GWENYVERE

Physical Appearance: A very beautiful young gargoyle
female in her mid-20's (biologically). She favors her mother,
Angela, and grandmother, Demona, in physical appearance (a slender,
athletic body with `womanly curves'; heart-shaped face with green
eyes), though there is also a fair amount of her father in her
(ribbed wings, a slight facial resemblance, aquamarine skin
coloring, and blond hair).

In her human form, Gwen looks generally the same (in the
way that Elisa Maza looked `much the same' in human and gargoyle
forms in the episode `The Mirror'), with her skin being rather pale
(though not excessively so).

In either form, Gwen tends to favor modern human dress
of her time (whatever that is) and usually only wears `traditional'
gargoyle dress (loincloths and haltertops) when the function demands
it. Though she often will dress `provocatively' when she wants to
tweak her mother, when left to her own devices Gwen can actually be
fairly conservative and tasteful in her choice of apparel.

Personality: Gwenyvere is a very independent, strong-
willed person with a thoroughly modern outlook on life. While this
does make her confident enough to take on the world by herself, it
also makes her pig-headed at times, and has been the source of much
frustration and consternation between her and her parents,
especially her mother, Angela. It doesn't help that she also
inherited her temper from her mother's side of the family, which can
make for spectacular `fireworks' at times.

Away from Angela, Gwenyvere is far more like her mother
than she would ever be willing to admit. Kind, sensitive (though in
a lees shy manner than Angela), and level-headed, Gwen can be the
mortar that binds a group together; in some ways she's even more
forgiving of others faults than Angela ever was (almost to a
dangerous level). Still, she's not an idiot, and is perfectly
capable of pounding someone into the ground if need be. She's also
somewhat modest; she's perfectly aware of what she looks like, and
yet she doesn't care to take extreme advantage of it (she'd be
willing to distract someone, but not `sell' her body for power or
favors).

Gwen's problem with Angela largely stems from when she
was taken to Avalon; Gwen was taken from her friends and environment
at a time when she was too young to really understand what was going
on, but old enough to understand that her parents were responsible
for it. Eventually, she settled on her mother as the source of
displeasure; she did everything small thing she could think of to
cause trouble. Though she's long since come to terms with what
happened and why Angela did it, Gwen still is very uncomfortable
around her mother and often does things to `tweak' her; part of this
is out of habit, while part of it is simply the result of two strong
and similar personalities inhabiting too small a space. Though
Gwenyvere would like to make up with Angela, something always seems
to go wrong, and the two often end up shouting at each other.

As far as her modern values, a large part of that is
simply an extension of her rebellion against her parents; they
represent tradition, so Gwen bucks it. However, she also has a
different idea on the idea of protection; she understands
that `gargoyles protect' and whole-heartedly agrees with that. It's
just that she truly believes that there are different ways of
protecting, especially beyond physical confrontation. As an
example, a lawyer (supposedly) protects the people with words, not
fisticuffs, and doctors protect lives through medicine. While she's
not entirely sure if this is a way for all gargoyles to go, it's
certainly something to look into.

Abilities: Physically, Gwen is no more impressive than
many other gargoyles – she has some combat skills and training, and
is in good shape. Beyond this there is her significant education
(she is perhaps the only one of her kind at the time to hold a
degree from a university) and she has some small ability and
training in magic (largely due to her grandmother, Demona, and later
her husband, Harthoth).

History: Gwenyvere can still remember the time she spent
in mid-21st century NYC, with her clan and her human friends. This
was a happy time for her: even though there were few other
gargoyles, Gwen cared little and made more than a few forays into
the city proper (some later thought that her presence and the
friendships she made were what largely influenced the creation of
the gargoyle-tolerant atmosphere the city eventually gained). There
were the occasional problems, both those the clan had always had and
the problems any young girl might go through, but all in all, Gwen
wouldn't have wanted to change anything.

She had no choice in the matter, though, when the Great
Quake came in the latter 21st century. Centered near NYC, it
leveled the city and much of the eastern North American continent;
the Northeast was devastated, and even cities as far away as Chicago
and Atlanta were receiving significant seismic damage. All Gwen
knew was that the city tore itself apart in an orgy of shaking and
breaking, the very ground subsiding in places as the underground
systems of the city pancaked under the skyscrapers. Then the fires
started, burning much of what was left to a pile of cinders. It was
like San Francisco over a century and a half before, only on a much
larger scale.

The Manhattan Clan realized that the city might never
recover from such a blow, and even if it did it would take years, if
not decades. This would be no fit place to raise any children, what
with the area becoming a virtually lawless wasteland. And so the
decision was made to send Angela, Broadway, and their three children
to Avalon, so that at least the future of the clan (the children)
might be safer and more secure. While Artus was old enough to
understand the need for the move, and Samson was too young to care
one way or another, Gwen didn't see any reason to leave; she wanted
to help her friends, and came close to forcing them to actually drag
her to Avalon by main force (they would have let her stay if she
wasn't so young at the time). But she eventually surrendered and
went to the magical island, promising to herself to return one day
and help out.

