Life in Bastion would be unimaginably different without Power for a New Day. Various Power systems have been tried throughout Bastion's history; my research has turned up amongst others the harnessing of electric-based Monsters, geothermal vents, kinetic generators driven by fast or heavy monsters, and even hand cranks for the very smallest bits of charge. All pale in comparison to the unending font of power that New Day provides.
Headed by Paradigm, a trainer from back in the days of UMBA, New Day's power network extends throughout the city and powers almost every piece of archaeotech that we now take for granted. The source of their power is a reactor far to the East and is provided by a huge cable that winds its way through the wastes; long-standing treaties protect the cable and New Day is more than influential enough to bring down a world of pain on anyone stupid enough to try tampering with it.
Of course this unending source of Power doesn't come free, which explains why the company became rich enough to also be the foremost provider of archaeotech in the city - all compatible with New Day power points, of course. One of the quickest ways for a young brave explorer-type to make a fortune is to get a spot on a sponsored Ultimate Ventures expedition - the company pays top Riel for new acquisitions and UV are always looking for new recruits.
New Day also has links with the travelling city of Oasis, as you might expect for a company that spends vast quantities of money bringing in new archaeotech from the wastes. Rumour has it that Paradigm himself contributed towards getting the city up and running, even personally installing the mobile power source that powers that city and allows it to glitter almost as much as the streets of Bastion at night.
–excerpt from Carved Into The Walls: How Bastion Came To Be by Anthem
Honoured guests, welcome to the Menagerie and Hatchery! Today you will see the true face of the “monsters” of the wasteland, and how they can be friends as well as fighters with just a little basic care.
If you look to your left, you will be able to see into the hatchery, where all of our monster eggs are kept. They are in individual cells, to ensure that no damage occurs due to the powers of the hatchlings, and looked over day and night by our trained staff. If you're lucky, you may see our patron, Cyclops, hard at work with a new hatchling - completing their basic taming and training right out of the egg, so their first experience of people is as a friendly face they can trust.
Here in the Menagerie, we are committed to providing each monster with an environment in which it can learn and grow in its own unique way - rather than the cells and pens you might have seen during previous seasons, each monster has a curated enclosure designed to provide comfort, mental stimulation, and opportunities for growth. Any monster fighting is closely monitored, to ensure that it is kept playful and fun for all involved.
- Extract from the script for the Monster Menagerie Archeotour.
Students at the Academy may choose to live on or off-campus; and attend part-time or full-time. Living on-site in our luxurious accommodation - fit, quite literally, for Champions! - will not only allow you to devote yourself full-time to fulfilling your Monster Training ambitions, but also maximise your opportunities for networking, allowing you to make social and professional connections with your peers.
The mentorship programme that forms the core of the Academy curriculum will help all students learn and grow to their fullest potential. When the academy was first founded, all new students were mentored directly by our founder, Principal Pluck. These days, however, students will be matched with a personal mentor in their area of focus, allowing us to support you fully whether you wish to become a fighting trainer for AMBER or UMBC, to learn to tame Monsters in the wild, or to work with domestic or monsters.
We will also assist students in finding Monsters to suit them and their Training needs, through regular expeditions to the Wasteland - providing essential experience for our more adventurous students! - and partnership with the Monster Menagerie.
For a supportive learning environment and a thorough grounding in compassionate training techniques, at an institution that has produced some of the most acclaimed Trainers of this generation, enrol today at the Bastion Training Academy.
Become the hero of your own story today!
- From the Bastion Training Academy prospectus.
Truly, the city would not have survived nearly so long if not for its stalwart defenders. In the UMBC/AMBER era, the focus shifted more from the monster trainers themselves (who, at that time, were often more capable of putting on a show than actually fighting large threats to the city) to archeotech defences. Chief amongst these were the platforms installed and operated by Fatesmith Defence Solutions, in cooperation with Power For a New Day. The network of giant cannons and automated detection systems prevented many monster attacks before any human was even aware of them - and the constant upgrades supplied by Fatesmith's tinkering allow the people of Bastion to rest safe at night, knowing they have a stalwart and solid defender watching over them.
–excerpt from Carved Into The Walls: How Bastion Came To Be by Anthem
Fatesmith, right? Staunch defender of the city? Keeps us safe from ravenous monsters? Bullshit. Sure, his guns make sure nothing on the outside can get in, but he's responsible for basically every UMBC fatality these past two seasons!
You know his factory? Lots of lovely automation, no need for anyone to go in there and see what's being made. Well what's being made isn't anything for the walls - it's serum! A powerful serum which will make monsters fight harder than they ever have before. Oh, sure, if you've got a monster with no behaviour problems whatsoever, then it just makes it better in a fight - but all of those are in AMBER. UMBC is for the monsters that like the taste of people, the ones that have a bit of a grumpy disposition, or the ones that will nto stop fighting until they get knocked out, and this serum just makes that worse!
Oh, but he'll also sell you the antidote - something to calm down your pet after it's torn through a stand full of people and you've seen why such a thing might just be needed. Lucky for us there's another source now - I can reveal that Suture has sold the secret formula to the antidote to the Arena management, so they can at least stop the rampage if they need to.
