Gargoyle

Architectural figures that protect buildings.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: Constructs

• Alignment: Shebvic

• Energy: Gebvel

• Lifespan: 1,000 years

• Diet: Carbohydrates mixed with stone powder, wood shavings, or metal

• Habitat: Buildings

Origins

The original gargoyles were mundane, unliving waterspouts carved to resemble animals or other figures for decorative purposes. Eventually, they began to take on symbolic meanings, and later, they were carved to be grotesque in appearance, often featuring demonic qualities. These were imbued with the energy of gebvel to add supernatural protections to the building. Finally, a powerful marchand realized the gargoyles would be even better as protectors of the building if they were mobile, and the results of their magic was to bring them to life.

Description

Gargoyles take many forms, depending on the culture, time period, and preference of builder. They are always made from study materials. Stone is the most common, but some have been carved of wood or forged in metal. In futuristic settings, they may be made of more complex or advanced materials. The only rule is that they must be hard materials that can withstand wear and tear and violence.

Because they are designed as guards, living gargoyles are almost always designed with full bodies. In many mundane forms, they are only faces or partial bodies, and while it is possible to create a living gargoyle from these, it is not optimal and therefore very rare.

Most gargoyles are designed to be fearsome. Dangerous animals or animal folk (often chimerical), demonic features, legendary heroes, people who might reside in the building (i.e., monks figures on a monastery), dragons, and grotesque designs are most common. They often have fangs, claws, wings, and horns.

Though living gargoyles function as guards, they are still used as downspouts as well, so their design often takes that into account. They often have troughs in their backs that allow rainwater to flow through them and out their mouths. They are often fashioned to be long and tall so that the water is more forcefully ejected from the walls of the building.

While architectural features often have other names (chimera, boss, grotesque, buttress, etc.), if it is alive, it is always called a gargoyle, even if its function is decorative.

Procreation

Gargoyles are constructed by wielders of gebvel in order to protect buildings. Powerful gargoyles may create other gargoyles, but only through the same arts they were created with (i.e., if they were animated, they must animate; if they were inscribed, they must inscribe).

Construction

There are five ways to construct a gargoyle:

• Animating: placing a soul in a gargoyle requires owning a soul of some kind, and most of the ways to do that are horrific. However, there is a tradition of using the soul of a former gargoyle to animate a new one. This is done by using parts of an older gargoyle and fusing them to the new one while using the art of forbidding (see Memnew'e under Occupations) to seal the soul in.

• Enlightening: awakening a gargoyle’s mind to bring it to life requires patience. One must sit and read to the gargoyle for every second of every day for four years. This requires people work in shifts and have access to the gargoyle. This method is usually employed by monks. After four years of reading constantly, the constructor must ask the gargoyle a question pertinent to the readings, then wait four hours. At precisely four hours, the constructor must place a forbidding sigil on the gargoyle’s body. If they succeeded, the gargoyle will answer the question (though not always correctly - but the point is to awaken, not educate).

• Infusing: creating a gargoyle through emotional infusing only works if done during the construction process rather than after. While crafting the gargoyle, the maker must focus their emotions into their work with intensity. During this, they must use forbidding sigils to seal the emotions in, working with the emotions they are feeling most powerfully. The danger here is that they might infuse emotions such as greed, hatred, or belligerence.

• Inscribing: the simplest way to bring a gargoyle to life is to inscribe a True Name into it, surrounded by forbidding sigils. There is a fine tradition of sharing specific True Names to use, passed down from generation to generation. These Names are all the same, but the forbidding and personal experiences of both crafter and gargoyle reshape them once they are in use.

• Physicking: the most common way to make a gargoyle is to put a bit of blood, flesh, or bone into the gargoyle as one is crafting it, then using forbidding sigils to bind the life present in them into the gargoyle.

The materials a gargoyle is made from must not be filled with an aligned energy. The best materials are shebvic, especially if they contain gebvel naturally.

Powers

Gargoyles are extremely strong and tough. Their form often dictates their natural abilities - if they have wings, they can fly; if they have claws or fangs, they can use them to rend flesh. Depending on their design, they may have other powers, such as fire-breath if they have a draconic look, terrifying roars if they are leonine, venom if they are serpentine, and so on. They may also gain powers based on the different kind of materials they are made from or buildings they are bonded to.

