The Ashen Wardens

The Ashen Wardens look as if the border road has burned itself into them. Their mail is smoke-dark, their plates stamped for later judgement, their packs heavy with bridge tools, signal cord, survey chalk, ration tablets, and knives that are used more often on rope than flesh. Villages fear their arrival and pray for it in the same breath. They are the realm's permission to do necessary harm: break a crossing, fire a storehouse, abandon a road, hold a pass until hunger becomes another enemy in the ranks. They save lives in ways that leave witnesses, and Caerdun makes them answer for both.