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| History • Strongholds • Clan Advantage and Weakness • The Gargoyles in DC • Gargoyle Characters |
Gargoyles are a bloodline of heavily magically-altered vampires, first created by the blood sorcery of Clan Tremere to act as servants and defenders for their less than physically powerful adepts. Bizarre and inhuman in appearance, with wings, stone-like skin, and the faces and bodies of literal grotesque monsters, they are very seldom seen by anyone outside their chantries, instead choosing their sides in the ongoing struggle between Gargoyles who want to escape Tremere control, and Gargoyles who are still fanatically loyal to the clan that gave them life.
There are two major types of Gargoyles: those who were created by Tremere magic, and those who were Embraced by other Gargoyles. Those created by the Tremere tend to have more struggles, often having difficult-to-navigate physical disabilities, weird powers, or unexpected disadvantages; those created by one another tend to be more solid and comfortable, although they are less likely to spontaneously manifest any interesting powers that others of their bloodline do not have. The Gargoyles themselves try not to make this distinction, but within large groups, those created by rituals are often seen as a sort of class of disabled senior citizens, which can create pity or friction in social situations.
History
Origins
The Gargoyles were created in the twelfth century, somewhere between 1120 and 1170, when the Tremere first managed to successfully use their newly-invented ritual to Embrace a new vampire who did not immediately die of transformational shock. Early Gargoyles were less refined, with many of them having severe mental problems due to the wrenching metamorphosis and most of them suffering from a mixed bag of powers, with many unable even to fly due to their massive weight. Their Tremere masters experimented upon them mercilessly, developing spells to not only empower those servants who didn't have any but also to plan to create new ones with fewer weaknesses.
In a shock they had not prepared for, it was discovered after a few centuries that the newer, "improved" Gargoyles weren't just good servants: they were a real bloodline, and could Embrace their own new childer instead of needing the Tremere ritual.
The Gargoyle Revolt
By the middle of the fifteenth century, there were Gargoyles in most major cities' chantries, although they were still heavily controlled by their handlers and usually kept away from where anyone might accidentally see them. Many chantries used them specifically to guard dangerous relics or forbidden knowledge, or to prevent interlopers from finding or accessing sorcerous sancta.
The first shock waves rolled through the Gargoyles and their masters when Rock Lord, one of the most ancient of the existing Gargoyles, escaped from his chantry and disappeared into the Carpathian mountains, where he was rumored to begin creating his own brood and setting up his own society. Now that they knew that freedom was a possibility, the other Gargoyles began to chafe under Tremere rule, but most were powerless to attempt their own escapes due to a hefty combination of Thaumaturgy wielded against them and blood bonds keeping them from trying too hard in the first place.
It wasn't until the [[Anarch Revolt[[ that the Gargoyles made their move. Led by Virstania, a Gargoyle elder determined to free her people, a group of them managed to kill their Tremere handlers, and Virstania herself committed diablerie on the chantry's regent to ensure that they would not be recaptured. The Tremere were forced to abandon the chantry and regroup in Vienna, and within a century several other small groups of Gargoyles had followed suit, breaking free to vanish into the wilderness with however much violence the Tremere forced them to employ.
When the Anarch Revolt ended in the Convention of Thorns, one of its conditions was that the Tremere agree as a clan to never again use the ritual that creates new Gargoyles, thus promising not to bring any more into existence purely as slaves. The Gargoyles suspect that the Tremere agreed more to gain points with the budding Camarilla than to throw them a bone, and that the Tremere are likely to renege on the agreement if they ever think they can get away with it, but they are still pleased to have the sect's weight behind their bid for freedom.
Strongholds
Since most Gargoyles are attached to their chantries and Tremere masters, they are automatically scattered across the globe, most of them appearing only in major cities large enough to attract high-level Tremere functionaries.
The only true Gargoyle place of congregation is Rock Lord's fabled mountain warren, where deep in the Carpathian mountains he supposedly reigns over a large network of underground tunnels filled with his progeny, who take to the sky in the evenings like grotesque bats. However, either the place is all but impossible for anyone but other Gargoyles to find, or it does not actually exist, judging from the complete failure of all intrepid vampire explorers ever to come across anything similar in the area.
Advantages and Weaknesses
Advantages
Gargoyles come with a number of natural advantages; they are extremely difficult to physically harm, since their rock-like flesh and bulky, muscled bodies were designed with guarding and withstanding danger in mind, and they can fly even without the aid of the Flight Discipline (although they are admittedly much clumsier without it). Most Gargoyles also have some form of natural claws that allow for self-defense, hunting, and climbing, and many have other useful physical attributes such as tails or additional eyelids.
Disadvantages
All Gargoyles share a susceptibility to mind-control of all kinds; from the Dominate Discipline to Thaumaturgy rituals to the Spheres of Mages, they struggle to resist such powers when used on them, and are usually almost helpless to fight them off once they have been successful. This flaw was intentionally baked into the Gargoyle bloodline by the Tremere, who hoped it would provide an automatic buffer against their custom servants ever deciding to rebel or argue with them.
In addition, all Gargoyles are of course terrifying to look at. They look like the stone monsters they are named for, which means that even those who look more "handsome" (by Gargoyle standards, those who look more like a coherent or noble creature, such as a dragon, are considered more attractive than those with a random grab-bag of physical attributes) are completely unable to appear in front of mortals without causing a very messy breach of the Masquerade (and probably a mob bent on their eradication).
Finally, for those Gargoyles who were created by the Tremere ritual instead of Embraced by their fellows, there is a third and worst disadvantage: the use of the ritual completely wipes their memories. Gargoyles created this way awaken as completely blank slates, with no idea who they once were and absolutely no remaining memories of their mortal life. (Some Gargoyles have pointed out that this may be due to the heavy occult content of their blood, as even Embraced Gargoyles sometimes have great difficulty holding onto their former selves.)
The Gargoyles in DC
DC's resident Gargoyle is Ublo-Satha, a very old Gargoyle who once served the Chicago chantry before its destruction in the Sabbat conquest of the city. While she is still loyal to the Tremere and serves them unquestioningly, more than a few members of the clan have cast nervous glances her way in this city of strange clans and bizarre leadership.
Gargoyle Characters
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| Abflussrohr | Ublo-Satha | Verbruch |