Demona

Demona

Demona was Goliath's former mate, once a member of the Wyvern Clan. She is now one of its greatest enemies, and possibly the most dangerous gargoyle in the world.

History

Demona was hatched in the year 938. By 971, she and Goliath were already falling in love with each other.

However, the young Demona - at that time, known only as "Angel of the Night" or simply "Angel", titles which Goliath had bestowed upon her - had already begun to develop the weaknesses that would lead her down a dark path to come. Showing a strong interest in magic, she secretly entered the Archmage's service as his apprentice, in which role she served largely as a servant and errand-runner. The Archmage treated her harshly, dominating her by his threats, and she obeyed his commands out of fear. This reached its climax in 975, when the Archmage commanded her to steal the Phoenix Gate from Princess Elea.

Just after Demona stole the Gate, an older version of herself appeared with a duplicate Phoenix Gate, and whisked them both away to the year 994, accompanied by an older version of Goliath (both from the year 1995). There, the older Demona showed the younger one the aftermath of the Wyvern Massacre and Goliath's petrified form on the battlements, urging her to use the Phoenix Gate to avert this disaster and destroy the humans. The younger Demona was horrified at her future self's coldness and callousness, and refused to become like her, but was also disturbed at what she had seen. The Goliath from the future did what he could to comfort her, urging her to not worry about this catastrophe but to remain true to her love.

The younger Demona then returned herself and the two time travellers to 975, where she hid the Phoenix Gate from the Archmage, pretending that she had lost it. The Archmage, furious, cast her off as his apprentice then and there. Afterwards, Demona and Goliath attended Prince Malcolm's wedding; she broke the Phoenix Gate in half there, giving one half of it to him as a token of her love, while keeping the other half for the same purpose. ("Vows")

Demona remained troubled by the vision that she had seen, and also grew bitter over the increasingly unfriendly treatment that the humans of Castle Wyvern were giving the gargoyle clan. Mingled in with these was a certain thirst for power, both for herself and for Goliath. By 984, she was urging him to replace the gargoyle later known as Hudson as leader, convinced that Hudson was too old to effectively lead the clan. When Hudson did choose to abdicate that same year in favor of Goliath, Demona became the new leader's second-in-command. By this time, it seems that they were already mates. ("Long Way to Morning") Their daughter Angela was conceived in 987, and Demona laid the egg that would hatch into her the following year.

By 994, Demona had finally had enough of the constant ingratitude of Princess Katharine and her human subjects towards the clan, and decided, with the Captain of the Guard, to betray the humans to Hakon and his Vikings. The two plotters urged Goliath to take the entire clan and drive the Vikings away from the castle, intending to have Hakon capture Castle Wyvern in the gargoyles' absence. But Goliath, unwilling to leave the castle undefended, only took Hudson with him. ("Awakening" Part I) The Captain, desperate to have the plan succeed, decided to have Hakon attack during the daytime. Demona was alarmed, knowing that in the daytime, the clan would be trapped in its stone sleep and defenceless. She dared not warn the rest of the gargoyles, however, for fear that if she did so, she might have to reveal her part in the conspiracy, and so fled alone to hide upon the beach.

She awakened that night, and returned to find her clan destroyed by the Vikings. Horrified and grief-stricken, she hid herself when Goliath returned to the castle, too afraid to face him. By the time that she re-emerged from hiding, Goliath and the other survivors had already been turned to stone by the Magus.

Looking up at her mate's petrified form, Demona cried out, "What have I - what have they done to you?" In that moment, her mood changed from grief to anger and hatred, burying the guilt that she felt over having contributed to the destruction of her clan underneath her rage at the humans, blaming them for her woes so that she could avoid facing her own responsibility for them.

She saw below Princess Katharine, the Magus, and Tom loading the rookery eggs on the cart and driving away with them, but made no effort to go after them. Instead, she kissed the stone Goliath one last time, and glided away.

Coming to a nearby farm, she raided the barn for supplies. The farmer's young son Gillecomgain, hearing the commotion from the animals, came to investigate, and Demona promptly slashed him across his face with her claws, scarring him, in her anger. This proved a fatal action for her, for Gillecomgain vowed revenge upon Demona and her race, and grew up to become the first Hunter, an enemy both to Demona and to all gargoyles.

