Gargoyle

'Important note: This species was written with vore in mind so there will be references to it throughout this (both fatal and non-fatal). If you don’t like vore this species doesn’t have to be used for it but please keep this in mind when reading, thank you!'

Gargoyles are a species with an endless array of possible appearances that are found sporadically in Faria's towns and cities. They don't particularly like to mingle amongst other species so they favour hiding away during the day and coming out at night to socialize amongst their own kind. The largest population of gargoyles is found in The Warren, and is seen as the place to be for any gargoyle.

Biology
Gargoyles are one of the more unusual species found in Faria. This is because if you put two related gargoyles next to each other, you would never be able to tell looking at them as chances are they would look completely different from each other. Gargoyles have an extremely varied gene pool which allows for a great variance in appearance and size which has helped them bounce back from localized extinction many times. Because of this wide range of appearances grouping them into an animal class has proved near impossible, so they simply have their own class of animal called Discordia which is the same category used for Faria's wildlife that is too bizarre to pin down. How gargoyles became so varied is still unknown as The Warren is closed off to outsiders but makes the perfect place for a gargoyle to make themselves difficult to find on purpose. People who have tried to study them up close usually end up as their food.

It can be difficult to tell males and females apart due to how vastly different in appearance they can be. What can be narrowed down is their average height, which can fall in a wide range between between 4'-10' tall.

On average, gargoyles have a human-like build with two arms and legs each, but it's possible for a gargoyle to sometimes have two sets of arms or to have a build better for walking on all fours. Gargoyles can carry traits of mammals, birds and reptiles but all lay eggs and have wings. From here they can deviate massively in their minor features by having mixtures of fur/feathers/scales, having more than two eyes, having horns/claws/spikes, none or many tails and be a veritable rainbow of colours.

The most well known trait of gargoyles is their ability to produce a hard outer layer of stone around their bodies. Many who don't know much about gargoyles believe they turn to stone entirely, but this is myth. The way this ability really works is that a gargoyle can encase themselves in an outer layer of stone. This is achieved through a gland called the solidifying gland. This gland allows them to secrete a thick oil through their skin very rapidly which solidifies once exposed to air. The solidifying gland is affected by the stone eaten at the start of their lives and contains the same mineral composition of the rocks ingested, but it's possible for it to change in appearance depending on the rock available locally. Gargoyles are able to reverse through a counteractive acidic enzyme that can make the rock layer soften up, the process takes about 10 minutes. When this process finishes, the oil is reabsorbed into the skin again, allowing them to recover material to use again later. They can burst out of the stone casing in a hurry if needed but it can hurt to do and means they need to recover the lost material by eating more food and some rocks, though they may grab and eat some of their own casing if the situation permits it. Clothes and anything worn outside the body can be encased as well but they have to use extra oil to cover them to do this so most just remove clothing before they do. Gargoyles can encase themselves in gemstone are possible but are very rare.

Behaviour
Long before the arrival of humans, gargoyles living in settlements were somewhat rarer than they used to be but they could still be rarely found living in smaller settlements, being intelligent enough to know there was more security there than they were living wild. With the arrival of humans and two major cities emerging in the last 200 years, this has caused a massive shift in the numbers of gargoyles living wild or in small towns as gargoyles flock to these cities for better protections and more options. It's now very rare to find any gargoyles living in the wild, but arguably just as hard to find them living in settlements unless you wait until after dark, if you dare risk becoming prey to them. While small handfuls of gargoyles can be found in every settlement, the bulk of the global population of gargoyles is found in The Warren. The gargoyle population in The Warren is so high that their unrecorded numbers are over half of the official (very high) population count. The Warren sees dozens of gargoyles arrive from all across Faria every year as it's the most desirable place for a gargoyle to live. Gargoyle populations do exist in every capitol city in Faria, but none compare to the numbers found in The Warren.

