Though bastion archons are among Heaven's most powerful defenders, their formation results from the intertwining of lesser
archons, starting with the least of them all,
lantern archons. Rarely, when a group of at least nine
lantern archons is turned back by an overwhelming invading force of fiends, the group can use their gestalt ability to form a whirling globe that stands its ground.
This brave act of defiance usually lasts only half a minute, buying the
lantern archons' allies time to escape before the gestalt is overcome. In such dire situations, a nearby
shield archon—a combatant of Heaven more suited to serving as a bulwark against tides of evil—can transpose itself with the squad of
lantern archons, using
teleportation to take their place. But this interaction of abilities has unpredictable outcomes, and rarely, rather than swapping places, the two entities meld in a brilliant flash of light that sends nearby evil
outsiders reeling, leaving a crater with a nascent bastion
archon lodged in its center. The bastion
archon is initially stuck in the ground where it formed, but it retains many of its component creatures' defensive and offensive abilities. If it survives, it eventually pulls together a huge, four-armed body from the surrounding terrain until it is fully clad in stone, in the process becoming infused with power greater than that of any other
archon. A fully formed bastion archon stands 30 feet tall and weighs 15 tons.
