Guardians

Poul Anderson's first Time Patrol collection was called Guardians Of Time, a Time Patrolman claims to be a "border guardian..." (see here) and Carl Farness refers somewhere to the "guardian branch" of the Patrol.

The Wiccans in SM Stirling's Emberverse believe that, between lives, authorities called "Guardians" help us to assess our most recent life. This makes a lot more sense than instant salvation or damnation. I imagine that a Guardian asks the just dead, "What do you think of your most recent life?," then invites us to turn back and look at it from a perspective that shows us all our weaknesses and blindnesses. By meditation and self-reflection, we do this for that part of our present life that we have lived so far.