Demona continued to wander about Scotland, attacking any human who got in her way and stealing food to survive. In time, other gargoyles, the survivors of clans that had been destroyed by the humans, joined her, and by 1020, she was the leader of a new clan, if a rather ragtag one, which turned to banditry. By that time, the grown-up Gillecomgain, as the Hunter, had become one of her worst enemies, and a danger to all the surviving gargoyles left in Scotland as well. ("City of Stone" Part I)

In 1020, the Weird Sisters were assigned the task of watching over Demona and Macbeth by the Archmage, and set to work at once. ("Avalon" Part II) They persuaded Demona to attack Gillecomgain at Castle Moray, when he went there on Prince Duncan's orders to assassinate Findlaech, and there she met Macbeth for the first time, and actually saved his life (although having to allow the Hunter to escape in order to so do). ("City of Stone" Part I)

Twelve years later, the Sisters again persuaded Demona to fight Gillecomgain at Castle Moray by Macbeth's side. This time, she slew the Hunter, and Macbeth saved her life, for which she grudgingly thanked him, hoping that their dealings were now at an end. ("City of Stone" Part II)

They were not. When Duncan finally decided to destroy Macbeth in 1040, he feared that Demona and her clan would aid Macbeth against him, and so attempted to destroy them as the Hunter. This backfired, however, for it helped force Macbeth and Demona into an alliance against Duncan as the common foe. All the same, Demona did not quite trust Macbeth, until the Weird Sisters appeared and made Demona this offer: if she would agree to the alliance with Macbeth, they would rejuvenate her. Demona, [by now the gargoyle equivalent of 52 and prematurely aged by her strenuous living], agreed to this, and the Sisters caused her and Macbeth to switch ages (making Macbeth 52 and Demona the gargoyle equivalent of 35, the age that Macbeth was then). In so doing, they also made them both unaging and immortal, only able to die if one slew the other, although they did not mention this at the time.

With the aid of Demona and her clan, Macbeth overthrew Duncan in battle and became the new King of Scotland. He placed her clan under his protection, and declared her his primary advisor. ("City of Stone" Part III) And for the next seventeen years, Demona could know peace and safety at last. But this respite came to a tragic end in 1057, when a grown-up Canmore invaded Scotland with the help of the English, seeking to regain his father's throne and achieve his revenge. Demona and her clan valiantly fought against the English invaders, but in a private council, Bodhe urged Macbeth to cast off his alliance with the gargoyles, since (so Bodhe thought) the English were only invading Scotland because of their hatred for their kind and would go home if Macbeth abandoned Demona's clan.

Unfortunately, Macbeth did not immediately reject this advice, wishing to show his son Luach that "a wise king considers all his options, and then decides", and equally unfortunately, Demona, though not invited to the council, was secretly eavesdropping on it. Convinced that Macbeth would indeed betray her and her clan to the English, she decided to betray them first, and so abandoned Castle Moray on the eve of the final battle. Deprived of the gargoyles' aid, Macbeth was defeated by Canmore; however, Canmore had Demona's clan destroyed as well. Demona was alone once again, and had to flee Scotland. ("City of Stone" Part IV)

The period of her life between 1057 and 1994 is far more sketchily-recorded than that between 994 and 1057.

Demona roamed most of the world, pursued both by Macbeth and by a new line of Hunters descended from Canmore, who had somehow learned of her survival and chosen to hunt her down (although how the hunt came to be resumed is as yet unknown). Growing increasingly bitter towards humans, she finally decided that she must destroy them all, partly as the only means of ensuring survival for herself and what little remained of her race, partly as a means of gaining her revenge. She took her first step towards this goal when she stole the Medici Tablet in Florence in the year 1495, upon which was engraved the Fulfillment Spell, and her second when she took the Praying Gargoyle from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, 1980. ("Hunter's Moon" Parts II and III) The Weird Sisters watched over her and Macbeth all this time, and twice intervened in her life, under as yet unchronicled circumstances. ("Avalon" Part II)

In 1920, Demona journeyed to Paris to locate the Praying Gargoyle and use it to destroy humanity, but was foiled by Fiona Canmore and Team Atlantis.

