Appendix B: A Guide to the Gargoyles Universe

By Todd Jensen

“P”

PACK (1)

A team of mercenaries assembled by Xanatos, consisting of Fox (their original leader), Wolf, Jackal, Hyena, and Dingo. They became the stars of their own television series, "The Pack", where they were portrayed as continually doing battle with "Evil Ninjas". They quickly became heroes to the public, and also to the trio when they awakened in New York.

The Pack were bored with this life, however, feeling that they were not seeing enough action. When they learned about the gargoyles (through Xanatos, who wanted to test the Pack's capabilities), they tricked Lexington into leading Goliath into a trap, so that they could hunt him for the sake of some excitement. Goliath and Lexington managed to gain the upper hand over the Pack in the end, however, particularly when Fox made the mistake of taking a swimsuit model hostage in the middle of the culminating battle with the two gargoyles. She and Wolf were quickly arrested and sent to prison on Riker's Island, Jackal and Hyena soon following them after an unsuccessful attempt of theirs on Xanatos's life.

Dingo escaped to Europe, and returned with Coyote 1.0 to break the Pack out of prison (except for Fox, who used the break-out to obtain an early parole and broke off her relations with the Pack thereafter, in fact). Under Coyote's leadership, the Pack made a fresh attack upon the gargoyles, culminating in a battle aboard the oil tanker Otoshiana Maru, but was again defeated. Having by now completely destroyed its original hero-image, the Pack turned to bank-robbing and other criminal activities, until Xanatos took charge of them again (through Coyote 2.0). This time, he upgraded the Pack; Wolf was mutated into a sort of werewolf, Jackal and Hyena were cybernetized, and Dingo given a high-tech suit of battle armor. The Pack battled the gargoyles a third time, was again defeated, and had to flee New York.

Dingo broke off further relations with the Pack afterwards, disgusted by his former team-mates' increasing savagery, but Xanatos supplied Jackal, Hyena, and Wolf with a third Coyote robot and sent them to Egypt to assist the Emir in summoning Anubis. After this incident (and the Pack's fourth clash with Goliath) ended, however, its members split up, going separate ways, and have not worked as a team since.

[At some point in the future, however, an Ultra-Pack will be formed by Coyote 6.0, led by Coyote 7.0, and including Jackal, Hyena, Wolf, and a new member whose identity is as yet unknown. More information about it, however, is unknown at present.]

"PACK, THE" (2)

The television series formed around the Pack, depicting them as action heroes constantly doing battle with Evil Ninjas and racing about corridors. Presumably the series was strictly action with almost no characterization or plot, and we can also safely assume that after Fox and Wolf were arrested following their initial clash with the gargoyles, the program was hurriedly canceled.

PACK-MEDIA STUDIOS

An entertainment company, part of Xanatos Enterprises. Its best-known creation, of course, was "The Pack". Its New York headquarters was also the site of Demona's casting her "stone by night" curse upon Manhattan.

PAL JOEY

A member of Tony Dracon's mob.

PANTHER QUEEN

The protagonist of a Nigerian legend. She was a beautiful but vain panther who enjoyed mocking the other animals in the jungle, until she made the mistake of mocking Anansi. He retaliated by turning her into a human, and would only turn her back if she built the great city of Karadigi for him. She agreed to it, and married the Oba of the Houka tribe, by whom she had many children. She and her husband built Karadigi, after which Anansi kept his part of the bargain, and turned her back into a panther.

However, the Panther Queen now found that she missed her children, and begged Anansi to turn them into panthers as well, so that they could be with her. He initially refused, but at last agreed to let her have one, and only one. She chose her eldest son and placed her mark upon him. This displeased Anansi, who had wished to keep the youth to himself; he lyingly told the Panther Queen's son that she had marked him for some evil purpose, so as to turn him against her. The young man went out to hunt the Panther Queen and slay her, but when he came face to face with her, realized at last the truth about her motives. He willingly agreed to become a panther as well, and Anansi grudgingly changed him into one so that he could roam the jungle with his mother.

PARIS

The capital of France. [In 1920, Fiona Canmore fought Demona here and stopped her from using the Praying Gargoyle to slaughter the human inhabitants of the city.] On the night of September 29, 1980, it was the site of Charles Canmore's battle with Demona and subsequent death. Fifteen years later, Demona and Thailog met here, and together founded Nighstone Unlimited and conspired against Macbeth - although the latter scheme was foiled thanks to Goliath and his companions when they came here on the Avalon World Tour.

[At some point after 2198, a gargoyle clan will be founded here, living in Notre Dame Cathedral, but the details for this are as yet unknown.]

