List of magical objects in Gargoyles
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This article is a list of magical items that appear in the Disney animated series Gargoyles.
Although magic is a common occurrence in the Gargoyles universe, in the series it is most often used in conjunction with certain magical items (many of them with their origins in ancient history).
A motif in the series holds that "mixing magics is dangerous", referring to two distinct branches of magic: that practised by humans, and that practised by Oberon's children (the only race shown with the capacity to cast magical spells without any sort of conduit). Humans can cast spells without a conduit on Avalon, but this is harmful to them. Despite this, a story arc in the second series (leading up to the multi-parter episode Avalon) sees the villainous Archmage use three objects of different origins - the Phoenix Gate, Eye of Odin and Grimorum Arcanorum - and gaining incredible power.
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[edit] Phoenix Gate
The Phoenix Gate is an artifact that enables its bearer to travel through time by thinking of a destination time and reciting the Latin incantation "deflagrate muri tempi et intervalia," loosely translated as "burn down the walls of time and space."
As the series' sole method of time travel, the Phoenix Gate imposes several restrictions on the creation of paradoxes. History cannot be changed, though in several instances in the series use of the Phoenix Gate does result in the creation of predestination paradoxes, in which use of the Gate sets events in motion that will eventually lead to use of the Gate. This restriction also allows it to exist fully with the timestream, with no creation date. It is locked in a cyclical repeating journey within the timeline (hence the name referring to the mythical phoenix). The only clues as to its background are given when the Weird Sisters claim that the Gate is "of Avalon".
The Gate appears as a tiny golden shield, inlaid with a blue metal and a gold phoenix upon it. Responding to claims that the Phoenix Gate changes size in its various appearances (which was a minor animation error), series creator Greg Weisman has retconned (with tongue firmly in cheek) that the Gate functions as a "pressure valve" for the timestream, and thus varies in size within the canonical universe.[citation needed]
The gate was first split in half on the night of Goliath and Demona's wedding. They both kept each half for the last thousand years. Demona and David Xanatos tricked Goliath into bringing his half to Xantaos and Fox's wedding. The partners used the gate to travel to 975 A.D., so Xanatos could retrieve a few coins that would make him the millionaire he is today in the future while Demona tells her past self to destroy all humans. Goliath also attempts to reason with the younger Demona, which the older Demona would later remember. After returning to the future, Goliath takes the gate to the clock tower.
The Phoenix Gate was later stolen by the Weird Sisters to give to the Archmage. A younger him used it to save himself from a fall of doom and create events that lead up to the Gate's theft. Apparently, he didn't have to use the gate's incarnation for time travel Goliath then fought him and retrieved the gate.
The trickster Puck tried to trick Goliath into giving him the Gate, for as per Oberon's rules, Puck could not take it by force. Realizing that Puck and others may try to take the Gate again, Goliath sent the Gate into the time stream, for without a mind to guide the Gate, it will wander eternally throughout time.
[edit] Grimorum Arcanorum
The Grimorum Arcanorum is an ancient spellbook that serves as the primary source of magical knowledge through the course of the television series. It contains numerous spells, each of them written in Latin, and dates back to Roman times. It was this book that was used in the pilot episode, Awakening, by the Magus of Castle Wyvern in order to place the surviving gargoyles into permanent stone sleep.
Several spells in the book were shown to have "termination clauses": the aforementioned stone sleep spell was written so that it would end "when the castle rises above the clouds". Likewise, the spell used in the episode City of Stone ended when the "skies burned". According to the City of Stone commentary on the Season Two, Volume One DVD box set, such termination clauses help to reduce the amount of magical energy required to cast the spell. Nevertheless, the termination clauses were often written to minimise the chances of being broken - in the ancient world, there was little chance of either a castle rising above the clouds, nor of the skies burning - and thus correspond approximately to "when the world ends". In both Awakening and City of Stone, advanced technology is used to fulfil the requirements of the spell and so end it. However, Elisa would break a mind control spell from the Grimorum, by instructing Goliath to act as he would if he were not under a spell.
The earliest chronological appearances of the book were in the episode Vows and Long Way To Morning, when it was briefly shown in the possession of the evil Archmage at Castle Wyvern. After his death, the book passed to his apprentice, the Magus, who used it in the service of Princess Katharine for many years. When Katharine sought to flee from Constantine, the Magus used the Grimorum to take her to the mystical island of Avalon. However, realising that the book could not enter Avalon, because "no magics may enter ... save Avalon's own", he entrusted it to Finella and Mary, the mother of Tom.
Eventually, the Grimorum came into the possession of David Xanatos through Demona, allowing them to break the spell of sleep on the Manhattan Clan. After this however, the Manhattan Clan took to protecting the book and preventing its misuse, even taking it with them when they left their old home in the Eyrie Building. In the episode Temptation, Demona stole several pages from the book, which she later used to resurrect Coldstone (in Reawakening), summon the trickster Puck (in The Mirror), turn the humans of New York to stone (in City of Stone) and engineer a plague deadly to humans (in Hunter's Moon).
The Grimorum itself was stolen from the Manhattan Clan due to the trickery of the Weird Sisters, and they delivered it to the Archmage, who literally ate it in order to get around the law of prohibiting magical items onto Avalon. Combining it with the Phoenix Gate and the Eye of Odin, he became incredibly powerful but was nonetheless defeated when Goliath ripped the Eye of Odin away from him. Without the power granted by the Eye, the Archmage could no longer control the magic he'd "swallowed" as part of the Grimorum and it destroyed him from within. The book was destroyed along with the Archmage himself.
