Appendix B: A Guide to the Gargoyles Universe

By Todd Jensen

“A”

ABUJA

The capital of Nigeria. Tea went to live there after parting company with Fara Maku, but thanks to his placing the Mark of the Panther upon her, did not stay there long.

ACME, MR.

A technician whom Vinnie employed to build "Mr. Carter" for him.

<Mr. Acme's name is a reference to Acme, Wile E. Coyote's supplier for various (unreliable) roadrunner-catching equipment in Warner Brothers cartoons.>

[AESIR]

[A branch of Oberon's Children, who were worshipped by the Norsemen in pre-Christian times as gods. Odin is their leader; he and his horse Sleipnir are their only current members that have as yet been encountered.

<The Aesir were the gods of Norse mythology, or, more accurately, one of two branches of the gods, the other being the Vanir. The Aesir were primarily war-gods, while the Vanir were fertility-gods. Odin, Thor, and most of the other noteworthy Norse deities were of the Aesir, the only significant members of the Vanir being Njord and his children Frey and Freya. They lived in the remote citadel of Asgard, which could only be reached by Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge. The Aesir were powerful, but not immortal; it was foretold that at Ragnarok, they would almost all be destroyed by their enemies the frost giants and the monsters allied with them, such as the Fenris-wolf and the Midgard Serpent. A few would survive, however, to rebuild the world. (According to Mr. Weisman, some form of Ragnarok has already taken place in the Gargoyles Universe, in which many of the Aesir were slain, though clearly not Odin himself.)>]

AL

An old man, a resident of the Labyrinth. Fang and his human supporters tried to rob him, but Brooklyn and Talon stopped them from doing so.

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

A New York museum, standing on Central Park West and E 79th Street. It contains about 36 million artifacts, ranging from dinosaur bones to meteorites to displays on the native peoples of South America, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. The Mayan Sun Amulet was kept here on display after it was brought to New York, until Hyena's unsuccessful attempt to steal it.

ANANSI

A Child of Oberon. Anansi is a trickster, who is found most often, when off Avalon, in Africa, particularly Nigeria.

At some unspecified point in early African history, a female panther made the mistake of mocking Anansi, who retaliated by turning her into a human woman. He promised to turn her back only if she built the great city of Karadigi for him; she agreed, and married the Oba of the Houka tribe. Their people built Karadigi and its citizens hunted for Anansi, bringing him food. Anansi grew fat on their offerings to him, and was very pleased; he kept his part of the bargain, and turned the Panther Queen back into a panther. However, she missed her children, and begged Anansi to turn them into panthers as well, so that they could be with her. Anansi would only let her choose one, and she chose her eldest son. Anansi disapproved of her choice, wishing to keep the youth in his service, and tried to turn him against his mother. In the end, however, the youth realized the truth, and agreed to become a panther as well; Anansi reluctantly turned him into one, and then vented his anger upon Karadigi, driving its people away. But his trick backfired, for once they had left, they could no longer hunt for him, and he went hungry again.

In the 1990's, Fara Maku found Anansi and made a bargain with him; he would become a werepanther and hunt for the spider, so that he could find a way of keeping Tea with him by turning her into a werepanther as well. Anansi agreed, and grew so fat upon the food that Fara Maku and later Tea brought him as to become unwieldy. When the werepanthers led Goliath and his companions on the Avalon World Tour to Karadigi, they fought the spider, however, and finally defeated him; Anansi's tremendous bulk became a hindrance to him in the battle, a mark of how once again his trickery had led to his own undoing. Goliath finally struck Anansi with a spear; [sensing defeat, Anansi hurriedly disappeared, shrinking down to the size of an ordinary spider and scuttling away to safety]. He afterwards returned to Avalon for the Gathering (resuming his colossal size for that occasion).

Anansi generally looks like a spider, of varying size (what size he is generally depends on how much he's had to eat lately). He is a trickster, and will eagerly bend any bargain that he makes with anyone to his own advantage, at the expense of the bargainer. He likes to eat and has an enormous appetite, but is also very lazy and prefers to let other people obtain his food for him.

