Fixed wards, clothes wards, and portable wards

Table of Contents

Wards are one of the first magics ever created by man, and still one of the most useful nowadays. They are a type of shield that completely cover a target to ensure its full protection from a wide range of dangers depending on their properties. Recent innovations have completely revolutionised their use and their impact on society.

Wards attached to locations or objects

The first ever kind of wards that were created were ones fixed to a specific location, drawn in sand or mud and later painted on houses. They only had one basic function at the start - protection from magical attacks, from the elements, or even from simple wear - but they quickly gained in sophistication.
Once the anchoring of magic into organic materials was invented, almost all fixed wards were moved into domi moss inside or on walls. This allowed for ward master to go crazy with the combination of properties they could integrate with their wards and the enchantment they could even add on top such as those making adjustable buildings.

Protections that can be offered by wards:

physical attacks

entry of unauthorised persons

injuries from falls

the elements

control temperatures

raw magical attacks

curses

poison

air pollution

fungi spores and pollen

dust built up

wear

magic sparks from magitechs

control light systems

Wards on clothes

Classically, magic was added to clothes by using an alchemical dye or by enchanting the fibre before of after it was woven into fabric. Now, thanks to organic magitech, plants such as lime trees can be bioengineered to contain the right magic even before the fibre is made. This allows for more complex, potent and time-resistant magic.

Common protection on clothes:

wear

fading of colours

dirt and sweat

stabbing

Thus, modern clothes do not need to—and often even cannot—be washed. Shaking them is enough to get rid of the dirt that got stuck at the surface of the wards.
However, this is still an expensive technology not available to everyone. Poor people have to make their clothes go through a cleaning hoop which can separate the fibres of the clothes from dirt - but the hoop often makes mistake by removing some of the dye or not removing spots that have died the fabric. This is another way to see people's social status at a glance.

An enchantress weaving by Simon on Pixabay

Personal portable wards

Another type of wards that have always been popular are personal wards. Contrary to fixed wards, those are fully portable and designed to protect one specific person. For this reason, they are mostly attached to a piece of jewellery so that they can be easily carried around and used to show off the wards. This has led families to save money and invest into these jewellery to make into heirloom they can legate to their descendants.
The challenge in making personal wards is on combining as many different wards properties as possible together in one runic diagram to be protected against the maximum number of dangers, and in also making the corresponding ward diagram as small as possible so that it is actually portable. Just wearing 2 different jewellery wards at the same time will have them interfere with each other and is really not recommended.
Or at least it was, until the latest innovation by Gauthier [FamilyName], one of the emperor's soulmates. A leader of industry specialised in the mass production of magitech, he has completely revolutionised the field by inventing ward clips: small pieces of cheap jewellery that are simply clipsed on top of each other to form a new ward in any combination possible.

Multi-wards

expensive but cumbersome

especially designed for the need of one client

you get one design and that's it, it cannot be altered

very powerful protection

previously heirlooms, now only remains as a status symbol

Clipsed wards

cheap & practicable

combine clipsed wards together to get all the desired properties

change your mind as often as you like

weaker protection

now owned by everyone in the empire

An example of jewellery with magical properties, by AmélieIS with Pixabay and Vecteezy

Hélène carefully picked up the old ward jewellery she had taken from her family before she had "ran away". Unfortunately, heirlooms like this were hardly discreet, and so she had not been able to wear it freely. But it was perfect now that she was going to announce her family name to everyone in Sanne to intimidate them into allowing to see the kidnapped emperor.
She exhaled slowly as soon as the ward was clasped around her neck and its warm protective field surrounded her. No matter how practical clipsed wards were, there was truly no comparison with how smooth the magics were combining together and in the simple sensation of weight you got from a true heirloom ward.

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Fields of magic Mineral vs organic magitech · Taboo magic and the dangerous mutated animals it creates · Enchanting · Runic diagrams · Herbonumenology—healing with magic-anchoring plants and fungi Materials Domi moss—the carnivorous household moss · Lime wood in magical artefacts Magitechs Communication hub · Fixed wards, clothes wards, and portable wards · Adjustable house technology · Magic reservoirs · Flying carriages · Programmed magic · Languages of the empire and translation magic · Magicless techs