ICARUS

Physical Appearance: Icarus is a young male gargoyle of
New Olympian stock. He has very pale blue skin (almost sky blue),
and has wings and a mane of feathers that are white edged with
gold. His build would be roughly that of Brooklyn (Future Tense),
though with somewhat less musculature (as he spends somewhat less
time in physical activities).

His apparel would be that expected by a New Olympian
(I'm thinking something on the order of an ancient Greek outfit
that's been `modernized); this reflects his `cosmopolitan' nature on
the island.

Personality: Icarus is a friendly, trusting (though not
quite naïve) gargoyle who is very open and cosmopolitan in his
outlook. Part of this is due to his own nature, but a large part
also comes from his growing up in New Olympus with its `mixed'
population. He is even open-minded about humans, having had the
opportunity to learn something about humans from the libraries of
his home (biased though they might be), though he unfortunately
missed Goliath and Co. when they visited the island.

Another major point to his personality is his curiosity –
it both explains his interest in mechanical things and his
willingness to `give humans a chance'. Though he isn't entirely
reckless with his curiosity, it does something lead him to be rash
or not think things completely through (he realizes that attending
the first Gargoyle World Council might be one of those things).
Still, it has helped him enough times that his isn't squeamish about
letting it loose for a while.

Even with all of this, Icarus is a loyal citizen of New
Olympus; while he isn't entirely sure how far he'd go to prove this,
he's pretty sure he'd lay his life down fro his homeland if need
be. This isn't the loyalty of a fanatic, either; Icarus is quietly
patriotic and would do anything he could to better his clan and his
home, including going to the Council so that his clan would have a
voice in this new forum.

Abilities: Icarus has more or less the same abilities
one would expect of a gargoyle. While he isn't quite as well-
trained in physical combat as some of his kind, he is far more
comfortable using and knowledgeable about high technology due to his
coming from New Olympus. Icarus also has a fair amount of natural
skill in constructing mechanical devices (while he's no Gadget,
Asrial, or MacGuyver, Icarus could probably have a few common things
to talk to with Lexington).

History: New Olympus is a nation of isolationists, but
even among them the gargoyle clan in residence takes this to an
extreme. The island never had to worry about invaders and rarely
had to worry about serious criminals (Proteus being a major
exception), which more or less left the gargoyles there with nothing
to defend except themselves. With that in mind, they more or less
turned in among themselves, becoming almost xenophobic on an island
of xenophobes.

Icarus, however, was an exception to this. Always a
curious sort, he could never see the other inhabitants of the island
as being dangerous or their differences as being a barrier to
communication; in fact, he found the New Olympians fascinating. He
would spend time sneaking away from the clan's hideaway and spending
time in the city. There, he found his curiosity drawing him towards
the libraries of the New Olympians, as well as to the mechanists of
the island. Though he was occasionally found out by others of his
clan, Icarus never stopped going to the island, and eventually his
brethren sort of gave up on trying to stop him, figuring the
gargoyle as a `lost cause'.

It was also during this time that the young gargoyle
gained the name of `Icarus'. He had made friends with some of the
young New Olympians, and at one point they took him to a large
lagoon on a relatively isolated part of the island. They had heard
of the gargoyles' powers of `flight' and wanted to see a
demonstration; not wanting to disappoint (and having more pride than
sense) the young gargoyle made the attempt to fly over the body of
water, even though dawn was not far off. He was only partway across
when the first rays of the sun struck him and he turned to stone in
mid-air; he then proceeded to plunge into the lagoon, and only the
soft sand at the bottom saved him from serious injury. His friends
dredged him out before dusk, and after that point began calling him
in honor of the man who, during a flight over water, tempted the sun
too much himself.

Over time, Icarus slowly integrated himself into the
wider community of New Olympus to the point where he spent much more
time with them than with his clan. His curiosity and open-
mindedness, as well as his good nature, managed to win over most
people he met, and he came to identify himself more as a citizen of
the island than just a member of a clan. He eventually became
apprenticed to some of the artificers of the island, learning about
the technologies that the New Olympians had developed for
themselves, and he found he had an aptitude for mechanical
constructs.

Even so, his curiosity extended to the outside world as well, and to
the humans who inhabited it. He had read about humans in the
libraries of New Olympus, and though they seemed to be uniformly
depicted as monstrous (if not downright evil) Icarus was still
rather fascinated by them. He was disappointed when he found he had
missed a human arrival while attending to some clan business on the
island, as well as gargoyles from another clan, and swore that one
day he would try to learn more about them and the outside world in
general.

He got his chance when the invitation for the first Gargoyle Council
arrived. True to form, the New Olympian gargoyles wanted nothing to
do with it; they were fine where they were and needed contact with
no one. Icarus, however, realized that his clan needed to get in on
the ground floor of this event – the fact that it gave him an excuse
to explore the world was somewhat beside the point – as well as see
how the situation was on the outside world. He knew that he would
likely be expelled from the island, but he didn't care as he felt
his attendance would be more important to his people in the long
run. With this in mind, he packed his bags and headed for the
Council.

Icarus did participate in the Council, even though it was only the
barest beginnings of communication between the clans. He even made
friends with the clone Delilah and helped thwart the schemes of
the `renegade' necromancer Darius. And he learned a little more
about humans and that they indeed weren't as horrible as the New
Olympian legends made them out to be. But he still felt he needed
to see more of what the world had to offer, so when the Council came
to an end, he began his own world journey.

Goals: For right now, Icarus simply wants to see the
world and meet other gargoyle clans; partly this is out of
wanderlust, though he also thinks that considering Goliath and Co.
visit during the Avalon Tour the gargoyles (and general population)
of New Olympus need to have some idea of what's going on in the
world right now. Better to have at least some idea than have it all
sprung upon New Olympus at once (the Chinese and Ishimuran Clans
could both probably give Icarus an idea of what happens to
the `discoverees' in such a circumstance).