Gargoyles
S I G N S O F T H E N I G H T
Gargoyles are neither mammals, nor reptiles, nor birds, although they came from gargates (species that have “stone sleep” part of their physiology) and these were presumably descended from reptiles of the Mesozoic or Palaeozoic Era. The only other known species in this group is the gargoyle beasts, which were domesticated by gargoyles as companions.
Gargoyles have a greater resistance to the cold than humans do, possibly due to a thicker skin, or hide. They are at least partly warm-blooded, especially considering their activity level in cold weather, however, because they obtain most of their energy from heat and sunlight during their sleep, they could be considered partially cold-blooded as well - this does not happen with Demona.
Gargoyles are strongly in tune with the natural cycles of Earth, and there is some evidence that due to the nature of their stone sleep, they may not be capable of living off of the planet.
Stone sleep
The most prominent biological feature of gargoyles is that they turn to "stone" in the daytime. This trait of theirs, known as "stone sleep”, which is a natural phenomenon in gargoyle biology that causes them to turn to "stone" in the daytime.
Stone sleep is not activated by sunlight coming into contact with gargoyles - even if a gargoyle is kept in a completely dark room during the daytime, cut off entirely from the sun, he or she will still become stone - although the transformation may be delayed slightly. Instead, stone sleep is triggered by gargoyles' internal biological clocks, which are strongly tied into the Earth's bio-rhythms.
Actually, gargoyles do not turn into stone outright during this time, but rather, an organic substance similar to stone. While the exact mechanism and cause of this are currently unknown.
Stone sleep lasts from dawn to sunset, except in some odd cases as when gargoyles are being rapidly transported to different parts of the planet, causing their biological clocks to be somewhat off in a variant of jet lag. This gargoyle form of "jetlag" seems to be caused by the highly attuned nature of stone sleep to the Earth's bio-rhythms.
During their time asleep, gargoyles heal from their wounds, purify their bodies of toxins and recover from any illnesses that they might have; there are exceptions to this rule if the damage inflicted upon a gargoyle is severe enough (severed limbs will not grow, cannot heal blind eyes). Likewise, a gargoyle maimed in stone sleep will remain maimed upon awakening, and extreme damage done during stone sleep may result in the death of the gargoyle, in which case they wouldn't wake up at all. During their sleep, gargoyles also dream.
In their stone form, they absorb and trap thermal energy, giving them enough strength to and not need much energy from food - their metabolism seems faster than Humans, and they’d have to eat quite a lot to survive.
Gargoyles' clothing turns to stone with them, though it wasn’t like this until Caesar Augustus’ advisor, Roman Magus, casted a "Spell of Humility" over the entire race that caused their garments to become affected by stone sleep. This spell also causes any possession that the gargoyle is holding at the time and considers to be his or her own to turn to stone during the day, likewise; however, items that are not theirs, will not turn into stone.
When a gargoyle awakens at night, he or she turns to flesh and blood from the inside out, finally shattering a thin layer of stone over himself or herself. These stone fragments that end up decomposing, have some unusual properties of their own, being vital ingredients for some magic spells and amulets.
In most cases, gargoyles will enter stone sleep facing away from their home, in the direction that danger and enemies might come from; a rare exception is found in Ishimura, where gargoyles take up their places facing inwards towards the village, as a sign of trust towards their human friends.
Stone sleep keeps gargoyles young longer than humans, seeing they only age when awake. But any gargoyle that no longer has their stone sleep still ages at their usual rate and is still able to glide at night, in spite everything.
While stone sleep is in many ways a boon to gargoyles, it also forms their Achilles' heel. Stone sleep is a huge protection against predators in the pre-tool age. Claws and teeth don't bite through stone (or rather the organic stone-like substance that gargoyles turn into). Even scent is altered. A stone gargoyle is of little interest to and in almost no danger from other animals. It's not until humans developed tools -- thousands of years after gargoyles evolved -- that stone sleep became a liability."
In their stone state, they are defenceless, unable to fight or flee in their own defence. Human enemies could easily smash a stone gargoyle to rubble, and a gargoyle shattered in stone sleep is dead forever (except through magical intervention of the sort that created Coldstone), and will remain stone even after sunset.
Stone sleep has thus become close to a curse for gargoyles.
Aging
Gargoyles do not age during their stone sleep, so they age only half as quickly as humans do. Thus, a 30-year-old gargoyle would be biologically equivalent to a 15-year-old human. A gargoyle can theoretically live to close to 200, but for centuries most gargoyles died premature deaths through being slain in battle or smashed in their stone sleep.
Therefore, 35 years old Demona is actually 70.
