![[Tom]](youngtom.jpg)
![[Tom the Guardian]](oldtom.jpg)
Above right: Tom, as an adult.
Gender: Male
First Appearance: "Awakening" Part I
Other Appearances: "Awakening" Part II, "City Of Stone" Part I, "Avalon" Parts I, II, & III, "Ill Met By Moonlight"
Tom is the son of Mary, born in AD 986. He was with a group of refugees driven to Castle Wyvern by the Viking Hakon, and quickly became friends with some members of the castle's gargoyle clan, despite his mother's fear and misguided attempts to "protect" him from the gargoyles. Along with the rest of the refugees, Tom was captured by the Vikings and held prisoner after Castle Wyvern was sacked. Tom was confident that his friends, the gargoyles, would save them, although his mother was convinced this was not so, as she had seen all the obvious members of the clan shattered. Tom was proven right, however, when 6 of the 7 surviving gargoyles attacked the Vikings and freed the refugees and the captured people of Wyvern. Tom was shocked when he saw 5 of the clan turned to stone by a grief-mad Magus, and ran to Goliath to tell him of it.
After Goliath had the Magus turn him to stone as well, so he could be with the "last" of his clan, Tom accompanied Mary, Princess Katherine, the Magus, and the 36 gargoyle eggs of the Wyvern clan's rookery on their journey to Katherine's uncle Kenneth. When he swore that he would let nothing harm the eggs, Princess Katherine appointed him the Guardian of the eggs.
Tom stayed with Katherine, the Magus, and his mother, until he witnessed the usurper Constantine's murder of King Kenneth. Since both his and Katherine's lives were threatened by Constantine, the Magus took himself, Tom, Katherine, Mary, and Finella, whom had also decided to side against Constantine, to the mystical island of Avalon. However, his mother Mary and Finella remained in the "real" world to protect the Grimorum Arcanorum, which the Magus could not bring onto the isle. Thus, Tom was tearfully separated from his mother.
Tom lived on Avalon with the Magus and Katherine, and grew from a boy to a man. When the Magus was afraid to express his love for the Princess, Tom and Katherine fell in love, and raised the 36 gargoyle hatchlings of the Wyvern clan as their own children.
Sometime after the Avalon clan's hatching, Tom forged his armor and sword. Every 100 Earth years, Tom would return to the "real" world to see if Goliath and his clan had awakened.
Roughly 43 Avalon years (1000 Earth years) after Tom, the Magus, Katherine, and the 36 gargoyles eggs arrived on that isle, they were attacked by the Archmage. Tom reacted as the Archmage had hoped, travelling again to the "real" world in the desperate hope that Goliath might be awakened so that he could help. Avalon sent him to Manhattan's Central Park. Amazed by the city, Tom was accosted by three would-be muggers, and was taken into custody, thought to be deranged, by Officer Morgan of the 23rd Precinct.
When Elisa Mazalearned that he knew Goliath, she got Tom freed from jail, saying she knew his family. She took him to Central Park, where Goliath and Bronx met him. Goliath did not recognize Tom at first, but he managed to convince him, and Elisa, Goliath, and Bronx accompanied Tom back to Avalon. Along the way, he explained what had been happening since 994, and some inklings of why he needed Goliath's help.
Upon their return to Avalon, they were greeted by Angela, Gabriel, and Boudicca, but were quickly attacked by facsimiles of the Archmage made from the sand on the beach they had landed on. The group managed to defeat the sand-Archmages, and quickly made their way to Oberon's Palace, the home of the people living on Avalon. There, Tom, the Magus, and Katherine explained the reasons they needed Goliath's help. With his help, as well as that of Elisa and tne newly reawakened King Arthur Pendragon, the Archmage and his forces were defeated. As Goliath, Elisa, and Bronx, along with Angela, left the isle, Tom told them that "Avalon does not send ye where ye want to go, Avalon sends ye where ye need ta be!" And thus began the Avalon World Tour.
Tom greeted Oberon and Titania upon their arrival on Avalon in 1996 with hostility, not trusting them due to their association with the Weird Sisters. For this, he had a metal band slapped across his mouth by Oberon's magic. Then, he and the rest of the gargoyles and humans on Avalon were almost absorbed into Avalon, again by the fay lord's sorcery. When Titania convinced Oberon to release the mortals and combat Goliath, Angela, and Gabriel more fairly for the right to stay on the island, Tom, with the help of Ophelia, forged an iron bell, which was used to defeat the lord of the Third Race. He has not been seen since, but presumably is still living on Avalon with Katherine and the Avalon gargoyle clan.
In Greg Weisman's Master Plan, Tom would have eventually gone to Ishimura and formed the Order of the Guardian.
Tom, the Guardian, is a skilled warrior, and is most proficient with a sword. He wears a suit of armor shaped in the image of Goliath, and also is skilled at the use of the forge. He is very brave and strong of spirit, and is very protective of the Avalon clan, whom he sees as his children.