At some point between 1980 and 1994, Demona met David Xanatos thanks to some maneuvering behind the scenes by Brooklyn, Finella, and Mary, with Owen Burnett/Puck handling the actual introductions, and the two of them formed an alliance for the purpose of reviving Goliath and his clan from their stone sleep, each for personal reasons. After Xanatos moved Castle Wyvern to the top of the Eyrie Building, thus breaking the Magus's spell, Demona revealed herself to the awakened clan, pretending that she had been under the Magus's spell. She helped dupe Goliath into making the raid on Cyberbiotics, but in the course of it, revealed to him the full depths of her bitterness, destroying Fortress 1 in order to kill as many humans as possible. When a horrified Goliath refused to join her in her crusade against humanity, she tried to kill him, but Elisa Maza saved Goliath's life, in the process making an enemy of Demona. ("Awakening" Parts II-V)

From that point on, Demona attempted to either convert the gargoyles to her viewpoint, or, if she could not accomplish that, to destroy them. Among other stratagems, she tricked Brooklyn into helping her temporarily turn Goliath into a mindless zombie under her control, created the cybernetic gargoyle Coldstone, summoned Puck for the purpose (which he didn't fulfill) of getting rid of all the humans in New York, and even tricked Goliath into yielding up to her his piece of the Phoenix Gate, so that she could go back in time to 975 and meet with her younger self, just as she had already done from her younger self's perspective. ("Temptation"; "Reawakening"; "The Mirror"; "Vows") Her first round of schemes after Goliath and his clan's awakening climaxed when she placed a curse over the humans in New York, causing them to turn to stone during the night so that she could smash them at her leisure. This curse was foiled, not only by an alliance between Goliath and Xanatos, but also the unexpected intervention of first Macbeth, and then the Weird Sisters. ("City of Stone" Parts I-IV) The Sisters took Demona and Macbeth away with them, and used them to first steal the Grimorum Arcanorum, Eye of Odin, and Phoenix Gate from the gargoyles, and next to attack the Avalon Clan. ("High Noon"; "Avalon" Part II) After the defeat of the Archmage's forces, the Sisters lifted their hold over Demona and Macbeth, and caused them to forget everything that they had undergone while the Sisters had enchanted them, after which the Avalon clan sent them away into the outside world. ("Avalon" Part III)

Demona in her human form

Avalon brought Demona and Macbeth to Paris, where Demona met and fell in love with Thailog. The two gargoyles used their combined wealth to set up Nightstone Unlimited, and afterwards plotted to add to their fortune by Demona marrying Macbeth in her human form as Dominique Destine, then afterwards locking him up, faking his death, and inheriting his wealth as his "widow". Thailog's real plan, however, was to trick the two into killing each other so that he could obtain all their money. Fortunately, the Avalon World Tour also brought Goliath, Elisa, Angela, and Bronx to Paris, and they were able to foil Thailog's scheme and save Demona and Macbeth's lives. It was on that occasion that Demona first saw her daughter Angela (at least, the first time that she was able to remember afterwards). ("Sanctuary")

Returning to New York with Thailog, Demona learned from Sevarius that Angela was her biological daughter. She decided to recruit Angela to her cause, as well as setting up a fresh clan for herself, by letting herself be captured by the gargoyles and imprisoned in the Labyrinth, where she arranged for the cloning of Hudson and the trio, and did all that she could to subvert Angela, without success. Demona, Thailog, and the Clones then captured the clan, but when Thailog tried to kill Angela, Demona discovered that she had come to care about her daughter and helped the gargoyles escape. She also cast off her alliance with Thailog. ("The Reckoning")

Not long afterwards, Demona used her resources at Nightstone Unlimited to complete the scheme that the Medici Tablet and Praying Gargoyle had begun, by employing Sevarius to create the CV-1000 carrier virus. On the night of the Hunter's Moon, in Saint Damien's Cathedral, she used the Fulfillment Spell engraved on the Medici Tablet to merge the carrier virus with a case of DI-7 detergent that she had stolen from Xanatos, creating a powerful plague designed to destroy humanity, the Praying Gargoyle's magic becoming invoked to protect gargoyles from the plague. Fortunately, Goliath intervened at the last moment to destroy the Praying Gargoyle, forcing Demona to abandon her plan. She managed to escape St. Damien's Cathedral, however. ("Hunter's Moon" Parts I-III)

Despite the foiling of her scheme, Demona will continue to plot the destruction of humanity with considerable bitterness. When the Space-Spawn invade Earth in 2198, however, Demona is faced with an even greater enemy to her kind than humans, and so accepts Samson's invitation to join the resistance movement, making use of her assets (such as her knowledge of magic and her ability to turn into a human in the daytime). However, Demona is uncertain as to whether she will be able to fight on the side of the angels for long. Some rumors, however, claim that she will indeed learn that she was responsible for her own misery and suffering, and undergo some sort of change of heart. These same rumors also state that she will have two more great loves, but their identity is as yet unknown.