Reproduction
Like most animals, but unlike most mammals, they lay eggs. Female gargoyles nurse their young with breastmilk, however.
Gargoyle eggs are created when a female gargoyle goes into heat and mates with a male gargoyle on or near the Autumn Equinox every twenty years, those ending in '7' (e.g. 927, 947, 967, 987, etc). The female gargoyle incubates the resulting embryo inside her body for six months while forming an egg around it. This egg is laid on or near the night of the Spring Equinox the following year (e.g. 928, 948, 968, 988, etc.).
At the time of laying, the egg is soft-shelled and flexible, rather like a reptile egg. This aids in the laying process and makes the birthing of the egg significantly safer for the female. All the eggs of the clan are then placed in the clan's rookery, a protected area where gargoyle clans keep their eggs until they hatch. The following morning, as the adult gargoyles turn to stone, the eggs in the rookery undergo a very similar process. The shells harden and assume an "egg-like" shape. They remain in this state until they hatch ten years later; the embryos inside, however, transform back and forth between flesh and "stone" every day in the same manner as the adults.
Under normal circumstances, a female gargoyle lays an egg three times in her life and a gargoyle beast will lay four. However, certain circumstances may cause a female to produce fewer eggs; gargoyles and beasts usually take only one mate, so if a female's mate dies before her, she will not lay any more eggs.
Also rare is the case of twins being hatched in one season. If twins were produced it is unclear if two hatchlings from one egg or the laying of two eggs in one season is more likely, though the latter seems to be more biologically feasible.
There seems to be some care involved in maintaining healthy eggs for these require these damp, dark conditions to thrive, and they also must be occasionally turned or else they would crack too soon.
The eggs themselves are approximately a foot in diameter. They are a whitish color with several bluish-purple irregular spots. Eggs are indistinguishable from each other in the rookery. Even gargoyle beast eggs look identical or nearly so to the other eggs. The surface of the egg probably has a texture very much like the stone skin of adults.
After a ten-year incubation, the eggs hatch on or near the Spring Equinox. At that point, the hatchlings, while slightly more independent and strong than human newborns, are cared for and breast-fed by the ALL of adults. Any eggs that do not hatch (due to "stillborn" or "bad egg" issues) are given a Wind Ceremony (the traditional gargoyle funeral ceremony held for a dead member of a gargoyle clan).
Like I said, gargoyle children are raised by the entire clan, and the concept of biological parentage does not exist. This custom ensures that orphans will not exist in the clan, and that all hatchlings will be cared for, protected, and raised.
Gargoyle clans that practice communal parenting generally do not care about biological relations. All gargoyles in a single generation are brothers and sisters, all of the gargoyles who contributed eggs to that generation are the parents of those gargoyles and the entire clan is all family. Members of hatchling and parent generations form bonds without regard to blood relation.
Although hatchlings belong to the entire clan, gargoyles are a strictly monogamous race. They mate for life, and in nearly all cases, when one gargoyle in a pairing dies, the other remains single thereafter. Goliath and Demona are a big exception of this.
Naturally, gargoyles are biologically very different from humans. Although both species are sentient and native to Earth, they cannot produce children together, short of scientific or magical intervention. Indeed, gargoyle-human pairings are almost non-existent.
Physical characteristics
Gargoyle skin color varies noticeably within a clan, they may have hair or not, and human face or not. They can have several additional bones, on their knees, face, elbows, that seem to work mostly as adornment.
All gargoyles possess a complicated and highly refined set of additional musculature and skeletal structures above what humans identify as lateral muscles on their dorsal (back) side allowing use of their powerful wings. Their tails are prehensile, they possess enlarged canines like those of big cats, and typically have four digits adorning each limb (including their wings), though this too seems to have a degree of variance.
Their legs are digitigrade, with hip, knee, and ankle joints fully flexible like that of a cat; they walk upright on their toes. Gargoyles refer to their feet and hands as "talons," and accurately so considering the strength they possess. In the case of their feet, they are roughly talon shaped, with three arched toes each ending in a powerful claw, and a fourth toe on each heel that points backward like that of a bird of prey, perhaps in order to provide the gargoyles with superior grip and balance even in the precarious environs of their preferred habitats.
Their wings typically feature the same configuration as their hands, with the phalanges/fingers in the wings operating similar to that of large bats, with a thumb-like structure they use to "cape" their wings, or to grip at a rough surface. Some gargoyles have no digits in the wing limb, while others have only one digit to support the wing membrane while the others stick out somewhat like fingers of the hand. Further variances exist between particular individual gargoyles, but physical characteristics tend to share some commonality across individuals from the same clan.
