The Bastion Unfinished
“It waits for a future the Empire has not yet earned.”
The Bastion Unfinished looms on the western rim of the Riftwatch Plateau, a skeletal colossus of stone, steel, and arcane scaffolding. Intended as a citadel of last resort—part fortress, part aether battery, part observational temple—it was commissioned by the Imperial Senate after the near-catastrophe of the Cascading Sundering.
Its ambition outpaced reality.
Construction began in 487 AR and has never truly stopped, nor truly advanced. Funding, arcane theory, and engineering alike have struggled to keep pace with its scale. No one agrees on what it is meant to be anymore: a holy vault? A weapon? A sanctuary? Its lower halls are completed and patrols rotate through its empty corridors, but its upper reaches rise only as framework—twisting like the bones of an extinct titan.
Some whisper that it cannot be finished until the next Rift Cycle reveals the “correct” design.
Purpose / Function
Originally envisioned as a strategic bastion to house the Codex Reserve, the Bastion was meant to project Imperial control over Riftfront incursions while protecting the most sacred Arcanii tomes and resonance crystals.
Over time, its purpose evolved—or unraveled. Ritual sanctuaries were added. Rift stabilizers. Aetheric signal towers. The final design was never finalized, and portions of it now serve multiple roles: archive, observatory, redoubt, temple, vault.
Alterations
Between 492 and 496 AR, an entire wing was torn down and rebuilt twice due to “harmonic disharmony” and unexplained reality warping. In 498 AR, the Hall of Fracture Mirrors was added to reflect and disperse accidental rift echoes.
No two architects have agreed on its floorplan for more than a year.
Architecture
Built in a hybrid of late-Imperial stonework and Arcanii fluxbinding architecture, the Bastion is riddled with runes, void-pipes, and tower shells that appear as if grown from the bedrock. Lower walls are solid granite etched with protective mantras. Upper scaffolds shift with the seasons—responding, some say, to the tides of Tharaxis.
No roof has ever held.
Defenses
Partial:
- Glyph-activated turret slits (inactive)
- Rift-nullification anchors (unlinked)
- Defensive golem slots (unoccupied)
- Warded gatehouses (functional)
Its greatest defense is deterrence: few wish to breach a building the Rift itself seems to dislike.
History
The Bastion was decreed after the 486 AR Senate Panic, when news spread of a second Sundering. Senator Dravus Callax proposed “a pillar to challenge the Rift’s crown.” His proposal passed. The first stone was laid by Emperor Aurelian IV in ceremonial silence. Since then, it has passed through seven administrators, nine budget crises, and at least one known timeline revision.
Despite this, the Empire refuses to abandon it.
Tourism
Scholars, Riftborn pilgrims, and idle nobles often request access—fascinated by its myths. Tours are permitted of the lower halls. Pilgrims sometimes leave flowers or glyph-burnt prayers in the atrium known as the Echo Nave. Sightings of “ghost masons” are common.
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