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Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

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Comments for the week ending August 23, 2015

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Pretty much everyone dies in Hamlet anyway, don't they? I could see a Great Old One having as much of a laugh about all those pointless deaths as Puck had in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Reimagining Flint's crew from Treasure Island as cultists for Cthulhu would also be pretty simple, I think. You could do quite a bit with the idea that the treasure itself is cursed, too.

One way that you could incorporate the Great Old Ones into the Gargoyles canon, if that were your inclination, might be to present the stories about them as exaggerated fables about particularly malevolent Avalonians such as the Banshee. Thus Lovecraft's stories, though true in the sense that all myths are true, would be highly inaccurate.

Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]

ALGERNON - You might be interested, by the way, in a set of humorous comic strips I discovered a couple of months ago at the local library called "Young Lovecraft", presenting Lovecraft's adventures as a boy (the author admits to taking some liberties with his actual biography for the needs of the story) - including his early attempts to rewrite the classics such as "Treasure Island" or "Hamlet" with everyone getting devoured by Cthulhu or another of the Great Old Ones at the end.
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Todd> Another weird example of that is the ghouls in HPLs unpublished "Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" who really go outta their way to held Randolf Carter in his quest to find Earth's gods. Pretty decent for a bunch of corpse eating, disease ridden dog-people who live under graveyards.

Pity Howard had such a hard time extending that same empathy towards his fellow Homo Sapians

Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age." ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu

Except in Lovecraft, being afraid of the unknown is a pretty good idea, given that most examples of the unknown in his stories tend to be dangerous to humans.

(He did seem to warm a bit towards some of his alien beings as time went on - feeling sorry for the Antarctic Elder Things in "At the Mountains of Madness", for example, and pointing out that their attack on the expedition was motivated by panic at being confronted with unfamiliar life-forms.)

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

I don't know... These two quotes seem pretty similar to me.

"It is the nature of humankind to fear what they do not understand." (Goliath)

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." (Lovecraft)

Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]

Degenerate subterranean troglodytes, Scots... it all a matter of steps down the devolutionary ladder from Anglo-Saxon perfection where HPL is concerned. ;)

Though I am indeed a big REH fan, so the People of The Dark/Worms of The Earth were probaly lurking in the back of my mind. Consiously I was paying tribute to the standard Lovecraftian trope of our Narrator discovering something... "fishy" in his family history.

Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age." ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu

Oh, and - am I correct in assuming that Castaway's sinister ancestors in Algernon's "re-imagined" version of "Gargoyles" were the "little people" of Arthur Machen and Robert E. Howard? (I don't think they ever turned up directly in Lovecraft's work, but Machen and Howard are linked closely enough to them that they'd fit in.)
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

ALGERNON - Yep, that seems just how Lovecraft would have done it.

Of course, "Darkwing Duck" beat "Gargoyles" to handling Lovecraft's horrors - or at least, a duck-based version of Cthulhu. (Though don't bring that up around DW; his ego's big enough as it is.)

I can only wonder what Lovecraft would have made of the A-bomb, if he'd lived eight years longer.

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Algernon> Sounds about right.

And oh so VERY wrong.

*shudders*

Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!

I now find myself morbidly wondering what Gargoyles as written by Lovecraft would look like? I'm imagining some unholy union of The Dunwich Horror and The Horror at Red Hook

Xanatos being the intelligent, charming yet ultimately unscrupulous Mediterranean that he is, would be the leader of a dark cult composed of all Manhattan's "polyglot mongrel hordes". He ultimate aims to resurrect a blasphemously foul race of winged abominations of the Elder Earth who lie dead but dreaming 'til awoken from their millennia long slumber.

Elisa would be in the story just long enough to give birth to some hideous half-human monstrosity who is destined to open the gates to the waking world for his Nameless Father. Elisa herself would then die off-screen and between paragraphs without further comment.

Our hero-protagonist will of course be blond, blue-eyed, impeccably Anglo-Saxon, Dr. John Castaway, Professor of Folklore and Medieval Metaphysics at Miskatonic University. Will he have the intellectual fortitude to turn back the unnameable winged daemons that threaten to engulf our reality as we know ir? Or shall he himself be plunged into unending madness when he faces the unspeakable revelations of his own bloodline, that he is but the misbegotten scion of the debased, tartan wearing sub-humans that prowl the northern Highlands?

Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age." ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu

Todd Jensen> Yep. He thought our learning via modern astronomy and the like, showing just how tiny and insignificant we are in the relative
enormity of the cosmos, would break our poor little minds.

I don't think he expected us to collectively more or less go "Huh. Cool." and move on to other things. I would never underestimate the mind's capability to accept things, personally. I wonder if his reaction would have more or less been like...well, this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztqsnWY8y6w

It's a credit to August Derleth that Lovecraft's works have survived, though I gotta say, his attempt to turn it into a more typical good vs. evil setup is REALLY annoying. Misses the whole point, really.

Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!

Assuming that you mean me, I've been around. Lurk a bit, but check in frequently. Glad to see you pop out of the woodwork, Spen!
Matt - [Saint Louis, Missouri, USA]

I've been half out of the loop for the last three years, so forgive me if I'm asking a question everyone else knows, but where the heck has Matt been lately?
Spen

Lovecraft also viewed the universe as blind, uncaring, and amoral, which doesn't fit the atmosphere of "Gargoyles" either. (In fact, Cthulhu and the other Great Old Ones were symbols of that outlook - they weren't even evil, just alien and Other, destroying humanity with the impersonal manner of an earthquake or tornado.)
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Actually, no... If anything, he'd disapprove of Castaway letting "those people" join up.
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age." ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu

TODD> Indeed, much as I love HPL, he's one Public Domain authors who work I feel should really remain "just" fiction in the context of the Gargoyles Universe. Even aside from the question of how to square Cthulhu and co. with the Three Races, Gargoyles is at its heart a story about reaching out to the Other. Lovecraft is all about recoiling from it.

