Guardian of Tirisfal



The Guardian of Tirisfal, also known as Guardian of the Tirisfalen, was a single mortal champion magically empowered by the Council of Tirisfal to secretly fight the Burning Legion and other demons wherever they might have appeared on Azeroth.

The Guardians' powers
The Council of Tirisfal was an order of immensely powerful beings who were empowered to protect the world from the Burning Legion over the millennia. The Guardians were imbued with powers from all members of the Concil 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". It is unclear if Medivh ever received this honorific. He is usually known as "Magus".

The Guardians of Tirisfal have served for ages to protect the world from demonic influence.

Each archmage participating in the empowering ritual loses part of their power. The loss of power lasts as long as the Guardian of Tirisfal that had been empowered lives. The power is regained if the Guardian of Tirisfal dies or is stripped of power by the surviving council of archmagi. A Guardian of Tirisfal cannot be stripped of power if all of the empowering archmagi are dead. Instead, they must be killed before there can be another Guardian of Tirisfal. Due to their given powers Guardians live for centuries, and as a result, there have been few of them. Only the names of six are known:

Guardians of Tirisfal

 * Alodi, the first Guardian
 * Magna Scavell
 * Magna Aegwynn, the only female Guardian and who defeated the Avatar of Sargeras. She was the most powerful Guardian.
 * Magus Medivh, The Last Guardian, who opened the Dark Portal and later saved the world from Archimonde.

After the events of Return to Karazhan, Medivh refers to Khadgar as the new Guardian, but Khadgar refuses the position. Medivh counters, however, by stating that it's not power that makes a Guardian, but courage and a just heart, qualities he says make Khadgar a far greater Guardian than himself.

Non-canon Guardians

 * Med'an, son of Medivh and Garona Halforcen, Guardian of the New Council.

The issue of Med'an being canon or not is something that had been brought up in the fanbase since his introduction. When asked about it at BlizzCon 2016, Alex Afrasiabi responded: "Certain fiction exists outside the World of Warcraft that we love, but is it necessarily what we would consider canon? So Med'an as Guardian, isn't considered canon in Warcraft lore, which is why in the last five years you haven't seen a reference to him. Um, so, that doesn't mean that there can't be a story for Med'an, it's just not like it was laid out in the comics."

Based on what Afrasiabi said at the end, the character himself still seems to be canon, just not him being Guardian. Given the many events from the comics that have been subsequently referenced in the game or other materials - such as Cho'gall's mutation, Garona's vendetta against Cho'gall in the Twilight Highlands, Aegwynn's death, and Kathra'natir inside of Meryl - it seems that for the most part the events of the comic still happened, just without Med'an being the Guardian. When asked further, Afrasiabi clarified that he did not mean the entire comic was non-canon, only that Med'an being Guardian was.

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, and the summoning of elementals from the Elemental Plane by both elves and humans, the ruling magocrats 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 elven mages, the Council 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 Council imbued a single mortal with incredible powers of both elven and human magic. This person was called the Spearhead, with the Council channeling a part of their power into them. However, this put the Council at risk as they had to be within close range of the Spearhead while channeling their power. The Spearhead was reworked into the Guardian by Alodi, by restructuring the transfer ceremony used to link the Council of Tirisfal with the Spearhead. He did this by using a spell that Meryl and him devised that will allow the Council of Tirisfal and the Spearhead to link at great distances. This allowed them to engage the enemy with the Council of Tirisfal's power and safety intact and out of harms way. To reflect this change, the Council of Tirisfal altered the title of Spearhead to Guardian-- of the Council's power, safety, trust, and defense of Azeroth. The spell would later be applied to a device known as the Forge of the Guardian and used for all Guardians from that day on, until the day Aegwynn refused to return her power.

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's power was so great that only the Council of Tirisfal was allowed to choose potential successors to the mantle of Guardian. Whenever a Guardian grew too old, or wearied of the secret war against chaos, the Council chose a new champion and under controlled conditions channeled the Guardian power into its new agent.

Scavell, the Guardian before Aegwynn, stopped Sataiel after she had used Ulthalesh, the Deadwind Harvester to drain the life from Deadwind Pass.

Aegwynn and Medivh
The Guardians of Tirisfal were finally corrupted by Sargeras when his avatar fought the Guardian Aegwynn in Northrend. Though the Guardian Aegwynn successfully defeated Sargeras, his dark spirit entered her. When Aegwynn went rogue, the Council of Tirisfal created the Tirisgarde to hunt her down. Nielas Aran was a member of the Tirisgarde, but he came to understand Aegwynn's perspective and fell in love with her, but when they had a child together, Sargeras' spirit passed from Aegwynn into that child.

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

Following Medivh's death during the First War, it was decided that none could resist the temptation of the Guardian's powers. Thus, no new Guardian was chosen, and nothing more was ever heard of the Order of Tirisfal.

The New Order
At the behest of former Guardian Aegwynn, Archmage Jaina Proudmoore, and Meryl Felstorm (a member of the first Council), a new Council of Tirisfal was formed to combat the threat of Cho'gall and his foul masters while the Alliance and the Horde were focused on the war with the Lich King in Northrend. The first Guardian of the new Council was Med'an, the child of Medivh and Garona Halforcen, who took up the mantle at the behest of his father. Following the defeat of Cho'gall in Ahn'Qiraj, Med'an returned the power of the Guardian back to the Council. The Council has yet to choose a new Guardian.

In the RPG
A Guardian of Tirisfal can understand and speak Eredun.

There can be only one Guardian of Tirisfal at a time. Each Guardian of Tirisfal is empowered through a long ritual by a council of seven archmages. The secrets of this ritual are closely guarded, if not all but forgotten in recent times. A new Guardian of Tirisfal cannot be empowered while the previous one exists. Only through his death, or through an equally long and secret disempowering ritual conducted by the surviving archmages who empowered him, can a Guardian of Tirisfal be stripped of his power. Magna Aranda was a Guardian.