Appendix B: A Guide to the Gargoyles Universe

By Todd Jensen

“X”

XANADU (1)

Xanatos's upstate retreat. Jackal and Hyena made an unsuccessful effort to assassinate him here, which was foiled by the gargoyles.

[XANADU (2)]

[A place in the northern mountains of China, home to a gargoyle clan. The Xanadu gargoyles are reported to resemble Chinese dragons. Very little else is known about them, although by 2198, they will have undertaken a gargoyle beast breeding-program, to help rescue this species from extinction. Fu-Dog comes from the Xanadu clan.

<The original Xanadu, or Sheng-Du, was a palace of Kublai Khan in 13th century China. It also served as the inspiration for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's unfinished poem "Kublai Khan".>]

XANATOS, ALEXANDER FOX

The infant son of David Xanatos and Fox. Alexander was born at the Eyrie Building in 1996, the same night that Goliath and his companions returned to New York from the Avalon World Tour. Because Titania is his maternal grandmother, Alex is a halfling (or, more accurately, a "quarterling"), with magic in his blood. Titania therefore attempted, with Oberon's help, to abduct him upon his birth and take him away to Avalon, where he could be taught to use his powers. Xanatos, Goliath and his clan, Renard, and Puck all attempted to stop Oberon from kidnapping the child and were defeated; however, Fox, in utter desperation, unleashed a bolt of magical energy upon Oberon, which Goliath used as proof that Alex could be taught magic in the outside world. So Oberon and Titania agreed to let Alex stay with his parents, and assigned Puck the task of being Alex's tutor, although barring him from using his powers except to teach him and protect him.

Puck gave Alex his first lesson in magic not long afterwards, when he taught him how to transfer souls from one body to another, housing the souls of the Coldtrio first in the bodies of Broadway, Angela, and Brooklyn, and then in their robotic bodies that Xanatos had built for them. To assist him in his spell-casting, he temporarily housed himself in Lexington's body, using his mouth and voice box to utter the right incantations. This began the strong rapport between Lexington and Alex that has continued since, and which has helped Lexington make his peace with Fox.

[At some point in the near future, Alex will be temporarily kidnapped by Raven, for reasons as yet unknown, but rescued by Lexington and Puck.

In 2198, Alexander (under the name of Alexander Xanatos IV, the "IV" presumably having been adopted as a disguise to conceal the fact that he's over two hundred years old), is the Secretary-General of the United Nations, with Owen as his Chief of Staff. However, Alex is abducted by the Space-Spawn along with the rest of the human world leaders at Queen Florence Island on March 21st, and kept in stasis by them. One result of this is that Owen is unable to turn back into Puck, since at this point, he can neither protect nor teach Alexander.

Alex was named by his parents after Alexander the Great, the famous Macedonian king (336 B.C. - 323 B.C.) who conquered most of the known world, as a reflection of their ambitions for him.]

XANATOS, DAVID

The founder, owner, and CEO of Xanatos Enterprises. Once the gargoyles' greatest enemy, but now their current protector.

Xanatos was born in Bar Harbor, Maine, [in 1955,] the son of Petros Xanatos, a local fisherman. In 1975, he received a rare 10th century coin from a mysterious stranger (actually a member of the Illuminati Society), which he sold to a collector for 20,000 dollars. Xanatos then used that money to found Xanatos Enterprises, increasing his wealth until now he has become one of the richest men in the world. Along the way, he became a member of the Illuminati (currently a lower-echelon member).

In the course of time, Xanatos came into contact with Halcyon Renard, the CEO of Cyberbiotics. He and Renard quickly became determined rivals, particularly after Xanatos lured away two of Renard's most talented employees, Owen Burnett and Anton Sevarius. Also around this time, Xanatos and Renard's daughter Jeanine Renard a.k.a. Fox met, and became attracted to each other.

Not long after Owen entered Xanatos's service, becoming his right-hand-man, he revealed his true identity to the billionaire as Puck, and offered him a choice between a single wish from Puck, or a lifetime of service from Owen. Xanatos chose Owen, and Owen has served him very capably ever since.