Alongside the ability to turn humans into werepanthers, Anansi can command ordinary spiders. The spiders that lived in Karadigi served him, bringing him messages and even dropping thick webs upon intruders.

ANGEL OF THE NIGHT

The title that Goliath bestowed upon Demona in the days when they were mates, before the Wyvern massacre of 994.

ANGELA

Goliath and Demona's biological daughter. Angela, like the other Wyvern eggs, was brought to Avalon by Princess Katharine, the Magus, and Tom while still in the shell, in 995. There she hatched [in 1078] and was raised by the three humans.

Angela's adventures began when the Archmage attacked Avalon in 1995. When Goliath, Elisa, and Bronx came to Avalon to help defend it from the evil sorcerer, she befriended them, and fought valiantly alongside Goliath in the battles that followed. Curious about the outside world, she afterwards accompanied Goliath, Elisa, and Bronx when they left Avalon.

In the course of the Avalon World Tour, Angela learned of her true parentage. When she was captured by Sevarius at Loch Ness, he discovered that Goliath was her biological father, and informed her of it. Angela was astounded, but accepted it at once, and began looking up to Goliath as her father. Goliath, feeling disturbed about this since it ran so contrary to gargoyle custom, refused to recognize her as his daughter at first, despite her pleas, but at last Diane Maza convinced him in Nigeria to acknowledge her. In Paris, Angela also learned that Demona was her mother, something which shocked her tremendously.

Angela also displayed her quick-wittedness during the World Tour many times, coming to the aid of her companions on the quest. It was she who discovered that Raven's "totem beast gargoyles" were illusions, who supplied the key to Anansi's defeat by realizing that the great spider was too bulky to battle the gargoyles on the ground, and who brought Goliath to his senses when he had become temporarily corrupted by the Eye of Odin.

Angela finally joined the Wyvern clan upon the end of the Avalon World Tour. The trio were all delighted to see her, and began eagerly - too eagerly, in fact - courting her. Angela finally persuaded them to slow down, however, after their aggressive wooing got out of hand during the turf war between Tony Dracon and Tomas Brod. Eventually she chose Broadway as her mate, since he alone of the three young gargoyles could truly see her as a person, rather than just an attractive female gargoyle.

Angela also re-encountered her mother when Demona was temporarily captured and imprisoned in the Labyrinth, and tried to understand her better. Demona attempted to convert Angela to her viewpoint but failed, and began to develop tender feelings for her, so much so that she finally rescued Goliath and his clan from Thailog in order to save Angela's life.

When the Hunters came to New York in search of Demona, they mistook Angela for her mother and almost killed her; Elisa only barely managed to save the young female's life. It was this event that led to Goliath's fateful feud with the Hunters.

Angela, thanks to her upbringing on the peaceful isle of Avalon, is the gentlest and most innocent member of the clan - she is still somewhat naive, in fact. She views harmony between humans and gargoyles as natural, thanks to the aforesaid upbringing, and so cannot understand why the humans of New York fear and hate her clan so much; it bewilders and grieves her. She is very trusting and kind, and a good judge of character. She and Broadway have already formed a couple, and are very happy together. [They will eventually have three children: Artus, Gwenyvere, and Lancelot.] She also loves Goliath as her father very much, and loves and respects Elisa tremendously; she approves of Goliath and Elisa's relationship, [although she sees Elisa as more like an older sister than like a mother or stepmother].

Demona is something of a concern for Angela. While well aware of her mother's true nature, she also cannot help but make an attempt to reach out to Demona, precisely because of their family bonds. She finds Demona's hatred of humanity and bitter quest for revenge distressing, as she does Demona's vendetta with Goliath. But she has the hope that Demona will someday be healed of her evil and rejoin the clan, [although she has no illusions that Goliath and Demona will become mates again].

Angela is a fierce and bold gargoyle warrior all the same, however, and can even display a fierce temper on occasion. She particularly showed it when the trio (or at least Lexington and Brooklyn) constantly called her "Angie" while courting her (she hates the nickname), and can hold her own well in a fight. (This initially seems hard to notice because of her sheltered upbringing on Avalon, but Angela has learned more about how to fight during the course of her adventures).

