Gargoyle

This article is about species. For NPC, see Gargoyle (NPC).

Concept art by Hyojin Ahn.

Gargoyles were a race of horned humanoids associated with Ascalon, although some (called "mergoyles") could be found on the beaches of Kryta as well. Little was known about them even back then, other than that they usually possessed mesmeric abilities, and that their skulls were popular collector's items among human Ascalonian necromancers.

They all suddenly and mysteriously disappeared around 140 years ago, according to Shred Gnarltail, and are now presumed to be extinct. Now all that remains of them is the occasional fossil or bone fragment.

The Durmand Priory, an institution with an understandable interest in the sudden, large-scale disappearance of entire species, is discreetly looking into the matter of the disappeared gargoyles.

Notes

• Halloween creatures called "Gargoyles" that bore no resemblance to the gargoyles of Guild Wars Prophecies were introduced with the Shadow of the Mad King update in 2012. In subsequent updates these creatures have started to appear in a non-Halloween context, for example in the Blistering Undercroft of the Red Desert Borderlands, or in Fortune's Vale in Desert Highlands.

Trivia

• The disappearance of the gargoyles and mergoyles was inspired by the 2010–11 midwinter animal mass death events. Designer Matthew Medina did not have a particular explanation in mind when he wrote Shred Gnarltail's dialogue.

References

The Guild Wars Wiki has an article on Gargoyle.