[At some point between 1975 and 1994, Xanatos obtained the Grimorum Arcanorum from Mary and Finella. The two women also, with Brooklyn, arranged for him to meet Demona, Owen/Puck introducing the two to each other. Demona informed Xanatos about Goliath and his clan at Castle Wyvern, and he decided to awaken them, hoping that they could prove useful for many of his less-legal enterprises.] Buying Castle Wyvern, he relocated it from the Scottish coast to the top of the Eyrie Building in New York, his personal headquarters, thus awakening the gargoyles. Next, he tricked the clan into believing that he had been robbed of three valuable computer disks from Cyberbiotics and asked them to recover them from him; in fact, the computer disks were Cyberbiotics property, which Xanatos hoped to obtain for himself. Using the information on the disks, he created the Steel Clan robots, which he intended as replacements for the gargoyles in case they turned out to be less easy to control than he had hoped. However, Elisa alerted Goliath to what was actually going on, and in the ensuing melee, Goliath and his clan defeated the Steel Clan. Xanatos was afterwards arrested and sent to prison for receiving stolen property, for a few months' time.

He quickly got out of prison, however, thanks to good lawyers, and returned to Castle Wyvern. While making a few efforts to recapture the gargoyles, he was now aware of the fact that bending them to his will would not be easily accomplished. And since the Steel Clan had not lived up to his expectations, he embarked on other schemes to create his own gargoyles. The first of these was by mutating four humans, including Maggie Reed and Elisa's own brother Derek, into gargoyle-like creatures; this plan failed, however, when the Mutates decided to go their own way, and live in the Labyrinth as allies to Goliath and his clan. The second was when he had Goliath cloned, producing Thailog; this scheme miscarried also, even more alarmingly, for Thailog learned from Xanatos too well, promptly robbed him of 20 million dollars, and went off on his way as a future rival.

During this time, Xanatos and Fox remet, and finally became first engaged, then married outright. The gargoyles became involved when the Eye of Odin, which Xanatos had given Fox as an engagement gift, turned her into a werefox, and began to endanger her very life; Goliath came to Xanatos's aid, and wrested the Eye from Fox, saving her. Xanatos invited Goliath to his wedding shortly afterwards, for the purpose of tricking him into supplying his half of the Phoenix Gate alongside Demona's; he then used the Gate to travel back in time with Fox, Petros, Goliath, and Demona to Scotland in the year 975. There, Xanatos rescued Princess Elena from the Archmage's bandits, in return for which a grateful Prince Malcolm gave him a few coins. One of these Xanatos sent to the Illuminati Society with instructions to deliver it to his younger self in 1975, hence setting up the foundations for his future wealth.

Xanatos and Goliath became allies once more, in earnest, when Demona cursed New York so that the bulk of its humans would turn to stone at night (this incident bringing his alliance with her to an end, along the way). Working together, they managed to break the spell. The truce was only temporary, however, for Xanatos continued to make other moves against the gargoyles, among them sending the upgraded Pack after the clan, kidnapping Hudson to use as a guinea pig for the Cauldron of Life, and even using Goliath and Angela for Coyote-bait in Arizona.

The real end of the war between Goliath and Xanatos came when Xanatos's son Alexander was born, and Oberon and Titania decided to take the child away to Avalon. Xanatos and the clan joined forces in battling Oberon, although they (even with help from Halcyon Renard and Puck) were defeated in the end. But Goliath offered the compromise of having Puck teach Alex magic, which Oberon accepted. Grateful to the gargoyles for coming to Alex's rescue, Xanatos promised to do whatever he could to repay them.

He showed this in two ways. First, he helped solve Coldstone's multiple personality problem by building robotic bodies to house the souls of Desdemona and Iago, although he needed some help from Puck and Alexander in completing the process. Second, when the clock tower was destroyed by the Hunters and the gargoyles subsequently trapped by the Gargoyle Task Force at St. Damien's Cathedral, Xanatos rescued the clan and offered them their old home in the castle, with "no catches, no tricks, no strings". The feud was over. Since then, he has kept them safe from their enemies there.

Xanatos is a strongly practical man. He considers revenge foolish and beneath him; what motivates his various actions, instead, is his practical goals. One of these is to increase his current power and influence, and that of Xanatos Enterprises; it was for this purpose that he acquired or sought to acquire such followers as the gargoyles, the Pack, and the Mutates (not to mention such employees as Owen and Sevarius). [Xanatos has no interest in taking over the world, for the simple reason that he doesn't see any need to; he's been able to accomplish the greater part of his goals under the current system.]