PARK MANOR

A hotel in New York where Elisa confronted Tony Dracon, following his theft of some of Xanatos Enterprises's particle beam accelerators.

[PERCIVAL, SIR]

[One of King Arthur's knights of the Round Table, who achieved the Holy Grail and became the Fisher King. He married Lady Blanchefleur, and ruled over Castle Carbonek by her side. Percival is apparently an illegitimate son of Sir Gawain, one of Arthur's leading knights.

In the early 7th century A.D., Percival founded the Illuminati Society, for some as yet unknown purpose. He still heads it, under the alias of Mr. Duval, but at considerable cost to himself. More information on Percival can be found in the entry on Mr. Duval.

<Sir Percival first appeared in the 12th century French verse romance, "Perceval, or the Story of the Grail", by Chretien de Troyes, which also introduced the Grail itself into Arthurian literature. In the early versions of the Grail legend, he was the knight intended to achieve the Holy Grail, although as the story developed, he was eventually shouldered aside by the newer figure of Sir Galahad, to become merely second-best. Even so, he still was preserved in the legends as one of the three knights who achieved the Grail, alongside Galahad and Bors de Ganis.

According to the traditional story of Percival, he was raised in secret in a remote forest in Britain by his mother, and kept ignorant of knighthood; his father and older brothers had all been slain in battle, and his mother, fearing that he would undergo the same fate, hid him here to prevent him from finding out about knights or warfare. However, one day he saw a few of King Arthur's knights riding through the forest. Believing them to be angels, he went up to meet them, and learned of their true nature. Intrigued by what they told him about the work of a knight, he eagerly ran away from home to go to King Arthur's court and become a knight himself.

Percival came to King Arthur's court just as a knight in red armor stole a cup from the king's table and rode off with it, challenging any of Arthur's knights to meet him in single combat and battle him over the cup. Percival took up the challenge, and slew the Red Knight by hurling a javelin straight through the visor of his helmet and into his eye. He then, after removing the Red Knight's armor with some difficulty (being unfamiliar with armor, he was about to resort to the desperate measure of burning the knight out of it before one of Arthur's knights courteously showed him how to take the armor off the Red Knight) and donning it, set off for a life of adventure, during which he met his lady-love, Blanchefleur, for the first time. He also came to Carbonek, the Grail Castle, where his old uncle the Fisher King ruled. The Fisher King was crippled with a terrible spear-wound in the leg, which could only be healed by somebody asking him a specific question (what this question is varies from tale to tale; some versions make it "Who does the Grail serve?", while others make it "What pains you so?"); when Percival ate dinner with him and his court, he wished to ask the question, but remained silent because he had been advised not to go around plaguing people with numerous questions. He only learned after he had left Carbonek that he had done the wrong thing by remaining silent, and that if he had asked the question, the Fisher King would have been healed, and would have recognized Percival as his nephew and heir.

Percival returned to Arthur's court, where he became a knight of the Round Table; however, not long afterwards, a hideous woman appeared and berated him before the entire court for not asking the question. Percival left Arthur's court at once in desperation to find Carbonek again and ask the question. He rode about looking for it for five years, in the process becoming increasingly forgetful of God and not even attending services at church, until he met some knights and ladies on Good Friday, who rebuked him for riding armed on such a day. Chastened, Percival sought out a nearby hermit, who gave him spiritual instruction, and told him also that he had failed in part to ask the question on his visit to Carbonek because he had abandoned his mother, who had consequently died of a broken heart.

Chretien's account of Perceval's story breaks off here, but other writers continued it. Some have Percival return to Carbonek at last, ask the question, and succeed his uncle to the role of Fisher King and guardian of the Holy Grail. The later versions of the story, however, which introduce Galahad, give Percival a relatively minor role, also omitting the question that must be asked the Fisher King in the process. Percival, after many trials and tribulations, comes to Carbonek with Galahad and Bors, and achieves the Grail in their company. Afterwards, they go with the Holy Grail to the city of Sarras in the Middle East, where Galahad dies and the Grail is taken up to Heaven. Percival becomes a hermit and dies a year later.

Obviously, Greg Weisman's interpretation of Percival's fate follows the former account, since he is still alive in the Gargoyles Universe, and the Grail is still on Earth. Weisman's view of Percival in general shows some influence from Roger Lancelyn Green's version of his story in his "King Arthur And His Knights of the Round Table"; Green's version, like Weisman's vision, makes Percival a son of Gawain, or at least hints at it (perhaps inspired here by legends about Gawain having a son named Gingalin or "The Fair Unknown", who was similarly raised in obscurity); ironically enough, in Malory, Percival's father is identified as King Pellinor, whom Gawain slew in a family feud with him. Green also includes Blanchefleur as Percival's love and eventual wife and queen, something again found in Weisman's vision but not in Malory's (where Percival is virginal), and has the two of them rule over Carbonek after the ending of the Grail Quest, as per Weisman.