Because gargoyles are made from gebvel, they must avoid association with aligned esoteric energies (aetherial, celestial, infernal, or poioumenonic) that are potent enough to alter their neutrality. The only exception to this is if their building has an association with one of these powers, which will allow them to mix aligned and unaligned. The materials they are made from may not be aligned, however.

Gargoyles are born bound to the buildings they are connected to. Most are physically connected to it. As long as they are within the grounds of the building, they can sense anything that threatens the physical structure of the building. If they have been bound to the building for more than a century, they will be able to sense danger to the mortals within the building. If they have been bound for more than three centuries, they will be able to sense metaphysical dangers to the building and the mortals within it.

Gargoyles are made from gebvel and radiate that energy throughout their lives. If they are bound to a building, that gebvel infuses the rest of the building, blocking other esoteric energies from being used on it. Within the building, only unaligned energies may be used (shebvic, paradoxical, ambrosial, or nommic) without fighting the power of the gebvel.

Unbound

Because enslavement is an infernal act, gargoyles may not be created if they are permanently bound to a building. This would compromise their neutrality, so there is a time limit to their bondage. The binding to the building is required to build up the gebvel and bring life to the gargoyle, but once this limit has been reached, traditionally, the gargoyle is freed. Some places or constructors bind for longer than this basic limit, but anything more than twice the limit causes the magic to break. The base limit is 200 years.

Unbound gargoyles often willingly choose to remain with their original buildings and maintain their powers associated with that building. Others seek a new building, for a variety of reasons, and others still seek to find life outside of such a connection. Any gargoyle that finds a new building regains their associated powers very quickly.

Unbound gargoyles gain new powers based on protections. They have gebvel within them inherently, and therefore, they have the ability to create barriers and boundaries. They do this by carving circles or sigils into the ground or into walls or shields. They also gain the power to blend into walls if they hold still against them for more than 10 seconds once they have been unbound for more than 50 years.

Weaknesses

If a gargoyle’s building is destroyed, they are weakened until they find a new building, unless they are unbound.

Nations

The original gargoyles were created in the Galdish regions of Jesenya and quickly proliferated throughout Jesenranu and Mahad, then later around the world to any place with large buildings. They blend into the nations they are created by - i.e., Galdish gargoyles have a Galdish culture, Khurshi gargoyles have a Khurshi culture, etc.

Behavior

Though gargoyles vary by the culture of their creation, there are some common behaviors and tendencies among them. As they are created to be guards, protectors of large buildings, they are often instilled with the importance of this work from the moment they are conscious.

Because they are created, they do not have traditional childhoods or growth periods - they awaken with adult consciousness. However, they often have much to learn, and there are usually either other gargoyles or workers or residents of the building assigned to teach them. They are usually taught the details of the buildings they are bound to, weak points, combat skills, stealth skills, local languages, recognition of dangerous energies, and the important people associated with their building.

For the first 200 years of a gargoyle’s life, they must remain connected magically to a building, preferably the one they were created for, in order to generate enough gebvel to survive the rest of their lives. Because of this, they often become accustomed to living in (or on) a large building. They have a preference for buildings made of similar materials to what they are made from (stone, wood, metal), and for larger buildings, in part because this means more living space and therefore more gargoyles. A building with multiple gargoyles will often find them forming an ad hoc family unit.

Gargoyle families develop hierarchies based on age and experience, with older gargoyles teaching, training, and caring for the newer ones. They describe their relationships in extended relative terms - everyone is an uncle or nephew, aunt or niece, for example. Older gargoyles are called grandfather or grandmother by newer ones. Many gargoyle families in larger, older buildings develop customs about making new gargoyles when one is destroyed or leaves after being unbound. They all donate some material to craft a new gargoyle together, and the one who inscribes their True Name (and it is almost always done via inscribing) is the direct “grandparent” chosen to teach the new gargoyle.

Gargoyles eat carbohydrate-heavy foods mixed with the materials they are made of in order to maintain their bodies against erosion or allow them to heal when damaged. They eat far less often than other mortal beings, however. They enjoy food and often come up with wondrous cakes and breads.

Gargoyles also love music, especially if they are in a building with good acoustics, and they engage in percussion-heavy songs and dances.

