Refining such deadly weapons would have been for nothing if the tactics weren’t adapted around them. For example, the Gryphon Shield had been nothing but a useless defensive weapon that was relegated to the most expendable units, the lowest in a Blessed’s ranks—hatchlings, civil guards, and auxiliary defenders. When King Fortis had succeeded in winning against the Blessed who ran the Eastern Territories and his ideas of living free from Blessed rule began to spread, most who pledged to his leadership were just those: the lowest of Blessed ranks, armed with mostly just shields. The rest was history. 