An except from the book A Short History of Magic (with modern applications) by Cassie Lee Ro Luryada, written as part of the Wyreth companions for general knowledge series. It is generally taught first quarter at the University.
This comprehensive but introductory tome gives an excellent overview of the current state of magic arts, blending historical insights with modern theory and application.
Section 2.1: Introduction to Warders
Warders are individuals with the ability to generate barriers known as wards. Warders are classified as universalists, although most aspects of their power are restricted to local domains.
Section 2.2: The Art of Wardcraft
Warders create wards, which are invisible barriers intricately linked to a particular substance. Wards exclusively prevent the passage of a certain keyed material through them. Because of this, wards are considered a powerful and highly dangerous magic.
Wards do not decay over time unless a warder wills it. Once put up, a ward can last indefinitely. The oldest recorded ward was discovered in a Desert outside of Moora Moora. Records date it to over two thousand years old. Oral tradition dates it substantially older.
Section 2.3: Geometric Constraints of Wards
Wards cannot be moved once constructed. A ward’s shape and size is defined by its equation and only its warding equation. This equation must define a closed, smooth, and differentiable manifold in three dimensions. Therefore, wards can be made any shape or size as long as the equation remains valid (see: solids of revolution, warding equations, and their calculus, pg 44). Theoretically, this means a ward can be infinitely large or placed an infinite distance away. Practically however, wards cannot cross the barriers between countries. This limits their size and distance greatly as most countries are no more than a dozen kilometres across (see: local vs universalist magic, pg 32).
Section 2.4: Limitations and Applications
Another limitation is that a ward will fail at the construct level if the substance it is keyed to crosses its intended edge. Consequently, despite having the potential for extreme sharpness, a ward’s application for cutting is limited. Wards are incapable of cutting through an object, only into an object. To cut a rock into two, a ward must be constructed a distance away from the rock and the rock moved afterwards to its edge. Attempting to construct a ward directly through the rock will cause the ward to immediately fail. This limitation significantly curtails the industrial and mining applicability of wards. However, it greatly enhances their safety for the general public.
Section 2.5: Trigger Wards
A secondary advantage of this characteristic is that wards can be employed to survey areas for specific substances. For example, Warrung employs a rather clever approach in their mining countries (see: a short summary of mining in Warrung’s colonies, pg 197). They utilise small gold wards to pinpoint ore bodies and other deposits beneath rock formations. When the construction of a gold ward fails in a particular location, this signals the presence of gold, leading to fast and simple extraction without the need to sample large amounts of rock.
Section 2.6: Material Constraints
The other immediate failure condition for a ward is that certain materials cannot be keyed to. The substances falling into this category include most forms of living matter. This includes some plants, most animals, all humans and Wanderers, several types of insects and fungi, and most types of warren creatures (even ones seemingly created out of non-organic matter). However, almost all forms of dead matter can be keyed to.
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A notable exception is the mosquito. Almost all species of mosquito can be warded against, living or dead. The reason for this is unknown, although it has sparked many theories that mosquitos are escaped warren creatures.
Interestingly, a ward can be keyed to dead human matter but not dead Wanderer matter. In one famous and rather exceptional case, an individual was not discovered to be a Wanderer until their death, when it was discovered that no wards worked upon their corpse (however, this account has been disputed by several prominent scholars, see pg 212).
Wards are usually keyed on a species specific level, although another notable exception is that, for many types of crops, individual parts of a plant can be warded against. Historically this exception greatly aided early farmers, who used warding to harvest and process larger and larger amounts of produce. This lead to the faster development of cities in countries where warders were more highly concentrated.
Contrarily, almost all inorganic matter can be warded against. Notable exceptions include ochre and several types of dyes and paints. Air is another interesting case. Sound wards only block approximately 75% of all wind and sound. However, there are few–if any, cases of sound wards causing suffocation. It can therefore be assumed air consists of several parts, only one of which can be warded against and the other in which we need to breath.
As wards cannot be used to directly to trap humans or animals, a short summary is given later in this book, detailing various historical means of indirect entrapment (see: a short history of slavery in Warrung, pg 343).
Section 2.7: Origins and Warding Lineages
Scholars remain undecided about the precise origins of warders, but it can be deduced they originate from the same place as warlocks.
Most obviously, warder and warlocks have the same heightened ability to heal from injuries and disease (see: warders and warlocks: healing and longevity, pg 444).
And like warlocks, warders face two rather distinctive restrictions, one of which being the well-known axiom, “warders must always keep their word.” The consequence of a warder violating this trust and telling a lie is the loss of their abilities. Nevertheless, even in such a case, the warding lineage can be preserved. A warder that has already told a lie–colloquially referred to as a truthless warder–can pass on their ability to an individual younger than themselves by at least five years. This individual inherits full warding abilities and can, in turn, pass on the power to someone five years younger than them.
Over the centuries, the number of warders have gradually diminished due to the tendency for individuals to break their word before passing on the ability. Frequently, we observe the passing of a warding mantle onto increasingly younger and younger individuals across generations, eventually leading to the extinction of a lineage.
It is unknown how many warders are left in the world, but the number is presumed to be less than a hundred. As there is no known way to create a new warding lineage, it can be predicted that warding will go extinct in near future, perhaps even within the next few decades. Without precise figures, a more accurate prediction cannot be made. The Crown of Warrung is reputed to maintain comprehensive records of all known warding lineages, however these records remain–and are likely to continue remaining–confidential (see: known list of warding mantles and lineages, appendix).
Section 2.8: An Alarming Lack of Oversight
Concerns have been raised recently about the extinction of warding by several parties, including myself. Detailed later in this chapter is a worse-case prediction for what many believe could be a catastrophe in the wrong hands (see: Thalyermana’s dilemma, pg 12).
Wards can only be brought down by a warder. No alternative methods exist for modifying or destroying them. Consequently, the final warder in the Network will hold an unparalleled and unchecked ability to shape the world according to their will, their wards lasting for hundreds upon thousands years after their death. This must not fall into the wrong hands. Warding must be regulated.
As the Crown of Warrung has recently proven to be either unwilling or unable to handle the modification of dangerous magics (see, the effects of the Snap across exclusion politics, pg 502), this fact is greatly alarming and a worst case scenario must be prepared for.