Gargoyles seem to be omnivorous, but like some humans they prefer a general diet focusing on meat or fish as a primary food source. Gargoyles are descendants of a highly efficient, specialized group of predators, so hunting from the air would require superb eyesight (quite possibly enhanced by whatever biochemical reaction causes the glow of their eyes), sophisticated reaction times, and excellent hearing.
Visual evidence suggests these attributes as well; their ears are pointed and seem to be deeper than human or simian ears, giving them greater reception of noise. Gargoyles also seem to have a highly developed sense of smell, often using it to verify an unknown or to initially inspect an area. They seem to also use their sense of smell to steady themselves when surprised. Gargoyles will frequently inhale deeply via their noses when in deep thought, an observable trait across all gargoyles.
When gargoyles are awakening from their stone sleep or are angry, their eyes glow. In general, male gargoyles' eyes glow white, and female gargoyles' eyes glow red. Gargoyle eyes have visible irises and whites; a feature which they share with humans, but which most animals lack.
Gargoyles are immensely strong, and can actually scale stone walls, digging their claws into the stone to provide footholds for themselves. However, despite their wings, they are not capable of actual flight, they can only glide upon air currents. When gargoyles are not gliding and are on the ground, they can "cape" their wings about or rest them upon their shoulders, which allows the beings to avoid being hindered by them as well as for the cosmetic value. It should also be noted that, while incapable of flight per se, gargoyle wings are extremely nimble and powerful.
Gargoyles on the ground use their wings as a projection of their size, often flaring their wings outward to do battle, even in confined spaces. This serves two purposes: a perceived increase in size, and an extra weapon, as gargoyles will frequently slap their enemies with their wings, or use the back of the wings as a sort of shield. They also use their wings as we use our arms, tapping or pointing with them when it is more convenient.
Clans
Gargoyles live in clans, gatherings of fairly closely-related gargoyles. Each clan has a leader, and a second-in-command underneath. If the former leader is still capable of participation after stepping down, then he or she can act as an adviser to the successor.
Gargoyles are in many ways, a very communal race, and this is particularly the case with the hatchlings.
In gargoyle society, the sexes are more or less equal. Female gargoyles are the ones who lay the eggs and nurse the young, of course, but other than that, male and female gargoyles alike fight as warriors to defend the clan, and female gargoyles are just as capable as male gargoyles of becoming seconds-in-command or leaders.
Territory and what it means to be a Gargoyle
The primary purpose in gargoyle life is to protect; be it their territory, their clan, their home or humans. The inclination to act as protectors probably comes from a fiercely territorial ancestry.
Modern Gargoyle clans are as territorially concerned as their ancestors, in so much as they have a focus on the defense of what they consider their territory. At first, this consisted of merely protecting the clan and its normal roost, particularly the rookery, but as time went on, many gargoyle clans have since expanded upon the definition of this role. For example, the humans whom they had an alliance with and their way of life. They are so set on protecting them, that they’d give their lives for them because “Gargoyles protect”.
And protection remains important for gargoyles, indeed. Only the most corrupt of them, such as Demona and Thailog, have rejected this duty and therefore they have to be punished. When gargoyles choose to protect an area, they will do so steadfastly, even when the humans whom they protect respond to them with fear and hatred.
Naming of the Gargoyles
Traditionally, gargoyles do not have names. They consider the concept a peculiar human custom. However, with time, gargoyles have begun to accept the concept of names, at different times and ways for each clan.
Gargoyles think of themselves primarily as gargoyles. They never think of themselves as scientists, poets, artists, or what-have-you. They merely pursue it, without letting this interest define them.
Usually, gargoyles don't make use of money, considering it unnecessary to their life-style. Demona and Thailog have both gathered great wealth, although for different reasons (Demona to use in financing her schemes to destroy humanity, Thailog to make himself a force to be reckoned with in the modern world).
Religion
Gargoyles have a vague religious belief, if one different from that of recognized human religions, both monotheistic and pantheistic. Their god is nameless, of course, undefined, and unlimited because gargoyles see all things as part of the whole. They have no creation myths, for the simple reason that they are not interested in their origins, just accepting themselves as existing.
When a gargoyle dies, the rest of the clan holds a Wind Ceremony for him or her, a farewell to stone and flesh, the equivalent to a human funeral. Their own beliefs about death can be expressed in these two sayings, "Death and life is all part of a whole," and "One passes through stages, but nothing ever dies."
Gargoyles are not magical beings in and of themselves, but some (such as Demona) can learn magic. Gargoyles appear to have an ambivalent attitude towards such arts. Goliath distrusts it for the most part, often uttering when bewildered the cry of "What sorcery is this?", but has accepted the fact that sometimes magical help is required to keep his clan safe.