The Old Bastion

The Old Bastion is a fortress that was built in the oldest part of the city of Rethis, back when it was a frontier mining town on the border of Kinilan. As the Iron Hills grew from a frontier territory into the primary source of metals in the whole country, the city grew and a sophisticated network of city walls were built to replace the central bastion. At this time, the city had a huge demand for labourers to work the mines, and the Old Bastion was converted into a bunkhouse for unmarried workers.
Centuries passed, and eventually the mines of the city of Rethis ran dry. Outlying mines and settlements had been cropping up all through the Iron Hills, and they all shipped their product through Rethis to take advantage of the established canal system now linking Rethis to the capital. As the demand for labourers fell, the Bastion - never a particularly pleasant place to live, fell into disuse for a time. Eventually, a noble from the capital, missing the entertainments of his home, purchased the Bastion and had it renovated, converting it into a formal banquet hall. Arrow loops were knocked out to add stained glass windows, plaster covered the rough stone, decorative flooring, chandeliers, all the trappings of the nobility. Over the next few decades, it became the most popular venue for hosting balls and feasts among the nobility.
About a century ago, during the Kinilan Revolution, the Bastion was gutted by fire. The nobles of Rethis, thinking themselves safe so far from the revolution in the capital and setting plans of which families to support and which to take advantage of, held a ball. But the revolution was far more widespread, and the local leaders were among the most cunning and ruthless of them all. They had been planning for an opportunity to eliminate the nobility in one stroke, and the ball in the Bastion was their opportunity. The Bastion was stormed by an angry mob and the beautiful wooden furnishings were set ablaze with thrown lanterns. As the Bastion was built to slow progress of people moving through the structure as a deliberate defensive feature, many of the nobles died before they managed to escape, and those few that staggered out fell into the waiting arms of the mob. Ever since, the Bastion has stood as a charred husk, a monument to the bloody brutality of the revolution.
Though it was never fully restored, it was critical in urban fighting in the city of Rethis during the Great War with Chelestra.

Type

Fortress

Parent Location

Rethis