Wards

The Wards are Theurgic structures that prevent the passage of weapons and magic (including aetherial blood and any flesh transformed by Theurgy). They take the form of a short wall, three stones high, which can be easily stepped over by someone not carrying a forbidden item--but for anyone bearing weapons or magic, the Wards constitute an invisible, impenetrable barrier, extending both above and below the stone wall as far as anyone can go.

Great Border Wards
The Nine Wards completely surround the Hegemony, with some running along its coastlines and others forming its land borders with the Abhuman Federation, Xaos-Lands, Bloodless Reach, and Halassurq Empire. Each is maintained by one of the Ennearchs of the Hegemony.

City Wards
These surround the five principal cities of the Hegemony: Aekos, Grand Shayard, Wiendwic, Soretto, and New Nyrnakan.

What Can Cross A Ward?
There is obviously some ambiguity around what constitutes a weapon. Rope can cross a Ward despite its potential use to attack people. So can a stick that has not been too blatantly shaped into a bludgeon or spear. Any metal object with a sharp edge, however, will be stopped by a Ward, even if (as with a spade) it is most often used for non-violent purposes. People's teeth ache and tingle when crossing a Ward, as more than any other body part the teeth have "attacking" as part of their telos.

The grinding function of molars isn’t all that weapon-like, while it’s the canines and incisors that primarily retain an attacking/tearing telos. So yes, it’s the front teeth that ache. And fingernails, very slightly, no variance based on length. (source)

Training to fight using things that weren’t primarily made to be weapons – whether those are tools or body parts – doesn’t change their telos. So no, no difference in effect for people trained in unarmed combat. (source)

Mullow and shrub yams can cross a ward, as it’s been thousands of plant-generations since the original landraces were tampered with. (source)