Guardians of Night

"Will you not learn that it is we, the Guardians of Night, who are the masters?"

- Orbix Xaxis

The Guardians of Night are antagonists in books seven, eight and nine of The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. They were sky-scholars in Sanctaphrax who were divided from the earth-scholars when the Schism happened and the Mother Storm came. In time, they used genocide against the Librarians, and drove the survivors into the sewers of Undertown.

In Sanctaphrax
The scholars of Sanctaphrax studied Upper, Lower and Middle Sky, and the others studied earth, but were considered like animals. The Sky-scholars believed themselves to be grander and superior because they studied Sky and avoided poisons and all the toil. They became so arrogant that they would have nothing to do with the Earth scholars, whom they argued with.

When the Mother Storm came and Sanctaphrax was cut off by Cowlquape to save the Edge and flew off into Open Sky, Twig urged the Sky scholars and Earth scholars to set aside their quarrels and unite to build a new city, because another flight rock was growing. Twig then flew off on his ship with his crew to get his old crew back, leaving Cowlquape in charge of Sanctaphrax.

The Schism
However, Vox Verlix, a Sky scholar, hated Cowlquape, and he planned to overthrow him. He took Cowlquape and imprisoned him, taking off his chain of office, and everyone thought Cowlquape was dead. Vox became ruler, and created inventions, like the Mire Road, the Tower of Night and the Sanctaphrax Forest.

Vox, however, was himself betrayed, because at the time, Orbix Xaxis, a Sky scholar, was ambitious, and wanted to become ruler of the Edge. He set himself on Amberfuce, Vox's right-hand waif, and he used Amberfuce to execute everyone and set all the others to work. Then, the Guardians of Night came down from the Deepwoods, being goblins, and added more to the growing horde. The Guardians of Night were originally Sky-scholars, and were composed of all races of the Edge.

Orbix got greedy and kicked Vox and the Earth-scholars out of the Tower of Night and claimed it for himself and the Guardians of Night. It would become a place of fear for the Edge. The Guardians took Librarians there and imprisoned them, tortured and interrogated them, then fed them to Rock Demons in the pits below.

Finally, the Schism struck. Orbix marshalled his Guardians, who attacked every Librarian headquarters in Undertown, leaving the streets stained with Librarian blood, and they butchered and killed every Librarian apart from a few hundred who ran to the sewers. This event was named "the Night of the Gloamglozers."

Watching the Sky
The Guardians amassed each night, waiting for a Storm to strike. In their spare time, they liked torturing and killing Librarians because they believed they "polluted" the Sky with their sky ships. Orbix had a Guardian, named Xanth, who used to work with Vox  but now he changed sides, and the Guardian, Xanth, said he could travel to the Deepwoods with the apprentices and hand them over to the Guardians along with all their enemies. But Xanth actually befriended the apprentices, including Rook. But, along with his betrayal, he handed them over to goblins, who tried to poison them, but failed. Xanth ran back to Undertown and the Tower of Night in shame.

The Storm and defeat
The Guardians believed that Stone-sickness was from the Librarians' travels to the Deepwoods that it was a wood sickness which they carried, which was why Orbix killed so much of them. Orbix captured Magda, having her interrogated by Xanth. The Guardians were waiting for the impending Storm, and believed that when it hit, their lightning conductor would cure the rock, enabling it to fly, and making them the rulers of the Edge. But Xanth decided to free Magda and the Guardians captured him for his treachery, as being a Guardian meant a life time service. Orbix had Xanth and Magda put in a cage to be fed to Rock Demons and they ran into the sewers and managed to lose the Demons. But when the Storm came, Orbix got excited. He urged his cage master, the Guardian Leddix, to winch up the Spike, but Leddix found he couldn't, the deadbolt was stolen. Orbix killed Leddix by throwing him off the Tower peak when he heard the deadbolt was gone.

Orbix wanted the Storm to hit, so he sacrificed himself to become a conduit. The explosion killed every single Guardian in the Tower and melted the building to nothing.