Gargoyles are a nocturnal species and will only be active under the cover of dark. Gargoyles keep a small portion of territory they establish within roof-spaces or abandoned housing, preferably with lots of clutter to hide themselves in and some perches overlooking the ground below to watch for prey. Gargoyles like to call their territory "nests" and are fiercely protective of them, becoming instinctively aggressive but wary if anyone intrudes within them. Gargoyles spend the daylight hours from dawn to dusk asleep in their nests. Once the sun sets, they may spend some time tending to routine or hobbies in their nest until they need to go out and hunt for a meal, which dominates most of their time awake. Gargoyles on average like to spend time indulging in night life entertainment like throwing parties in larger abandoned buildings where they get a hold of music, card games, alcohol and food to indulge in and spend time hanging out with friends.

Gargoyles are a very intelligent and inquisitive species, they love to explore the clutter left in their nests which is part of why they love moving into abandoned spaces or scavenging objects of personal interest to them on hunts. Their intelligence makes them extremely adaptable to any environment they move themselves into, able to work out how to use all manner of tools, machines, understand complex terminology applicable to them and easily become part of their environment all by just exploring with their hands, senses, brains and sometimes mouths. Many gargoyles enjoy eavesdropping on the lives of those they live in hiding from, often drawing their interests from the people of their household or wherever they happen to be in the moment.

Gargoyles as Predators
As is the norm in Faria, gargoyles have a tendency to try to eat their prey live and whole. Unlike most species, gargoyles have an unusually hard time keeping their food down when they do eat live prey so they need to encase themselves to keep their prey still and prevent them escaping.

This isn't the only purpose their encasing serves on a hunt however. Gargoyles will often get themselves to a high up vantage point, which could be on a rooftop or an outcrop of a window where they can blend in and disguise themselves as statues. Under the cover of dark and high above where most people would be looking, these perpetually changing features blend in surprisingly well, giving the gargoyles a perfect means to hide in plain sight. They can still sense potential prey walking past them through their casing but they won't strike until they have a moment alone. Once the right time comes, they will soften up their rock layer enough to maintain a disguise but let themselves break out easily without hurting themselves, though it does make the casing much more brittle.

When ideal prey walks past them, they will break free of their casing and swiftly fly down below to pin their prey to the ground or carry them up onto the rooftops depending on how large or strong a gargoyle is. Gargoyles typically have to swallow their food quickly and take back to the air, so they rarely get the time to relish in a live meal, but if they can get back to their nests safely they can unwind and encase themselves to let their meals digest. Their casing will hold the shape of when they had a live meal inside them hours ago, which can form a rough bowl-like shape when the gargoyles break themselves out of the casing. Gargoyle casing is a rare find to discover intact and there are collectors who like to buy any good condition "gargoyle bowls" as they're known as. Anurans however will pay well or trade their finest goods to hand for even just some scraps of casing as they love the taste of it, they will pay especially well for an intact gargoyle bowl to break into pieces and split with their swarm.

Humans are the most common prey of gargoyles, but gargoyles are unfussy eaters when it comes to prey and will take whatever opportunity they can get to get a meal though they do prefer meals that aren't so heavy that they're left ground-bound, which makes getting around much harder for them. Gargoyles also eat small livestock or pest animals to tide them over if they can't catch a larger meal, inadvertently making themselves ideal pest control in cities.

Gargoyles as Prey
Gargoyles aren't entirely immune to predation and can be caught in a position where they end up as food. Smaller gargoyles are prone to predation from larger predators like nagas or aghrahns, or even larger members of their own kind if they're hungry enough. Since gargoyles are so timid with other species, they would likely feel too backed into a corner to know how to confront a group of other species who have discovered their presence and might sooner try to bolt from their nest to move onto a new site than try to fight their way out, though they could end up overpowered and eaten by a resident.

