More Than Stone
Silverwick's walls are not merely physical barriers against wolves and wind. They are the town's greatest feat of engineering and magic combined—a defense system that has kept the settlement alive for generations. The walls don't just keep threats out; they actively protect through Glimmers woven into the stone itself.
This is possible because of what lies within the walls: veins of a rare ore that can conduct and hold Glimmer energy.
Without this ore, Silverwick would be just another failed settlement, buried under snow and picked clean by Frost-Walkers decades ago.
The Warding Ore
No one knows what to call it officially. Miners call it "Glimmerstone." The Guild of Frost's records name it "Resonant Ore." The Solstice Faithful call it "God's Iron." Most people just call it "the ore in the walls."
It appears as thin veins of silvery-blue metal running through certain granite deposits in the valley. Pure samples are incredibly rare—most ore contains only trace amounts, appearing as fine threads or small nodules scattered through otherwise normal stone. But even trace amounts are sufficient for the ore's unique property:
It can absorb, conduct, and hold Glimmer energy.
When someone with Heat-Sense or Hearth-Warding touches ore-veined stone and channels their Glimmer into it, the magic spreads through the metal veins like water through roots. The stone itself begins radiating the effect—warmth, in the case of heat Glimmers, or protective wards that make Frost-infected animals uncomfortable approaching.
The effect persists for days, weeks, sometimes months depending on the strength of the initial channeling and the ore concentration. Then it fades and must be renewed.
This is what makes Silverwick's walls special. They're not just barriers. They're active defenses, constantly maintained by Glimmer-users channeling their abilities into the stone.
How the Walls Were Built
The walls date back to Silverwick's founding, though exactly when that was remains unclear—records suggest at least three centuries, possibly more. The construction required:
Finding the Right Stone: Not just any rock would work. Builders needed granite deposits with sufficient ore veining. The valley provided exactly this—one reason Silverwick sits where it does. Someone, long ago, recognized what this place offered.
Quarrying and Placement: Massive blocks were cut from quarries in the valley walls, each inspected for ore content. Stones with the best veining were placed at crucial points—gates, corners, sections facing the forest. Less ore-rich stone filled gaps between.
The Pattern: The walls aren't random. Ore-veined stones are placed in a deliberate network, like nodes in a web, allowing Glimmer energy to flow between them. Touch one node, and the effect spreads to connected stones. This network design is sophisticated—far more advanced than current Silverwick masonry.
Scale: The walls stand twenty feet high, ten feet thick at the base, encircling the entire settlement. The amount of ore-bearing stone required was enormous. The quarrying alone must have taken decades. The placement and fitting required master craftsmen and significant Glimmer-user coordination.
Someone planned this. Someone knew what they were doing. And whoever they were, they understood Glimmers and ore-work far better than anyone alive today.
How the Wards Work
The walls require constant maintenance from Glimmer-users. This is considered civic duty—those with relevant Glimmers contribute regularly, channeling their abilities into the wall network.
Heat Glimmers (Hearth-Warding, Heat-Sense): Channeled into the walls to create a band of warmth along the inner face. Not enough to heat the whole town, but enough to keep the base of the walls from freezing solid, prevent ice buildup, and provide a measure of comfort to guards walking the ramparts. In deep winter, this warmth can mean the difference between functional sentries and frozen ones.
Warding Glimmers (Ward-Sense, various protective abilities): These are more subtle and less understood. When channeled properly, they create an aura that makes Frost-infected animals uncomfortable approaching. Not a physical barrier—they could attack if driven—but a persistent unease that encourages them to hunt elsewhere. Like standing near something that smells wrong or feels dangerous.
The combination is devastatingly effective. Heat keeps defenders functional. Wards keep most threats at bay. Physical stone stops anything that overcomes the magical defenses.
The Channeling Process: Glimmer-users place their hands on specific nodes—marked stones at regular intervals along the wall. They focus, pushing their Glimmer into the stone, feeling it flow through the ore veins. Experienced users describe it as "filling a vessel"—the stone drinks the magic greedily, pulling it from you until either you stop or the local network is saturated.