Angela is very attractive, tall and slender with long dark hair worn in a ponytail; she has inherited her father's lavender complexion, although her features are closer to Demona's.

Angela's name not only serves as a contrast to her mother's, but also as a sign of how Princess Katharine's own feelings towards gargoyles have changed for the better since 994. [She named most of the Avalon clan after angels, in fact; not just Angela and Gabriel, but also giving some other gargoyles in the clan such names as Michael, Raphael, Azrael, and perhaps even Archangel.]

ANGIE

A nickname that the trio bestowed upon Angela when she first came to New York, much to her annoyance. Broadway soon realized that she did not like being called that and stopped using it, but Brooklyn and Lexington continued to call her that until she let them know how she felt about it, in no uncertain terms.

ANUBIS

A Child of Oberon. Anubis was worshipped in ancient Egypt as a god of the dead.

In 1996, Xanatos sent the Emir and the Pack (by this time Jackal, Hyena, Wolf, and Coyote 3.0) to Egypt, to summon up Anubis in a secret underground chamber below the Sphinx and somehow force him to make Xanatos immortal. The Emir summoned Anubis and magically held him prisoner, but for his own purposes rather than Xanatos's; he wanted the jackal-god to restore his son to life. When Anubis refused, the Emir decided to use the Scroll of Thoth to make himself an avatar of the death-god, so that he could use Anubis's powers to resurrect his son himself. However, Jackal, who had become intrigued by Anubis, deliberately stepped in the way of the spell so that he himself could become an avatar of Anubis. Drunk with his new-found powers, he planned to use them to wipe out all life on the planet, but the Emir (with some prodding by Goliath) came to his senses in time, and used the Scroll of Thoth again to make himself Anubis's avatar. Undoing what damage that Jackal had caused that he could, he then sealed off the underground chamber so that nobody could ever summon Anubis again. Anubis was somehow released from his bonds with the Emir afterwards, to eventually attend the Gathering on Avalon.

Anubis is a "death-god", but a responsible one. He takes his powers seriously, viewing them as part of the natural balance and not to be used lightly. In particular, he refuses to bring people back to life (such as the Emir's son), because he feels that it would be favoritism. (It is noteworthy that when the Emir was serving as Anubis's avatar, he could undo Jackal's artificial aging of Goliath, Elisa, Angela, and Bronx, and rejuvenation of Hyena and Wolf, but could not or would not restore what Jackal had actually destroyed.) He is so strongly connected with death, in fact, that while he was magically imprisoned by the Emir, nobody was able to die.

Anubis generally appears in the form of a man in Egyptian garb with a jackal's head.

[APEX TOWER]

A skyscraper in New York City noted for its silver falcon-headed gargoyle decorations. In 1924, Mace Malone hid a bag of marbles in one of the heads, and duped his partner Dominic Dracon into believing that what he had actually hidden here was the diamonds that the two of them stole. Seventy-one years later, it was the setting for the climax of the "Silver Falcon" adventure, where Elisa, Matt, and Broadway defeated Tony and Dominic Dracon.

ARCHMAGE

An evil wizard in 10th century Scotland. His real name is unknown, [but he entered Prince Malcolm's service around 971, and even helped him build Castle Wyvern]. Already, however, he had treachery on his mind. [In his early days at Castle Wyvern, he entered into an alliance with Iago, combining the Archmage's magical knowledge and Iago's cunning for various ends, none of them good.] Also during this time, the Archmage attracted Demona into his service as his apprentice, treating her mainly as a servant, with considerable contempt and cruelty.

By 975, the Archmage had hit upon the goal of achieving the Grimorum Arcanorum, the Eye of Odin, and the Phoenix Gate as a means of making himself almost invincible (though, amusingly enough, he had no idea as to what he would do with them once he had them). He already had the Grimorum in his keeping, but still needed to obtain the other two magical artifacts. When Princess Elena brought the Phoenix Gate to Castle Wyvern as her dowry for Prince Malcolm that same year, he attempted to seize it from her, first by sending bandits to ambush her, and then sending Demona to steal it for him. But Xanatos and Fox defeated the bandits, and Demona, instead of giving the Gate to the Archmage, kept it to share with Goliath. The Archmage, convinced that she had lost the Gate, cast her off from his service.

