Matt Maybray writes...

Since all of Oberon's children have a portfolio of sorts (i.e. Puck's a trickster, Anubis is a Death God, etc.), what would Nought have been the "god" of?

Laura 'ad astra' Ackerman writes...

Second question, well topic of question, is on Oberon's Children: You described them as descendant from Will O' Wisps, (or at least I think I read that).-

-1- Do you mean descendent from WO'W like we say humans descend from apes- ie. common ancestor closer (in our eyes) to that branch then our own- or do you mean literally?

-2- When did the fae (assumably pre-Oberon's rule) begin having children? Was it a gradual change, or was it an all of the sudden happenstance that was duplicated by others? Basically- did Oberon's children evolve, or come into being via sudden change?

[I am making assumption that WO'W aren't born in a biologically equivalent way to humans. Is that correct?]

-3- Assuming they did not evolve, are there still Oberati around who were not born, who made the jump from WO'W to sentience, instead of being born to it, or are all the current Oberati the product of two (?) parents?

-4- Continuing on the same assumption- when they discovered parentage and birth, was there an explosion in the birthrate, or did they slowly get used to it? [It would be an interesting source of all the half magical bastards of legend.]
-4i- If they did go a little crazy about the possibility and did not confine themselves to their own kind, would there be a very high percentage of humans with trace elements of their magic in their history?
Not the sort of thing to make them wizards or sorcerers, just enough to cause a resonance or immunity that is not recognized as such because it is so common.

-5- While I can imagine an extremely long life span might potentially weaken the parental bond, the newness and 'ownness' of it might strengthen it, (or give it a 'new toy' aspect). Which scenario is closer to fact?

-6- Where the do the WO'W come from? All I now of them is something vague about bright lights darting about luring people from the path, possibly taking on aspects of humans to do so. Did they get so used to appearing as mortals that the jump to taking on a more permanent solid form was a natural thing to slid into?

-7- As just plain ordinanry WO'Ws, do they have mass, or are they only energy?
-7i- ibid for Oberati in 'natural form'?
-7ii- and what of halflings raised fae?

Todd Jensen writes...

You mentioned that you could only recommend Isaac Asimov's book on Shakespeare (I assume that you mean his Guide to Shakespeare, which I have a copy of) with reservations. I was wondering if you could tell us a little more about those reservations of yours about it.

Todd Jensen writes...

You've mentioned earlier that Merlin isn't considered one of "Oberon's Children" (by which I mean the Third Race, rather than Oberon's biological offspring). I recently began wondering over the reason for that, i.e., what reasons Oberon has for not classifying him as such.

The only other "halflings" we know of in the Gargoyles Universe at present are Fox and Alex, and we know what criteria Oberon had for deciding whether they could be considered "Children of Oberon" or not. He viewed Fox as human rather than Third Race because she had shown no sign of manifesting any magic (at least, at the time of "The Gathering Part One") and Alex as Third Race because he still had the potential of developing magic.

Now, moving back to Merlin; he clearly did learn how to use magic, so obviously Oberon used a different criterion for classifying him as human rather than "Oberon's Children" than he did with Fox. So my question is, what is this different criterion?

(And don't worry; this isn't one of those "trying to trip you up questions" that you mentioned being unhappy with recently. I'm just genuinely curious about this).

Kelly L Creighton/Kya White Sapphire writes...

I cant find this in the archive, tho I find it hard to believe it hasnt been asked.

1. Do Oberon's Children reproduce in the biological sense? I mean do they actually pick a mate and have offspring?

2. Demoness asked why Mab disliked Titania, and you said its because Mab thought Titiania was a spoiled brat, and beneath Oberon. So was Titania *raised* as a spoiled brat, meaning she had actualy parents, or did she just have a high opinion of herself (in Mab's eyes).

3. Were the Children of Oberon we have seen (banshee, anansi, etc) mostly offspring of Oberon? Or were most of them there before him?

4. What did Mab call them all? Obviously not 'Oberon's Children'. Or am I wrong?

Gipdac writes...

1) Did you ever have plans for the trickster Loki?
2) If so, what are they?

Anonymous writes...

Why doesn't Anubis look like the Emir when he appeared in the Gathering? What happened?

Anonymous writes...

Do the Children of Oberon know of the Space-Spawn prior to 2198?

Anonymous writes...

Where did Banshee go after Cuchullain beat her?

Anonymous writes...

Were there any Fay casualties of the Oberon and Mab War? If so care to give a ballpark figure?

Anonymous writes...

Is Osiris dead in 1996? What about Set?

Anonymous writes...

If the Oberon's Children are called the Oberite what exactly were Mab's children called?

Anonymous writes...

What is Banshee doing in 2198?

Anonymous writes...

Who were Mab¡¯s parents?

Anonymous writes...

Was Grandmother the original Thunderbird that inspired the Thunderbird legends?
What was the sea monster that Grandmother turned into in Heritage? Was it a legendary monster?