- Extract from Off the Record, Unusual Unobtanium
As one of the city's most skilled experimental engineers in generations, Sprocket never tired of devising intricate new mechanisms to maximise efficiency within everyday Bastion life. Though never tempted to effect anything as ambitious as a full-on reconstruction of the Prime Executive, hir inventions certainly aspired to its level of precision and complexity. As consequence, many newfound gadgets made their way into Bastion life - hir commercially revolutionary mechanical snack-dispensors, for instance, and the mass production of hir two-wheeled, fuel-powered transportation devices.
Of course, Sprocket's crowning legacy was always the repair, refurbishment and maintenance of the Arena. Ze was responsible for countless technical innovations regarding Archeotech and other special effects, re-designing a convenient, quasi-centralised system for the ease of Arena technicians. Half of today's mechanical necessities did not exist prior to Season XXXVI: the official odds-calculating scoreboard system, for instance; the improved lighting and amplification facilities; the confetti machine; and, naturally, the auto-cleaning facilities that rendered repairs and cleanup after Monster fights a far less painstaking task than historically it had ever been.
–excerpt from Carved Into The Walls: How Bastion Came To Be by Anthem
Some describe it as curious that the richest stakeholders of the final Season of UMBA all abandoned the city post-haste, but that perspective only makes sense when you consider the absolute wealthiest - Midnight and High Noon - who have achieved what every Bastionite dreams of: living on an island of their own surrounded by mountains of gold.
It's those who have stuck with the city that have really profited, though. In the past, writing for Sentinel, I would have provided a full list of value for everyone in Bastion, but times have changed, so we'll talk about simply the top five.
Obviously there's Maximum Taste: his rise from a humble burger chef to owner of a chain of restaurants worth thousands of Riel simply cannot be understated. Maintaining to this day that his rise was through “good, honest work”, Taste stands out for many as embodying the true essence of Bastion: showing honest work pays!
The same can be said of the next wealthiest, Dashboard - one of the named beneficiaries of the old Arena as bestowed by That Diamond, you might think that Dashboard's wealth simply comes from inheritance, but that couldn't be further from the truth: Dashboard's origins before the final Season of UMBA were rather humble, and it was only through grit and persistence that Dashboard made a name for himself, and now owns not only a significant stake in the Arena, but also one of the most successful mechanical workshops in Bastion!
We can't mention the Arena without of course mentioning one of the beneficiaries of Arena success. Crash, trainer of MechaGraviton, still boasts the title of being the only individual in Bastion to have a healthy income and lifestyle predicated almost entirely on Arena winnings. Though the days of lavish prizes is since passed and Ultimate Maximum Battle Circus certainly doesn't pay nearly as well as the Network once did, Crash's wealth goes to show that you can do what you love and still get paid for it.
The spirit of Bastion is success, and these individuals go to show exactly what that means, and will continue to mean for years to come.
– excerpt from The Watcher, business magazine
SPONSOR A MONSTER
Here at Arch's Old Friends Senior Monster Sanctuary, we take care of Monsters that have fallen on hard times. Maybe their trainer abandoned them, maybe their trainer died in a hideous accident, or maybe we found them and realised they deserved better. Whatever the reason, we're here to look after Monsters, because they deserve the same treatment that we give to one another.
Just take Bloop, for example! When Bloop came to our Monster Sanctuary, it was suffering from serious Brikquid poisoning. Arch took care of it, nursed it back to health, and thanks to weekly donations we've been able to give it a life it deserves, absorbing clean water and given a healthy area to run around where it won't get into trouble. Bloop is a healthy ball of fluid all thanks to your donations.
And what about Strike? Strike was given to us after his Trainer threatened to kill him frequently enough that he spent most of his days hiding under a blanket. We took Strike in, and worked with Strike to decide what he wanted to do - Strike likes to fight, so thanks to your donations we helped train Strike to fight and now he's fighting every week in AMBER and UMBC.
Then there's Devourer. Devourer was one of our earlier collaborations with SPAM, since Devourer was a menace, but SPAM's beliefs and Arch's beliefs coincide that every Monster deserves better, and so your donations helped us to purchase chew toys so that Devourer can sink its teeth into things without worrying about bloodshed.
But we still need your help: every week we find more Monsters in need of sanctuary, and it's your donations that will save them. If you want to help create a Sanctuary in Bastion, get in touch with Arch to talk about donating just 3,000 Kyat a week to help make a better tomorrow for Monsters, today.
– Monster Sanctuary Leaflet
Please imagine smooth jazz playing on a rainy day while you read this internal monologue in black and white
It's not every day you find a triple homicide in Bastion, well certainly not since I took to cleaning up the streets. It was a grizzly scene, and the neighbours put it down to a rogue Monster attack, but something just didn't add up for me there. If this was a Monster attack, where was the gigantic hole in the wall?
Invisible Monsters, sure, but there was no trace of something leaving footprints that shouldn't. Gas Monsters leave an odour behind. Deadly Mind Virus Monsters wouldn't have left a mess. It didn't make sense.
But that's what I'm here for - this city may not be as corrupt as it once was with the Network, but the streets still need cleaning, 'cause the real Monsters in this city ain't the ones with ten arms or flame-tentacles on their necks. They're the people. The sort of sick minds that would pick a window lock, climb through with a laser-saw chain-thrower and threaten a family just to get another dose of Fateserum.
They won't like it when I tell 'em that, but that's what all the clues say. I ain't no politician, but I swear I'm not gonna rest until Fateserum is off these streets. But that's another story. For now I've got to track down a maniac with a chain-thrower before they strike again. Wish me luck.
– excerpt from the personal journal of Bright
