Aegwynn

Full History

For generations, the Council of Tirisfal worked in secrecy against demons that sought entry into Azeroth. Its greatest instrument was the Guardian: a single champion entrusted with powers gathered from the Council's most formidable magi. Aegwynn inherited that charge and became a defender whose long life spanned centuries of dangers unknown to most kings and ordinary people. Her strength preserved the world, but her independence would eventually place her at odds with the very order that had empowered her.

In the frozen north, Aegwynn confronted a host of demons threatening the dragons. Their master appeared in the form of Sargeras, lord of the Burning Legion. The Guardian fought him and destroyed the body before her, apparently achieving the victory that generations of defenders had sought. She did not know that Sargeras had allowed a portion of his spirit to pass into her. The battle seemed to demonstrate that Azeroth could withstand the Legion; in truth, the enemy had found a way to reach the next Guardian from within.

Aegwynn continued her watch for centuries, using her tremendous magic to prolong her life. The Council eventually ordered her to return to Dalaran and relinquish her charge so it could select a successor. She refused. She had spent too many years resisting demonic influence to accept that the Council should control the one person entrusted with resisting it. Though still mortal, she resolved to choose a child who would receive her powers without becoming the Council's instrument.

For the father she chose Nielas Aran, a gifted court conjurer of the human kingdom then commonly called Azeroth. Aegwynn bore a son, Medivh, and passed the Guardian's dormant might to him. Believing she had secured an independent defender for the future, she left the child in his father's care at court. The hidden spirit of Sargeras had already reached Medivh before his birth, however, and waited for the Guardian power to awaken. Aegwynn's plan to protect the succession had unknowingly helped conceal the enemy from those who might have watched it.

Medivh grew up among Prince Llane Wrynn and Anduin Lothar, seemingly another child of the kingdom. When his extraordinary powers emerged, the ancient struggle that Aegwynn believed she had mastered became his inheritance. His later contact with Gul'dan and the opening of the Dark Portal helped turn a distant demonic design into the First War. Aegwynn had not intended the invasion or willingly served Sargeras; her tragedy was that her decisive victory and her defiance of the Council had been used against her.

By the time the orcs crossed into Azeroth, the Guardians' long struggle was no longer a secret battle waged safely beyond the sight of kingdoms. The corruption hidden in Medivh had made it part of the world's public history. Aegwynn's life explains why that catastrophe began well before the first orc army appeared: the seeds had been planted when a Guardian won a battle but failed to recognize the cost of victory.