GARGOYLE CULTURE AND PSYCHOLOGY
Gargoyle culture will, to some extent, mimic the culture of the humans they live near. But there are some universal customs/social laws, caused mostly by their biology and psychological needs:
GARGOYLES PROTECT. Gargoyles have a very strong territorial imperative, and they protect all members of their clan, whether fellow gargoyle or human, within their territory/protectorate. Gargoyles who have formed an alliance with a large enough group of humans (say, an entire castle or village's worth of people) will generally come to consider any human within their territory, even total strangers, as worthy of and needing their protection.
Gargoyles are highly social creatures, living in clans with very strong interpersonal bonds. Unkind people might say they have a 'pack instinct', though that isn't quite accurate. Still, the instincts to seek companionship and to obey the clan leader are deeply ingrained in gargoyle psychology.
A friendly human or Fey can become part of a gargoyle clan, though not easily. But once accepted into the clan, they are as valued and trusted as any gargoyle.
Gargoyles generally have very little hierarchy to the clan structure. However, they will always have a leader, and a second-in-command (chosen by the leader) who can step in to lead if the leader is away or incapacitated/killed.
Beyond Leader and Second, they loosely divide themselves into two classes: warriors (which may be male or female) and rookery keepers (which also may be male or female). But even rookery keepers receive some warrior training, and clan members may transition from one role to the other with relative ease throughout their lives.
Large enough clans may decide to sub-classify further than Warrior and Rookery Keeper, and bestow titles on others such as Teachers or Mentors (a more common title for elders), Healers, Hunters, Fishers, and Bards/Storytellers.
Since the eggs of the clan are all bred at roughly the same time, and all hatch at roughly the same time, hatchlings are all raised together, treated as children of all the clan together. (This is very sensible, since not every male or female has the temperament to raise hatchlings well. And in the ten years between hatching and laying, many egg-parents may die in battle or from other causes; in raising all the hatchlings together, no clan has orphans.) Individual parents in certain clans may recognize their own young and vice versa, but they will generally not play favorites as a result; the rule of all hatchlings being raised together by the clan rookery keepers still applies.
Since eggs are laid on a 25-year cycle, most clans have developed a three-staged approach to their society. From their hatching (ten years after their laying) to their fifteenth year, young gargoyles are referred to as "hatchlings" and kept mostly in the clan's rookery or in designated outdoor play areas, with rookery keepers on hand at all times to care for them and keep them out from underfoot of the rest of the clan. In their fifteenth year, they are moved out of the rookery to make room for the eggs about to be laid by the clan adults.
At roughly the developmental level of eight-year-old human children, these young gargoyles will now begin their training as warriors or rookery keepers, or other apprenticeships available in the larger clans. Basically, they start going to school. This training will continue until at least their thirtieth year of life, when gargoyles generally become sexually mature enough to start choosing their mates.
Some clans declare the young gargoyles to be adults by their thirtieth year, and grant them full adulthood status and responsibilities at that time even though they are not yet old enough to breed eggs; the Wyvern clan practiced that custom. By contrast, the Ishimura clan considers young gargoyles to be gakuto (literally, 'students') until his or her thirty-ninth year, the year before their first Breeding Moon, although gakuto are allowed and even expected to choose their mates between their thirtieth and thirty-ninth years. Either way, all gargoyles are considered fully responsible adults by their fortieth year out of the shell.
Most clans such as the medieval Wyvern Clan teach their trainee gargoyles what they need to know to be warriors or rookery keepers or whatever through mentoring and apprenticeship; one full adult will take on one to four pupils at a time.
The Ishimura Clan, on the other hand, gives its gakuto a much more formalized education for the first ten years or so, teaching the principles of Bushido, Japanese literature, mathematics and basics of nature sciences, and the basics of combat with all the students together in a classroom-like environment. After they have all learned the basics, they are assigned apprenticeships for more job-specific learning, such as Healer, Warrior, Storykeeper (Bard), Rookery Keeper, Fisher, etc., but will still gather for a few hours every night for formal instruction.
Crime is rare among gargoyles, because greed is virtually a foreign concept to them; most gargoyles own no more than they carry around with them, their clothes and weapons, and they have no use for money. (But note that an item may become treasured if it has sentimental value, i.e., having been given to them by a well-loved human.) However, instances of betraying the clan's trust, needlessly disobeying the clan leader, and cruelty to hatchlings are all considered very serious crimes. Overaggressive behavior (picking fights) is a more common, less serious crime.