Heck. lets be honest, if HPL was still alive in the Gargverse, he'd be a proud Quarryman.

Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age." ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu

ALGERNON - That's okay. I get that a lot. (My surname's of Norwegian origin.)

And I've noticed myself that I share a birthday with H P. Lovecraft. (Which reminds me of my thought that "space-spawn" does sound like something out of Lovecraft's fiction - though I doubt that Greg Weisman intended the Space-Spawn to be that much like his monstrous creatures. At least, to fit into the atmosphere of "Gargoyles", they'd have to be "Lovecraft Lite".)

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Sorry, Todd JensEn
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age." ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu

Happy belated birthdays to Greg Bishansky, Todd Jenson and Howard Philips Lovecraft.
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age." ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO TODD & GXB!
Greg Weisman

Happy birthdays, Todd and Greg!

dbdude01> You now have editing privileges on GargWiki.

Supermorff

Best wishes likewise, to Mr. Bishansky and Mr. Jensen both! :)
Masterdramon - [kmc12009 at mymail dot pomona dot edu]
"Come on, Ryuko! Get naked! I know for a fact that you - yes, you - are NOT inferior to Lady Satsuki! Your boobs are WAAAY bigger than hers! WAAAAAY BIGGER!!! I know, 'cuz I saw 'em! That Ryuko, my family said, she's got a great rack! We were all talking about what a slamming body you have! So perk up, and stop getting embarassed! Rip your clothes off, and get NAAAAKEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!" - Mako Mankanshoku

Happy Belated Birthday Greg!
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman

Thanks, Spen.
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Today is my son's six month birthday. This can only mean one thing. Happy birthday Todd!
Spen

GOREBASH> Thanks for the heads up, man.
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.

A heads-up to everyone, I will be starting the process to move s8.org to a new domain registrar today. My hope is you won't notice a single thing, but you may find within the next couple of days that s8.org is unreachable. If it happens, that should clear itself up within 24 hours.

The IP address isn't changing. The server isn't changing. In theory you could create a line in your local hosts file and have no interruption at all. If you don't know what a hosts file is don't worry, trying to edit it for temporary changes like this isn't really worth it anyways.

Gorebash

My username on Gargwiki is dbdude01 and I would like to be able to make contributions. The community portal says that leaving a comment here is the only way to get editing priveleges.
dbdude01 - [dbdude03 at gmail dot com]

Thanks, guys! I know I don't post as often these days, but I usually check once a day.

Appreciated.

Greg Bishansky

Happy birthday, Bishansky!
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Happy birthday, Greg B.!
Spen

Hm? Did someone say something?
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.

Paul: Makes math jokes/references = top of the list

Algernon: Doesn't bother reading my opening post of the week = bottom of the list

FORSHAME, AL. *snicker*

Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!

Since everyone seemed to enjoy the previous installments...

http://vraikaiser.com/2015/08/15/awakening-part-5the-thrill-of-the-hunt/

Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffiin at hotmail dot com]
Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.

And Paul continues to be my favorite. *grin*
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!

The Last.
Comet
Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia and Urania/
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffiin at hotmail dot com]
Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.

Ate(8)Eight!!!!!!!!
Vinnie - [tpeano29 at hotmail dot com]
Mark Twain: "Don't argue with stupid people. They'll take you down to their level and beat you with experience."

Ate(8)Eight!!!!!!!!
Vinnie - [tpeano29 at hotmail dot com]
Mark Twain: "Don't argue with stupid people. They'll take you down to their level and beat you with experience."

4x2-1
4+2+1
The 4th prime number

Fine... Seven, for those who dislike math(s).

Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]

Poison, Cammy, Decapre, Chun Li, Rose, Crimson Viper
Neill - [neillgargoyle(a)gmail dot com]
watch my Demona AMV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNGrg5Wm12E

This isn't over, Demon! My family has hunted you for over FIVE hundred years! If I fail, then my son will take up the hunt, and his son in turn! Even if it takes another 500 years, the hunt won't end until the last gargoyle dies!
Anthony Tini

Vegeta, Nappa, Raditz, and Kakarrot!
Masterdramon - [kmc12009 at mymail dot pomona dot edu]
"Come on, Ryuko! Get naked! I know for a fact that you - yes, you - are NOT inferior to Lady Satsuki! Your boobs are WAAAY bigger than hers! WAAAAAY BIGGER!!! I know, 'cuz I saw 'em! That Ryuko, my family said, she's got a great rack! We were all talking about what a slamming body you have! So perk up, and stop getting embarassed! Rip your clothes off, and get NAAAAKEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!" - Mako Mankanshoku

(Insert witty comment about being third here x________________)
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman

I still need to take a SECOND to watch those ;)
Phoenician
"The suspense is terrible, I hope it lasts" -- Willy Wonka

In case anyone missed it (especially since it wasn't up when Masterdramon posted the links), Vrai Kaiser has finished the premiere and moved into the FIRST stand-alone episode of Gargoyles.

http://vraikaiser.com/2015/08/15/awakening-part-5the-thrill-of-the-hunt/

Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!