Gargoyle clan

In the fictional universe of Disney's animated television series, Gargoyles, a gargoyle clan is the traditional family unit used by the gargoyle species. Several Gargoyles Listed on this page never appear in the Television series. All profiles on this page are written with the SLG Gargoyles Comics consider canonical.

Besides the Manhattan Clan which is the focus of the series, several other clans were introduced during the second season of the show. In the show's continuity, gargoyles had once been an abundant species that had dwindled due to the rather antagonistic co-existence with humanity. Only a few clans survive today, each for different reasons.

Each clan has different physiological and cultural differences based upon where in the world they are located. Despite this, they all share the same attributes: they go into stone sleep during the day, all are fierce and formidable fighters, and they all have a specific area, persons, or concept that they protect. Series creator Greg Weisman has also indicated that despite looking very different, all gargoyles are members of one species, and do not necessarily have all the biological features one would assume from their appearance (for example, though Leo resembles a lion, he is not a mammal, nor is any other gargoyle).

Biology

Members of the clan are not necessarily related biologically (bloodlines are shown to mean little to most gargoyles during the course of the series). Nevertheless, the gargoyles in a clan will consider themselves members of a single extended family, often referring to others of their generation as "Rookery Brothers" or "Rookery Sisters". This reflects the fact that gargoyles are hatched from eggs, which are stored communally in a rookery. As such, parents are never certain which of the hatchlings is their biological offspring. Rather, hatchlings are "children of the entire clan".

The creator of the series, Greg Weisman, has stated that he considers gargoyles to be naturally attuned to the planet's rhythms. As such, female gargoyles will become fertile on the autumnal equinox every twentieth year, and will lay a single egg on the following spring equinox. All of the eggs will be stored together in the clan's rookery, and the communal hatching occurs ten years later.

Manhattan Clan

The six gargoyle warriors comprising the Manhattan Clan are the protagonists of the series. They managed to survive through to the modern time with the aid of a magic spell that froze them in stone for a thousand years. Originally members of the Wyvern Clan in Scotland, they now live in New York City. They were once part of a sub-species of Scottish Gargoyles that were all but wiped out long ago by the Hunters.

The addition of Angela,^[1] Katana, Fu-Dog, Nashville, Egwardo (who will hatch in 1998) Coldstone and Coldfire^[2] has brought the clan's number up to thirteen, as well as diversifying the clan (Angela from Avalon, Katana from Feudal Japan, Nashville who is a mix between Scottish & Japanese and Fu-Dog from China).

Avalon Clan

The Avalon Clan is a clan that resides on the mythical Isle of Avalon, where an hour spent on the island equates to a day in the "real" world. This means that for the island's inhabitants, that while a thousand years passed since their arrival on the island, the inhabitants have only experienced just over forty-one years. Unusually among many clans in the Gargoyles universe, the clan includes three human members who protected the clan while still unhatched.

Much like the Manhattan Clan around which the show revolves, the Avalon Clan is an offshoot of a gargoyle clan from Wyvern Castle in Scotland. When the majority of the clan was destroyed by Vikings, the 36 gargoyle eggs in the rookery were taken away by four humans - Princess Katharine, the Magus, and the peasant woman Mary and her son Tom. The eggs remained protected by these humans and brought to Avalon (only Mary remained behind), where they remained and grew to adulthood. They were raised by the humans that had protected them as eggs, and were largely untouched by the outside world. Angela later stated that she had "fifteen rookery sisters" on Avalon, and Greg Weisman has stated there were three gargoyle beasts in the clan, meaning that the remaining seventeen gargoyles were male.

The Avalon Clan was introduced to the show when Tom (now the elderly Guardian of the Eggs) arrived in Manhattan searching for Goliath, to see if he had been woken from his stone slumber. Goliath, along with the human Elisa Maza and the gargoyle beast Bronx, traveled to Avalon and helped save the clan from attack by the Archmage.

