What Happened to the Gargoyles?

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

What happened to the [Gargoyles](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gargoyle)? According to the wiki:

> Gargoyles were a race of horned humanoids associated with Ascalon, although some (called "mergoyles") could be found on the beaches of Kryta as well. Little was known about them even back then, other than that they preferred high-up places, they usually possessed mesmeric abilities, and that their skulls were popular collector's items among human Ascalonian necromancers.

>

> Gargoyles came to the surface in around 1070 AE—before the Searing, they could only be found in the Ascalonian Catacombs. After that, they could be seen across Ascalon. They all suddenly and mysteriously disappeared around 140 years ago, according to Shred Gnarltail, and are now presumed to be extinct. Now all that remains of them is the occasional fossil or bone fragment.

>

> The Durmand Priory, an institution with an understandable interest in the sudden, large-scale disappearance of entire species, is discreetly looking into the matter of the disappeared gargoyles.

 

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See also: [Wooden Potatoes on GW2 Mysteries](

)

* "The disappearance of the gargoyles was inspired by the 2010–11 midwinter animal mass death events."

* "Matthew Medina did not have a particular explanation in mind when he wrote Shred Gnarltail's dialogue."

[Bobby Stein.3612]

The short answer is that gargoyles weren't included in GW2 for scoping and/or artistic reasons, not for lore or story ones. That a character in the game references their disappearance is mostly acknowledging that someone in the world is aware of their absence, but that character doesn't know what happened.

 

Unless we have a definitive story reason for answering this question in game content, it's a topic best left up to player speculation. Would hate to close the door on ever using gargoyles again simply because we made up a lore answer to justify a scoping decision. ;)