Basically, gargoyles are elemental in origin, born out of the cracked footsteps of the prince of elemental evil Ogremoch (who made his oddly compelling but oddly illustrated appearance in the Fiend Folio.) They're cruel bullies who'll side with evil beings pretty much because it gives them a chance to be cruel bullies.
In Felltower, gargoyles are also elemental in origin, born out of the warping effects of Earth magic on the dungeons of Felltower. It's not clear how they become cruel bullies out of that, but it's possibly the effects of Felltower and not of magic in general.* They spring up twisted from fragments of magically shaped rock, and inflict their personality issues on anyone they can and will freely side with evil beings to do so.
I just feel really sad I didn't think to tie the winged elemental guys to Ogremoch in my own game.
But who knows, maybe he's the reason why shaped stone turns into winged mockeries of flight with cruel intentions.
* Although, we have it on the authority of the party wizard that all wizards are evil.
If Shape Stone makes evil gargoyles, that would seem to put a self-limit on the amount of plot-bypass that can be accomplished. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly why I chose to do that.
DeleteI never had an absolute reason how gargoyes were created. I just had them be stone sculptures in evil temples or evil wizard lairs that were animated by a magic gargoyle spell that infuses the gargoyle sculture with an evil spirit and animates them. It is interesting to read other ideas however.
ReplyDeleteI like that origin, too - basically, a "golem" like spell that animates them. Or just a sufficient amount of evil (for evil gargoyles) or holy energy (for ugly but noble guardians) would do.
DeleteDon't be sad.
ReplyDeleteIn the current draft for my setting gargoyles are are a breed of the goblin family (shared with ogres, frog-men, and trolls) that have a stony appearance to their thick hides and a pair of functioning wings. Reading neat ideas like this tend to give me a mind to change that.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'd have them be beings from the elemental plane of earth along with the djinn for the world of fire. I do like gargoyles as holy temple guardians and as golems too.
Maybe I'll just leave it undefined and wait for players to come up with a good explanation rather than picking one out ahead of time.