Protective Wards
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Overview
Protective wards are Navarre’s national magical defenses, credited with sheltering the provinces after the war and enabling their first unification under bonded riders.
Their importance extends beyond ordinary border defense because they keep venin power from functioning inside Navarre.
Aretia and the southwestern coastline of Tyrrendor lie outside Navarre’s protective wards because the shield from the Vale does not reach all of Navarre’s official mountainous borders.
Restored Basgiath wards offer the safer full protection, while Aretia’s newly raised wards are already weakening.
After Aretia’s wardstone is fired by irid involvement as the seventh breed, Aretia and most of Tyrrendor are treated as safe under raised wards.
By the latest report, newly completed wards hold around Draithus, but their range extends no farther than Draithus.
Mechanics
The wards around Navarre are powered through the signet abilities humans develop from dragon bonds, giving dragons a practical reason to tolerate partnership with humans.
Dragon power from the Vale radiates outward through the wards and makes all non-dragon magic impossible inside Navarre. A ward failure opens an immediate gap in that protection, and dragons can sense when a ward is faltering.
Passing beyond the ward boundary produces a physical shift for Violet, including a pull in her chest followed by a snap. Tairn explains that magic outside the wards is wilder, while dragons communicate more easily inside them.
The same material that powers the wards is also the only known material that kills venin, creating a practical conflict between preserving Navarre’s defenses and arming people outside them.
Dragons cannot weave wards or runes themselves, so human hands are necessary for warding even though dragons supply the power and need the protection for their hatching grounds.
Navarre’s wards were woven by the First Six at what becomes Basgiath War College, on ancestral green-dragon hatching grounds.
The wards originate from the Vale near Basgiath and reach only so far on their own. Outposts boost or extend them with powered alloy stored in armories, but each piece holds a limited charge and must be imbued again after use.
Mira describes the wardstone as the stem of an umbrella, with the wards forming a dome over Navarre. The outer spokes weaken near the ground unless outpost alloy and dragons extend parts of the ward fabric.
A text says the First Six personally carved the first wardstone, making the creation or activation of wards depend on a physical wardstone rather than power alone.
Classified ward-weaving and repair texts cover weaving into existing wards or repairing them, not creating original wards or activating a wardstone.
Warrick’s journal says the First Six placed the last rune, set the wardstone where dragons sensed the deepest currents of magic, and saw the protections fall into place at the birth of an iron rain.
Violet’s corrected reading of Warrick’s journal shifts the activation requirement from riders’ blood to dragons: the breath of life of the six and the one must combine and set the stone ablaze in an iron flame.
At Aretia, six dragon den representatives breathe fire into the imbued wardstone chamber. The result gives Violet the same leveled, anchored feeling she knows from Basgiath’s wards and tames the wild magic under her skin.
Lyra’s journal revises the number in the ward-raising account from six to seven, matching seven circles and seven runes on Aretia’s wardstone.
The correct Basgiath restoration requires a mended wardstone with enough power and the combined fire of six dragons plus Andarna as the seventh. After Lilith’s power is siphoned into the stone and Andarna shields the tunnel from the incoming flame, a pulse of energy runs through Violet and the wards rise.
A wardstone rune can be altered by changing its material, allowing gryphon fliers to wield under Basgiath’s wards without collapsing the broader protection against dark wielders.
Outpost ward maintenance depends on preserving alloy weapons and power resources. Samara nearly loses its power supply while killing wyvern, and drawing too many daggers from the armory would threaten the wards there.
Leothan fires Aretia’s wardstone as the needed irid involvement in the seventh-breed role. Violet feels the activation as a familiar wave of magic, and the raised wards immediately drop the remaining wyvern from the sky.
Uses
Riders can reinforce weakened wards by calling in help, moving riders from midland posts, relying on specialized signets, or sending trained third-years to rebuild protections.
The warded interior of Navarre is treated as a refuge from venin danger; Violet orders Andarna to return to the Vale and get behind the wards if venin approach.
Personal room wards can control entry and sound. Xaden wards Violet’s room so outsiders cannot enter unless they are touching Violet, while sound passes one way from the hall into the room.
Royal vault wards control access through bloodline-linked layers. One layer admits Aaric and can be forced to admit Violet with him, while another protects hidden tomes and injures Aaric because he is not King Tauri.
A rider with the right signet can manifest limited ward protection around herself, her dragon, or companions, but this is separate from reliable independent ward creation.
Cell wards can isolate a prisoner’s space while allowing controlled access. Jack Barlowe’s chamber is protected by Mira’s additional wards, which keep him hidden from outside sight and sound unless the door is opened.
Ward-weavers can create arena barriers for Signet Sparring, containing nearly all wielding between opponents and shielding observers from attacks that spread across the mat.
Commanders use ward boundaries as safety lines for cadets and other vulnerable groups. First-years are ordered to remain behind wards while exposed civilians and battle sites outside them demand protection.
