Avalon Clan

The Avalon Clan is a fictional group of gargoyle characters in the Disney animated television series "Gargoyles". As the name suggests, it is a gargoyle clan that resides on the mythical Isle of Avalon, where an hour spent on the island equates to a day in the "real" world. This means that for the island's inhabitants, that while a thousand years passed since their arrival on the island, the inhabitants have only experienced just over forty-one years. Unusually among many clans in the Gargoyles universe, the clan includes three human members who protected the clan while still unhatched.

Much like the Manhattan Clan around which the show revolves, the Avalon Clan is an offshoot of a gargoyle clan from Wyvern Castle in Scotland. When the majority of the clan was destroyed by Vikings, the 36 gargoyle eggs in the rookery were taken away by four humans - Princess Katharine, the Magus, and the peasant woman Mary and her son Tom. The eggs remained protected by these humans and brought to Avalon (only Mary remained behind), where they remained and grew to adulthood. They were raised by the humans that had protected them as eggs, and were largely untouched by the outside world.

The Avalon Clan was introduced to the show when Tom (now the elderly Guardian of the Eggs) arrived in Manhattan searching for Goliath, to see if he had been woken from his stone slumber. Goliath, along with the human Elisa Maza and the gargoyle beast Bronx, traveled to Avalon and helped save the clan from attack by the Archmage.

Unlike traditional gargoyle clans, the Avalon Clan was raised by humans. Series creator Greg Weisman has indicated that because of this, the gargoyles on Avalon tend to have a more "human" nature than most of their species; perhaps most notable is the fact that each member was given a name at birth, unlike most gargoyles (naming being a human custom). Katharine gave many of the gargoyles names with angelic themes (for example Gabriel and Angela).

Angela later stated that she had "fifteen rookery sisters" on Avalon, and Greg Weisman has stated there were three gargoyle beasts in the clan, meaning that the remaining seventeen gargoyles were male.

Human clan members

Princess Katharine

Princess Katharine, voiced by Kath Soucie, is the granddaughter of Malcolm I of Scotland through his fictional third son, Prince Malcolm and a fictional Norman, Princess Elena. Upon her father's death, she became the lord of Castle Wyvern during the 990s. She was at first prejudiced against the clan, thanks in part to her father using them as bogeymen to make her behave, and also due to the advice of the Magus and general prejudices of the time. After Goliath saved her from Hakon and learned the rest of the gargoyle clan had been destroyed, she vowed to protect the clans' unhatched eggs.

Fleeing the now abandoned Wyvern, Katharine, the Magus and Tom traveled to the castle home of her uncle, King Kenneth II, who welcomed them and the eggs with open arms. Unfortunately, this arrival place them into the midst of a political struggle, as a devious lord of Kenneth's court Constantine assassinated the king and usurped his throne. He had then planned to cement his claim by marrying Katharine. If she refused, he intended to destroy the eggs.

Katharine and the Avalon clan, with the help of a local princess Finella, escaped Constantine and fled to Avalon, their last area of sanctuary. The eggs hatched and she raised them on Avalon as her own children. During her time on Avalon, she fell in love with Tom, the Guardian of the Eggs.

The Magus

The court magician of Castle Wyvern and eventually Princess Katharine's top advisor. It was the grief stricken Magus that cast the spell that imprisoned Goliath's clan in stone believing that the Gargoyles were responsible for Katharine's supposed death. Feeling shamed for his actions, he froze Goliath at his request and felt compelled to protect the rookery eggs. He used his magic to guide Princess Katharine and the eggs to Avalon, giving up his spellbook for the chance to join them. Though he loved Princess Katharine greatly, he felt that he had little to offer her without his magic, and watched sadly as the love between Katharine and Tom grew stronger. In the episode "Avalon", the Magus gave his life while fighting the Weird Sisters, and was interred in King Arthur's Hollow Hill. He was voiced by Jeff Bennett.

Tom the Guardian

A peasant boy at Castle Wyvern and the only human friend to the Gargoyles at the time, Tom also accompanied Princess Katharine and the gargoyle eggs to Avalon; he took on the role of Guardian, protecting the eggs and training them when they hatched (despite having little to no formal training himself). Tom visited the outside world once every hundred years or so in order to see whether Goliath and his clan had yet woken, and thus it was that he brought Goliath, Bronx and Elisa Maza to Avalon. He wears medieval armor modeled after Goliath (minus the wings), in a style similar to David Xanatos and his Steel Clan robots. He was voiced by J.D. Daniels as a boy and Gerrit Graham as an adult.

Gargoyle clan members

Gabriel

Gabriel, named from the archangel Gabriel, he is the leader of the Avalon Clan (though he gives deference to Katharine, the Magus and Tom as his Rookery Parents). Biologically, he is the son of the gargoyles now called Coldstone and Coldfire. He was voiced by Rubin Santiago Hudson.

Ophelia

Ophelia, named for the character in the Shakespeare play "Hamlet", is Gabriel's mate (and, since Angela joined the ranks of the Manhattan Clan, also his second-in-command). She was voiced by Kath Soucie.

*"Note: The character was named after the Shakespearian character by the series writers, but internal to the story her birth on Avalon predates the play."

Angela

Angela, Gabriel's original second, left the island along with Goliath, Elisa and Bronx to see the world and eventually joined the Manhattan Clan. See Angela for more information.

Boudicca

A Gargoyle beast Boudicca is a skilled tracker, and the planned mate of Bronx. She was used by Oberon to track down Puck in "The Gathering Part 1". She was named after Boudicca, the historical Queen of the Iceni.