What's needed for having a Gargoyle made?

Question

Tremere are known to have, in the 1100s, developed the rite to create Gargoyles. Using a Vampire from the clans Nosferatu, Tzimisce, or Gangrel and infusing them with one of the other two's blood, the result is the grotesque stone-like vampire.

However, I fail to find where more about this rite (which was most likely outlawed with the founding of the Camarilla in the 1400s) and its prerequisites were written. Did I miss something in the old books?

Answer 1

In the Dark Ages line, there are two books that give more insight to Gargoyles

• Book of Storyteller Secrets, published in 1996, catalogue number WW2802, ISBN 1-56504-277-8

  • On page 76 it details Gargoyles for playable purposes. It includes their description, Disciplines, their attitude towards other clans, brief notes for how to pick stats for them, etc. Similar to descriptions of other clans.
  • The chapter then outlines more rules about Gargoyles up to page 82. Of note, there are Gargoyle creatures (animals the Tremere turned into Gargoyle-like beings) and a list of rituals for enhancing Gargoyles like making them tougher or better at guarding a haven.

• House of Tremere, published in 2000, catalogue number WW2829, ISBN 1-56504-272-7

  • This (unsurprisingly) focuses on the Tremere and also includes a deeper look at Gargoyles.
  • Of important note, it details the level five ritual for creating them on page 116-117:

  At Our Command It Breathes

  This ritual permits the creation of a Gargoyle from the dismembered parts of slain Cainites and is the process through which the first of that line came into being. The vampire (with assistants, if desired) takes fresh-cut portions from the bodies of various victims and sews them together into a single humanoid form. She then sews a sac made from an animal's womb (usually from a cow but sometimes sheep or deer) around her creation. The sac is then suspended in a cask containing alchemical equivalent of the womb's waters or placed inside an oversized, specially prepared female Gargoyle for gestation. During a period ranging from one to three months, the thaumaturge must periodically visit the gestating Gargoyle and perform various incantations and blessings. If she is away from the gestation chamber for more than a week at a time, the fetal Gargoyle dies and cannot be revived. Finally the Gargoyle either forces its way down the living mother's birth canal or bursts from its cask. The ritualist must be present to waft purifying smoke onto the newborn Gargoyle. Any other Gargoyles within half a mile instinctively sense the impending birth of a new brother. They feel a powerful urge to flock to its side when it is born and lick the bodily fluids off its skin. Although this custom helps bond the Gargoyle to its new community, it is not a requisite of the ritual. A Gargoyle can be born in isolation.

  System: The thaumaturge sews together pieces of Cainites in order to form a full humanoid shape and to grant various capabilities to the new Gargoyle. The correspondence of parts to capabilities is laid out in a variety of ancient and arcane medical texts (for example, the heart provides courage and resolve, the eyes perception and wisdom) but also depends on specific alchemical preparations. Physical beauty is beyond the ritual's capabilities, though. All Gargoyles appear stony and twisted.

  The thaumaturge makes the ritual roll as the fetal sac is put into gestation. The roll is Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 9 + one for each donor after the first). An unliving womb (such as that of Alvusia, see p. 67) reduces the difficulty by 4. A single success allows the creation of a Gargoyle character built according to the standard character creation rules (see Book of Storyteller Secrets). The basic blood cost of the ritual is 5 points for each Cainite used in the Gargoyle manufacture. Add an extra 5 points if the caster wants the Gargoyle to be fertile.

  By devoting further years of research to the Gargoyle arts, the thaumaturge may devise and construct variant types like the hexaped, iecur or womb-bearers like Alvusia (see pages 124, 125 and 67 for descriptions).

  Historical note: The Tremere cease making Gargoyles after the Slaves revolt, and, as part of the Camarilla negotiations, promise never to revive the technique. The instructions for the ritual have been hidden, but not destroyed. Some suspect that the Gargoyle Fidus occasionally makes use of them.

  • Quick clarification, the same book also includes a level one ritual called The Carrion Fly Delayed on page 110 which allows preserving body parts of living or unliving creatures. Otherwise usually limbs separated from the undead tend to turn to ash.
  • The book then details more magical ways of enhancing Gargoyles called "humours". These are ingestible and provide some benefit and downside that activates later.
  • There are more details about Gargoyles and similar creatures later on. Of note, there is a hierarchy of sins for Gargoyles. To give you a taste, the level 1 sin (worst possible) is "Shirking an opportunity to die gloriously while following orders".

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Another interesting information can be glimpsed from the Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption video game. It has been turned non-canon (it was developed before some of the Dark Ages materials were released) but it does feature one Gangrel character who can be rescued from a Tremere chantry and who was being prepared to be turned into a Gargoyle. The ritual seemed to require the vampire to be restrained but otherwise whole and the Tremere performed some chanting and other rituals.

Once freed the character eventually (after many nights) meets their end when the party encounters another Tremere who senses the Gargoyle preparation ritual was almost complete and finishes up the magic. Which seemed to take a matter of moments instantly transforming the Gangrel into a Gargoyle under the command of the Tremere.

Answer 2

Getting Embraced by a Gargoyle.

Gargoyles are vampires, so they can be made the same way as all other vampires: by taking a living human, drinking all their blood, and giving them some of the blood of their parent vampire ('Sire') to drink. This is called 'the Embrace', and it results in a new vampire of the same type of vampire as their Sire.