Guardian of Tirisfal

The Guardian of Tirisfal was a single mortal champion magically empowered by the Council of Tirisfal to secretly fight the Burning Legion on Azeroth.

An order of immensely powerful beings imbued with tremendous strength from the Sunwell, empowered to protect the world from the Burning Legion over the millennia. The Guardians (or more accurately, the Patriarchs of Tirisfal) were imbued with a small amount of power from all members of the order of Tirisfal, becoming extremely powerful mages in their own right. Typically, Guardians took rooms in the Violet Citadel. At the time Aegwynn became Guardian, all Guardians were given the honorific title "Magna," which comes from a Dwarven word meaning "protector."Template:Cite It is unclear if Medivh ever received this honorific. He is usually known as the Magus.

The guardians of Tirisfal have served for ages to protect the world from demonic influence. There can be only one Guardian of Tirisfal at a time. A Guardian of Tirisfal is empowered through a long ritual by a council of seven archmagi. The secrets of the ritual are closely guarded, if not all but forgotten in recent times.

A new Guardian of Tirisfal cannot be empowered while one already exists. Only through his death, or through an equally long and secret disempowering ritual conducted by the surviving archmagi who empowered him, can a Guardian of Tirisfal be stripped of his power. Each archmage participating in the empowering ritual loses part of his power. The loss of power persists as long as the Guardian of Tirisfal being empowered survives. The power is regained if the Guardian of Tirisfal dies or is stripped of his power by the surviving council of archmages. If all of the empowering archmages are dead, a Guardian of Tirisfal cannot be stripped of his power, but must be killed before there can be another.Template:Cite

Guardians live for centuries, and as a result, there have been few of them. Only the names of four are known:

• Magna Aranda
• Magna Scavell
• Magna Aegwynn, who "vanquished" Sargeras.
• Magus Medivh,Template:Cite The Last Guardian, who opened the Dark Portal and later saved the world from Archimonde.

Foundation of the Order

Following the inadvertent summoning of several demons of the Burning Legion into the streets of the newly founded city of Dalaran, the ruling mages of that city sought out the help of the high elves. While the Convocation of Silvermoon was able to help neutralize the immediate problem, the underlying threat of the Legion remained.

Formed by a secret pact between the human and elf mages, the Order of Tirisfal was created to oversee the secret war to protect Azeroth from demonic invasion. Taking its name from the council's meeting place in the Tirisfal Glades, the Order imbued a single mortal with incredible powers of both elven and human magic. Though there would only ever be one Guardian at a time, they held such vast power that they could single-handedly fight back the Legion's agents wherever they were found in the world. The Guardian power was so great that only the Council of Tirisfal was allowed to choose potential successors to the mantle of Guardianship. Whenever a Guardian grew too old, or wearied of the secret war against chaos, the Council chose a new champion, and under controlled conditions, formally channeled the Guardian power into its new agent.

They are no longer in existence after the coming of the orcs.

Aegwynn and Medivh

The Guardians of Tirisfal were finally corrupted by Sargeras when his avatar fought the Guardian Aegwynn in Northrend. Though the Guardian successfully defeated Sargeras his dark spirit entered her and eventually the child that she conceived by the court conjurer of Stormwind, Nielas Aran.

Determining that she, not the Council, should determine the heir to the mantle of Guardian, she imbued her son, Medivh, with the powers of a Guardian, though these powers would not be realized until he reached adulthood. Unbeknownst to Aegwynn, the spirit of Sargeras had tainted Medivh's soul. Medivh would eventually be overcome by the will of Sargeras and would conspire with the Gul'dan and the orc Shadow Council to open the Dark Portal and allow the orcs to invade Azeroth.

Following Medivh's death during the First War, no new Guardian was chosen, and nothing more was heard of the Order of Tirisfal. It may have been that extraordinary power, however, which allowed Medivh to return and guide events during the Third War.

See also

• Council of Tirisfal
• Aegwynn
• Medivh
• History of Warcraft
  • The Guardians of Tirisfal
  •  [Aegwynn and the Dragon Hunt]
  • The Last Guardian