Goliath
Goliath was born in 938 in Wyvern, Scotland. By the time he was 37 human years old (18 1/2 gargoyle years old), he had already become the mate of the female gargoyle who would become known as Demona. The two watched the marriage ceremony of Prince Malcolm of Wyvern and Princess Elena of Normandy, and exchanged tokens- the halves of the Phoenix Gate- to seal their vows of love, pledging to be together "now and forever." Goliath found a name for his love, calling her his "Angel of the Night."
Goliath eventually became the gargoyle who would become known as Hudson's second-in-command. At that point Hudson was referred to as Mentor. By 984, Demona was trying to convince Goliath that Hudson's time had passed, and that Goliath should become leader. Goliath disagreed with his mate. He went along with Hudson and Demona to retrieve the Grimorum Arcanorum from the Archmage. This was so that the Magus could cure Prince Malcolm, whom the Archmage had poisoned. They managed to catch up with the Archmage, and during the resulting battle, Hudson's left eye was rendered useless, and Goliath was the one who saved the day by retrieving the Grimorum. This turn of events led Hudson to pass the burden of leadership to Goliath. Goliath made Demona his second-in-command. It was around this time that Goliath got his name, after the Philistine giant in the Bible. Between 984 and 994, Demona and Goliath had at least one egg, which was put with the other eggs in the Rookery.
Goliath remained leader until the tragic events of 994. He and Hudson were lured into chasing Vikings, led by Hakon, that had recently attacked Castle Wyvern. Demona and Castle Wyvern's Captain of the Guard wanted Goliath to take the entire clan to capture them, but Goliath figured he could scare them away all by himself. He did take Hudson with him, however, because he needed his tracking skills. When they finally caught up to the Vikings, they discovered that they had only sent their horses away to lure them away from the castle. They could not get back to Castle Wyvern before sunrise... and when they got there the next night, the entire clan had been shattered while they slept in stone sleep, including (he thought) his Angel of the Night. There were only four other survivors, 3 young gargoyles and a gargoyle beast (who would later become Brooklyn, Broadway, Lexington, and Bronx) who had been punished to stay in the Rookery for scaring some humans that were harassing them. Goliath had understood that they were just defending themselves, but he had to put them in the Rookery in the interest of human/gargoyle relations.
The six went after the Vikings with a vengeance, especially Goliath. The gargoyles' attack scared Hakon into trying to run with Princess Katharine as a hostage. The Captain of the Guard went with him. Goliath tracked them to a seaside cliff. When Goliath discovered that the Captain was the betrayer, his rage was great. But when Hakon told Goliath that the Captain was the one who had shattered Goliath's clan, the Captain became so angry that he attacked the Viking, causing the two to plummet from the cliff to their deaths. This tortured Goliath further, for, as he said, "I've been denied everything... even my revenge!"
It was at that point that the peasant boy Tom, a friend to the gargoyles, called Goliath to come help his friends. When Goliath, Katharine, and Tom returned, they found that the Magus, in a fit of grief-induced madness (he thought that Hakon had killed Katherine, whom he loved), had cast a spell that turned the five other gargoyles permanently to stone, "until the castle rose above the clouds." He believed that if they hadn't come, Katherine would not have died. Unfortunately, the counterspell had been burned by Hakon, so the Magus was unable to reverse it. Both the Magus and Katherine felt they owed him a great debt, so he had them do two things. First, they were to take care of the eggs in the Rookery. Second, he had the Magus cast the spell one more time... on Goliath, who did not wish to live alone.
1000 years later, industrialist David Xanatos fulfilled the terms of the spell, and moved Castle Wyvern- with all six stone gargoyles- to the top of his skyscraper, the Eyrie Building, in Manhattan, New York City. The Castle was now above the clouds, and when night fell, Goliath and his clan awoke. He was overjoyed to see them. He then spoke with the man who had moved the castle, David Xanatos. He explained that it had 1000 years since the spell had been cast, and that the gargoyles were the last of their kind. There was no rest for them, though, because a mercenary force raided Castle Wyvern and supposedly stole three computer disks. The gargoyles helped Xanatos repel the invaders, and Xanatos gave his thanks- but Goliath simply stated that he would never trust humans again.
It was soon after this battle that NYPD detective Elisa Maza came up to Castle Wyvern to investigate falling rubble and automatic weapons fire sounds coming from the Castle. She was given an explanation for the commotion by Xanatos, but she was not fully satisfied, and snuck back into the castle. She encountered Bronx, and in her panic from this unexpected sight she aimed her gun at him- and Goliath snuck up and crushed it. This scared her so much that she slipped and fell from the castle walls, and plummeted to the street below. Goliath swooped down and caught her, saving her life. Because of this act, the initial terror quickly wore off, and Goliath carried her back up to the castle and told her his story. She quickly became a friend to the gargoyles. They agreed to meet the next night.