In 984, the Archmage finally rebelled against Prince Malcolm and tried to depose him, but was defeated and banished. He returned in a vengeful mood, however, and struck Prince Malcolm down with a poisoned blow-dart. Since he still had the Grimorum Arcanorum in his possession, which contained the spell necessary to provide an antidote for the Prince, Hudson, Goliath, and Demona pursued him to his nearby cave to recover the book. In the ensuing battle, the Archmage permanently blinded Hudson in one eye, but lost the Grimorum to Goliath, and while charging at him, stumbled and fell into a chasm, seemingly to his doom.

But the Archmage did not perish, although that was what Goliath, Hudson, and Demona believed at the time. Before he could strike the bottom of the chasm, a powerful wizard who bore a striking resemblance to him appeared and saved him, then revealed that he was a future form of the Archmage, having finally achieved the ultimate power that he had coveted for so long. This "future Archmage" then whisked his former self off to the year 995, to obtain the aid of the Weird Sisters in gaining the Grimorum, Eye of Odin, and Phoenix Gate, then to 1020, to have the Sisters recruit Demona and Macbeth for his cause. At last, he took himself to Avalon in 1995, where the Sisters presented the "original Archmage" with the three magical artifacts. The Archmage donned the Eye of Odin and was transformed into a nearly all-powerful sorcerer, then devoured the Grimorum Arcanorum in order to bring it into Avalon with him, and finally took up the Phoenix Gate. Now transformed into an exact duplicate of his future self, he led the initial attack on the Avalon clan, hoping to use Avalon as his base for conquering the world. After the first battle, he then went back in time to rescue his former self, thus entering the time loop again.

After seeing his former self depart for the year 984, the Archmage attacked the Avalon clan again. He almost destroyed it, but fortunately, the full fury of his hatred for Goliath defeated him; he foolishly made his assault during the night instead of waiting for morning when the Avalon gargoyles would be stone, and also, when he faced Goliath head on, instead of immediately destroying him, merely contented himself with magically torturing him. This oversight gave Goliath the opportunity to finally snatch the Eye of Odin from the Archmage's brow. Once the Archmage lost the Eye, he could no longer contain the Grimorum's energies inside him, and was destroyed in the ensuing magical conflagration, alongside the Grimorum itself.

ARCHMAGE'S CAVE

A cave near Wyvern Hill, and a place of ancient magics, quite likely pre-dating even the Archmage. In its depths stood [the Megalith Dance], a great monolith with strange magical properties, its origins as yet unknown. Strange carvings have been made on the walls, including one of the Archmage felling gargoyles.

The history of this cave is unknown prior to 984. In that year, the Archmage made it his headquarters after his banishment from Castle Wyvern, and fought here against Goliath, Hudson, and Demona, before he fell into a chasm, seemingly to his doom. Ten years later, the Vikings camped there after the sack of Castle Wyvern, unaware of the cave's true nature. When the Captain of the Guard and Hakon fell the clifftop to their deaths, however, the magics of the cave preserved their ghosts, trapping them there. For the next thousand years, the two ghosts haunted the cave, unable to leave.

In 1996, Goliath, Elisa, Angela and Bronx came to the cave on their first stop on the Avalon World Tour. When they arrived, the ghosts of the Captain and Hakon attacked Goliath, driving him to near madness by their illusions and finally drawing him to the lower chambers where [the Megalith Dance] stood. They attempted to use its powers to drain Goliath's life-force and transfer it to themselves, but the Captain then repented and foiled Hakon's effort. The result was the destruction of [the Megalith Dance], the Captain's release from the cave, and Hakon being trapped there once again, until Wolf later on came to the cave and helped him escape.

ARNADA, DR.

A doctor on Easter Island, who treated Elisa when she was brought to his hospital for amnesia. He and the archaeologists Arthur Morwood-Smythe and Lydia Duane afterwards met and befriended Nokkar.

