The Burning of Bast
Military: Battle
227
Bast was once the breadbasket of the Empire, a fertile expanse of tilled earth and rolling farms, dotted with vibrant market towns that fed both the poor and the powerful of the United Cities. Caravans flowed daily from its granaries to Heft, Heng, and Sho-Battai, and its farmers were respected, if not quite equal, citizens of the Emperor’s realm.
But all that changed in a single season.
Without warning or declaration, the Holy Nation descended upon Bast, their flame-clad crusaders razing farmland, slaughtering nonbelievers, and hauling entire generations of children and youths back to the hell-prison of Rebirth. Villages were burned from the roots up; not for conquest, but for purification. The Phoenix Lord gave no reason. The Treaty of Sho had held for decades. But in the minds of the Holy Nation, Bast had become spiritually polluted, its multicultural towns, its Scorchlander scribes, its Tech Hunter scouts — all were “signs of corruption.” The United Cities’ response was sluggish and fractured. Noble houses bickered over whose lands had suffered more, while Traders Guild officials scrambled to redirect food supplies and protect their interests. By the time a counteroffensive was mustered, Bast was already a scarred wasteland, its aqueducts destroyed, its fields salted by fire and ash.
But all that changed in a single season.
Without warning or declaration, the Holy Nation descended upon Bast, their flame-clad crusaders razing farmland, slaughtering nonbelievers, and hauling entire generations of children and youths back to the hell-prison of Rebirth. Villages were burned from the roots up; not for conquest, but for purification. The Phoenix Lord gave no reason. The Treaty of Sho had held for decades. But in the minds of the Holy Nation, Bast had become spiritually polluted, its multicultural towns, its Scorchlander scribes, its Tech Hunter scouts — all were “signs of corruption.” The United Cities’ response was sluggish and fractured. Noble houses bickered over whose lands had suffered more, while Traders Guild officials scrambled to redirect food supplies and protect their interests. By the time a counteroffensive was mustered, Bast was already a scarred wasteland, its aqueducts destroyed, its fields salted by fire and ash.