The next night, Elisa and Goliath went on a gliding tour of Manhattan. Even this early, there was something special growing between the pair. They then strolled through Central Park, where the same mercenary team that had attacked Castle Wyvern attacked Goliath. With Elisa's help, the two managed to escape, and Elisa discovered that the mercenaries had found them with a tracking device that had somehow been placed on Goliath's person. Unfortunately, Goliath could not get back to Castle Wyvern before the sun rose, and- to Elisa's shock- he turned to stone. The mercenaries had nearly caught up with them, so Elisa led them away and tricked them into thinking her dead. Goliath was amazed when he awoke to find that Elisa had protected him all day.
He returned to Castle Wyvern, and was surprised to find that his Angel of the Night was still alive. They were reunited, and Demona insisted that they should help Xanatos retrieve the "stolen" disks from Cyberbiotics in gratitude. He agreed, and they made a plan. Xanatos informed them that the three disks were in three locations- a tower on an island just off the coast of Manhattan Island (the Trio were assigned to this disk), an underground lab (Hudson and Bronx went for this one), and a massive air fortress in the skies over Manhattan. Goliath and Demona went to retrieve this disk.
Goliath and Demona managed to sneak onto the air fortress, but Goliath soon discovered that his mate had changed. She was now cruel and uncaring, causing destruction towards humans for no apparent reason. This was pinnacled by her short-circuiting the power core of the air fortress, causing it to plummet into New York Harbor. After this, Goliath started to leave to meet Elisa again, to which Demona reacted with hostility. He realized that his Angel was not as he remembered her, and left.
When he met with Elisa, she informed him that Xanatos had lied to him, that the disks Goliath and his clan had "retrieved" were actually Cyberbiotics property. To further prove that Xanatos was lying, she had checked on the insignia that she had found on the tracking device, and had found that the insignia was for a robotics firm belonging to Xanatos Enterprises, which indicated that Xanatos himself had probably placed the tracking device on him. Basically, Goliath had a choice- he could trust Elisa or trust Xanatos. To his credit, he trusted Elisa.
The two headed separately to Wyvern, and Elisa was proved correct- having found Goliath and the rest of the clan uncontrollable, he brought their replacements, robotic gargoyles called the Steel Clan, online using the stolen Cyberbiotics data. He then preceded to have the Steel Clan attack their flesh-and-blood counterparts. Goliath arrived in time to stop one of the five Steel Clan Robots from attacking a vulnerable Brooklyn and Lexington, and helped destroy the other robots.
It was then that Demona revealed her true colors, and attacked Goliath when his guard was down. She revealed that she was an accomplice to the betrayal at Castle Wyvern, and that the Captain had sworn to protect the clan, but Demona didn't trust him, and that is why she survived. She offered Goliath one last chance to join her in a crusade against humanity, but he refused, and Demona decided that if Goliath was not her ally then he was her enemy. She would have killed Goliath had Elisa not come in at that moment and tackled her, knocking her aim off so that the missile she hired hit the castle tower nearest to them, causing it to collapse and knock both Elisa and Demona off the castle walls. Goliath managed to save Elisa, but not Demona, who was rendered unable to glide by falling debris. Angered by this turn of events, Goliath grabbed Xanatos and held him over the edge of the Eyrie Building, saying "She wanted me to destroy humanity! I think I'll start with you!" Elisa managed to convince him not to drop him, saying that would make him no better than Xanatos. Hudson agreed. Goliath decided to turn him over to Elisa, who had him arrested on charges of receiving stolen property. Goliath and his clan were safe- for the time being.
Even with Xanatos in prison, the gargoyles still had many crises to overcome. They fought the Pack, had to deal with Elisa's shooting, stopped Tony Dracon's gun-dealing, and defeated a mind-controlling spell cast by Demona upon Goliath. They overcame all these challenges.
During this time, Elisa had been trying to convince Goliath to take the clan and leave Castle Wyvern, since it was no longer a safe place for the clan to stay, but Goliath stubbornly refused. When Macbeth was hired by Xanatos to drive the gargoyles out, he captured Brooklyn, Lexington, and Bronx. Goliath chased after him, and Elisa managed to convince Hudson and Broadway to leave. Goliath was angered by this, but Hudson and Broadway convinced him that it was necessary. Goliath angrily agreed to leave, but not until he left an angry message for Xanatos via Owen- the clan is leaving, but they would be back to reclaim their home. This intensified the grudge that Goliath had towards Xanatos.
