Captain of the Guard
The Captain of the Guard was the leader of the human garrison at Castle Wyvern in the 10th century.
History
The Captain's given name was Robert, better known as Robbie. He was born in 946. [1] He came from peasant stock, growing up in the Village of Wyvern down the Reach near Wyvern Hill. He had regular contact with the gargoyles of the Wyvern Clan in those days. ("The Reach", "The Draw")
As a youth, he became a friend to Prince Malcolm at Edinburgh Castle while the young prince was a prisoner of King Indulf of Scotland. Robbie helped Malcolm escape from Indulf in 962, and became a mentor-figure to him thereafter. By 967, Robbie had a commission in King Duff's Guard as a Corporal. By that same year, he had also encountered (and may have made contact with) the Loch Ness Clan and Scone Clan. His daughter Alesand was also born by this time, who lived with her grandmother. In 971, he introduced Prince Malcolm to the Wyvern Clan of gargoyles and their Rhydderch, and helped bring about their alliance. As a Lieutenant, Robbie led the human reinforcements in the form a cavalry and fought alongside Prince Malcolm and the Wyvern Clan, ultimately forcing then-King Culen's retreat and helping to secure the throne for Malcolm's brother, Kenneth II the following night. Missing the new king's coronation, Robbie took his daughter to pay their respects to the fallen gargoyles at their Wind Ceremony. ("The Reach", "The Draw", "The Oath", "The Promise", "The Dream", "The Pledge")
That same year, while Castle Wyvern was under construction, Prince Malcolm promoted Robbie as their Captain of the Guard. He didn't hesitate to work alongside the gargoyles during the evening shift, eager to see the dream of humans and gargoyles working together become a reality. The alliance would be put to the test soon after when Wyvern Hill was attacked by its namesake; a dragon infuriated that humans had settled in his territory. Despite his quick response to direct his soldiers to attack, the volley of arrows had little effect on the dragon's hide and Prince Malcolm soon ordered him to direct the extinguishment of what the dragon had set ablaze. ("The Promise", "The Dream", "The Pledge")
In the days when Wyvern Hill was visited by a traveling troupe of actors known as the Light-Bringers, he would gather by the fire each night with his daughter to hear the Tale of the Three Brothers told by the storyteller, Shahrizad. He and Prince Malcolm soon found it unsettling just how accurate the storyteller was, asking each other how she knew the two's exact words whenever they came up in the nightly tale. ("The Promise", "The Pledge")
A plain, bulldog-faced man, the Captain identified much more closely with the gargoyles than with his fellow humans, and came to be ostracized by his people for it. He felt disgusted with how Princess Katharine and her people continually snubbed the gargoyles and showed not the slightest bit of gratitude for their protection.
At last, by 994, he had had enough. The last straw was when Princess Katharine demoted him for bringing Goliath and Angel to a banquet, decreeing that he was to report from then on to the Magus rather than directly to herself. The Captain bitterly decided to turn the humans over to Hakon and his Vikings, to punish them for their treatment of the gargoyles, and so that the gargoyles could have Castle Wyvern to themselves. With Angel as his ally, he betrayed the castle to the Vikings.
However, the Captain's plan went awry. He and Angel urged Goliath to take the entire clan to pursue the Vikings, planning to let Hakon sack the castle in their absence. But Goliath decided to only take Hudson with him, leaving the rest of the gargoyles behind to guard the castle. In desperation, the Captain changed his plan to have the Vikings take Castle Wyvern in the daytime, but Hakon promptly destroyed the clan in its stone sleep. The Captain watched in horror, but did not dare to act and save the helpless gargoyles. ("Awakening: Part One", "City of Stone" Part One)
When Goliath and the other survivors attacked the Vikings' camp to rescue their prisoners, Goliath discovered the Captain's treachery and was enraged. In the ensuing confrontation, the Captain and Hakon fell off a cliff to their deaths. But, because of a combination of the ancient magics of the Archmage's cave close by and the force of the two men's hatred for each other (alongside Hakon's hatred for Goliath and the Captain's self-hatred for having failed to save the lives of his friends), they survived on as ghosts, condemned to haunt the cave. ("Awakening: Part Two", "Shadows of the Past")
Near the end of 1995, an older Tom (now Guardian) arrived at Wyvern Hill from Avalon and explored the area including the caverns. As Guardian talks to himself, the Captain and Hakon suspect that their target may still be alive. [2]
In early 1996, when Goliath and his companions arrived at the former site of Castle Wyvern as the first stop upon the Avalon World Tour, the ghosts of the Captain and Hakon decided to take advantage of their arrival as a means of regaining their old lives. Deep in the Archmage's Cave, they drove Goliath to a state of near-madness with illusions designed to remind him of the Wyvern Massacre and play upon his guilt over having helped bring it about by leaving the clan behind. They then began to use the magic of the Megalith Dance to transfer Goliath's life-force to themselves, allowing them to solidify while Goliath would be reduced to a ghostly condition. [3] But the Captain in the end was unwilling to bring further suffering upon Goliath, and foiled Hakon's scheme instead, thus redeeming himself and winning release from the cave. ("Shadows of the Past")
Appearances
- "Awakening: Part One" (First Appearance)
- "Awakening: Part Two"
- "Awakening: Part Three" (Mentioned Only)
- "Awakening: Part Five" (Mentioned Only)
- "Long Way To Morning" (No Lines)
- "City of Stone" Part One
- "Shadows of the Past"
- "The Reach"
- "The Draw"
- "The Oath"
- "The Promise"
- "The Dream"
- "The Pledge"
Production Background
Voice Actor: Ed Gilbert
The name Robbie (spelled "Robby") was one of the names used in early drafts of the script for "Awakening" for the peasant boy that would eventually be named Tom. [4][5][6]