Anonymous writes...

Why didn¡¯t Banshee kill Bronx and Rory when they climbed out of the pit? Why did she take him back to his home after she kissed him? Why didn¡¯t she do anything to Bronx?
Was Banshee the original Deathworm that inspired the legends or was the original another child of Oberon? If not what was it?

Cha-Cha writes...

1. Who was the centaur at the Gathering?
2. Is Medusa a N.O. or one of Oberon's children?
Because she was at the Gathering and in an older post someone mentioned she was also on New Olympus.

Anonymous writes...

Is it true that the fay don't have a true form?
If so why can't Puck in his Owen form perform magic while he is able to do it in his Puck form?

Anonymous writes...

By 2198 how many fae are off Avalon?
Care to give a few names?

Anonymous writes...

Are there any other sentient races native to our solar system besides Lost race,Gargoyles,Humans,Fae and New olympians? If so care to list a few?

Anonymous writes...

Is Morgana at the Gathering on Avalon? What about Nimue?

Gipdac writes...

1) Did Titania ever really have any of the fairy attendants like she did in A Midsummer Night's Dream?
2) If so, what happened to them
3) Are any/all of them still alive?
4) Were any/all of them fae?
(My favorite is Mustard Seed)

Punchinello writes...

I just reviewed what I have written here. It's so formal it's almost offensive. I'm sorry. I don't think one can talk about issues like this without sounding (obtuse? Stuffy? Something like that.) And not a word about Gargoyles.

Let me leave the realm of animal intelligence's for a minute and consider the intelligence of some of the more fantastical characters in your story. The fae. When I think about this kind of (ethereal?) character, these are the kinds of associations that I make.

-The thought of angels moves faster than human thought. (I don't recall where that comes from)

-A four dimensional object or being will cast a three dimensional shadow. (That's an observation Buckminster Fuller made.)

-A being that cannot die will have no concept of death, and certainly will not attach values, positive or negative, to the ending of a life. (This is a condensed and bastardized summary of some of the speculation of extraterrestrial intelligence's that participants of the SETI program publicized.)

I hope some of the above makes sense. My thinking is this. That the content of fae thought/mentality may be fundamentally different from homo sapiens thinking. Not just an accelerated or enhanced analogue of human thought, but structurally different. Our mental world is the emergent condition of innumerable biological systems interacting with one another. I have no reason to conclude that the fae's intelligence emerges from anything reductionist in nature. It is a condition that exists without origin in biology (potentially). Everything that we think of as intelligence rests on an evolutionary foundation of connections to allow us to successfully distinguish between things we can eat and things that will eat us. It would be absurd to think that the fae (who I don't think were subject to natural selection through predation) would have an intelligence structured upon the same principles. Simple alternative concepts like "either or" may not have the same meaning to them. This could go far towards explaining why they are so damned irritating.

My second thought on the matter, in reference to the three dimensional shadow concept, is that the visual representation we get of the fae in the story may be a poor representation of the reality. I use the concept of a hypothetical four dimensional being to illustrate. A two dimensional being could be aware of my presence if I allowed it to, although it would be a simple matter to remove myself from it's perception with a minor movement. However it's awareness could not give it a complete representation of what I am. It could only understand me as a fragment that can be translated into something comprehensible within the context of it's world. I can easily attribute an extra dimensional quality to beings like Oberon and Puck who seem o appear and disappear at will. We might not be able to understand completely, what they are. Only that the portion of them that is represented in three dimensions resembles a group of tall, angular, oddly complexioned people in period costume.

My third observation of the fae, and in particular of Oberon who has demonstrated a dispassionate distance to killing his rivals in certain instances, is that he may have no concept of murder because he may have no concept of death. (Yes I know that he reacted to the iron bell in such a way that would indicate it was harmful to him. Even lethal.) However, even if he were to express a concept of death we would not be able to be certain that his concept was anything like our concept. Does death mean an end for him? If it does not, then the gravity we attach to it may be lost on him and the other fae.

I think my point is that while it would certainly not be appropriate to think of a creature like this in human terms, i'm not even certain you can extrapolate "human" from him. There could be creatures, so far removed from human experience that it would be impossible. Of course, the associations that I make with the fae are not going to be the same ones that you make. Your concept of them may fall within human experience. You have other creatures though. Your space spawn. They would certainly have been subject to mental dispositions grounded in a different biology. We're conditioned with the genetic remainders of our hunter gatherer ancestors. They would be conditioned with something else. I dont know what. Something spawny probably.

Demoness writes...

Can the Third Race bleed in their mortal forms, or forms that are not their "normal" form?

Why i ask this is because in "Heritage" when the Gargs are attacking Grandmother in her Thunderbird and Sea Monster form I could have sworn that the claw marks they inflicted on her were red with blood.

I just want to make sure that this theory is correct.

Anonymous writes...

Are there any fay as powerful as Oberon and Mab? Care to list a few?