The clan moved into the clock tower above Elisa's police precinct station, but this did not lessen the conflicts they had to face. They fought a plethora of foes, including Xanatos and his Steel Clan, Demona, and the Pack. Even during this, they still were not sure exactly what it was that they protected. The first confrontation with Coldstone, one of Goliath's rookery brothers from Castle Wyvern brought back to life as a cyborg, allowed them to determine what it was. They protected the entire island of Manhattan from all that threatened it.
There were many threats to protect Manhattan from. The Pack returned with a vengeance, under the leadership of the android, Coyote. They made enemies, then allies, of Talon and the mutates. Coldstone returned, as did Xanatos, and Macbeth and Demona.
Demona summoned the Child of Oberon, Puck, and tried to get him to do what she wanted. He complied, but not in the way she wanted. She told Puck to get rid of the human Elisa Maza- so he turned her into a gargoyle. However, this had an unexpected effect on Goliath and Elisa. There were some feelings between them, but being the same species intensified these feelings and made the two confront them. Goliath was willing to admit these feelings, but Elisa was more reluctant to.
Goliath was torn between his growing love for Elisa and his mating bond with Demona. When Xanatos invited Goliath to be the best man at his wedding to Fox, and told him Demona would be there, Goliath made one last attempt to save their long-ago love. However, any hopes of this were permanently destroyed when Demona used these hopes to regain the other half of the Phoenix Gate, which Goliath had still kept through the centuries. She took Goliath, David Xanatos, his father Petros Xanatos, Fox, and herself back in time to the year 975 in an attempt to alter history in her past self's favor. Goliath stopped her, and himself tried to change history for the better. Unfortunately, both Goliath and Demona discovered that history is immutable. Having failed in changing Demona, Goliath finally realized that there was no way they would ever be together again.
During the "City Of Stone" incident, Goliath was able to convince Macbeth not to kill his immortal foe, Demona, and helped the Weird Sisters temporarily convince Demona to give up her vengeful ways. He made an ally of the owner of Cyberbiotics, Halcyon Renard. He met his "son," a clone of himself named Thailog. At first he was repulsed by what he called an abomination, but Elisa convinced him to accept Thailog as a son. Unfortunately, Thailog turned out to have a personality modeled after Xanatos's, and tried to kill his three "fathers," namely Xanatos, Dr. Anton Sevarius, and Goliath, as well as Elisa. They escaped, but despite this, Goliath saw him as a sort of wayward son.
Eventually, Tom, the friend of the gargoyles from 994, returned, and enlisted Goliath's help to help save the former eggs of Goliath's clan from the Archmage and his forces. Elisa and Bronx accompanied Tom and Goliath to Avalon. On the way there, Tom explained that to save the eggs and Princess Katherine from Constantine, a usurper of the Scottish throne who wanted Katharine as his queen, the Magus took them to the mystical island of Avalon, where time moved more slowly. In that space of time, the eggs had hatched and the hatchling gargoyles were now fully grown. When they arrived at Avalon, Goliath encountered three nembers of the Avalon Clan, Gabriel, Boudicca, and Angela, whom he recognized as his and Demona's daughter. However, because it was the gargoyle way for the children of the clan to belong to the whole clan and not specific parents, he did not make this fact known. Elisa quickly deduced this on her own, though, because Angela had physical similarities to Demona and Goliath.
With Goliath, Elisa, and Bronx's help, the three humans and the Avalon clan defeated the Archmage and his warriors. Goliath decided to keep the Eye of Odin and the Phoenix Gate, so as to ensure that no one would ever use them again. Angela craved more adventure, so she went with the three on the skiff to go to the "real world." Unfortunately, they did not realize that "Avalon does not send you where you want to go, Avalon sends you where you need to be." And thus began the Avalon World Tour.
During the Avalon trip, the quartet had many adventures around the world. Goliath confronted the shadows of his past at the former site of Castle Wyvern, namely the ghosts of Hakon and the Captain of the Guard, who had gained formidable supernatural powers from a mysterious temple in the Archmage's lair. They used illusions to try to drive Goliath insane, and when that failed, they tried to use the temple to drain Goliath's life force into themselves, but the Captain could not betray Goliath again, and he ruined the transfer, redeeming himself and sending his spirit to the afterlife. Hakon, on the other hand, was trapped in the rubble of the temple, albeit temporarily.
They next fought Raven in the Pacific Northwest, and then they went to Loch Ness. There, they had to stop Dr. Sevarius from kidnapping the Loch Ness Monsters and using them as lab animals. Angela was captured by him, and he tested her DNA, discovering that she was Goliath's daughter. This information surprised her. Because of her human upbringing, she tried to treat Goliath as her father, but Goliath kept reminding her that it was not the gargoyle way, and that she should regard the whole clan as her family.
