wards, on a psychic or mystical level, are methods or objects for protecting one's dwelling. Wards protect one from both spirit invaders, and to some extent physical ones. They are often set with the intent of "those of good will may enter freely, those who mean harm are turned away". These barriers usually involve at least two layers--a physical one, and an energy layer. Wards can be set in many, many ways, with the most common physical layers being salt, gemstones, or herbs, and the most common psychic ones being elementals, shadow, color, and spirit energy.


there are as many ways to ward as there are people, but this is the set of wards i have on my dorm room:
when home over break, i went into my local magic store, walked up to the wall of herbs and went "OK, what does my room want?" and walked out with seven bags of herbs.

once i got back to purdue and my roommate took the old wards down (she had to move to a first-floor room for massive problems with her ankles), i began to set the new ones up. i took four wooden, woven bowls, one for each directional corner , and began to grind herbs with my mortar and pestle.

all of these herbs are for banishing, warding, protecting, anti-theft, and the like.

First into each bowl went a quarter-sized pile of blessed thistle. this was followed by ahtela, then amber powder, of about equal size. This was followed by (ground) blackberry leaves, and topped with dragon's blood.

The herbs were still in separate layers at this point. When the bowls were finished, i took my knife (athame) and stirred and blended them together, one bowl at a time, until everything was well mixed. Then i topped each bowl with three juniper berries apiece, in a triangle, saying (as the phrase popped into my mind) "maiden, mother, crone, protect this place that is my home.

Then, one at a time, i took each bowl and set it in its corner, invoking the proper element for each as i did so.

The last step involved binding them together--which was accomplished by focusing energy thru the point of my knife and drawing a line from bowl to bowl, weaving the energies together.



again, this is in *no way* a definitive guide to warding a room--first semester, this room was warded with only bowls of salt and shadow energy and that worked equally as well. i merely place this here as a suggestion, and as my own experience.

A ward or ku is an administrative division used in major cities in Japan. All Japanese cities with populations over 800,000 are divided into wards, and there are currently thirteen such cities: Tokyo, Yokohama, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Kitakyushu, and Fukuoka. Some of these wards are tiny, covering only two or three square miles: some cover scores.

Wards are these cities' administrative nerve centers. The ward offices are responsible for tax collection, health insurance claims, personal seal registration, and the supervision of resident aliens, among other things. While this same structure is found in other countries (South Korea's system is almost identical, partly owing to its history in the Japanese Empire), the closest American comparison I can think of is to the five boroughs of New York City.

Wards are also seen on Japanese addresses. For instance, NTT's headquarters are located at "3-1 Otemachi 2-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo." The address breaks down as block number, house number, district name and chome, ward, and city. To find a building from its address, you have to look at a map of the ward first, and then find the chome and block numbers from that map.

Ward is the fourth web serial by John C. Macrae and the sequel to Worm. Worm was thematically about trauma if it was about anything. Its protagonists, antagonists, and most of the supporting cast were in many ways consumed by their worst days. Not surprising for a setting where you get powers on the worst day of your life but it was hardly limited to the capes. Victoria Dallon aka Glory Girl was a tertiary character in Worm. She was nearly dissolved by acid, reassembled incorrectly by her biokinetic adopted sister Amy, spent two years in a care facility for people too screwed by powers to live in society, and restored to her right body at the end of Worm.

It's two years later, society is slowly rebuilding after the events at the end of Worm, and Victoria is trying to get back to living her life. It's not going well. At the beginning of the story she's part of the patrol block which is a paramilitary after school program when an emergency forces her to out herself as a parahuman. This ends her time on the patrol and forces her to seek other employment. This sucks for her but at least she has a family barbecue to look forward to. This is of course ruined when she discovers that Amy is present.

Feeling betrayed by her family and in search of a new job Victoria runs across her old therapist, Jessica Yamada. Over coffee they discuss their personal travails and Jessica asks for a favor. She's leading a therapy group and has some serious concerns about one of its members. Wanting to avoid prejudicing Victoria's judgement, Jessica asks Vicky to meet the group without telling her who she's concerned about. Meet the group:

    Tristan and Byron: Identical twins stuck sharing a body. When one is present the other one is trapped behind his brother's eyes; aware of everything and able to affect nothing. They have to split their waking hours; each getting half a life. Tristan is technically the only one in the group but of course Byron is always in attendance.

    Kenzie: An eleven year old girl with a tinker power specialized in surveillance and counter-surveillance. Cameras that can see through walls, into the past, or miles away and holograms, blinding flash guns, and the like are her stock and trade. Kenzie has serious boundary issues. When she like someone it's obsessive, intense, a car hurtling downhill with no breaks.

    Chris: The archetypal moody teenager, wearing headphones and headgear, sullen and sarcastic. Of everyone in the group he's the least interested in being there and sharing. He's also a shape shifter with a variety of alternate forms based on his emotional states all of which are freaky and none of which see him returning to being the exact same human he was.

    Ashley: A clone of a notorious super villain with a matter annihilating power that goes off accidentally if she moves her hand the wrong way. She's a walking weapon with a physical hair trigger and an emotional hair trigger. Disposed to megalomania and pomposity when insufficiently medicated, Ashley has expressed the desire to get back into villainy.