ART

A restaurant owner in New York, married to Lois. The couple were among Tony Dracon's targets in his protection racket; he blew up their restaurant when they refused to pay him. They were too frightened of Dracon to share their suspicions of his being responsible for this attack when they were interviewed about it by Travis Marshall afterwards.

ARTHUR PENDRAGON, KING

One of Britain's most famous kings. King Arthur was raised by the wizard Merlin in the 5th century A.D., who taught him how to be a good king and leader. He became King of Britain by pulling the enchanted sword Excalibur out of the Stone of Destiny, and united the various British tribes, forming "a country of beauty and civilization", as Macbeth once put it. [During his reign, he became familiar with gargoyles and with their true nature, although the details of this alliance are as yet unknown.] However, in the end, his kingdom fell, and Arthur was mortally wounded [at the Battle of Camlann in 542]. He was taken away to Avalon [in a boat by the Lady of the Lake, Morgana le Fay, and Nimue, admitted there by Oberon since he (Oberon) owed Merlin a favor,] and laid to sleep within the Hollow Hill until Britain needed him. Arthur was awakened ahead of schedule, however, by Elisa when Avalon was attacked by the Archmage in 1995. He helped organize the defenders against the Archmage, and personally defeated Macbeth in the battle that followed. Afterwards, he decided to explore the outside world, and departed from Avalon.

[In the outside world, he had an (as yet unknown) adventure, which troubled him enough that he returned to Avalon for a time, and considered staying there. But at last, he decided to go back to the human world, this time to search for his sword Excalibur.] The skiff that he took from Avalon brought him to London, where he decided to stand vigil in Westminster Abbey. There, he both met Griff, and re-encountered the Stone of Destiny, which told him that he must prove himself worthy of wielding Excalibur again, and transported both Arthur and Griff to New York. There, they met Hudson and the trio, who assisted them in their quest; however, Arthur's quest also came to Macbeth's attention, and he also decided to search for Excalibur. The two former British kings vied for the magic sword in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, where they found it inside a stone dragon; at last, Arthur regained his sword, but forgave Macbeth and accepted him as an ally. Afterwards, he decided to embark on another quest, to find Merlin, with Griff, whom he knighted, to accompany him.

[Arthur and Griff's adventures are as yet unrecorded, but they will search for Merlin, with the aid of the Lady Blanchefleur, Sir Percival's wife, visiting Tintagel, Stonehenge, and the South Pole in the process, and encountering the Stone of Destiny again. After finding Merlin at last in his Crystal Cave, and freeing him, they will embark on a quest for the Holy Grail. During all this time, they will have a series of clashes with the Illuminati, quite likely connected to the fact that its leader, Mr. Duval, is the same person as Sir Percival, who was once one of King Arthur's knights. Arthur will eventually found a "New Camelot" in Antarctica, of all places.]

<Whether there was a real King Arthur or not is something that historians and scholars are still divided upon. Some believe that he was a real historical figure, if magnified by legend, a Romano-British war leader who fought the invading Saxons in the late 5th century A.D., while others believe him to be a mythical hero or demi-god. The theories about Arthur are numerous; Geoffrey Ashe, for example, has identified him as Riothamus, a British king who disappeared fighting King Euric of the Visigoths in Gaul around A.D. 470, while other historians have linked him to Lucius Artorius Castus, a Roman officer who led a contingent of Sarmatian auxiliaries posted in northern Britain in the late 2nd century A.D. The mystery will probably never be answered, but in the context of "Gargoyles", it hardly matters. For the King Arthur of "Gargoyles" is definitely the Arthur of medieval legend.

Arthur first appears in Welsh legend as a mysterious, shadowy figure. A 9th century Welsh historian usually known as Nennius (although his link to the name has recently come under debate) claimed that Arthur fought against the Saxons in twelve great battles, culminating in the siege of Mount Badon, where he personally slew 960 Saxons; while Badon was a real battle, we have no solid evidence that Arthur actually was there. Other Welsh tales portray him in a more "fantastic" environment, hunting the monstrous wild boar Troit or invading the Welsh Otherworld of Annwn in pursuit of a magical cauldron (see the entry on the Cauldron of Life for further information). The earliest extant mention of Arthur, a reference to him in the late 6th century poem "The Gododdin", makes it clear that already Arthur had gained a reputation for being a powerful warrior; the poem's composer, Aneirin, says of one particular warrior that he was a magnificent fighter "although he was not Arthur".

