reach, the lounge is less a pleasure den than a quiet proving ground—where trust, weakness, and influence are revealed without force.
The Gilded Meridian enforces its own internal law.
All guests consent to Meridian jurisdiction upon entry
Marshal Authority presence is permitted only under House-approved limitations
Corporate security forces are not allowed on station
Disputes are settled via House arbitration or internal enforcement
Security response is swift, coordinated, and rarely visible. Most guests never see a weapon drawn. Those who do tend not to speak of it.
Across the Fractured Reach, the Meridian is known as:
A neutral ground where enemies can sit at the same table
A place where fortunes change hands without leaving records
A structure that remembers debts longer than people remember grudges
“The Belt chews you up.
The Meridian weighs you.”