Unlike traditional gargoyle clans, the Avalon Clan was raised by humans. Series creator Greg Weisman has indicated that because of this, the gargoyles on Avalon tend to have a more "human" nature than most of their species; perhaps most notable is the fact that each member was given a name at birth (such as Angela or Gabriel) rather than the usual gargoyle tradition. Similarly, Angela developed a human-like expectation of being acknowledged by Goliath as a daughter, which he was initially uncomfortable with on cultural grounds.

Human clan members

• Princess Katharine, voiced by Kath Soucie (Anndi McAfee as a child), is the granddaughter of Malcolm I of Scotland through his fictional third son, Prince Malcolm and a fictional Norman, Princess Elena. Upon her father's death, she became the lord of Castle Wyvern during the 990s. She was at first prejudiced against the clan, thanks in part to her father using them as bogeymen to make her behave, and also due to the advice of the Magus and general prejudices of the time. After Goliath saved her from Hakon and learned the rest of the gargoyle clan had been destroyed, she vowed to protect the clans' unhatched eggs. Fleeing the now abandoned Wyvern, Katharine, the Magus and Tom traveled to the castle home of her uncle, King Kenneth II, who welcomed them and the eggs with open arms. Unfortunately, this arrival place them into the midst of a political struggle, as a devious lord of Kenneth's court Constantine assassinated the king and usurped his throne. He had then planned to cement his claim by marrying Katharine. If she refused, he intended to destroy the eggs. Katharine and the Avalon clan, with the help of a local princess Finella, escaped Constantine and fled to Avalon, their last area of sanctuary. The eggs hatched and she raised them on Avalon as her own children. During her time on Avalon, she fell in love with Tom, the Guardian of the Eggs.
• The Magus, voiced by Jeff Bennett, is the court magician of Castle Wyvern and eventually Princess Katharine's top advisor. It was the grief-stricken Magus that cast the spell that imprisoned Goliath's clan in stone believing that the Gargoyles were responsible for Katharine's supposed death. Feeling shamed for his actions, he froze Goliath at his request and felt compelled to protect the rookery eggs. He used his magic to guide Princess Katharine and the eggs to Avalon, giving up his spellbook for the chance to join them. Though he loved Princess Katharine greatly, he felt that he had little to offer her without his magic, and watched sadly as the love between Katharine and Tom grew stronger. It is implied that the Magus felt somewhat isolated from the rest of the group and stayed on Avalon out of obligation to the Gargoyles and loyalty to Katherine. In the episode "Avalon", it is shown that the Magus can still channel and use magic, using himself as a vessel by drawing power from Avalon itself. This act, however, weakens him greatly. It is the Magus's extended use of the local magic and the physical strain it puts on him that leads to his death. The Magus gave his life while fighting the Weird Sisters. As he was dying, an emotional Katherine, said she still needed her trusted friend and advisor at her side and asked him to stay with her. But, in spite of this, he died peacefully and was interred in King Arthur's Hollow Hill.
• Tom the Guardian is a peasant boy at Castle Wyvern and the only human friend to the Gargoyles at the time, Tom also accompanied Princess Katharine and the gargoyle eggs to Avalon; he took on the role of Guardian, protecting the eggs and training them when they hatched (despite having little to no formal training himself). Tom visited the outside world once every hundred years or so in order to see whether Goliath and his clan had yet woken, and thus it was that he brought Goliath, Bronx and Elisa Maza to Avalon. He wears medieval armor modeled after Goliath (minus the wings), in a style similar to David Xanatos and his Steel Clan robots. He was voiced by J.D. Daniels as a boy and Gerrit Graham as an adult.

Gargoyle clan members

• Gabriel, named from the archangel Gabriel, he is the leader of the Avalon Clan (though he gives deference to Katharine, the Magus and Tom as his Rookery Parents). Biologically, he is the son of the gargoyles now called Coldstone and Coldfire. He was voiced by Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
• Ophelia, named for the character in the Shakespeare play Hamlet, is Gabriel's mate (and, since Angela joined the ranks of the Manhattan Clan, also his second-in-command). She was voiced by Kath Soucie. The character was named after the Shakespearian character by the series writers, but internal to the story her birth on Avalon predates the play.
• Angela, Gabriel's original second, left the island along with Goliath, Elisa and Bronx to see the world and eventually joined the Manhattan Clan. See Angela for more information.
• Boudicca is a Gargoyle beast and a skilled tracker, and the planned mate of Bronx. She was used by Oberon to track down Puck in "The Gathering Part 1". She was named after Boudicca, the historical Queen of the Iceni.

