Warden

The Wardens, collectively also known as the Order of the Grey Cloak, are the law enforcement and military branch of the White Council.

Description
The Wardens are the White Council's version of police and military. They can be identified by their swords, used to execute those found in violation of the Laws of Magic, and their grey cloaks which gives them the name Order of the Grey Cloak. As the swords are no longer being created, new recruits must use some other means of executing violators. The swords are attuned to a single wielder, and cannot be redistributed to another user.

Their responsibilities include protecting both the Senior Council and other White Council members from attacks, dealing with the Vampire Courts, the Faerie, and warlocks and serving as judge, jury and executioner when in the field against violators of the Seven Laws of magic. Many warlocks are killed resisting arrest, or apprehended after their crimes have earned them a death sentences. Hearings before the Senior Council are rare.

Blood does not stain their cloaks.

In Proven Guilty, Anastasia Luccio is still the technical commander of the Wardens, and Donald Morgan is the field commander.

Though taxing the will and the body of the practitioner, fire is the wardens' weapon of choice in combat situations, as it illuminates darkness, to the avantage of the wielder, and has a purifying effect when fighting dark magic.

Structure
The wardens are divided into three ranks.

Wardens are the rank and file troops and basic foot soldiers. Owing to their low number due to the losses from the War against the Red Court they seem to be semi-autonomous when dealing with local situations. Each warden in the USA is based in a single city travelling around the immediate area in order to perform his duties. It is not known how they function elsewhere except for the White Council headquarters, where they maintain a constant presence.

Regional commanders are the next highest rank. They control one or two cities and are supposed to overlook and advise the wardens in their area. Harry Dresden, the Regional Commander of the Midwest, prefers them to handle problems on their own. One of them assists the Captain as his second in command, and is the defacto leader when the Captain is unavailable.

The Captain is the leader of all wardens. He takes orders from the Senior Council, and commands the other wardens.

Swords
The Warden swords were created by Anastasia Luccio, and can channel magic in the same ways as a wizards staff. They are attuned to a specific wizard, so they can never be used against him, and to strengthen his magic. To use a Warden's sword, you would need to adopt its wielder's ideals, motivations and mindset. A powerful wizard wielding such a sword can infuse it with enough power to shear through very strong obstructions much in the same way a Knights of the Cross can use his Sword to carve through sturdy materials like metal. A practitioner can also use his blade to unravel active spells. With an infusion of his will, a warden can use his sword to disrupt warded materials, magical shields and defenses. Those Wardens who believe most strongly in what they are doing, such as Donald Morgan and Luccio, seem to be most able to put their swords to devastating use.

Since Luccio's body swap, she no longer has the nedded magical power to make them, so no more swords are being made for new Wardens.

Death Masks
In Death Masks, Paolo Ortega killed half a dozen Wardens in south America since The War began.

Dead Beat
In Dead Beat, the Wardens have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of vampires, ghouls and demons in recent years. They also fought two wars against the necromancer Kemmler, the worst dark wizard of the last millenium, and killed him seven times in total. Harry Dresden informed Butters about them, not believing they would come to help him because they don't like him.

The Wardens have been devastated in the recent War against the Red Court. Most of their experienced Wardens have been killed in major battles. This has created a huge need for more Wardens. In Luccio's words: "…the Wardens are all but shattered. We need every battle-capable wizard we can recruit, train, or conscript."

She even drafts Harry Dresden, resisting all the way.

Proven Guilty
In Proven Guilty, Anastasia Luccio is confident that she can eventually replace the losses to the Wardens with her bootcamp.

White Night
In White Night, the Wardens now have more battle hardened warriors than at any time in their history, but the vast majority of those Wardens are young and inexperienced.

Turn Coat
In Turn Coat,  Samuel Peabody had infiltrated the minds of the Wardens under fifty at headquarters. He had programmed them is a go-to-sleep-spell activated by Peabody shouting The End is Nigh, which he used during his escape attempt. Several of the young Wardens had been loaded with a lot more psychic commands that were intended to turn them in into the supernatural equivalent of a suicide bomber.

According to Rashid, if both Morgan and Luccio had been arrested, the Wardens themselves might have started a civil war.

Since the ceasefire the Wardens have grown greatly, probably due to the recent population growth; with a greater number of wizards being born and a larger pool of recruits for the wardens.

Ghost Story
In Ghost Story, the Red Court is vanquished, and the Wardens went from fighting vampires to fighting a faceless enemy. They don't have enough members to take care of all the threats. The Wardens have been very busy chasing down supernatural threats all over. Now that Harry Dresden is dead, they consider Molly Carpenter to be a criminal-they're hunting her to pass sentence on her. At least Carlos Ramirez hasn't been trying that hard to find her.

Known Wardens

 * Donald Morgan
 * Anastasia Luccio
 * Carlos Ramirez
 * Chandler
 * Yoshimo
 * Bill Meyers
 * Kowalski
 * Harry Dresden
 * Ebenezar McCoy
 * Justin DuMorne

Trivia
According to Jim Butcher "it's important to know that ‘wardens’ wasn’t always plural" This was later explained in more detail in Cold Days, when the spirit of Demonreach called Harry Dresden Wardens repeatedly, and when Dresden replied he was one, but not the only, Demonreach said 'Now there are many. First there was one', referencing Merlin, the original, who built the island prison of Demonreach, and was its original warden.