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of monstrous and queer creatures 10: the gargoyle
🕑 Added 2019-08-10 22:05:23 +0000 UTC
GENERAL
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mortals are fickle creatures: their beliefs are easily swayed by things like fear and hunger, their memories are easily twisted by impactful events and their flesh is notoriously weak. The gods need their herd to be shaped, their will and mind to be molded so it can eventually bear fruit and give them the advantage they need in the war at the end of everything. And so, amongst the innumerable methods they employ, the divine creatures give life to the very stone of their temples, so it can express better than any word their ultimate will. This is the nature of the gargoyle.
LIVING STONE
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the gargoyles are living statues and sculptures, their skin at the same time elastic and soft as flesh and hard as the material that originally composed them. Their inside is full of molten glass that as they age cools off and becomes sand: gargoyles cannot exist without this substance coursing through their veins, and at the same time they have to periodically expel a part of it to stop their body from cracking under the pressure of the buildup. they almost always inhabit a temple dedicated to a god or a devil : They're not created on purpose, but any temple popular enough to gather the attention of several believers has a chance to see the objects inside it being imbued with divine energy and miraculous life, so clerics and devotees often build anthropomorphic figures as receptacles for this phenomenon as soon as they start noticing things moving on their own or flying around . The divine essence of most deities is attracted for some reason to antrophomorphic figures so most gargoyles are humanoid, but it's not unheard of particularly wicked or inventive deities giving life to fountains full of grotesque fish and squids or even caryatids or buttresses.
LIVING STORIES
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gargoyles do not perceive the world as most people do. The divine essence that composes them is on the world for a purpose, and that purpose is to tell a story and to act as a living message to the mortals that worship the god. So, Gargoyles are often enraptured in reenacting parables, sermons and events related to the god they represent, in an eternal recital that goes on even without an audience. The only time the gargoyles stop reenacting their god's will is when someone disrupts the harmony of their temple or damage it: When this happens , the stone creatures descend from their alcoves and fight the intruder until it is dead or they are destroyed. Gargoyles won't pursue an intruder that attacks their temple and manages to flee outside the perimeter, but this is not always the case ; if something is stolen that is perceived as fundamental to the temple so much that its absence would mean that the building cannot function anymore as one, the gargoyles will give chase and won't stop until they haven't retrieved the stolen item or are destroyed.
LIVING OBSCENITY
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gods don't want mortals to ascend , and the rakshasa with their truths and forceful enlightment are a major threat for their herd. To stop these creatures from infecting mortals with their teachings, most gods have created several new gargoyles with the specific purpose of warning their believers about the dangers of the horrible lies of the rakshasa. These new gargoyles reenact the horrible rituals of the rakshasa, and their aim is to horrify people rather than inspire or teach them about things; they are feral , aggressive looking and monstrous, filled with heretical bloodlust while at the same time being completely faithful to their creators. And so, In these turbulent times, it's not rare finding corners of a church of the goddess of light and bountiful crops populated with dark, beastial gargoyles reenacting the horrible consequences of partaking in the ritual of carnal unity, spilling their precious molten glass fluids that leaks from their grotesquely engorged members all over the floor. The molten glass produced by these gargoyles, along with the glass created by the reenactnement of the ritual of sacrificial blood and feasting massacre is often picked up by the believers once its cold and fashioned into glass beads that are used in the construction of holy rosaries .
ps: as usual you can find the high res version of the pic and the version i just posted in the rar archive attached
Comments
Zwei
I love these designs!! The way you rendered the flesh like stone is incredible too!
Rodney Talon
McDonald's it seems are bastards in this setting. I do like how you tie in the idea of something grotesque being so connected to something so Divine. As well as ideas such as objects that simply live for awhile or in a certain place Gathering a certain essence. I know asking for details is silly but would you imagine that more outdoor places of worship like a caladium with the it's statues of van or thinks educated to nature would also animate? Are these solely gargoyles or do they become sort of replacement versions of the entity's they emulate or something Is the artist considered important to the Gargoyles identity either socially personally or is there a connection that's forged whenever one of the works of art are animated? Do they have any insight to the hereafter even related to their likely deceased by the time of their Awakening Sculptor
Myneghon
Yikes, getting busy with a Gargoyle is going to give you a nasty burn in an uncomfortable place! 🔥 I love how you're tying the different entries in the Bestiary together. You would write an amazing D&D campaign setting! 👍