Percival's identity as the head of the Illuminati Society is particularly intriguing and almost ironic; in the original legends, Percival was portrayed as extremely naive, almost to the point of foolishness, while the role of leader of the Illuminati would certainly demand a considerable amount of deviousness and cunning. Evidently, Percival in modern times in the Gargoyles Universe is no longer "the pure fool" that he was in Arthur's day.>]

PHOEBE

One of the Weird Sisters. She can be distinguished from the others by her blonde hair. She is supposedly more gentle and kindly than Luna and Selene (although she was just as eager for the destruction of the Avalon clan as were the other two).

<Phoebe's name comes from Greek mythology, where she was a Titaness, the mother of Leto and the grandmother of Apollo and Artemis. Her name means "the shining one". Later on, particularly in Elizabethan poetry, she came to be associated with the moon.>

PHOENIX GATE

A magical talisman which allows whoever uses it to travel through time. [The origins of the Phoenix Gate are vague, but it is believed that it came into existence with time itself, as a sort of safety valve for the Time Stream.] Somehow it took on its present form, that of a small, flat, heater-shaped object with a phoenix design upon it, at some point before the late 10th century.

The Phoenix Gate's earliest recorded appearance is in 975, when Princess Elena's father made it her dowry for her marriage to Prince Malcolm. The Archmage learned of this, and was aware (as Elena and her father presumably were not) of its true nature; desirous of obtaining it so that he could combine it with the Grimorum Arcanorum and the Eye of Odin to become an all-powerful sorcerer, he sent some bandits in his service to seize it from the princess and her escort, the Norman Ambassador. The bandits, however, were foiled by the time-travelling Xanatos, Fox, and Petros Xanatos. Next the Archmage sent Demona, then his apprentice, to steal the Gate from Princess Elena.

Demona did so, but after encountering both her future self and a future Goliath, in the course of which she beheld the immediate aftermath of the Wyvern Massacre nineteen years later, decided not to yield it to her master. Instead, she pretended to him to have lost it, while parting it in half with Goliath. To Goliath, his half of the Gate was only a token of the love that he and Demona had for each other.

Both gargoyles kept their halves of the Gate over the next 1020 years, until Xanatos and Fox's wedding in 1995. Xanatos and Demona then tricked Goliath into coming to the wedding with his half of the Gate, so that Demona could combine it with hers and allow the two schemers to travel back to 975, Xanatos to foil the Archmage's scheme and save Princess Elena, in the process obtaining the rare coin that he would need to found his business empire in 1975, Demona in the effort to persuade her younger self to keep the Gate rather than sharing it with Goliath. Goliath used the Phoenix Gate afterwards to return himself and the other time travellers to 1995, and, aware of its true nature now, kept it at the clock tower with the Grimorum and the Eye of Odin.

Under the Weird Sisters' instructions, Demona and Macbeth stole the three magical objects from the clock tower and delivered them to the Archmage, who used the Phoenix Gate to go back in time and rescue himself from the abyss in 984, then bring his younger self forward in time, helping him set up the steps that he would need to become the "enhanced Archmage". When Goliath finally defeated the Archmage, he took the Gate into his custody, planning to make certain that it would never be used again.

However, he broke that promise when he and his companions came to London on the Avalon World Tour and there encountered Leo and Una. After Leo and Una blamed Goliath for Griff's disappearance in 1940, and kidnapped Elisa, Angela, and Bronx in retalation, Goliath realized that he would have to use the Gate to go back to 1940 and find out what really happened there. In the process, he met the three London gargoyles, and was finally forced to bring Griff forward in time to 1995, after realizing that he could not change history by bringing the griffon-like gargoyle back to the Mystic shop in 1940.

Later on, near the end of the Avalon World Tour, Puck became aware of Goliath's possession of the Phoenix Gate, and decided to trick him into giving it up so that Puck could bribe Oberon with the Gate into letting him stay in the human world during the Gathering. He did this by placing his "Future Tense" vision upon Goliath, so that the gargoyle believed that he had been transported to a grim and bleak New York in 2036, ruled by Xanatos, with the only way of saving the city from its tyrant being to go back in time and change history. Goliath finally discovered Puck's true plan, however, and to keep the Gate out of his or anyone else's hands, threw it into the Time Stream, hoping that it would be lost in time forever.

