Gargoyle Egg
Eggs - Rounded hard-shelled structures created by gargoyles and gargoyle beasts for reproductive purposes.
Characteristics
Gargoyle eggs are created when a female gargoyle mates with a male gargoyle on or near the Autumn Equinox every twenty years, those ending in '7' (e.g. 927, 947, 967, 987, etc). The female gargoyle incubates the resulting embryo inside her body for six months while forming an egg around it. This egg is laid on or near the night of the Spring Equinox the following year (e.g. 928, 948, 968, 988, etc.). At the time of laying, the egg is soft-shelled and flexible, rather like a reptile egg. This aids in the laying process and presumably makes the birthing of the egg significantly safer for the female. All the eggs of the clan are then placed in the clan's rookery. The following morning, as the adult gargoyles turn to stone, the eggs in the rookery undergo a very similar process. The shells harden and assume an "egg-like" shape. They remain in this state until they hatch ten years later; the embryos inside, however, transform back and forth between flesh and "stone" every day in the same manner as the adults.
Under normal circumstances, a female gargoyle lays an egg three times in her life. However, certain circumstances may cause a female gargoyle to produce fewer eggs. Gargoyles usually take only one mate, so if a female's mate dies before her, she will not lay any more eggs. The London clan has a strict limit of two eggs per breeding couple to avoid population growth that Knight's Spur can't support. ("Rock & Roll")
There seems to be some care involved in maintaining healthy eggs. There is evidence that the Wyvern rookery was somewhat damp and it was in a cave. Eggs may require these damp, dark conditions to thrive. Princess Katharine remarked that the eggs must be occasionally turned or else they would crack too soon. Greg Weisman has also suggested that gargoyle eggs absorb thermal energy like an adult gargoyle does while sleeping.
The eggs themselves are approximately a foot in diameter. They are a whitish color with several bluish-purple irregular spots. Eggs are indistinguishable from each other in the rookery. Even gargoyle beast eggs look identical or nearly so to the other eggs. The surface of the egg probably has a texture very much like the stone skin of adults.
After a ten-year incubation, the eggs hatch on or near the Spring Equinox. There is some evidence that they do not necessarily hatch at sunset, but rather at some point during the night. At that point, the hatchlings, while slightly more independent and strong than human newborns, are cared for and breast-fed by the adults. Any eggs that do not hatch (due to "stillborn" or "bad egg" issues) are given a Wind Ceremony.
Notable Eggs
- The eggs of the Wyvern Clan laid in 988 were taken away from Castle Wyvern by Princess Katharine, The Magus and Tom first to Edinburgh, and eventually to Avalon. Due to the changes in the passage of time on Avalon the eggs hatched at a much later date (1058) and would become the founding members of the Avalon Clan. These hatchlings were nicknamed "The Eggs" by Tom and were still called that into young adulthood at least.
- The eggs from all twelve clans of the Gargoyle Nation were brought to Queen Florence Island in 2198 for the hatching and founding of a new clan. These eggs were captured by the Space-Spawn and put into a form of stasis that prevented their hatching, for the time being at least...