Another goal of Xanatos is to become immortal, since he secretly fears old age and death - just as he fears anything that he can't control. He has made several such efforts at it, including the Cauldron of Life incident, and employing the Emir to capture Anubis; these efforts all failed, however. [Xanatos, indeed, will eventually die, at some point before 2198; however, in a deeper sense, he will gain immortality through his son Alexander. Before this time, he will go into partnership with Lexington, changing Xanatos Enterprises into the Lexington-Xanatos Corporation.]

Unlike many of the gargoyles' enemies, Xanatos's style as a "villain" is best described as being not so much "evil" as "amoral". He bears Goliath and his clan no malice or grudge, and indeed, regards them with a combination of interest and amusement. His pursuit of them was motivated by the fact that he wanted to make use of them for his plans rather than out of a pointless grudge, and he had no difficulty (from his point of view) making peace with them after they saved his son. His various scheming activities are based simply on accomplishing what he wants done, rather than out of hatred or vengeance.

However, Xanatos is not completely heartless. He does love Fox very much (a revelation which actually took him by surprise), and their son Alex as well. He also does have a strong regard, deep down, for his father Petros, in spite of their somewhat strained relations, and took care to invite Petros both to his wedding and to Alex's birth. His familial devotion serves as the other side of the coin to the smiling, machiavellian schemer.

While Xanatos is mainly a planner and trickster, he's not afraid to go into battle himself when the situation calls for it. He is well trained in the martial arts, and for those occasions when he needs more than that, has a crimson battle suit in the shape of a Steel Clan robot to don. In this armor, he was even able to battle Goliath to a standstill. In all, Xanatos is a very formidable opponent, and one not to be taken lightly.

XANATOS ENTERPRISES

The giant corporation created and run by David Xanatos. Its known divisions include Pack-Media Studios (an entertainment division that produced "The Pack"), Gen-U-Tech Systems (which covers genetic engineering), [and the Scarab Corporation (which deals with robotics)]. Other areas that Xanatos Enterprises has expanded into include weaponry (such as the particle beam accelerators which Tony Dracon stole) and construction.

[At some point in the future, Lexington will join Xanatos as a partner in running Xanatos Enterprises, resulting in its name being changed to the Lexington-Xanatos Corporation.]

XANATOS GOON SQUAD

The term used by Elisa Maza for Xanatos's security team. They not only handle the regular duties of a security team for their employer, but carry out more unusual missions at times, such as staging the attack on Castle Wyvern and theft of the computer disks or the attack on Goliath and Elisa in Central Park shortly afterwards. Bruno is their leader; the only other distinctive member of it is a female blonde guard whose name is as yet unknown.

Much of the original team is now dead, having perished in a submarine accident at Loch Ness, though Bruno survived.

XANATOS, PETROS

David Xanatos's father. Petros is a poor fisherman in Bar Harbor, Maine, of Greek descent. He is a man of strong integrity, who disapproves of his son's amoral, machiavellian ways, and wishes that David had stayed at home and lived the life of a poor fisherman like himself. But he also possesses a sense of family loyalty, and will stick by his son when David needs his help.

Petros visited his son at Castle Wyvern in 1995, flown in from Maine to attend David Xanatos and Fox's wedding, and even accompanied him in his time travel adventure to 975, where he learned the origins of his son's wealth. The following year, he came to New York again for Alex's birth, and fought alongside David to prevent Oberon's attempt at kidnapping the child. In the battle, he shot Oberon with an iron-tipped harpoon; Oberon retaliated by hurling an unconscious Brooklyn and Angela into him, knocking him out.

XANATOS PROGRAM

A computer program designed to simulate David Xanatos in Puck's "Future Tense" vision. According to the program, it came into existence as a sort of contingency plan of Xanatos's, after he and Hudson slew each other in 2004; his memories and brain patterns were transferred intact into computer form, giving him his cherished dream of immortality at last. However, Lexington in that vision indicated that he created the Xanatos Program as a means of subtly taking over New York following Xanatos's death, using it as a sort of "front man" to hide behind so that his treachery would not be discovered.

Whatever its origins, the Xanatos Program indeed simulated Xanatos in both appearance and character, except for being far more ruthless. Lexington had already by 2036 used the Xanatos Program to seize control of New York, and by the end of Puck's vision, was even spreading it all across the world via the Internet, to seize control of every computer on the planet and thus the planet itself.

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