Wards

Magic can be refused. Wards laid by others may smother a rune's waking or its work. When your magic recoils and names a Ward, seek the warded ground's edge — or its keeper.

from A Primer on the Runic Arts

A ward is a standing rune that refuses a kind of magic within a sphere around it. A Teleport Ward stops travel, a Flight Ward grounds fliers, a Void Ward silences hexes and curses. Ten wards exist, and all of them are built the same way.

Building a ward

Every ward is an emerald block with a Tier block directly below and directly above it, and four stairs around each Tier block. The stairs decide which ward it is.

3 × 3, 3 layers high. Drawn flat on the ground, facing any compass direction.

NWES

Layer 1 (bottom)

AATAA

Layer 2

????B????

Layer 3 (top)

AATAA

• T
  Tier block × 2

  Every T is the same block, and that block’s Tier sets the rune’s strength.
• ?
  Optional cell × 8

  Leave it empty or place a block here; the rune wakes either way.
• Air or a Tier 0 block × 8

  Leave these as air, or fill them with Tier 0 blocks such as dirt or stone.
• Activation block

  The glowing cell is the one to click.

Keys

• A
  Brick Stairs × 8

  stays after use
• B
  Emerald Block × 1

  stays after use

Ward	Stairs	What it refuses
Aether Ward	Sandstone	All rune magic
Danger Ward	Cobblestone	Destructive and world-changing runes
Flame Ward	Red nether brick	Fire and burning
Flight Ward	Quartz	Flight, gliding, and levitation
Stealth Ward	Prismarine	Invisibility
Teleport Ward	Brick	Teleporting and travel
Tool Ward	Stone brick	Item magic
True Name Ward	Any wooden or fungus stairs	True Name magic
Void Ward	Nether brick	Hexes, curses, and countercurses
Creaking Ward	Pale oak	Hostile mobs, while someone watches

Raising a ward

1. Build the pattern. The eight blocks around the emerald, at the emerald's own height, must be empty.
2. Right-click the emerald.

The ward rises: Teleport Ward raised (radius 16). Glass panes fill the eight empty blocks around the emerald, and the ward's sphere spreads out from the emerald.

If anything fills those eight blocks, the ward refuses: Clear the eight blocks around the emerald before raising the ward.

Radius

The Tier blocks set the radius of the sphere:

Tier	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Radius in blocks	16	24	32	40	48	56	64

Server owners can change these per ward with radii-by-tier in the ward's file, up to a radius of 64. The chain limit is max-chain.

Chains of wards

Wards built close together rise together. When you raise one, every other complete ward pattern within three blocks at the same height rises with it, and so does every ward within three blocks of those, up to 256 wards in one chain. This makes it easy to build a wall of different wards and raise them all with one click. Every ward in the chain belongs to you.

Wards may overlap freely. Each one refuses its own kind of magic inside its own sphere.

What a ward does

A ward works in two ways.

It stops runes from waking. Inside the sphere, runes of the ward's category stay cold: The rune stays cold — a Teleport Ward smothers such magic here.

It smothers magic at work. Magic of the ward's category that already exists goes quiet while it is inside the sphere. Item magic does nothing inside a Tool Ward, turrets and Reality runes stand idle inside a Danger Ward, and hexes and curses cannot strike inside a Void Ward. The magic itself survives and works again outside the sphere, or once the ward falls.

It acts on the world. Some wards also hold back ordinary effects:

• A Teleport Ward cancels any teleport that starts or ends inside it, by any means. A Spirit Walk return is the one trip it allows.
• A Flight Ward strips flight, gliding, and levitation from everyone inside it, twice a second.
• A Stealth Ward strips invisibility from everyone inside it, twice a second.
• A Flame Ward keeps fire from lighting, spreading, or burning blocks inside it, keeps lava from being poured or flowing in, and shields everyone inside from fire and lava damage.
• A Creaking Ward freezes the hostile mobs inside it while any player watches its emerald or glass from up to 64 blocks away.
• An Aether Ward smothers the effects of every ward category at once, along with Aether Chests and Reliquaries.

Wards apply to everyone inside them, their owner included. Players in spectator mode are left alone by Flight, Stealth, and Creaking Wards.

Wards never smother other wards. You can always raise or lower a ward, even inside another ward's sphere.

Lowering a ward

Right-click the emerald again to lower the ward. Only the player who raised it can: everyone else hears This ward answers only to its maker. Lowering a ward also lowers its chain.

Breaking any block of the pattern, the emerald, a Tier block, or a stair, drops that ward at once, whoever breaks it. The rest of its chain stays up. The glass panes cannot be broken while the ward stands.

The Creaking Ward's eye

The Creaking Ward answers only to someone holding an eye blossom. Without one, it refuses to rise or fall: Hold an eye blossom — the Creaking Ward will not answer without its gaze.

Which runes each ward stops

Item enchantments count as tool magic, so the Tool Ward stops every rune that binds to an item, plus the runes listed below.

Aether Ward

Every rune except the wards themselves. Its own category also covers Aether Chest and Reliquary.

Danger Ward

Accelerator, Bridge Master, Doubt, Faith, Fire Turret, Flare, Freezer, Gyre, Ice Turret, Mineshaft, Mound, Phase Zone, Piertotum Locomotor, Prometheus, Quench, Reality Anchor, Reality Master, Reality Master (Advanced), Rubrik, Secret Passage, Solar Flare, Stair Master, Thaw, Topsy Turvy, Wall Master, Wind Turret.

Flight Ward

Flight Field, Levitation Obelisk, Pegasus, plus all flight, gliding, and levitation inside the sphere.

Teleport Ward

Dial Home Device, Drydock, Faith Transfer Portal, Faithpoint, Freight Teleporter, Freightpoint, Master Teleporter, Personal Teleport, Stargate, Teleporter, Viatorem's Arch, Warp, Waypoint, plus every teleport into or out of the sphere.

Recall and Bundle Courier bind to items, so a Tool Ward stops the binding and a Teleport Ward stops the trip.

Tool Ward

Every item enchantment, plus Beekeeper's Lattice, Copper Patina, Stature, and Stature Field. The toggles, locks, and phases count as item magic too, since their designators are bound items.

True Name Ward

True Name.

Void Ward

Babel Countercurse, Babel Curse, Butterfingers Countercurse, Butterfingers Curse, Damage Hex, Lightning Trap, Mouse Trap, Portal Hex, Touch Hex, Whisper Curse. It also stops hexes and curses from firing on their victims inside the sphere.

Flame, Stealth, and Creaking Wards smother no runes. They act on the world instead.