King Arthur came more to prominence in 1136, when Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his "History of the Kings of Britain", which featured Arthur predominantly. His book was a medieval best-seller, and Arthur became the most popular part of it. As more and more people in Britain and Europe eagerly wrote tales about Arthur and his court, the legend grew, until it reached its more or less present form in Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur", written around 1470.

The story of King Arthur, in its essence, runs as follows. Uther Pendragon, High King of Britain, fell in love with Igraine, the beautiful wife of Duke Gorlois of Cornwall, and made war upon her husband to seize her. Since Igraine was immured inside the impregnable fortress of Tintagel, Uther had Merlin magically disguise him as Gorlois, so that he could gain access to her, and thus begat Arthur. When Arthur was born, Merlin took him away and gave him into the care of a loyal nobleman named Sir Ector, who raised Arthur alongside his own son Kay. When Arthur was fifteen years old, Uther having died by then, he came to London with his adopted family, and drew a magical sword out of a stone and anvil, thus revealing himself to be the rightful King of Britain.

After bringing peace to a war-torn Britain, Arthur married Guinevere, the beautiful daughter of King Leodegrance of Cameliard, and, with Merlin's assistance, founded the Knights of the Round Table, holding sway in the splendid castle of Camelot. But all was not well in his kingdom. His half-sister, Morgan le Fay, hated him and plotted to assassinate him several times through magic. Arthur also unwittingly slept with another half-sister of his, Queen Morgause of Lothian and Orkney, and begat upon her a son, Mordred, who grew up to become another bitter foe. To make matters worse, Guinevere and Arthur's best knight, Sir Lancelot du Lac, fell in love with each other. While they did their best to keep their affair secret for many years, it was at last exposed, and a civil war between Arthur and Lancelot broke out.

Mordred took advantage of the war to seize the throne and proclaim himself King of Britain. Arthur broke off his war with Lancelot in France and returned to face his traitorous son; they met in battle at Camlann, where nearly all the knights of the Round Table were slain. Arthur killed Mordred, but was himself mortally wounded. He was taken away in a boat to Avalon, where his wounds would be healed. When Britain most needs him, he will return, to rescue it from whatever great peril besets it and to restore the glory of Camelot.

Since Malory, many noteworthy writers have covered the legends of King Arthur, including Alfred Lord Tennyson in his "Idylls of the King", T. H. White in his "The Once and Future King", and Mary Stewart in her Merlin trilogy. Even President John F. Kennedy's term in office evoked the Arthurian legend through its nickname "Camelot".>

[ARTUS]

[The eldest of Broadway and Angela's three children, and older brother to Gwenyvere and Lancelot. He will be hatched in the year 2018.

<Artus is a French form of the name "Arthur", particularly used as the name of King Arthur in medieval French literature. The combination of this name with that of "Gwenyvere" for his sister and "Lancelot" for his brother would suggest that King Arthur will have some very strong significance for Broadway and Angela. This probably is not surprising, however, in light of how the legends about King Arthur and Merlin inspired Broadway to learn how to read, the fact that Angela was brought up on Avalon, and that both have met King Arthur himself.>]

ATKINSON

A staff member at Manhattan General, who helped tend Elisa during her operation there.

AVALON

The island home of Oberon's Children. [Avalon was formed at about the same time that the Fair Folk were, from magic. It was ruled over first by Queen Mab, then, following her overthrow, by her son Oberon,] who still rules there today.

In the early 6th century, the wounded King Arthur was admitted to Avalon for healing, and placed in an enchanted sleep within the Hollow Hill. [Oberon, while disliking the presence of mortals on his island, permitted this because he owed Merlin a favor.]