London Clan

The London Clan resemble creatures of heraldry. Unlike other clans, they appear very much like anthropomorphised animals (mostly mammals) with wings. In the show, only three members of the clan were introduced, running a magic shop in the Soho area of London for income, but the actual population of the clan is 196. While easily one of the more successful gargoyle clans in that they were able to elude near-extinction, this clan of gargoyles, have, until recently, neglected their brethren's ways as protectors of humanity and not just their own kind. They manage to fool customers into believing that their bizarre appearances are costumes as part of fetish within the Magic Shop they run; and at least one member, Una, even being knowledgeable in the magical arts. Other members of the clan do live on an estate outside the city called Knight's Spur. Although the clan is easily the most prosperous one known in terms of population, it is very much aware of the danger of overcrowding their secure area. To control that problem, stringent precautions are taken to control their population growth with a resulting total number of eggs at present being 25.

Griff

A brave and noble warrior during World War II who opted to covertly assist the soldiers of London fight off the Nazis rather than simply safeguarding his clan's territory, the griffin-like gargoyle called Griff disappeared during The Blitz and was presumed dead. In fact, he had been transported to the future by Goliath, using the time-traveling Phoenix Gate after the latter decided to go back in time to find what happened to Griff (and possibly save him in the process). When Goliath learns that it is impossible to change the past (after several consecutive incidents that nearly killed Griff), he instead brought Griff along to the present-time London. Once in his old home again he was reunited with his friends Leo and Una, and encouraged them to once again take up defending the city.^[3]

Griff later encountered the wayward and awakened King Arthur Pendragon in Westminster Abbey (the king had broken in to hold vigil there, and Griff assumed he was a vandal before learning the truth). He and the Manhattan clan helped Arthur fight off Macbeth and retrieve the sword Excalibur from New York City, and was later dubbed as the first of Arthur's new knights. He later accompanied Arthur on his quest to find Merlin.

Griff was voiced by Neil Dickson.

Leo and Una

Leo and Una, who resemble a lion and a unicorn respectively (see the Lion and the Unicorn), run the magic shop that provides income for the clan. Una, voiced by Sarah Douglas, is also the leader of the clan, and a powerful magic user. She shares a number of features with Demona, particularly in her tendency to "rewrite" history to eliminate her own culpability, though she is diverted from Demona's path by the end of the episode and spared her lonely fate. Leo is her mate, voiced by Gregg Berger, although it is suggested on the show that Una was romantically involved with Griff before his disappearance.

The two of them had refused to join Griff when he went out to fight in the Battle of Britain and they were devastated when he did not return. They funded a memorial statue of Griff and Goliath, as in a predestination paradox Goliath had appeared at the shop before the battle and left with Griff. Believing that both had died, Leo and Una became cynical and insular, no longer protecting the people around them. When Goliath arrived in the modern day (before he had traveled back in time), they blamed him for Griff's disappearance though he did not yet know them. They managed to forgive Goliath when he brought Griff forward in time (thus causing the disappearance in the first place) and reunited the trio.^[3]

Lunette

Their daughter Lunette (relation was specified by Greg Weisman in Ask Greg) was shown in Gargoyles #8. She was a winged unicorn, and is of the same age as Brooklyn's own son Nashville.