After the events involving the Golem in Prague, Angela and Goliath's confrontations over this point began to grow more heated. In Paris, Goliath tried to conceal his daughter from Demona and protect Angela from the knowledge that Demona was her mother. Despite his efforts, he was unsuccessful. He also encountered Thailog, who had now become Demona's new mate. He still saw Thailog as his misguided son, and he tried to convince Thailog that Demona was using her. However, he had it backwards. In actuality, Thailog was manipulating Demona. This pretty much convinced Goliath that Thailog was not a wayward son, but truly a villain. Thailog's plot- which involved getting Demona to marry Macbeth as Dominique Destine, then manipulating them into killing each other so that he gained both of their fortunes, since he was Demona's sole business partner- was foiled by the travelers.
There were still many adventures. They traveled to London, where Goliath was forced to break his vow against using the Phoenix Gate to discover what had happened in 1940 that had made the English gargoyles Una and Leo angry at him. He returned to the present with the gargoyle Griff. He had to do this to follow fate, because he and Griff disappeared while fighting Nazis during the Blitz of 1940. As a result, Una and Leo became bitter and angry towards Goliath. Then they battled the Pack in Egypt, the Banshee in Ireland, and the Matrix in the Australian Outback. In Nigeria, they battled Anansi, and Goliath finally accepted Angela as his daughter, something which made her overjoyed. In Norway, Goliath was forced to don the Eye of Odin to battle Odin himself. Its power corrupted him as it did the Archmage and Fox, but after he nearly killed Angela, he tore off the Eye, and Odin regained it. They battled Proteus on New Olympus, Jackal and Hyena in Guatemala, Nokkar on Easter Island, Taro in Ishimura, Japan, Xanatos and Coyote 4.0 in Arizona, and then they returned to Avalon.
In Avalon, they were forced to face Oberon, the rightful lord of the island. Goliath, Angela, and Gabriel were chosen to face him in a contest to decide if the Avalon inhabitants would be allowed to remain. Oberon defeated the three, even though his power was reduced, but in the meantime, Tom had forged an iron bell, working off of clues that Titania had dropped, and rang it. The bell caused Oberon pain, but Tom stopped before the last ring that would have killed Oberon. Impressed by their show of mercy, Oberon made Goliath's clan immune to his sorcery, and made them the honor guard of Avalon. The quartet then returned to their quest.
When the travelers were en route to their next destination, Puck created an elaborate dream world for Goliath in an attempt to acquire the Phoenix Gate, because he believed he could use the Gate to bribe Oberon out of summoning him to the Gathering. The Gathering was a call for all of Oberon's Children to return to Avalon. In this dream world, the quartet of travelers returned to Manhattan 40 years into the future, in the year 2036. Without them there, Xanatos had taken over Manhattan and had turned it into his own island nation. Brooklyn led a small resistance force with Demona, who was his mate, Broadway, who was now blind, Lexington, who was now a cyborg, Claw of the mutates, who was now wingless, and Matt Bluestone. Goliath went with the others to defeat Xanatos and rescue Elisa and Angela, who had been captured by the Steel Clan. During this, everyone but himself and Elisa were killed, and Lexington was revealed to be the real ruler of Manhattan. He had used a computer image of Xanatos as a disguise so he could "run the show unmolested." When Goliath called him a traitor, Lexington attacked him, and Goliath threw him into a mass of computers which exploded, causing a chain reaction that Goliath and Elisa barely escaped. When Elisa asked for the Gate, as Brooklyn and Demona had before her, he was ready to let her take it- but the fact that she wanted Goliath to put it in her hands and would not take it herself made Goliath suspicious, and Goliath realized that this was not Elisa. This forced Puck to reveal himself, and he explained why he had created the dream world. However, when Goliath called it a dream, Puck asked him "was it a dream... or a prophecy?" Goliath asked him which it was, but Puck refused to tell him. Upon returning to the waking world, Goliath immediately threw the Phoenix Gate, uncontrolled, into the timestream, so that it would be beyond the reach of all who would desire it. The quartet then continued on their journey.
To their joy, they returned to Manhattan- only to have to face Oberon, who wanted to abduct Xanatos's newborn son, Alexander, so that he could be trained to use his latent mystical abilities on Avalon. After Oberon was hit by a magical blast from Fox, whose half-fay powers were supposedly withered to nothing, Goliath used this to convince Oberon that Alexander could be trained in his mystical powers without going to Avalon. Oberon agreed, and also allowed Puck, who had also defended Alexander, to remain as his teacher- although Oberon punished him by limiting the usage of his powers to the training or protection of Alexander. Goliath, Angela, Bronx, and Elisa remained in New York.
