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matt writes...
Gargoyle Beasts
ok, i've been wondering about this for a long time. you've established the Gargoyle reproductive cycle and how it works and i must say its a really well constructed system. its great how a couple produces their last egg and in the following rookery their first child has its first child. works out very well.
on the other hand, you havn't given as much information on how the Gargoyle beast reproductive cycle works. you've said that Gargoyle beasts can produce children after only one generation has passed. for instance, you said that even though Bronx hatched in the rookery right before Angela's he can already mate, and Boudicca is old enough to mate with Bronx. you've also said that Gargoyle beasts can not only start breeding sooner, but also produce more than three offspring as Gargoyles do. and obviously, Gargoyle beasts have pups in the same 20 year intervals.
so my questions are, what is the Gargoyle Beast breeding cycle? how many offspring does a typical Gargoyle Beast pair produce if conditions are normal and healthy? is a pair still birthing pups in the same rookery as their older children are?
thanks alot Greg!
Greg responds...
I think you've more or lessed gleaned the short answer, here.
Beasts mature faster than Gargoyles do. But the cycle and life span are exactly the same. Thus a Beast couple is capable, generally of having one more egg than a gargoyle couple born at the same time would be.
That is, they are capable of having an egg in the cycle immediately following their own hatching.
In any case, I think that's right. I don't seem to have the brainpower at the moment to double check all the math.
Marz J.S. writes...
I looked at the FAQ page & I don't think this was asked. I was wondering, I'm curious to this, do female gargoyles have periods? You know, a monthly visiter? I've always wondered. Thank you for your time.
Greg responds...
It wouldn't be monthly, since they're not fertile that often.
Vinnie writes...
Do you remember the episode "Metamorphosis". In it Servarious theorizes that Gargoyles store solar energy during the day. However no one ever found out if it was an acurate theory or not, could you expand on this?
Greg responds...
I tend to buy into Sevarius' explanation, but we intentionally did not make it definitive, and I don't have the scientific background to defend or attack the theory. But I like it personally.
Maelgrim writes...
How much can Goliath and Demona actually lift? thier strengths seem inconsistant as in one episode Demona yanks a rock bigger then she is out of the floor yet Eliza can overpower her! as for Goliath he has to many inconsistancys to list here !
Greg responds...
I'm hoping that we achieved a basic consistency, and that factors like momentum and surprise and whether she's human or not and grip and adrenaline and whatever all explain whatever basic inconsitencies you observed.
But I'm not going to attempt to come up with a number that either character benchpresses.
ross writes...
where do gargoyles come from
Greg responds...
Eggs.
some REAL rambling...
Okay, this is not GREG SPEAKING FROM THE MOUNT...
This is just me thinking aloud. (Well, not really aloud. I'm sitting here typing.) I don't even know if I like these ideas. They're definitely not canon.
But the following notions occured to me today...
Gargoyles don't seem to have a native language. They acquire human language ... perhaps much the same way that they acquire names. Naming is clearly addictive. And language, in many ways, is just sophisticated naming.
Clearly gargoyles are just as intelligent as humans. Before humans developed tools, Gargoyles were at the top of the food chain. They may not have created/invented as much "stuff" as humans have, but they also had way fewer needs. Necessity being the mother of invention, they had less motivation for inventing sophisticated shelter, clothes, tools, etc. But that in and of itself isn't a comment on their brain-power.
So why no need for language and names?
When it comes to naming, gargoyles clearly felt that names were superfluous if not somewhat limiting, if not downright harmful to the spirit. Humans must define things. Gargoyles know that things just are.
We are friends. What other name do we require, etc.
It fits in with their animistic/monotheistic view of a higher power. A higher power that requires no name.
Does beg a question, though if you go back far enough.
Does the sky need a name? Does the river?
Elisa responds: "The river's called the Hudson."
But she could have responded: "The river's called a river."
Did the gargoyles have a language that they ABANDONED in favor of human words -- even if those human words were Atlantean (like the term "Gorlois", the true Atlantean etimology for "GARGOYLE")?
Or perhaps...
Gargoyles are so attuned to the earth. They have biological clocks that match the seasons. They have relationships that require no names, until those names have been imposed.
Is it possible, that gargoyles once... long ago... had mild psychic abilities that left them with no need to create language? It wasn't words that they intuited (or transmitted or read or whatever) but emotions, maybe images or sensations.
Maybe it was tied to magic. Not that Gargoyles are magical creatures, but if magic was free-flowing before the Will-O-The-Whisps evolved into the Children of Mab (or whomever) and somewhat confiscated that power for their own, perhaps that magic was just part of the Earth that gargoyles were so attuned to, and allowed for some psychic congress.