[Goliath was wrong, however. Not long after the gargoyles moved back into Castle Wyvern, the Phoenix Gate reappeared to seek out Brooklyn, and proceeded to randomly transport him to a number of different locations in time and space, embarking him on his "Timedancer" adventures. The Gate would appear, transport Brooklyn away to another period of time, and then vanish, to reappear some time later and repeat the process again. Why it singled Brooklyn out for this attention is unknown; however, at last, after forty years from his perspective, it returned him to Castle Wyvern with his new-found family, and then disappeared yet again - to reappear at that point in time where it had first originally appeared, to play its part in history all over again in an eternal time loop.]

In order to activate the Phoenix Gate, one must hold it and speak the Latin incantation "Deslegrate muri tempi et intervalia!" Afterwards, a ball of fire will appear and teleport the speaker and anyone close enough to him or her to whatever time and place the speaker had envisioned. (The one known exception was the "enhanced Archmage", who could control the Gate without even a single spoken word, presumably through sheer will).

Time travellers in the Gargoyles Universe, whether using the Phoenix Gate or any other method (no others have yet been discovered), are unable to change history, for the simple reason that they have already been to the past. Thus, Xanatos's trip to 975, the Archmage's trip to 984, and Goliath's trip to 1940, were all events that could not change the past, but merely served as part of it; Xanatos's visit to Castle Wyvern in the 10th century brought about his receiving the rare coin in 1975 that he had already received twenty years before he left, and similarly Goliath's time travel adventure became responsible for the very disappearance of Griff that he had gone to 1940 to investigate. On the other hand, Goliath was unable to return Griff to the Mystic shop during World War II, and both Demona and Goliath failed to alter the pattern of Demona's behavior from 975 onwards, although they both made the attempt. History is immutable; the very attempts to change it become part of the already-existing pattern - were part of it all along.

PINE LAWN

A cemetary in New York City, where Flora Dane was buried.

PRAGUE

The capital of the Czech Republic. In 1580, its Jewish community was threatened by persecution, and Rabbi Loew created the Golem to protect the Jews from their enemies. In 1995, Prague's peace was again troubled by Tomas Brod, resulting in Max Loew re-awakening the Golem to protect the city from him - with some help from Goliath, Elisa, Angela, and Bronx when they stopped there on the Avalon World Tour.

PRAYING GARGOYLE

A magical artifact in the form of a gargoyle. [The Praying Gargoyle was originally made on the legendary lost continent of Atlantis, out of a piece of a gargoyle's stone skin combined with an Atlantean crystal and some powerful magic; this magic allowed it to impact gargoyles in many different ways.

The Praying Gargoyle survived the destruction of Atlantis and resurfaced in Paris in 1920, when Demona discovered it and planned to use it to animate all the architectural stone gargoyles in Paris, intending to use this "awakened" army to wipe out all the humans in the city. Fortunately she was foiled by Fiona Canmore; in the course of the battle between them, the Praying Gargoyle was shattered. Demona stored the fragments in a secret compartment in Notre Dame Cathedral, where they would recombine over the course of the next sixty years.]

On the night of September 29, 1980, Demona returned to Notre Dame to recover the Praying Gargoyle (killing Charles Canmore in the course of reclaiming it); this time, she planned to use it for "Operation Clean Slate", by having the Praying Gargoyle protect her fellow gargoyles after she unleashed her magical plague upon the world. Fortunately, Goliath, after learning of Demona's plan, shattered the Praying Gargoyle, thus defeating her plan. [The Praying Gargoyle will reform again in 2056, though it is unknown as to whether Demona will attempt to make use of it for a third time then.]

PROTEUS

The most criminally-inclined of the New Olympians. Proteus has attempted many times to wreak havoc on New Olympus and escape into the outside world, presumably to create more trouble there for his own amusement. During his (at this time of writing) penultimate attempt to escape New Olympus, he murdered Taurus's father, who was then Chief of Security. Afterwards, he was locked up in a force field cell in New Olympus's prison.

When Goliath, Elisa, Angela, and Bronx came to New Olympus on the Avalon World Tour, Proteus decided to take advantage of their arrival to make a fresh escape. After Elisa was locked up by Taurus, Proteus first masqueraded as her to trick Goliath into freeing him, and then, after subduing Goliath and imprisoning him in his cell, shape-shifted into Goliath to break Elisa out, hoping to trick her into leading him back to the skiff. First, however, he decided to enter the Columnadium and overload the power supply, which would have destroyed New Olympus. Fortunately, Elisa (who had by now discovered Proteus's true identity) and Taurus arrived in time to foil his scheme and overpower him. Proteus is currently back in prison again [but will escape again after New Olympus makes contact with the outside world].