For minor crimes, gargoyles are punished by either being tasked with sweeping up all the clan's gravel and stone shards (which is done every few nights anyway, by the more tidy clans), or being sent to the rookery (implying that the offender is behaving like a hatchling, and needs to grow up; very humiliating). Temporary banishment is a more harsh punishment reserved for the more serious gargoyle crimes, usually for short periods ranging from four nights to a full moon's cycle. The worst punishment gargoyles can inflict upon one of their own is permanent banishment; many would prefer to be killed outright instead, rather than be alone and clanless for the rest of their lives.
A gargoyle forced away from the company of other gargoyles for an indefinite period of time will seek another creature to form a clan-bond with (human, Fey, stray dog, whatever), with increasing desperation for each passing night; being too long alone will cause them to become mentally unbalanced. (Yes, that's one reason why Demona's so crackers; one of many.) The company of another creature will help to stabilize them, but if the companion is non-gargoyle the gargoyle will start to take on more of the other person's/race's psychological characteristics.
Kissing was not originally a gargoyle custom, though many clans have adopted it from human societies as a gesture of affection. It doesn't always work out too well, though, considering that a significant percentage of gargoyles have beaks or muzzles instead of human-style mouths. However, beaked or muzzled gargoyles gain some pleasure from rubbing said prominent facial features up against each other, something like a cat rubbing its whiskers against a beloved human.
A more common gesture of affection, appropriate not just for mates but for showing filial affection as well, is to brush one's knuckles against the other's brow ridges, or other facial ridges such as chin spurs.
Gently running one's talons through a gargoyle's mane is another gesture of great affection; rookery keepers do it all the time with their hatchling charges, but once they're grown and out of the rookery, the gesture is usually reserved for mates and courting couples. For the many gargoyles who don't have manes, lightly stroking the scalp is an equivalent gesture.
Gargoyles are generally monogamous and mate for life, though rare exceptions to both rules are known.
Gargoyle generally choose their mates from among their own rookery generation, though matings between different generations are not unheard of. Uncommon, but not nearly as rare as taking multiple mates or dismating (divorcing).
The customs for gargoyle mating ceremonies differ from clan to clan, but nearly always conclude with a mating flight, the newly mated pair gliding off some distance from the clan's home and mating in midair. This is done partly in order to practice for the breeding season; mating in midair is risky business, and couples want to make sure their later egg-making efforts won't end in a possibly fatal crash.
On the average, rookery generations end up with a few more males than females. Thus, an unmated gargoyle male finding sexual companionship with a human female is frowned upon, but tolerated. But if the human female has already been accepted as a clan member, and/or the male's scent changes to indicate the 'bonding' scent-marker, the pair will be accepted as proper mates.
On the other hand, an unmated female seeking companionship with a human male is not so easily tolerated, particularly as the Breeding Moon draws near. Such a female would probably face the utter condemnation of her clan if she did not, at the very least, accept a gargoyle male for breeding an egg with while she is fertile.
The reproductive drive is one of the few things that can normally override a gargoyle's instinct to stay within his/her home territory and stay with the clan. A gargoyle who can find no mate within his/her clan often leaves for a while, a couple years before the Breeding Moon is due, hoping to find a suitable gargoyle in another clan. (Generally speaking, the mate-seekers are males, for reasons already stated.) But if no mate can be found, after a while the gargoyle will return to the home clan; having companionship with rookery kin is better than nothing at all.
Not many gargoyle warriors survive to old age; most will die in battle, and some in fact would say they prefer it to growing old and infirm. But in gargoyle societies, the elderly and infirm are not cast aside; they will be taken off warrior duties, but then will either become rookery keepers, tending eggs and young hatchlings, or tutors and mentors to half-grown gargoyles just out of the rookery, helping them develop their hunting and warrior skills. Passing on a lifetime's worth of knowledge is considered a very honorable duty.
A gargoyle in utter despair can commit suicide by taking flight just before dawn and staying aloft, turning to stone in midair, so his stone form will be smashed upon falling to earth. This is euphemistically referred to as "greeting your last sunrise."
NEXT: Snippets of History