Diet
Gargoyles need food to fuel the ability to turn to encase themselves so they must eat to use this gland most effectively, otherwise they cannot turn to stone. To supplement their needs gargoyles have a highly varied diet, eating whatever is available to them in their territory, they are omnivores but must have meat to get all the nutrients they need. When not hunting or struggling to catch a decent meal, gargoyles are shameless scroungers who will eat food just thrown out if it still looks good enough to finish off like half-eaten burgers and fries, sodas, pizza and whatever else looks okay enough. Of course gargoyles are smart enough to know the best dumpsters or bins to explore for food, the backs of restaurants, movie theatres after the crowds have cleared out (the cleaner may be eaten as a snack if possible) and other such establishments are commonly visited by gargoyles looking for scraps.

Of course this isn't the only way they'll scrounge for food, some gargoyles are slightly more daring in how they try to get food and will encase themselves in a much more public space every night with a hat, box or some other storage in front of them. The reason for this is because they make others think they're a statue left by an anonymous starving artist, which can net the gargoyle some redeemable credit cards and even some snacks at times. A common but unappreciated joke by a lot of people is to leave rock candy with a gargoyle, many are sick of eating it all the time. Sometimes these "statues" become so familiar to residents that they look forward to leaving something for them every night, which can help gargoyles feel more involved with other species while maintaining their distance. A more daring venture in The Warren is to try to hide in grocery stores or supermarkets and wait until it's dark to swoop down and steal whatever they can grab, but these shops have largely gotten wise to them and have means of catching them in the act before they can even strike like laser alarms or security robots designed to spot gargoyles.

In The Warren, gargoyles have taken it further notches up in working out ways to get food, thanks to redeemable credit cards intended for citizens not compatible with nano-cards that regularly get dropped on the ground. Using these, gargoyles can pay for food from the numerous food stalls run by very run down robots that are direly in need of upgrades like facial recognition or need to have payment verification modules fixed. Of course many gargoyles always know at least five food bars that are so run-down and forgotten about that the robot attendants don't even request payment but still get new supplies delivered to them by drone automatically, effectively meaning they're giving away free food, a bit of hacking knowhow means these defective bars aren't able to be tracked either. In the dark, rarely wandered alleyways of The Warren, one should never be surprised to find a gargoyle quietly enjoying the city life, talking to the old machines while eating cheap noodles and drinking even cheaper beer, wondering how life could get more comfortable for them.

Weaknesses
The stone casing of gargoyles is vulnerable to strong blunt force trauma or anuran jaws, especially if they have no time to break out and get away. They can also be prone to their disguises failing them and having to break out and flee in a panic and hide until the heat is off them.

Gargoyles are highly dependent on their wings to get around, so if they're too heavy to fly out of reach of people, they can become very anxious and panic while needing to hide from the crowded streets and hope they're not found or a friend finds them to get them out of the situation.

Injuries to wings can also be condemning for a gargoyle as it renders them unable to hunt or find food until they recover, leaving them dependent on peers to help them, or having to resort to stealing directly from nearby sources which is highly risky and could get them caught. Even worse is if they suffer injuries that damage their wings beyond repair, requiring them to have to completely readjust themselves to have some chance of surviving on their own, as well as it being extremely damaging to their mental state to not have the freedom their wings grant them.

Spirituality
Warren gargoyles are never really exposed to religion in the same way those in the Outer Lands may be since technology has overtaken spirituality in a major way. They could always fine themselves drawn to little displays of expression of faiths like shrines or small churches, so they might out of simple curiosity find the prospects of such customs intriguing, but more fun to explore the pieces of how things work or what they mean to people more than think about the spiritual meaning behind it and how they might apply it to themselves seriously.

Overall
Gargoyles are extremely shy and wary of being seen by other species, so their interactions with them are extremely limited, often down to instances of eating other species as prey. They're accustomed to being unwelcome in settlements since they like to live in spaces not being actively used by people, even in the wild a gargoyle will prefer to use an abandoned nest rather than create their own. Many people may never know they have a gargoyle or gargoyles living in their home hidden out of sight.

Humans
Gargoyles don't have anything personally against humans, they're just the most common source of a live meal for a gargoyle, so many tend to see them as food. Humans of course tend to be fearful and hateful of gargoyles in turn and take a lot of measures trying to keep them out to no avail. Even The Warren can't seem to keep gargoyles from finding ways into the city, with the city hosting them ever since the early days of its construction.

