Quartz 5

The Order of the Bastions

Properties2
tagsorganization
aliasesOrder of Bastions, The Bastions, The Masked Bastion

4 min read

The Order of the Bastions

In the harsh, cruel North, there is no “I”. Only a collective that forgoes its individuality can survive the monster-infested frosts - and so stands the Order of the Bastions, sworn guardians who give up their very names and faces in the service of others.

History

The Order accepts all who are willing to take up the mantle of guardianship - even those whose past is stained by crime. It is said that the first knight of the Order was an escaped criminal seeking to atone, who hid his identity beneath the armor and helmet that masked his face. The Bastions who followed honor that tradition: they are never seen without their armor and mask, which have become symbols of their unwavering duty and their rejection of personal identity in favor of the protection of others.

Tenets

  • Guard the Weak - stand between those in danger and the forces of destruction.
  • Endure - pain and fear are inevitable, but the Bastion never falters, for others rely on their strength.
  • Sacrifice - a Bastion’s life is not their own; it belongs to the Order and to those they protect.
  • Anonymous Vigil - a Bastion’s face is never seen, and their name never spoken, outside the Order. “Under the Mask, we are all Bastions.”

The Tale of Masks and Towers

Known to the Lexallians as the Masked Bastion - one of the Republic’s three elite knightly orders - the Order traces itself to a single condemned prisoner whose name is lost to time. Sentenced to death for crimes that each carried the ultimate penalty, he either escaped or survived the Republic’s grim execution rite, the “Last Service to the State” (a draught of poison and a fight against monsters in the snow-clad mountains). Months later he walked free again among the Republic’s people, hiding his face and form beneath a great suit of metal armor so that none who might know him could.

For years people mistook him for a wandering knight of some unknown order - and the fugitive, wishing only to keep his life, began to play the part. In time he invented a knightly bearing, and then an order to match it, and came to be called the Masked Protector, for he never removed his armor and now and then defended the villages he passed from the monsters that beset them.

Others followed him. By the time he lay dying, some twenty masked knights rode at his side, none speaking of their pasts because he never spoke of his. On his deathbed he confessed the truth of his origins - and instead of shattering the Order, his story became its cornerstone: a man who had wronged the state had given his life, for decades, to protect it, embodying the deepest principles of the Lexallian way. His tale passed into legend, and with it came criminals seeking refuge within the Order’s walls. At last the Republic recognized the reality and passed the Mask Law, which let the Order (and, in principle, any organization) take prisoners into its ranks, that they might give their lives in service of the state.

Appendix

See Also

Notes

  • Worldbuilding page; the Oath of Bastion’s game mechanics were intentionally omitted.

Sources & Attribution

  • Primary lore: editions/5e-2014/subclasses/paladin-oath-of-bastion.md (Traveler’s Guide - Paladin → Oath of Bastion), author TrueMichato.

Organizations

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