Proteus is a shape-shifter, who can mimic any living thing, even distinct individuals, such as Goliath, Elisa, and Taurus. His shape-shifting presumably does not give him the full nature of what he masquerades as, however, for when he took on the form of Goliath, he did not undergo stone sleep in the daytime. By nature, he is thoroughly evil and corrupt, delighting in deceit, psychological torture (he likes to taunt Taurus by shape-shifting into the form of his father), and senseless destruction.

PUCK

A Child of Oberon. A personal servant to Oberon, Puck was banished to the human world in 995 along with the rest of the Third Race. His adventures there are unknown until some point in the late 20th century, when he observed Titania's disguise of Anastasia Renard, and became intrigued by it. Deciding that he would like to play a part in human affairs, disguised as a human, himself, he took on the identity of Owen Burnett, modelling him in appearance and character after Preston Vogel. Puck's career as Owen can be found, for the most part, under Owen's entry.

In 1995, Demona used Titania's Mirror to summon Puck, and ordered him to get rid of all the humans in New York. Puck, disliking the prospect of actually killing the humans, instead changed them all into gargoyles, so that he could truthfully tell Demona that there were no humans left in the city. Goliath and his clan finally captured Puck and made him undo his spell; amused with the merry confusion that had taken place that night, Puck decided to express his gratitude to Demona by placing a spell upon her so that she would never turn to stone in the daytime again. However, the catch was that she would turn to a human during the daytime instead.

When the time of the Gathering approached, Puck was panic-stricken at the prospect of having to return to Avalon and stay there. In the hopes of bribing Oberon to let him live among the mortals for a while longer, he decided to trick Goliath into giving him up the Phoenix Gate by inflicting his "Future Tense" vision (q.v.) upon him. Goliath discovered, almost at the last moment, Puck's true purpose, and the trickster was forced to give up his attempt and leave.

Puck did get his wish in the end, however, but not in the manner that he had expected. After Goliath persuaded Oberon and Titania to let Alex remain in the outside world, Oberon appointed Puck Alex's tutor at the gargoyle's suggestion, but decreed him banished forever from Avalon, and also trapped him in the form of Owen Burnett, only able to become Puck when protecting or teaching Alexander. And Puck has been trapped as Owen ever since, except for tutoring Alex. He has, however, already had one occasion to resume his original self, when he gave his young charge a lesson in soul transference that led to the housing of Desdemona and Iago's souls in Coldfire and Coldsteel's bodies.

Puck is a trickster, and one of the more light-hearted of his kind, who delights in all manner of relatively harmless magical confusion, such as changing humans into gargoyles and medieval weaponry into overgrown sunflowers. Despite his capacity for causing trouble, he does have a certain fondness for humans - and a mild dislike for humorless people, or at least for working with them, such as Demona. He has also developed a loyalty to the Xanatoses, initially based simply on fascination with and delight in their own "trickster" natures and ingenuity, but which has deepened to a level that has astonished him.

[Puck has also gone under the alias of Robin Goodfellow, which is publicly connected to him in the way that "Owen Burnett" is not.] He, at some point in his career, crafted a magic flute, which Oberon used to help Boudicca find his scent when tracking Puck in New York at the time of the Gathering. (The powers of this flute are as yet unknown.)

<Puck originated in English folklore as a rather sinister figure, almost equivalent to a demon, but by the time of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (and maybe even through it) developed into more of a mild trickster figure, fond of practical jokes. In the play, he serves Oberon as a sort of court jester, and carries out errands for him; in particular, he fetches the magical herb "Love-in-Idleness" for the faerie king and uses it to make Titania fall in love with Bottom (whom he has, independently, given a donkey's head), and also upon Lysander and Demetrius to straighten out their romances with Hermia and Helena - although not without some initial confusion due to his having (he claims) confused the two Athenian men with each other.

Rudyard Kipling later on also used Puck as a leading figure in his two children's books, "Puck of Pook Hill" and "Rewards and Fairies", where he encounters two English children, named Dan and Una, and introduces them to various figures in the past history of the island, including a Norman knight who fought at the Battle of Hastings, a Roman centurion posted at Hadrian's Wall against the Picts in the late 4th century A.D., a smuggler who had met both George Washington and Napoleon, and even Elizabeth I, incognito.>

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