Nicolette Villom

Blaise Reynard in 1138.

Blaise Reynard was a human male, stonemason, sculptor, and practitioner of the dark arts.

"I didn't want this!" - Blaise Reynard
"You did." – Grimalkin 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, 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 harbored a particular resentment towards his wife Heloise while fostering an infatuation with Nicolette Villom, a local tavern maid.

That same year, Reynard carved two stone sculptures to act as gargoyles for Vyones 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 Vyones with his talents, Reynard was passed over by the town council in favor 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 alliance, 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's quite dead corpse at his feet. Outraged, Reynard lashed out at the golems, only to be spirited away to the top of Vyones Cathedral. During the confrontation, Reynard managed to break off Grimalkin's right arm. Glimalkin's disembodied but still magically animated stone talons subsequently 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. ("For Not Everything With Wings...")

Characteristics

Blaise Reynard's hatred

Blaise Reynard's lust

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 Reynard possessed any other sorcerous knowledge or abilities.

Despite his outward stoicism, Reynard was a deeply disturbed man. He harbored a bitter hatred for the people of Vyones, who he saw as narrow-minded and cruel, especially his own wife Heloise. At the same time, possessesed an obsessive lust for Nicolette Villom, often whiling away the night in her father's tavern.

Appearances

• "For Not Everything With Wings..." (First Appearance)

Real World Background

Weird Tales August 1932

Blaise Reynard is the eponymous protagonist of "The Maker of Gargoyles", a short horror story by American author Clark Ashton Smith and originally published in the August 1932 issue of Weird Tales. As in the Gargoyles Universe, Smith's Reynard is an embittered stone-carver living in the French town of Vyones in the year 1138. Feared and suspected of witchcraft for his “taciturn and saturnine ways”, Reynard develops bitter resentment towards the people of Vyones, 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 differences (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 Vyones Cathedral with his creation's stone talons buried in his flesh.

See Also

• “The Maker of Gargoyles” by Clark Ashton smith
• “The Maker of Gargoyles” audiobook read by Josh Greenwood