A single channeling by someone with moderate skill lasts about a week. Stronger users, or multiple people working together, can charge sections for longer. The Guild of Frost maintains a schedule—who channels where, when, ensuring no section goes unprotected.
Failure to maintain the wards is considered one of the worst derelictions of duty possible.
The Gates
The four main gates—one for each bridge from The Hearthstone, plus The Iron Gate to the south—are the most heavily ore-enriched sections. The stone here is riddled with veining, carefully selected and placed.
Gates are vulnerable points. They must open for trade and movement but remain defensible during attack. The ore-work here is most sophisticated:
The gate stones can hold multiple Glimmers simultaneously—heat, warding, even structural reinforcement. When fully charged by several Glimmer-users working in concert, the gates become nearly impregnable. Stone that should crack under a Frost-Shield's charge instead holds firm. Metal hinges that should freeze solid in deep winter remain functional.
The Iron Gate, facing the dangerous southern approach and the forest beyond, receives the most attention. Captain Daren Frost personally oversees its maintenance, ensuring it's always fully charged. He's been known to stand there channeling his own Glimmer (though Night-Vision isn't traditionally protective) simply because he believes intention matters as much as the specific ability.
Whether he's right is debatable. But the Iron Gate has never failed.
Who Built This?
This is the question that haunts scholars and the Guild of Frost alike.
The walls demonstrate knowledge of ore-work, Glimmer theory, and engineering that exceeds current understanding. Whoever designed this system knew things Silverwick has forgotten or never learned.
Theories:
The Founders Were Masters: Perhaps Silverwick's founders included powerful Glimmer-users and skilled engineers who pooled their knowledge. But why here? Why this valley specifically? Did they know about the ore deposits, or discover them after arriving?
Pre-Longest Night Construction: Maybe the walls predate the endless winter. Perhaps this was an important place before, and the walls were built with magic Silverwick's ancestors barely understand. The Longest Night destroyed that civilization, and Silverwick simply... inherited the ruins and learned to maintain them.
Guided Construction: The most unsettling theory, whispered but not widely believed: someone or something taught the founders how to build these walls. Showed them where the ore was. Explained how to use it. But who would do that, and why? And what price did they extract for that knowledge?
Father Solace's fragmentary records contain references to "the one who showed us stone" and "the bargain for sanctuary." These passages are maddeningly incomplete, damaged by time and possibly deliberate editing.
The Ore Deposits
The valley contains the ore in scattered deposits. The quarries that provided wall-stone are largely exhausted, but small amounts can still be found. Occasionally, miners discover new veins. The Guild of Frost controls all ore extraction zealously.
What little ore is found now goes to critical repairs or small personal items—Guildmaster Thorne wears a pendant with an ore-shard that holds his Preservation Glimmer, extending his reach beyond his immediate presence.
But there's never enough for major new construction. The knowledge of how to create more ore-worked defenses exists, but the ore itself is too rare. Silverwick maintains what the founders built but cannot expand it.
Some wonder if this scarcity is natural or intentional. Did the founders use every viable deposit? Or did they deliberately limit what was available to future generations?
Maintenance Crisis
Recently, cracks have appeared in the wall maintenance system—not physical cracks, but organizational ones.
The number of Glimmer-users in Silverwick hasn't increased while wall maintenance demands remain constant. Those with relevant Glimmers are overworked, channeling multiple times per week. Some are aging, dying, not replaced by sufficient apprentices manifesting the right abilities.
Captain Frost has noticed sections staying under-charged longer. Guildmaster Thorne has proposed rationing—prioritizing gates and forest-facing sections, letting less critical walls run with minimal charge. But where do you draw that line? Which section can you risk?
And there's the New Thinkers' argument: why waste Glimmer-user energy on walls when the Midwinter Tithe supposedly protects the town anyway? If the tithe keeps Frost-Walkers away, do the wards even matter?
The Guild of Frost and Watch insist on redundancy. The tithe is one layer of protection. The walls are another. You don't abandon one because the other exists.
But the debate continues. And the walls—those magnificent, ancient, partially-understood defenses—wait to see if humanity will maintain what their ancestors built, or let it fade through neglect and ignorance.