Bastion part 2

Hello. Today I'm writing more about one of my favorite games, Bastion.

Today I'm writing mainly about the entire plot and ending of Bastion so skip this blog if you haven't finished the game or are interested in playing it. Like I said in my last blog, the Kid and Rucks are two Caelondians. Caelondia was a society that existed in the west of the continent. It was rich and successful and turned almost entirely into a sprawling city, surrounded by the Rippling Walls. What you aren't told early in the game is that the Rippling Walls isn't a simple border or way of keeping out animals, it was the main defense in a war against the other society on the continent, the Ura.

Long ago the Caelondians migrated across the boundless sea to the west, from the Motherland. When they got to this continent, they spread fast westward and pushed farther and farther into Ura land without permission and sometimes violence. The ever rapid expansion and resource depletion is what sparked the Ura-Caelondian war, 50 years before the Kid's time. The war was over before too long, and the Ura lost. After the war, Caelondian expansion slowed down but relations between the Ura and Caelondia were nonexistent. There were almost no Caelondians at all underground in the Tazal Terminals where the Ura lived. Ura refugees from the war living in Caelondia were not permitted to return to their homes so they would not disclose city secrets. Racism and discrimination was rampart against the minority and Caelondian's lived happily in their "perfect" society.

It's revealed late in the game that this racism and hate lead to the game's starting event: The Calamity. The Calamity was a plan developed by the Caelondian Mancers. The Mancers were a group of scientists that worked to protect the city. They believed that the answer to never having another war was to completely eliminate the opposition. The Calamity was meant to wipe out the Ura, killing thousands. However the Mancers were nowhere near close to developing something capable of this, until they recruited a brilliant Ura living in the city, named Ven. Ven was forced to create the Calamity, an instrument he knew would be the death of his people. When Ven was finally forced by the Mancers to set it off, he made it backfire. The Calamity ripped through the entire continent, killing almost everyone.

It's these events that lead to the main themes of the game, genocide, war, hate, and redemption. It has parallels to American expansion, the nuclear bomb and many other real-world problems. Next blog I will discuss these points and the very end of the game. I highly recommend checking out Bastion.


- By Ashton