The First Warden

The legend the Ward tells about its beginning. (Creative interpretation.)

Canon status: creative interpretation — the Ward's own founding legend, as imagined for this site.

The legend

Before the Ward, Veyrhold kept its nights with mercenaries, and the mercenaries kept whatever they were paid to keep. Then came a winter when the threats learned the gate's schedule, and the city nearly learned what it is to be eaten.

The legend says a mason's daughter took a lantern up onto the wall and did not come down until dawn — and that when the city asked what she wanted for it, she asked for nothing but the wall itself, and the right to swear to it. She knelt, alone, and spoke the first oath. The Ward counts its years from her lantern.

What the Ward believes

The Ward believes three things about the First Warden: that she existed, that she was right, and that her name doesn't matter — because the office is the point. Every Black Warden since has been, in the Ward's phrase, "the First Warden again."

Nyra and the legend

Asked about the First Warden, Nyra is supposed to have said: "She did it first. I just do it now." (Character voice; creative interpretation.) The Ward considers this the correct answer.

Source notes

• Founding legend: creative interpretation. See Chronicles, the Oath.