Difference between revisions of "Blaise Reynard"
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==Characteristics== | ==Characteristics== | ||
Blaise Reynard was a rather non-descript human of presumably French ethnicity and indeterminate age with light brown hair. Archbishop Ambrosius considered Reynard to be an exceptionally gifted sculptor. As a sculptor, Reynard was something of a perfectionist, placing great stock in his artistic integrity. | Blaise Reynard was a rather non-descript human of presumably French ethnicity and indeterminate age with light brown hair. Archbishop Ambrosius considered Reynard to be an exceptionally gifted sculptor. As a sculptor, Reynard was something of a perfectionist, placing great stock in his artistic integrity. | ||
| − | As a practitioner of the dark arts, Reynard could cast a spell to animate stone golems to do his bidding, though the spell did not seem to work entirely as he intended. It is | + | |
| + | As a practitioner of the dark arts, Reynard could cast a spell to animate stone golems to do his bidding, though the spell did not seem to work entirely as he intended. It is unknown if he possesed any other sorcerous knowledge or abilities. | ||
==Appearances== | ==Appearances== | ||
Revision as of 07:40, 12 September 2025
Blaise Reynard was a human male, sculptor and practitioner of the dark arts.
"I didn’t want this!" - Blaise Reynard' “You did.” – Glimalkin and Satyre("For Not Everything With Wings...")
History
During Reynard’s childhood, he developed an admiration for true gargoyles. As he grew older, Reynard became a practitioner of both sculpture and the dark arts. He also married Heloise Reynard, with whom he had a son.
By 1138 CE, Reynard was working as sculptor in the French town of Vyones, carving stone gargoyles for the local cathedral, which he saw as a way of doing justice to the memory of true gargoyles. Reynard had grown bitter towards the townsfolk of Vyones, who he saw as narrow-minded and cruel. He harboured a particular resentment towards his wife Heloise while fostering an infatuation with Nicolette Villom, a local tavern maid.
In 1138, Reynard carved two stone sculptures to act as gargoyles for Voynes Cathedral; his Grimalkin and Satyre. He used an unspecified spell to animate both creations to do his bidding. Unwittingly or not, the spell appears to have bound the two golems to Reynard’s unconscious desires.
Despite deeply impressing the Archbishop of Voynes with his talents, Reynard was passed over by the town council in favour of his less gifted (but cheaper) rival Gerome Mazzal. This only deepened the growing rift between Blaise and his wife, who blamed his refusal to “work faster and cheaper” for their financial predicament. Shortly afterwards, Reynard became aware of Demona and Angelika who had been “hiding in plain sight” among the cathedral’s lifeless statutory. Reynard approached the true gargoyles, confessing his status as a practitioner of the dark arts and proposing a partnership.
Before much could come of the allaince, Reynard’s creations leaped to life. Grimalkin and Satyre proceeded to rampage across Vyones, targeting the objects of their creator’s respective rage and lust. Grimalkin savagely murdered Mazzall, his crony Guillaume Maspier and Reynard’s wife Heloise, while Satyre abducted Nicolette from her father’s tavern.
Armed with a sledge-hammer, Reynard eventually confronted his creations at his home, where they deposited Nicolette’s unconscious body and Heloise’ quite dead corpse at his feet. Outraged, Reynard lashed out at the golems, only to be spirited of to the top of Voynes Cathedral. During the confrontation, Reynard managed to break off Grimalkin’s right arm. Glimalkin’s disembodied but still magically animated stone talons subquently buried themselves in Reynard’s throat, causing him to fall from the cathedral’s towers and to his death below. Blaise Reynard was survived by his son, Martin-Pêcheur Reynard.
Characteristics
Blaise Reynard was a rather non-descript human of presumably French ethnicity and indeterminate age with light brown hair. Archbishop Ambrosius considered Reynard to be an exceptionally gifted sculptor. As a sculptor, Reynard was something of a perfectionist, placing great stock in his artistic integrity.
As a practitioner of the dark arts, Reynard could cast a spell to animate stone golems to do his bidding, though the spell did not seem to work entirely as he intended. It is unknown if he possesed any other sorcerous knowledge or abilities.
Appearances
- "For Not Everything With Wings..." (First Appearance)
Real World Background
Blaise Reynard is the eponymous protagonist of The Maker of Gargolyes, a short horror story by American ‘weird fiction’ author Clark Ashton Smith and originally published in the August 1932 issue of “Weird Tales”. As in the [[Gargoyles Universe|’’Gargoyles’’ Universe], Smith’s Reynard is an embittered stone-carver living in the French town of Vyônes in the year 1138 CE. Feared and suspected of witchcraft for his “taciturn and saturnine ways”, Reynard develops bitter resentment towards the people of Vyônes, as well as on entirely one-sided infatuation with Nicolette Villom, a local tavern maid.
Unlike in ‘’Gargoyles’’, Smith gives no indication that Reynard has either a spouse or child, nor that he is a conscious practitioner of the dark arts. Instead, Smith seems to imply Reynard’s giving life to his two stone gargoyles was unwitting, somehow unconsciously imbuing his “cat-headed monster” and “horned satyr” with his own hatred and lust respectively.
Despite these differneces (and the obvious non-involvement of Demona and Angelika in the original short story) Smith’s Reynard ultimately suffers the same fate as his “Gargoyles” counterpart, falling to his death from the roof of Vyônes Cathdral with his creation’s stone talons buried in his flesh.