Limitations
Professor Kaori says the number of bonded dragons has never before affected ward integrity, but breaches are increasing often enough to make Battle Brief tense.
Enemy attacks exploit faltering wards, striking high mountain villages, ransacking them, and leaving riders dead.
A rider with the right signet can unwork wards; Nadine demonstrates this by unweaving the protections on General Sorrengail’s office door.
Places beyond the ward line, including Athebyne, lack the protection Navarre depends on.
Navarre’s existing wards are already stretched to their maximum, so extending them is not treated as a simple matter of covering more ground.
People weave extensions onto existing ward fabric rather than creating independent new wards, and attempts to extend the wards to Athebyne have failed.
Mira’s ward signet does not function far from the wards, leaving her without that protective option inside Tecarus’s arena.
Aretia’s raised wards do not suppress flier magic as expected; Syrena can still wield lesser magic inside them and says something is wrong.
The Aretian wards raised from Warrick’s instructions are expected to decline to nothing. Wyvern killed by those wards still contain humming rune-marked stones and can reanimate, so the wards do not permanently neutralize the wyvern-making mechanism.
Outpost power supplies extend the wards but do not create them. If Samara’s extension falls, that section retracts to a natural boundary several hours’ flight from Basgiath rather than opening a direct route to the hatching ground.
Navarre’s wards do not block all venin power. Venin inside the wards can still feed from the ground and channel enough to survive and hide, though not enough for full-strength greater magic.
Dark wielders can still be lethal inside Basgiath’s restored wards. The wards limit their power and shape containment, but they do not stop a venin already inside from killing, feeding, or attempting rescue.
Sparring wards can fail against extreme or badly directed power. Violet’s lightning flashes upward through the amphitheater barrier, and Xaden’s shadows later blast through the sparring wards and strike Halden.
Leaving the wards is a known risk for Xaden’s control and for missions into occupied territory. Violet treats unwarded ground as dangerous for him, and the crossing at Samara makes the freer outside magic immediately perceptible.
Aretia’s deteriorating wards begin admitting wyvern for longer periods before killing them. Felix calls the wards failing rather than merely weakening and is unsure they have a month left.
Raised wards do not remove the danger of an internal or nearby venin threat. Felix warns that a threat like Jack Barlowe could still put venin at Aretia’s front door.
Known Users
Nadine can unweave ward protections, an unusual ward-breaking ability.
Riders are generally associated with building and maintaining Navarre’s wards.
Mira can extend and shore up wards, making her signet useful for reinforcing weak spots.
Xaden can place room wards that block unauthorized entry.
Jesinia knows how to pass through the wards protecting the royal vault route.
Dragonfire is required for raising or restoring full-scale wards, with Andarna supplying the seventh dragon’s fire at Basgiath.
Navarre’s best ward-weavers can protect an amphitheater mat with a barrier meant to contain signet sparring.
Drake is identified as instrumental in bringing wards down during the Montserrat offensive.
Leothan can fire a wardstone in the seventh-breed role needed for Aretia’s full wards.
Important Incidents
When the wards along the Esben Mountains falter, Braevi gryphons and riders enter Navarrian territory and channel around midnight, prompting the Eastern Wing to fly toward Chakir.
During the raid near Cranston, the wards go down and allow enemy danger through, leaving Mira relieved that Navarre’s wards usually keep gryphon riders at bay.
At Montserrat, Teine and Tairn alert their riders when the wards go down, and the failure lets an incoming drift of gryphons threaten the outpost.
The final War Games scenario begins from the premise that wards are falling across Navarre and calls every wing into service to reinforce the defenses.
Violet’s first attempt to raise Aretia’s wards uses six powerful riders, their blood, and the marked wardstone, but the stone stays cold and lifeless.
Aretia’s wards are raised under emergency conditions before the wyvern horde reaches the city. The invisible boundary ends short of the cliff edge, and wyvern that cross it die.
Jack breaks Basgiath’s wards by killing Baide in the ward chamber so her blood spills onto the flaming wardstone. The stone cracks, the hum of ward energy stops, and Navarre becomes defenseless.
The defenders plan to restore Basgiath’s wards if Brennan can mend the wardstone and Jesinia can identify the difference between Warrick’s and Lyra’s accounts.
The restored Basgiath wards immediately drop wyvern from the sky and make venin panic and flee.
Violet’s alteration of Basgiath’s wardstone lets fliers wield safely inside the wards while Jack Barlowe’s continued containment confirms the protections against dark wielders still stand.
When Samara’s wards come back up during battle, the largest wyvern crashes through the fortress’s western wall. The perimeter breach still lets venin enter without needing magic.
Aretia’s wards rise during the temple fight after Leothan fires the wardstone, dropping the remaining wyvern and explaining Theophanie’s sudden fear.
After Xaden’s shadow outburst at Draithus, Sgaeyl reports that the wards have been completed only as far as Draithus.