Bast

Bast is an unassuming Clan Song retainer deployed to Antarctica with a rare Utility Aspect. Because his behavior and mission resemble Mordret's methods, Valor treats him as a possible vessel of the Prince of Nothing. Madoc eventually penetrates Song territory and confirms that Bast is not Mordret, leaving the actual Master's identity and later fate otherwise unexplored. (Chapters 1105–1173)

Biography

Decoy in Antarctica

Bast joins the joint strategic meetings between government officers and Great Clan representatives as part of Song's advance party. He appears dull, bleak, and forgettable beside famous Saints and elite Legacies. The official explanation describes a retainer selected for an unusually useful Utility Aspect, but neither Valor nor Sunny accepts that this alone explains his place at the center of the covert clan struggle. (Chapters 1105–1108)

While other champions join the campaign against Nightmare Creatures, Bast remains in a Song-controlled siege capital and spends long periods sitting motionless in a dark room. He quietly creates and distributes mirrors throughout the city. Those details reinforce the suspicion that he is Mordret, one of Mordret's Reflections, or a deliberate diversion designed to fix enemy attention on the wrong location. Jet watches him for Sunny while Valor plans a direct capture. (Chapters 1108–1127)

Madoc enters Song territory to settle the question and walks into a trap prepared by Silent Stalker and Dire Fang. He nevertheless verifies that Bast is not the Prince of Nothing. The conclusion confirms the decoy's effectiveness without explaining whether Bast knowingly imitated Mordret, whether his Utility Aspect genuinely creates the mirrors, or what happens to him after the failed capture. His last source-grounded state is alive in Song territory. (Chapter 1173)

Appearance and personality

Bast is a bleak, unassuming adult man whose name, face, and presence are repeatedly characterized as dull and difficult to remember. He can sit still in darkness for hours with the appearance of a corpse. These traits make him ideal camouflage for a covert operation, but the narration provides no detailed features, clothing description, or evidence that the forgettable impression is supernatural. (Chapters 1105–1108)

He speaks little and reveals no clear private motive. Bast is patient enough to perform monotonous work under observation and remains within hostile strategic attention without exposing panic. Whether he is a loyal Song agent, coerced retainer, informed decoy, or merely someone whose real assignment coincides with Mordret's methods is never resolved. (Chapters 1105–1173)

Abilities and Aspect

Bast has a rare Utility Aspect valuable enough to place an otherwise obscure Master in Song's advance party. He creates or distributes numerous mirrors through a siege capital, but the text never confirms which step is supernatural, gives no Ability name, and does not reveal his Dormant, Awakened, or Ascended mechanics. Valor also fails to confirm his Ascended Ability during the operation. (Chapters 1105–1173)

Nothing in the local corpus demonstrates direct combat power, a Flaw, Transformation, enchantment, or personal Domain. Bast's greatest shown strategic effect is misdirection: uncertainty around his identity draws the Whispering Blade into an ambush and consumes Valor's intelligence resources. That result may belong to Song's plan more than Bast's own power, so it is not treated as an Aspect Ability. (Chapters 1127 and 1173)

Relationships

Mordret

Bast is suspected of being Mordret because mirrors spread around him and the real Prince remains hidden. Madoc's investigation establishes that they are distinct people. The corpus does not show a direct meeting, possession attempt, or shared consciousness, and therefore does not support listing Bast as Mordret's vessel or Reflection despite the deliberate resemblance. (Chapters 1105–1173)

Madoc, Jet, and Clan Song

Jet monitors Bast for Sunny, while Madoc crosses into Song territory to capture him and verify his identity. Song uses his presence as part of a successful trap involving two Saints, although the exact instructions Bast receives are not narrated. He remains a retainer rather than a named member of the royal family, and his relationship with Ki Song is institutional rather than personally shown. (Chapters 1108–1173)

Items

Bast is associated with a growing network of mirrors placed throughout a Song siege capital. The corpus does not state whether they are Memories, mundane objects, products of his Aspect, or materials supplied by someone else. None is individually named or traced after Madoc's mission, and Bast has no cataloged personal item. (Chapters 1110–1127)