During their adventures, Goliath and Elisa's love for another had grown. They faced their greatest threat during the events centering around the Hunter's Moon. During it, Elisa got a new partner named Jason Conover, who had many of the traits that had attracted Elisa to Goliath. After Angela was nearly killed by the Hunters in an attack by them, Goliath swore that he would kill them for what they did. This, and the fact that it seemed he might lose Elisa to Jason Conover, made him furious. In a retaliatory attack on the Hunters' airship, he and Demona, who was his, Brooklyn's, and Lexington's temporary ally, tried to kill two of the three Hunters. Unfortunately, the female Hunter, Robyn Canmore, had planted a tracking device on them that the Hunters used to find their home- and destroy it. To gain revenge for this, Goliath forced Lexington to help him track down the Hunters' airship, which was concealed near a dam. Broadway and Elisa came to help, but during the battle with the Hunters, both Jason Canmore/Conover and Elisa fell to their seeming deaths. Both Goliath and Jon Canmore became consumed with anger and hatred, and, in a climactic battle in St. Damien's Cathedral, Jon Canmore and Goliath faced off, and Goliath was stopped just short of killing Jon when Elisa came in, and told him that Jason Canmore, the Hunter, had saved her. He was amazed that she was alive. Jon tried to get Jason to join him in destroying the gargoyles, but Jason refused, saying that the hunt was over. At that moment Brooklyn, who had gone to stop Demona, whom the Hunters had come to stop, cried out in pain. Goliath started off to help him, but Jon panicked and fired at Goliath- and Jason jumped in the path of the blast himself. This made Jon's sanity snap, and he flew off, exclaiming that the hunt was not yet over. Goliath stopped Demona's genocidal plan, which involved using science and sorcery to create a plague that would wipe the Earth of all intelligent life save gargoyles, who were protected by a mystical statue called the Praying Gargoyle. Goliath smashed the statue, forcing Demona to abandon her 500-year-old plan. However, earlier, Jon Carter/Canmore had broadcast that the gargoyles were responsible for the clock tower's destruction, and Xanatos came and just barely saved them from the police and a bloodthirsty anti-gargoyle mob.
The clan moved back into their ancestral home, and Xanatos finally called off their feud, as part of his debt to the clan for saving his son from Oberon. On the highest tower of Wyvern, just before sunrise, Goliath and Elisa finally admitted their love for one another, and Elisa kissed him for the first time.
A little while later, Goliath and Elisa made an attempt to go on a sort of date, but their night was interrupted by a new anti-gargoyle group named the Quarrymen, which was founded by a man named Jon Castaway, who was really the last of the Hunters. Vinnie, an odd man whose life was prone to indirect gargoyle interference, and who had gained revenge on Goliath for this by hitting him with a cream pie, had reluctantly joined the Quarrymen, but when Castwawy tried to kill Goliath and planned to kill Elisa, he betrayed the group and helped save the pair.
Future Plans - Ask Greg
Goliath and Elisa would have discussed their relationship and decide to keep it platonic. In an effort to "see other people", Goliath would have gone on a double date with Delilah as his date and Elisa dating either Jason Canmore or Morgan. The outcome would have been Goliath and Elisa realizing that they belonged together. At some point the two of them would have had a Commitment Ceremony. By 2198, Goliath is dead and his descendent; Samson is leading the Resistance against the Space-Spawn.
Apocrypha - The Goliath Chronicles
Goliath and Elisa's relationship seemed to quiet down for a while, but Goliath still had many adventures, many of which involved the Quarrymen. Among other things, Goliath went on trial, his "son" Thailog became permanently petrified by a clone-degenerative virus, something that hit Goliath hard, he was sent into another dream world where he was human and married to Elisa by Titania, he was turned into a mind-controlled slave by the Illuminati scientist Dr. Nexus, and he nearly lost Elisa's trust when he was impersonated by an escaped Proteus. Finally, Goliath and the rest of the clan were lured into a Quarryman trap and thought dead by the entire city, with the exception of Angela and Bronx. They were being taken to face trial on charges of terrorism committed by the clan, but the Quarrymen attacked the train that was transporting them in an attempt to destroy them. Xanatos had saved the clan, and they rescued Angela and Bronx as well as the humans on the train, much to the humans' surprise. Goliath faced down Jon Castaway, and defeated him for the last time. The gargoyles saved the train, and the Quarrymen were sent to jail while the gargoyles were finally accepted.