Staghart

Staghart (or "Amp" to his friends), who resembles a handsome, white-furred stag, is introduced in the Slave Labor Graphics series in issue #7 who meet the Manhattan gargoyles Hudson and Lexington while they are on a mission in London. Following the series' run on television and the release of the SLG Clan-Building Gargoyles comics, within whose pages Staghart was first introduced, there is some suggestion for now that Staghart is homosexual and forming a mutual bond with Lexington, who is himself slowly realizing he is of the same sexual orientation.^[4] At a gathering in 2011 Greg Weisman confirmed that Lexington has a crush on Staghart. Greg Weisman mentioned that he would have cast Alan Cumming for the voice of the character.^[5]

Constance

Constance (or "Coco" to her friends), who resembles a stocky warthog sow, is a good friend to Staghart, although it is hinted that she is well aware of his sexual orientation which precludes being his mate. She is also very aggressive in battle and disdains weapons in battle in favor of her own abilities. Coco is loosely based on Greg Weisman's original concept for Broadway. According to a post on Ask Greg (from Greg Weisman), Constance is Una's Second In Command. Greg Weisman vaguely considered Zoë Wanamaker as the voice for the character.^[6]

Ishimura Clan

The Ishimura Clan are the gargoyle residents of a small village in Japan. Unlike most other clans, the Ishimura gargoyles co-exist peacefully with humans. Their ancestors fought many battles alongside human samurai before settling in Ishimura. They live by the code of Bushido, (lit. the "Way of the Warrior"), which they teach to humans. But by the late 20th century, they had run out of students. While they protect the village and its human residents during the night, a group of humans protects the clan's home during the day - to honor this association, gargoyles from this clan enter stone sleep facing inwards from their battlements, to their human protectorate as a sign of trust, whereas gargoyles like Goliath traditionally face outwards to face potential threats. It also seems to be for this reason why they assume less threatening poses before entering stone form.

The leader of the clan is Kai (lit. "The Ocean" or "The Sea", and voiced by Clyde Kusatsu), and his second-in-coomand was Yama (lit. "The Mountain", and voiced by Bruce Locke). Yama was known to have a mate called Sora (lit. "The Sky" or "The Heavens", and voiced by Haunani Minn). He betrayed the clan by aligning himself with a human named Taro, a former student of theirs who wanted to capture and imprison the clan in a Gargoyle-themed amusement park and then reveal them to the public. He tricked them into thinking their protectorate wanted them gone and he helped them escape so they could teach children. Unfortunately, the "children" were actually reporters Taro had invited. Yama realized the error of his ways and, along with his clanmates and Goliath, helped defeat Taro. They soon fled just as the media arrived. The Ishimura Clan then decided to teach bushido once again.

Yama was banished as a result of his actions in Bushido and has to determine when he regains his honor. Robyn Canmore, Dingo and Matrix arrive in Tokyo to recruit him. Robyn mentions the chance for him to find Redemption, as well as threatening to reveal his clan to the world. He reluctantly joins, but doesn't approve of being blackmailed and the idea of working with a gargoyle hunter. Yama also doesn't like the idea of Fang joining (as he made a joke at the expense of a suicide).^[7]

Sometime during the Feudal era of Japan, a time traveling Brooklyn would arrive because of The Phoenix that came from the Phoenix Gate. He meets his future mate Katana. Though it is unknown if she joins him at first by choice or by accident.^[2]

Guatemala Clan

The Guatemala Clan are the protectors of the rainforest of Guatemala. This clan possessed four amulets, powered by a larger Sun Amulet, forged by their previous human protectorate the Mayans that allowed the wearers to stay awake during the daytime for 24-hour protection. Shortly before their appearance on the show, the clan was attacked by poachers, and all but the four gargoyles wearing the amulets (who were out at the time of the attack) were killed (the clan's eggs were also spared) and the Sun Amulet was stolen. The amulet later sat in the American Museum of Natural History in New York and was almost destroyed by Hyena who was to destroy it in a coordinated attack with Jackal in Guatemala. Broadway and Lexington from the Manhattan Clan foiled that attempt and now hold the Sun Amulet.

