Wards

The nine wards that used to surround the town of Fallenstar were as powerful as they were horrific. These nine arcane devices were in fact the enslaved spirits of nine mages that had been transformed into demi-liches.

The first wards were established under the counsel of the Telltaler by Jequa and Margen, the Grand Warders, and their guild of warders in the early history of the town.

However, in the recent past Stone alerted the Nihilist to our town's presence and the Nihilist came here and destroyed our wards. Two of the four corners of the wards were drained leaving only the north wall with any semblance of protection. It is unknown what Stone did that caused the Nihilist to destroy the wards.

In the year ___ Lahar, Terry, Tor, Hadrian, and Damoclese undertook a massive effort to find and replace some of the wards to keep the town from being ransacked. They also did something new and unusual; instead of forcibly enslaving spirits into the wards they chose to bind only those who were willing. It is unclear yet how that will affect the abilities and power of the wards.

Alderman was rebound into the Demon wards by Margen, who appears to have been acting under someone else’s direction, after Lahar discovered the hiding place of Alderman’s true name.

Tintze agreed to be a part of the Necromantic wards in order to protect his daughter when she moved to the town and remove himself as a threat to her.

Pyrval agreed to be a part of the wards to help kill things, be near his family, and reclaim his body and soul from the FoD. His parents also agreed to it and are much less tormented knowing he is happy and out of the FoD.

Elyriel agreed to be a part of the Elven ward to escape his punishment for an unknown war crime and cease to relive the battle.

Drash agreed to be a part of the Goblin ward in order to end his banishment from Arboleth’s Clan and Thaleus’s Clan and instead be the only (and therefore highest ranked) member of the Fallenstar Clan and defeat all other goblin clans.

Durjuc agreed to be a part of the wards to end his guilt and torment over his role in starting the wizard war and the biggest Great Age of Darkness humanity may ever have seen. He was tired of being the last of the wizards in the necromancer’s army to be reliving the guilt and shame.

Because the wards are powered by demi-liches, they have some semblance of sentience and are not bound only by strict magical rules. They can respond in a variety of ways to a perceived threat: they can prevent entry, attack and destroy, or merely warn townspeople of threats. If they fight, they fight these threats with necromantic energy, given that they are liches. They can however occasionally draw from the magical abilities each spirit had from before they were bound, however these abilities are much weaker than their necromantic powers and are not guaranteed to work. It is theorized that willing spirits retain more of their abilities when they are turned into demi-liches, but no proof has arisen for that theory.

There have been many times where threats have come through the wards, either because of magic trickery or from being summoned inside the town. Threats appearing inside town without having crossed the wards' boundaries will often confuse the wards resulting in only a warning being issued. Other times the wards will unleash spread attacks in town trying to eliminate the threat, but this inadvertently damages property and harms townspeople. This is the great danger of ignoring warnings from the wards.

It will be interesting to see how the new wards, bound now by willing spirits, will be changed. Only time will tell.