[edit] Eye of Odin
The Eye of Odin was a talisman or jewel resembling a stylised eye. When worn by any individual, the Eye of Odin transforms them into a dark exaggeration of their innermost self while it grants incredible power. Despite this, the "standard gift" of the Eye is not power but wisdom, as revealed in a late episode of the series.
In the series it first appeared in the episode The Edge as a minor MacGuffin, although the concept of the Eye originated not with the show's production staff but with Disney Interactive. It served as an important plot device in the Gargoyles video game, in which it was used by Hakon and his clan of Vikings.[1]
When it was ported over to the television series, the Eye's connection to Hakon was severed completely, and it was reimagined as a jewelled eye in the possession of David Xanatos, and redesigned. Xanatos donated the Eye to the city, earning a favor in the process. He then donned his Steel Clan exosuit and promptly stole it back. Rather than the Nordic design from the game, it now looked more Egyptian (a fact which occasionally annoyed series creator Greg Weisman). (www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?rid=62) Its magical nature also went unrevealed until the second season, during the episode Eye of the Beholder, in which Xanatos gave the eye to Fox as an engagement gift, unaware of its effects. In the month following this gift, the Eye's magic began to assert itself, transforming her into her "innermost self", in this case, a feral, ravenous werefox. It took the combined efforts of Xanatos and the Manhattan Clan to defeat her.
Following this, Goliath took the Eye to keep it safe, but it was stolen by the Weird Sisters who gave it to the Archmage. The Archmage used the Eye in conjunction with the Phoenix Gate and the Grimorum Arcanorum to achieve ultimate power (following the example of a wizard from Ancient Rome), and sought to take over the island of Avalon. Nevertheless, Goliath managed to wrench the Eye away from the Archmage (destroying him in the process), and once again kept it with him in order to safeguard it. Ironically, the next time that the Eye's power became dangerous it was Goliath himself that wielded it.
When Goliath was sent, via Avalon, to Norway in the episode Eye of the Storm, he encountered Odin, a child of Oberon. The episode revealed that the Eye of Odin was, in fact, Odin's actual left eye - the same eye he had sacrificed in order to drink from Mímir's well. Odin wished to reclaim the eye, but Goliath did not trust him, as his previous dealings with the Children of Oberon had always been troublesome at the very least. In order to prevent its misuse, Goliath donned the Eye himself. The Eye transformed Goliath into the quintessential Protector, but he soon became tyrannical and fascist. Fortunately, he realised what the Eye had turned him into and gave it back to Odin, who promptly placed it back in his empty eye socket, causing it to turn back into a normal eye effectively ending its existence as a magical artifact. (The Eye's magical properties, apparently, do not affect Odin himself, though do appear to restore Odin to his full power.)
[edit] Cauldron of Life
A minor magical object in the series, the Cauldron of Life appeared intact in only a single episode, The Price. In it, Xanatos had acquired the Cauldron as a part of his obsessive and ongoing quest to achieve immortality. A legend accompanying the Cauldron claimed that a certain potion brewed in the Cauldron might grant a person extreme longevity, and he intended to determine whether this was true. After obtaining the final ingredient, a piece of stone gargoyle skin from Hudson who he kidnapped for the spell, he brewed the potion. Owen Burnett tested the brew by placing his fist in it, only to discover that the spell's promise to allow him to "live as long as the mountain stones" was to be taken literally - that the user would be permanently turned to stone. Owen's arm has been frozen in stone ever since.
However, the ever pragmatic Xanatos had the Cauldron melted down and made into Coyote 4.0, which he then used in an attempt to capture a child of Oberon, the trickster fae Coyote in yet another bid for immortality. The new chassis was able to contain the fairy, although since the Cauldron may have been made of iron this may have had more of an effect than any magic inherent in the metal. This time Xanatos was foiled by Goliath, Angela, Bronx, Elisa and her family. Coyote 4.0 was destroyed and it is unknown what was done with the wreckage and thus the metal from the Cauldron.
[edit] Mayan Sun Amulet
The Mayan Sun Amulet is a golden amulet carved by the Mayans for the Guatemalan Clan. The amulet powered four magic talismans (one each made from sapphire, jade, obsidian and turquoise), each of which was given to a gargoyle there and worn to remain awake during the day for 24 hour protection. A member of each rookery generation would receive an amulet. It was stolen from their pyramid home in the same raid that destroyed most members of that clan, and it eventually found its way to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Hyena attempted to destroy it as part of a coordinated attack with her brother Jackal in Guatemala to destroy the Gargoyles there, but was defeated by Lexington and Broadway of the Manhattan Clan. Broadway and Lexington first think to destroy it, but instead bring the Amulet back to their home to protect it, and it has been safeguarded by the Manhattan Clan ever since.
Had the series continued, Zafiro from the Guatemala clan would have traveled to New York to recover the amulet.
[edit] Titania's Mirror
Titania's Mirror is an artifact which belongs to Titania, the wife of Oberon and queen of Avalon. It resembles a normal full-length looking-glass, although it possessed magical properties. When used in conjunction with various spells, the mirror could be used as an effective scrying tool, as well as a means of travelling great distances instantaneously. In the episode The Mirror, Demona stole it from a museum and used it, along with a spell and some iron chains, to summon and enslave the fae Puck to grant her a wish. We do not see the mirror's fate once Puck has vanished back through the mirror to his freedom. It is by her reflection in the mirror that Demona realises that Puck has turned her into a human during the hours of daylight. At this point the screen fades to black, although Demona's scream and a smashing noise added in post production were intended to show that the mirror had been destroyed.
Nevertheless, an apparently identical mirror (identified as Oberon's Mirror, one of a matching set) can be seen used on Avalon in the episode The Gathering.
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