The four members of the clan are:

• Zafiro - the red-skinned male leader, voiced by Hector Elizondo, wore the sapphire amulet. Unlike other gargoyles, Zafiro resembled a feather-winged snake with humanlike arms as his only "limbs" (a possible inspiration for either Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl myths in the universe of the show) or nāga, with a snake-like face and tail instead of legs.
• Obsidiana - Zafiro's mate, voiced by Elisa Pensler Gabrielli, wore the obsidian amulet, and an expert herbalist.
• Jade - (pronounced Ha-day, as in Spanish), voiced by Jesse Corti, wore the jade amulet, and closely resembled Goliath in general appearance.
• Turquesa - voiced by Marabina Jaimes, wore the turquoise amulet.

After their encounter with Goliath, Elisa, Bronx, and Angela, Jade and Turquesa went to Avalon, to plant and raise several valuable plants and herbs threatened by the development of the rainforest. Had the series continued, Zafiro would have traveled to Manhattan to recover the Sun Amulet.

Labyrinth Clan

Residing in an underground research facility beneath the streets of New York City, once run by Cyberbiotics, now home to many transient humans, as well as two groups who are firm allies of the Manhattan Clan: The Mutates and the Clones.

Mutates

Humans, spliced with animal genes by Anton Sevarius to resemble gargoyles. They have cat-like bodies, bat wings, and can discharge electrical pulses like electric eels.

Clones

Created by Anton Sevarius, with funding from Demona and Thailog, the five clones are true biological gargoyles, with simple minds, who are genetically identical to the Manhattan clan. Talon gave them sanctuary in the Labyrinth. They were artificially aged, which altered their colorations (in general, their colours are photo-negatives of their originals). They were named after places in Los Angeles, in parody of the Manhattan Clan who are named after places in New York City. In the non-canonical season 3, the clones had a genetic defect that eventually "killed" them by permanently freezing them in stone hibernation. This defect also had happened to Thailog as well.

• Malibu - Clone of Brooklyn.
• Brentwood - Clone of Lexington. Brentwood is no longer a member of the Labyrinth Clan, having left it to join Thailog as of "Bash"
• Hollywood - Clone of Broadway.
• Burbank - Clone of Hudson.
• Delilah - A hybrid of Demona and Elisa's DNA, a binary clone. Secretly cloned by Sevarius, on Thailog's instructions to searve as his perfect servile mate.

Additional clans not seen in the series

As well as these clans, four clans have been mentioned by the show's creators, though they were never seen during the series. These clans are:

• New Olympus Clan, who live on Mount Thanatos on the hidden island of New Olympus. An isolationist clan.
• Loch Ness Clan, from Loch Ness in Scotland. The only semi-aquatic clan remaining, they protect the Loch Ness Monster species. They do not appear in the cartoon when Goliath and company go to Loch Ness.
• Xanadu Clan, from Xanadu in China. They protect the waning gargoyle beast population. Brooklyn's companion gargoyle beast Fu-Dog originated from this clan (though the time he visited China wasn't specified).^[2]
• Korean Clan, from Pukhan, South Korea. They protect their concept of justice.

These four clans, together with the clans detailed in the animated series, make up the entire remaining gargoyle population on earth. Series creator Greg Weisman once estimated that the total population worldwide is only about 400.

Further, Greg Weisman has stated that more clans would have been created in the future had he had a chance to continue the series. These clans include:

• New Wyvern Clan, formed on the former location of Wyvern Castle in Scotland
• Camelot Clan, residing on the continent of Antarctica, in the location of New Camelot
• Liberty Clan, founded on an island off the west coast of Canada
• Notre Dame Clan, in Paris, France (a version of this clan appeared as a "Gargoyles" spoof in a Weisman-penned issue of Captain Atom)

In addition, other clans are shown to have existed in the past, which were wiped out by humans. In the multi-part "City of Stone," for example, Demona is shown to have led a clan of gargoyles several years after the destruction of the Wyvern clan, which Weisman indicates was created from remnants of several other destroyed Scottish clans. These gargoyles were later killed by the first and second Hunters. He once indicated that one of those clans was a "colony" created when the Wyvern clan was too large (though he admits to making that up to explain why a certain gargoyle model was used for a member of the original Wyvern and of Demona's clan).

References