Or perhaps, it is a biological ability -- based on biio-elecricity and brainwaves -- that has faded with disuse. Perhaps the very language skills that Gargoyles learned from the human race dampened their psychic intuitiveness, much as Fox's natural magical abilities were stunted by her human upbringing.
Either way, it suggests that this ability could be latent.
I'm NOT saying that the gargs we know are psychic. They've all been fooled enough, even by the INTENSELY emotional Demona (who would theoretically be broadcasting as well as receiving) to bely that notion.
But I wonder if this isn't an interesting area of speculation.
If you see me at the Gathering THIS WEEKEND, it's a topic I'd be interested in discussing.
Stanley writes...
One more about the stone form...
I noticed that often times there are shots of the rising sun, but the Gargoyles remain flesh until the light rays actually hit their body. This seems to imply that it is the actual physical impact of the sun rays on their bodies that turn them to stone. But by that token, a gargoyle hiding inside a dark room with no windows would remain flesh during the day. So instead, do they have some sort of biological clock, in tune with the rotation of the earth? But that seems even too complicated for a gargoyle. I'd like to hear anything you had thought out concerning the specifics of this idea.
Greg responds...
Again, I've answered this before. I don't know what you could possibly mean by "too complicated for a gargoyle".
They do indeed have a biological clock, a pretty intense one that adjusts for the seasons, etc. Like all of us with a biological clock, one can defy it -- briefly. But an actual visual cue like the sun hitting you is a powerful psychological trigger that makes it difficult to beat the clock.
Seneth Somed writes...
Greg,
After reading a few posts in the archives concerning
whether a gargoyle's weight changes during stone sleep, I
thought about it, and I figure they stay the same weight.
For example, in the very first episode Goliath hauls five
stone gargoyles from the Viking camp to the top of the
castle. Yeah, Goliath's strong, but could he carry a ton
of uneven weight several miles, then up several flights of
stairs, then do it four more times without getting winded?
Maybe I should ask you, so
1. How strong was Goliath? Could he lift a ton? Maybe
two? Ten?!?
A better example of a stone gargoyle's weight is Broadway
turning to stone midair. Seems more plausible for a 350
pound statue to survive such a fall than a 1500 pound
statue. But enough speculation.
2. Do gargoyles stay the same weight when in stone, or do
they gain weight?
3. This has probably been asked before but... do gargoyles
change to stone through their whole bodies, or do they just
have a stone shell?
Thanks for your time. You really show some dedication by
doing this. I hope it pays off. I still can't wait to see
what happens next.
Greg responds...
1. I'm not good with numbers.
2. I don't see how they could gain weight -- laws of conservation of mass and all.
3. They change throughout into a stone-like organic substance.
Thank you.
matt and others in the Comment Room writes...
we were wondering if a gargoyles urge to protect is a natural urge or something they are taught by older generations to do, or a combination of both?
Greg responds...
I'd guess both.
Babs writes...
Ok im not gonna ask to many questions, I know your probably going crazy from all the other questions that everyone else is asking. I was reading through the archive and FAQ's to hunt to see if what I was going to ask was already answered and over 2-3 hours later when I lost all felling in my butt(shut up ;p) and my eyes about to pop out; to my dismay I didnt find the answers, unless my dumbass just didnt see them which that is probably more likley. We'll here they are
1) hmm how can I put this (no not a sex question) I was wondering what the Gargoyles skin is?... uh ours is flesh , lizards are scales, bears are fur. Now some Gargoyles you can tell what thier skin is just by looking at them, so I guess this is leaning more towards the Scotish Clan. Depending on what breed of animal they are the skin would be more harder to puncher.
2)Darn forget what episode , We'll it's the one when Owen stuck his hand in the pot of life and it turned into stone, I took notice in the rest of the shows his hand pretty much stayed in the same postition, but when watching "Broadway goes to Hollywood" he was holding a book with that hand. So my question is can he move that hand as if it wasn't stone or was that just a glitch in that episode ?
3)Regarding to question #2. When Owen turns into Puck his hand is not stone anymore, since they are 2 different people im guessing that when he's Owen he has a different body and Puck the same , but they still do share the same body, is that Pucks magic changing his hand to flesh for teaching shake ?, you can just say , sure whatever you think for this one. I don't quite know what I just asked either.
I'm one of those people that analyze everything kinda goes with the territory with having a slight case of O.C.D, ya notice things that no one else does, but kinda miss the things that are right in the open.
Danke for taking the time to answer my questions.
Gargoyles Forever !
Greg responds...
1. We always referred to it as "hide".
2. "The Price". I didn't work on "Broadway Goes To Hollywood", but that clearly is a mistake.
3. They aren't two different people. Owen is an identity that Puck can assume. When Puck returns to being Owen, he recreates the stone hand -- all part of his bargain with Xanatos.
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