    Rain: An ex-member of a terrorist, end of days cult with a complicated living arrangement. He's penitent but that doesn't change that he has multiple people out to kill him over his past crimes. And those crimes kind of warrant it.

    Sveta: A sweet girl with a body that's a head and a mass of lethally strong, mostly autonomous tentacles. She and Victoria were friends in the care home with unruly bodies. Her prosthetic body is keeping the murder tendrils in and giving her a somewhat normal life.

So can you tell who's the concerning one? Well neither can Victoria and as the story progresses she ends up more and more enmeshed in their lives and problems amidst increasingly fraught personal and social context.Her sister remains a looming specter, many super villains are gearing up for big plays, anti-cape sentiment is growing, and multiversal politics threaten the fragile peace that the world is rebuilding in. Can Victoria save the group? The world? Can she even protect herself amid it all?

Ward is a story about trying to get better. Victoria swings wildly from good to just barely functioning and back over the course of the story. The plot doesn't pause to let her deal with her PTSD, trust issues, or grief. Traumatic events interrupt attempts to move on. Life and all of its pain don't stop just because your supposed to be in recovery. If you make progress it's going to be despite circumstance and not because of it. In this way Ward is very dreary and very hopeful. If seeing characters go through the wringer is something you like then this story is for you.

Ward is a gargantuan 1.9 million words making it a bit larger than its predecessor. It's overflowing with plot threads, drama, intrigue, and super hero fights. It can be read here, fan created audio production here.

IRON NODER XIV: THE RETURN OF THE IRON NODER

Ward (?), n. [AS. weard, fem., guard, weard, asc., keeper, guard; akin to OS. ward a watcher, warden, G. wart, OHG. wart, Icel. vorr a warden, a watch, Goth. -wards in da�xa3;rawards a doorkeeper, and E. wary; cf. OF. warde guard, from the German. See Ware, a., Wary, and cf. Guard, Wraith.]

1.

The act of guarding; watch; guard; guardianship; specifically, a guarding during the day. See the Note under Watch, n., 1.

Still, when she slept, he kept both watch and ward. Spenser.

2.

One who, or that which, guards; garrison; defender; protector; means of guarding; defense; protection.

For the best ward of mine honor. Shak.

The assieged castle's ward Their steadfast stands did mightily maintain. Spenser.

For want of other ward, He lifted up his hand, his front to guard. Dryden.

3.

The state of being under guard or guardianship; confinement under guard; the condition of a child under a guardian; custody.

And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard. Gen. xl. 3.

I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward. Shak.

It is also inconvenient, in Ireland, that the wards and marriages of gentlemen's children should be in the disposal of any of those lords. Spenser.

4.

A guarding or defensive motion or position, as in fencing; guard.

"Thou knowest my old ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point."

Shak.

5.

One who, or that which, is guarded.

Specifically: --

(a)

A minor or person under the care of a guardian; as, a ward in chancery.

"You know our father's ward, the fair Monimia."

Otway.

(b)

A division of a county.

[Eng. & Scot.]

(c)

A division, district, or quarter of a town or city.

Throughout the trembling city placed a guard, Dealing an equal share to every ward. Dryden.

(d)

A division of a forest.

[Eng.]

(e)

A division of a hospital; as, a fever ward.

6. (a)

A projecting ridge of metal in the interior of a lock, to prevent the use of any key which has not a corresponding notch for passing it.

(b)

A notch or slit in a key corresponding to a ridge in the lock which it fits; a ward notch.

Knight.

The lock is made . . . more secure by attaching wards to the front, as well as to the back, plate of the lock, in which case the key must be furnished with corresponding notches. Tomlinson.

Ward penny O. Eng.Law, money paid to the sheriff or castellan for watching and warding a castle. -- Ward staff, a constable's or watchman's staff. [Obs.]

 

© Webster 1913.


Ward (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Warded; p. pr. & vb. n. Warding.] [OE. wardien, AS. weardian to keep, protect; akin to OS. wardn to watch, take care, OFries. wardia, OHG. wartn, G. warten to wait, wait on, attend to, Icel. vara to guarantee defend, Sw. v�x86;rda to guard, to watch; cf. OF. warder, of German origin. See Ward, n., and cf. Award, Guard, Reward.]

1.

To keep in safety; to watch; to guard; formerly, in a specific sense, to guard during the day time.

Whose gates he found fast shut, no living wight To ward the same. Spenser.

2.

To defend; to protect.

Tell him it was a hand that warded him From thousand dangers. Shak.

3.

To defend by walls, fortifications, etc.

[Obs.]

4.

To fend off; to repel; to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; -- usually followed by off.

Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again. Daniel.

The pointed javelin warded off his rage. Addison.

It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections. I. Watts.

 

© Webster 1913.


Ward, v. i.

1.

To be vigilant; to keep guard.

2.

To act on the defensive with a weapon.

She redoubling her blows drove the stranger to no other shift than to ward and go back. Sir P. Sidney.

 

© Webster 1913.

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