Anurans
Gargoyles are all terrified of anurans because of their ability to bite into and ingest rock, despite the fact that even the smallest of gargoyles stand taller than an anuran, but the group hunting tactics of anurans and their jaws being strong enough for them to easily break through their casing is a terrifying prospect to gargoyles, who prefer to hunt alone. Many gargoyles have migrated to cities and towns due to the mere threat of anurans alone, and in the past was a large part of why gargoyles started to move themselves into settlements but keep themselves hidden out of sight as more anurans started to be accepted into mixed settlements.

Treating Each Other
Gargoyles are much more readily sociable with one another, most gargoyles with have small groups of friends they enjoy getting together to socialize with. There are the odd loners in their society who may find it harder to fit in among their fellows as much as they may want to, even if only out of obligation to fit in.

While the most common hangouts for gargoyles are rooftops and supporting structures high above everyone else, parties thrown in abandoned buildings consisting entirely of gargoyles are quite a common hangout for gargoyles as well. These venues even provide music, food, lightshows and plenty of little corners and perches for gargoyles to socialize and catch up with friends in rather easygoing fashion. The moment any authorities arrive they will quickly scatter into the night as fast as they can, finding it fun to outrun the law enforcement for the umpteenth time in a row.

Gargoyles who struggle to make friends may find themselves quite lonely and unable to find ways to make friends easily. Since they can't exactly try to befriend their food, they may feel short of options for their woes and spend a lot of time alone in their nests divulging in hobbies when not out quietly hunting to fill in the void.

Reproduction
Gargoyles are a species that take some time to feel ready to reproduce on an emotional level, often fretting and worrying about the commitment involved in such an affair, no matter how much they may really like their partner and wish to be with them. One thing that is certain is if two gargoyles find they have a romantic connection to one another, they can decide to become partners, and gargoyles partner for life once they do. At this point, gargoyles are ready to have a fledgling.

Breeding gargoyles mate once a year in early-mid spring. Being an oviparous species, they lay and only produce a single egg which they hide in a dark, quiet location. Gargoyles build nests out of stone local to the area along with gemstones they find along with wrapping their egg in lots of bedding or soft blankets/pillows. Gargoyles are highly protective of their single offspring and both parents work hard to rear them to adulthood. Since gargoyles will operate as a pair at this point, one parent will go out to hunt for the family while the other stays home to sit on their egg to keep it warm until it hatches.

First time parents commonly abandon their eggs out of stressing over whether they're ready to be parents. These eggs will often be snuck into the nests of other gargoyles living near them as a means of passing the responsibility onto someone else. The next gargoyle after them might decide to pass the egg back to the original parents, onto someone else or keep it for themselves to raise.

Life Cycle
When the egg hatches, the fledgling will eat the stones left for them gradually throughout childhood to jumpstart it's ability to encase themselves. This determines the type of stone they are able to encase themselves in when they become as an adult, because the fledglings can't fly encase themselves they need a parent to always be present to protect them. Parents will be unable to have any further eggs until their fledgling grows up or dies before they reach adulthood. Gargoyles are very loving and doting parents, and will protect their offspring with their life if necessary.

Of course, gargoyle fledglings love to try to fly at any chance they get, even if their attempts will often end with the planting themselves flat on the ground, but many may at least manage a very short glide or a bit of a hover. When fledglings turn 16, their wings will have developed enough for their parents to try to help them get airborne for the first time, but their parents won't let them leave home until they turn 18.

Gargoyles reach adulthood at 18 years old, by this time they are more than capable of flight and have learned more about how to look after themselves in time for them to leave the nest and make their own life away from their parents. Gargoyles will not mate again until their present offspring reach adulthood or they are lost, so birth rate amongst gargoyles is low.

Gargoyles living in settlements have a potential lifespan of 80-110 years, though they only live half as long in the wild.