Future Tense

In Puck's nightmare vision of 2036, Demona joined the resistance against Xanatos, and eventually fell in love with its leader, Brooklyn. During the final assault on the Eyrie Pyramid, she was disintegrated by Xanatos in cyberspace. ("Future Tense")

Characteristics

At present, Demona continues to bitterly hate humans, and wants the entire species destroyed. But she hates some humans more than others, and especially Elisa. She is vaguely aware of the detective's feelings for Goliath and his for her, and is utterly jealous (even if she believes that she no longer wants Goliath's love).

Besides, Elisa simply does not live up to Demona's beliefs about humans all being evil, traitorous, and hostile towards gargoyles, and that worries her even more. She also has strong hatreds for the Canmore Hunters, who have hounded her so often, and Macbeth, whom she still blames for the destruction of her clan in 1057. The one general exception to hatred in her heart at present is Angela, whom she has strong feelings for, but which as yet have not been enough to turn her from her path.

Demona's hatred of humanity is still fueled in part by her repressed guilt. She knows deep down inside that she is responsible in part for the Wyvern Massacre, but is unwilling to consciously admit it, and perforce makes the human race her scapegoat, to avoid facing the blood on her hands. She also continues to have a strong craving for power, hoping that when she destroys humanity and gargoyles subsequently rule the world, she will rule over them.

Demona is currently immortal and unaging thanks to the spell that the Weird Sisters placed upon her in 1040. This spell also ensures that she can only die if she kills Macbeth or he kills her. Demona can still be temporarily killed, or wounded, however. If Macbeth is close enough at the time that such an event happens, he will feel her pain - and vice versa, thanks to the magical link between them.

At present, Demona turns into a human during the daytime thanks to a magical gift that Puck bestowed upon her, taking on human form at dawn and reverting back to a gargoyle at sunset. The process is very painful, and Demona's one consolation for this is that if Macbeth is close enough, he can share her pain. Her human alias, at present, is Dominique Destine, the CEO of Nightstone Unlimited. Demona will still have this feature by 2198, although her human alias by that period is unknown to us as yet.

Demona is a cunning and resourceful opponent, and a good fighter. However, her anger and hatred have a tendency to interfere with her plans; she will in the heat of battle make the mistake of using her laser cannon as a club rather than firing it, for example, and she will often alienate her allies or betray them, thus losing their assistance permanently. This has, fortunately, resulted in Demona's efforts to destroy humanity all failing.

Physically, Demona is an attractive female gargoyle with a shock of red hair and pale blue skin. She is usually armed with a mace or a laser cannon. Her human form is that of an attractive red-haired woman, with a striking resemblance to her gargoyle form (close enough, in fact, that the muscular structure of her human head and her gargoyle head, according to a computer program of Robyn Canmore's are virtually identical).

Demona was named by Macbeth in 1040, following his coronation. He bestowed the name upon her, not in a description of her moral character (however appropriate it might seem), but rather because she fought like a demon.

Demona currently resides alone in a mansion in Gramercy Park, with appropriate decorations such as a door-knocker shaped like a demon's head.

Apocrypha - The Goliath Chronicles

Demona allied with a man known as the Assassin and had him try to kill Goliath as part of a plan to make herself look like she'd reformed in the eyes of Angela. Unfortunately, the Assassin, who was working with the Quarrymen, ruined the deception, and Angela once again felt betrayed, something for which Demona felt true remorse.

Production Background

Voice Actor: Marina Sirtis

Demona was originally named Dakota, and she was supposed to be the leader of the gargoyles in the first comedy development of the series. She was deemed uninteresting as a hero, and was changed to a villain.