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Name:	Bastion
Species:	Cyborg Dog
Age:	Unknown
Gender:	Male
Sex:	Male
Bond:	None
Sponsorlings/Wards:	None
Birthplace:	Unknown
Current Residence:	Sitheil Tirean, Splintyr Research Sector/Kaere's Labs
Appearance/Color/Markings:	Blue and white fur, bright yellow slit-pupilled eyes, golden claws and pawpads, mechanical ears with visible golden cybernetic circuitry, very large floofy tail
Physical Description:	Bastion appears, at first glance, to be a heavy-bodied dog, perhaps a molossoid/mastiff breed, with a large, muscular, robust body covered in thick, plush fur. But it takes only a second glance to see that he is not a normal dog - his eyes are bright yellow and glow brightly with inner light, his pupils slitted like a cat's and not round like a normal canine's. His claws and pawpads are golden - literally metallic. (Kaere performed minimally-invasive testing on the substance and found it to be a gold alloy beyond Sitheil Tirean's current technological/metallurgic levels.) His ears are made of some artificial, flesh-like material and are not furred, though gold-wired cybernetic circuitry is visible on their surface. He has a very expressive face for all that it is doglike - and his expression is usually one of deep, enduring sadness.
Height:	3' at shoulder
Personality:	Bastion is somber, calm, and reserved. While he still possesses normal canine behaviors, he rarely wags his tail or acts visibly excited, though this is perhaps unsurprising given his rather melancholy history.
Abilities:	Verbal speech (cybernetic in nature; he opens his mouth and a computerized "vocal box" speaks), hyper-acute hearing, incredibly tough/durable body
History/Backstory:	Bastion walked, alone and unattended, through one of the many transdimensional Gates located in the Splintyr caverns one day. Gate travel is not uncommon, but unattended/unannounced travelers are rare, as the Gates are magical in nature and the Gate attendants usually are able to pick up a magical resonance that "warns" them of an approaching Gate-traveler. But Bastion walked through a Gate without the attendants noticing any disturbances in the aether. At first, the residents of Splintyr thought he was simply an unusual-looking dog and was of normal-dog-level intelligence. He was taken to the medical wing to be checked over for injuries or illnesses, and that was when the on-duty medics realized he was not a living dog at all, but a cybernetic organism that was part robot and part living flesh. He was sent to Kaere's laboratories in the Research Sector once he was given a medical clean bill of health. When he arrived in the Research Center, Kaere greeted him as one would a normal dog: "Hi, fella, I wonder what your name is!" And she was nearly startled out of her fur when he opened his mouth and a computerized voice issued forth: "My name is Bastion." Kaere spent the next several days deep in conversation with the cyborg dog. While he seemed unwilling - or unable - to share his entire story, she was able to discover that he had been created on a spaceship that had originated from a planet that was at a higher level of technological advancement than Sitheil Tirean. He had been created as a personal companion/protector/guardian for his master, who was also his creator. The ship was a colony/settlement ship that was destined for a distant planet, and most of the occupants were in coldsleep. Bastion's master spent several years out of coldsleep after creating Bastion, working with the cyberdog and teaching him how to talk, think, and feel. As the ship was still several decades of travel away from its destination, Bastion's master intended to return to coldsleep until the ship arrived at its destination. He set Bastion the task of patrolling the starship as guardian and protector for the staff and crewmembers who rotated in and out of coldsleep. Bastion spent several decades relatively alone on the vast starship, patrolling its corridors and crawlspaces, interacting and speaking with the crewmembers he encountered, but missing his master terribly. He looked forward to the day, years hence, when the ship finally arrived at its distant planet and his master would awaken from coldsleep, along with the rest of the crewmembers and colonists. Then something went wrong with the astrogation. The ship arrived in the solar system of its target planet, but there was some kind of issue with the navigation/astrogation - Bastion could not extrapolate any further, as his master had not taught him anything of astrogation - and the ship physically collided with the planet instead of stopping in its orbit. Bastion lost consciousness during the wreck itself, and awakened later - possibly days later - in the wreckage of the starship, on the planet's surface. He found crewmembers' bodies everywhere - everyone on the bridge appeared to have died on impact. Terrified and alone, Bastion raced through the wreckage - which spread out over several miles of the planet's surface - looking for the coldsleep chambers. It took him most of one of the planet's day-cycles to even find the debris that had once been the coldsleep chambers with their thousands of coldsleep pods. Many of the pods had been compomised in the crash, and their occupants were deceased. He finally came upon his master's pod. It had not been destroyed or damaged in the crash, and Bastion felt the first small kernel of hope he'd felt since awakening in the rubble of the starship. He then realized that the entire coldsleep chambers had been ripped away from the starship's central power systems in the crash. While the undamaged pods were operating on emergency auxiliary battery power, it would not last forever. The cyberdog told Kaere of his frantic attempts to reconnect the coldsleep power grid back to that of the main starship. He had only limited knowledge of the necessary technology, but he tried his best. When he could not get the wiring reconnected himself, he attempted to initiate the wake-up sequence on his master's pod - something he had been taught how to do in case of an emergency. But the pod refused his attempts, as it was no longer connected to the starship's main computer and had entered a secure mode that the cyberdog could not quickly bypass. Bastion decided to drag his master's pod closer to the ruins of the starship's main power chambers, hoping to be able to connect that single pod to the grid. This would give him the power/time he needed to try and break through the pod's secure lockdown mode. The auxiliary power on his master's pod gave out before he had even gotten close enough to attempt to connect it to the ship's power grid. Bastion told Kaere no details of the days that followed this, other than saying he maintained a lonely vigil next to the pod that had become his master's tomb. There had been a few other survivors of the crash, mostly cyborgs like himself or ship's robots and androids, but they all seemed disoriented and disassociated, and none seemed to want to band together for safety or succor. After a few days, Bastion finally gathered the fortitude to leave his master's tomb and began to explore the planet's surface around the starship wreckage, looking for other survivors, hopefully someone in authority who could give him direction or instruction. Instead, he literally stumbled through a Gate on the planet's surface - something his master and his master's people had not known about, as their culture was one of technology and not magical in nature or ability. The Gate teleported him to Sitheil Tirean. Kaere and Lakota did what they could - they knew that they could not replace Bastion's master, but they gave him the same tasks his master had intended to give him when their ship had reached its destination: to guard and protect. Bastion now patrols most of the Splintyr caverns, still alone but no longer lonely.
Stories:	n/a

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