National Cultures

The main differences between different nations are the forms gargoyles take. Some common themes include the following:

• Eastern Ansulym: demonic figures made of stone or metal

• Western Ansulym: large predators made of wood

• Cassaru: any material but made to reflect legends from around the world

• Northeastern Dabusen and Southern Island Bridge: chimerical animals made from wood

• Southeastern Dabusen: chimerical animals made from wood, bamboo, or stone

• Subcontinental Dabusen: chimerical animals made from stone

• Western Dabusen: heroic figures and demons made from stone

• Gyrah: birds of prey or winged creatures made from stone

• Central Island Bridge: so rare as to be irrelevant

• Danuo in Jesenya: heroes made of metal and wood

• Dhun in Jesenya: the faces of saints or heroes made of stone

• Galdun in Jesenya: draconic-demonic chimerical figures with wings and fangs made of stone

• Kerupen in Jesenya: distorted mortal faces made of stone, with glass eyes

• Talune in Jesenya: heroes made of metal and glass

• Eastern Lyrilla: nightmarish figures made of wood

• Western Lyrilla: legendary figures made of wood

• Mahad and Northern Taggarus: leonine faces made of stone

• Eastern Palhur: animals made from wood

• Central Palhur: animals, often jaguars, made from wood

• Southern Palhur and far-Southern Island Bridge: blank figures made of ice

• Western Palhur: animals, often wolves or bears, made from wood

• Central Ranu: wooden chimerical animals

• Northern Ranu: warriors and monsters made of stone and metal

• Southern Ranu and Northern Island Bridge: stone monsters and heroes

• Starfall: monsters made from metal

• Subaquatic: fish made of metal or stone

• Subterranean: blank faces or grotesques made of stone with metal accents

• Central Taggarus: chimerical animal folk made of wood and stone

• Eastern Taggarus: animals made of stone

• Southern Taggarus: distorted animals made of wood and metal

• Western Taggarus: chimerical animals made of stone or wood

• Wymmera: dangerous animal folk made of stone and metal, often painted

Esoterica

Gargoyles are made with gebvel and have it inherently within them. This makes them skilled at using it. They can use any unaligned energy, especially shebvic ones. Nommic powers based in blood or humors are impossible unless they have waterspouts, and then only possible if they have gathered water that has naturally flowed through them. If they use aligned powers, it will weaken their gebvel, unless they are bound to a building composed with or of aligned powers.

Religion

Most gargoyles follow the religions associated with the cultures that created them, but some have learned of the Divine Gorgeron, a figure they see as a father figure who crafted the original gargoyles. He is a two-faced gargoyle who represents both sides of the boundaries they protect. They do not have an organized faith, however.

Gender

Gargoyles are usually gendered by their creators based on the binary, patriarchal genders of their originating cultures, but unbound gargoyles often find these ideas irrelevant to their lives and adopt other gender expressions or simply go with whatever others refer to them as.

Military

There is no organized gargoyle military, but they often play a role in military fortifications or protecting cities, towns, and the buildings they inhabit. They are powerful myrmidons (heavily armored warriors), rukaavats (siege protectors), and bow walls (stationary archers on the walls).

Language

“Gargoyle” comes from Old French.

Occupations

Within a gargoyle family based in a single building or in a small unbound group, they often have the following roles:

• Builder/Repairman: gargoyles are often tasked with maintenance on the buildings they are part of

• Caretaker/Cook: fixes broken gargoyles, makes sure everyone is fed

• Drummer: musicians among gargoyles are almost always drummers

• Ferreter: gargoyles are often employed to be ratcatchers and pest control in buildings

• Passager: a gargoyle tasked with patrolling the hidden spaces in the building

• Patrol: patrols the outer grounds

• Tactician: leads the group during combat

• Teacher: teaches other knowledges and skills

• Trainer: trains others in combat

Outside View

Gargoyles are thought to be fancy features of buildings owned by the rich and powerful. They are seen as a slave or servant people by most other mortals, and the idea of a free gargoyle is so unusual to them it leads to prejudices.

Notables

• Dacilia, Gargoyle Manifest, Aeonian

Estimated Populations

• Galdish: 50,000

• Other: 300,000

Sample Stats

PRO 11
ATH 11
STR 14
AWA 8
WIL 8
PRS 8
STH 9