An order of immensly powerful beings imbued with tremendous strength from the Sunwell, empowered to protect the world from the Burning Legion over the millenia. The Guardians (or more accurately, the Patriarchs and Matriarchs 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. All Guardians were given the honorific title "Magna," which comes from a Dwarven word meaning "protector."
The guardian 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 archmages. The secrets of the ritual are closely guarded, if not all but forgotten in recent times.
A new Guardian of Tirisfal is empowered cannot be empowered while one already 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. 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 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.
Guardians live for centuries, and as a result, there have been few of them. Only the names of the previous three, and one other are known:
- Magna Aranda
- Magna Scavell
- Magna Aegwynn, who "vanquished" Sargeras.
- Magna Medivh, The Last Guardian, who opened the Dark Portal and later saved the world from Archimonde.
They are no longer in existence after the coming of the orcs.