Avalon was in stark contrast to the destroyed NYC:
beautiful, magical and peaceful as always. Angela, Broadway, and
the children were welcomed with open arms by the Avalon Clan, and
enjoyed the sanctuary provided by their position as Oberon's honor
guard (which meant the fey were extremely careful in attempting
pranks on the newcomers). But while the environment was peaceful
for the body, it was the wrong thing for Gwen's soul; the bounty of
the island only reminded her of the virtual hell her friends must be
going through, and so she slowly became more and more withdrawn.
When Angela and Broadway tried to reach her, she became increasingly
rebellious. Even so, they couldn't spend all their time with her,
and so just chalked it up as `a phase she was going through'.

When Gwenyvere's family finally returned to NYC, she was
excited to be going back to her home and friends. But when she
arrived, it was as though she were in a different city entirely;
decades had passed since the Great Quake, and the new city bore
little resemblance to the old. When she went to see her old
friends, she found that they were now old men and women – some had
even died in the interim – and unfortunately had little in common
with the still-young gargoyle (due to age difference, rather than
species difference). Gwen was crushed – her entire world was gone –
and she knew who to largely blame for it: her mother, Angela, was
the one who had insisted in taking the family away from NYC, and so
it was she who had `ruined' Gwen's life.

Gwen did eventually make new friends, gargoyle as well
as human this time around, and settle into the rhythm of the new
city and time. But she never really forgave her mother, at least
not instinctually, and began to grow more and more rebellious.
Though she was careful never to cross the unspoken lines of
convention and morality in her society (not that she would have gone
that far, anyway), she did everything she could to `tweak' Angela.
Gwen would often dress `provocatively', or engage in crazy and
public stunts, simply to embarrass or hurt her mother.

As time went on, and Gwen grew older, she came to
understand her mother's reasons for what she did, but the younger
gargoyle had grown too far apart from her mother by this time; she
honestly did try several times (sometimes at the insistence of her
brothers or father, sometimes on her own) to reconcile with Angela,
but each time something `went wrong' and the two eventually would
end up in a shouting match. Eventually, the two gave up on each
other and came to an unspoken truce: if Angela didn't come down too
hard on Gwen for her `pranks', Gwen wouldn't do anything too totally
outrageous (though Angela still got more than steamed with what Gwen
did do). This held until the coming of the Timedancer.

Gwen was intrigued by the handsome, time-traveling male,
as well as completely unaware of his married state, and so took a
more than healthy interest in him (some small mistakes on Brooklyn's
part encouraged her). Eventually all was revealed, and Gwen found
herself in truly hot water for the first time in her life: she
herself was mortified at having made a pass with the Timedancer,
while both Sata and Angela were utterly outraged with her. While
she wasn't thrown out of the clan or anything (the situation was
patched up relatively quickly), Gwen found herself walking something
of a fine line with her family and clan, and it got her to thinking
about her life for the first time. She realized that she was being
a brat, and needed to do some serious growing up, while at the same
time also realizing that she didn't want to stay with the clan much
longer – she just didn't fit in all that well.

After the Timedancer left, Gwen patched things up with
Sata (Brooklyn's wife), and even managed to gain some training from
the Japanese gargoyle in martial arts. Then, Gwen abruptly left the
Manhattan Clan, heading to parts unknown (at least as far as her
clan was concerned).

In fact, she went to her grandmother, Demona – the near-
outcast had always been much closer to Gwen than Angela, and was
happy to take her grandchild in for a time. Gwen learned some of
Demona's magic, including how to become as a human, and soon left
that abode for human society. She took on a human persona and went
to college to become more educated; eventually she graduated with a
degree (I'm thinking of one in business or law) and found work in
one of the major corporations of NYC (I'm not sure what Harthoth's
business empire is called). She wasn't doing this because she hated
being a gargoyle, but rather she wanted to cleanse herself of the
emotional baggage she'd accumulated in the Manhattan Clan (much as
many people went into the Old West to get a fresh start in life).

Gwenyvere, with her brains, dedication, and forceful
personality (not to mention her physical attractiveness) rose
rapidly in the company, and eventually found herself working almost
directly for the CEO. She never thought she'd fall in love with the
handsome, reclusive man, but she did, and when it seemed he was
attracted to her, she decided to date him (just on a whim) and
eventually found herself wondering how to tell him that she was a
gargoyle. The problem resolved itself when, during one of Apep's
machinations, all magic in the world ceased for a few minutes, she
saw that her love was also a gargoyle – the ancient wizard
Harthoth. He had been in the same emotional position as she had
been, and with the last barrier to their love removed, they soon
became husband and wife.

A few more years passed, and Gwenyvere learned more
magic from her husband, as well as laid her first egg. She knows
most of Harthoth's history by now, and can guess most of the rest:
she wants to help her husband free himself from Apep's bonds, and
she knows that her love is helping in this regard. But even now she
secretly is trying to find a way to break the bonds with magic or
through the old `bend the rule without breaking it' trick, without
falling afoul of Apep or Isfet (who Gwen knows really doesn't like
her).

Goals: At first, Gwen is simply interested in going her
own way in life; she's largely given up on ever really being able to
patch things up with her mother (though she doesn't hate Angela).
When Gwen runs into and marries Harthoth, her thought turn towards
building a family, and then preserving it and her clan from the
threat of Apep (as well as freeing her mate from the dragon's
millennia-old grip). Even after she does, I never see her as
rejoining the Manhattan Clan (though she's still technically a
member); while she does come for extensive visits from time to time,
she largely remains by her husband's side.