In 995, Oberon, angered at his Children's scorn and contempt for mortals, and particularly that displayed by Titania, banished the entire Third Race from Avalon for a thousand years, leaving the Weird Sisters behind to bar the entrance on a floating barge nearby. Shortly afterwards, Princess Katharine, the Magus, and Tom fled to Avalon with the eggs following Constantine III's usurpation of the Scottish throne. After the Magus defeated the Weird Sisters, the three refugees settled on Avalon with the eggs, and lived there contentedly (more or less) for the next thousand years.

In 1995, the Archmage decided to conquer Avalon, to use it as his base of operations for waging war upon the human world. He joined forces with the Weird Sisters, Demona, and Macbeth to attack the Avalon clan and destroy it. The Avalon clan, aided by Goliath, Elisa, Bronx, and King Arthur (whom Elisa awakened from his sleep), defended its home against the evil sorcerer and his followers, and finally won.

Not long afterwards, Oberon and Titania returned to Avalon, and learned about the Avalon clan from the Weird Sisters. Oberon wanted to banish them from the island, but the Avalon clan created an iron bell and used it to defeat him, after which Princess Katharine persuaded him to let them stay. Oberon not only granted them permission to do so, but even made the Avalon gargoyles his guard of honor. Afterwards, he held the Gathering, bringing home all of the Third Race (except for Puck, in the end); currently, the Fair Folk are assembled upon Avalon.

Avalon cannot be found on a map of the world; it is reachable only by magic. The usual procedure for entering Avalon for mortals is to recite a Latin incantation while upon a body of water (which can range in size from the sea to a college swimming pool); Oberon's Children, on the other hand, can presumably come and go through their innate abilities, without needing water nearby. Leaving Avalon is somewhat trickier; it does not send you to where you wish to go, but to where you need to be. (Hence the Avalon World Tour that Goliath, Elisa, Angela, and Bronx were involuntarily embarked upon after leaving the enchanted island.)

Avalon is, in a sense, solidified magic, and an experienced human wizard can actually tap into that magic, as the Magus did during his battle with the Weird Sisters; it is not easy to do, however, and even cost the Magus his life. While faerie magic is permitted in Avalon, human magic (particularly that coming from artifacts such as the Grimorum Arcanorum) is not. (The Archmage did temporarily evade this proscription by eating the Grimorum, but in the end he paid a fatal price.) Also because of its magical nature, time passes slower on Avalon; for every hour spent there, one day goes by in the outside world. It is eternal summer there.

Avalon has a few landmarks of note: the palace where Oberon and Titania live (and which also serves as the home for the Manhattan clan), the Hollow Hill where King Arthur slept (and where the Magus has now been laid to rest), a volcano, and a marble pool which served as the Archmage's headquarters during his invasion of Avalon. An apple orchard stands in the palace grounds.

The relationship between Avalon and Oberon is uncertain. On the one hand, Oberon can command the island to do his bidding, ordering even the rocks to throw themselves at intruders. On the other hand, Avalon sent Goliath and his companions to Manhattan at the end of the World Tour to foil Oberon's plan to abduct the infant Alexander.

<Avalon emerges in Arthurian legend as a mysterious enchanted island, associated with the faerie-folk, to which King Arthur was taken after his final battle at Camlann. Its earliest known mention comes from Geoffrey of Monmouth in his "History of the Kings of Britain", where it is mentioned as being the place where Excalibur was forged, and to which Arthur was taken after his final battle. In his "The Life of Merlin", a sort of sequel to his better-known "History", he gives a more detailed description of Avalon as a magical island, to which Merlin and the legendary Welsh bard Taliesin took the wounded Arthur, where Morgan le Fay - portrayed here as a benevolent figure - received him and tended him.

Avalon seems to have developed from the legends about paradisical islands in Celtic mythology; it is worth noting that the Welsh form of its name is "Ynys Avallach" or "The Isle of Avallach", Avallach being a mysterious otherworldly figure in Welsh myth, portrayed as Morgan le Fay's father. However, its name also seems to be derived from "apple", fitting in with the fact that apples were commonly found in the magical islands of Celtic myth. The Avalon of "Gargoyles" likewise contains an apple orchard in the grounds of Oberon's palace.

While the Arthurian legends often interpreted Avalon in much the same light that "Gargoyles" did, as a remote enchanted island, a different view of Avalon emerged in 1190, at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. Some of the monks of Glastonbury reported discovering the grave of King Arthur within the Abbey, marked by a lead cross which described Arthur as being buried in "the Isle of Avalon". This suggested that Avalon was merely an old-fashioned name for Glastonbury and not a magical island after all. This possibility was assisted by the fact that Glastonbury was a marshy region in the Dark Ages and could have been an island at one point, and that it does have a reputation for otherworldliness. In the Gargoyles Universe, however, Avalon and Glastonbury are clearly not identical.

After this discovery of "Arthur's tomb" (historians and archaeologists remain divided as to how genuine this discovery actually was), a different trend concerning Arthur's fate emerges in the writings about him; while some Arthurian romancers continued to claim that Arthur did not die but was taken away to Avalon, others, such as the anonymous author of the alliterative "Morte Arthure", hold that he did indeed die and that Avalon and Glastonbury were one and the same. Sir Thomas Malory, in his "Le Morte d'Arthur", was ambivalent, portraying Sir Bedivere discovering a tomb believed to be Arthur's at Glastonbury, but also stating that many people still believe that Arthur is not dead and will someday return (Malory himself did not believe this). Alfred Lord Tennyson, in his "Idylls of the King", definitely held for the picture of Avalon as a magical island rather than a real-world locale, and had Arthur describe it in "The Passing of Arthur" as a place "Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,/ Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies/ Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns/ And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea". This description undoubtedly helped influence the depiction of Avalon in "Gargoyles" as a place of eternal summer - alongside the description of Celtic paradises in legend, which were sometimes even known as the "Summer Country" or the "Region of the Summer Stars".

Avalon's different time scale from the outside world also has roots in traditional legends about the faerie-folk. It was said about Faerie that time passed by much more slowly there, and that one could spend only a short time in that place and return to the human world to discover that years or even centuries had gone by in the meantime. However, visitors to Faerie would generally age rapidly to match the passage of time in their absence from the mortal world, a fate which fortunately did not befall Angela or Tom when they left Avalon.>

AVALON WORLD TOUR

The journey that Goliath, Elisa, Angela, and Bronx underwent after leaving Avalon and returning to New York. Because Avalon's magic sends one where one needs to be rather than where one wants to go, they visited a number of distant places before finally reaching Manhattan again. Among these were the Archmage's cave in Scotland, Queen Florence Island, Loch Ness, Prague, Paris, London, Egypt, Ireland, Australia, Nigeria, Norway, New Olympus, Guatemala, Easter Island, Ishimura, and Flagstaff, Arizona. [It is reported that they also visited the Himalayas, although that adventure's details have not yet been revealed to us, except for the fact that they encountered Coldstone there.] In the process, Goliath and his companions made contact with the clans dwelling in London, Guatemala, and Ishimura, encountered a number of Oberon's Children, and locked swords with many of their old foes, including the ghost of Hakon, Sevarius, Demona, Thailog, the Pack, and Xanatos himself.

AVATAR

A term used for a human who is merged with a Child of Oberon through magic. The human in question becomes more like that Child of Oberon in appearance, and is also freely able to use the powers of that faerie. The best-documented instance of such an event was when first Jackal, and then, the Emir, became the Avatar of Anubis through the magic of the Scroll of Thoth. Each one developed a jackal's head and gained the full use of Anubis's powers; when they spoke, Anubis's voice could even be heard in the background, repeating those same words. In both cases, the human who had become Avatar was in command, Anubis presumably being dormant.

During his encounter with Odin in Norway, Goliath himself became an Avatar of Odin for a time when he donned the Eye of Odin [probably because of Odin's proximity]. His form changed to become more "Odinic", with his wings taking on the starry pattern of Odin's hooded cloak and a horned helmet appearing upon his head. He also achieved the same powers that Odin possesses, such as the ability to conjure up snowstorms. However, since he did not actually merge with Odin, but the two of them remained separate beings, this Avatarship was of a different nature than that which Jackal and the Emir underwent when they became Avatars of Anubis.

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