| Notes | Strange almagations of human and animal parts, sphinx (singular and plural) are magical creatures of the desert and hills. They have a lion-like body, a human-like head, and part of a human chest or torso. Feathered wings rise from their shoulders. Their forepaws have some manipulative ability, and are in fact clumsy hands. Sphinx are roughly the size of lions – about 200 kg when full grown. Their bodies are generally tawny brown, their wings tan to white, and the human features match middle eastern norms. Sphinx are long- lived. They are ‘cubs’ for a few years, are fully grown by their mid twenties, but then live four or five times as long as a human. Due to their long lives, they are slow to breed.
As with many part human-part beast creatures, sphinx show a peculiar mixture of sophistication and savagery. They enjoy good conversation and company, have a strong appreciation for the arts, and love debate and philosophy. They are also quite happy to rip open a debate opponent and feast on his still-living entrails. (When seriously crossed or insulted, give the sphinx a Resistance roll to avoid falling into a sudden rage.) Aside from this, sphinx exhibit many cat-like traits.
The sphinx are rare, and consequently, solitary. When they congregate in groups, the group invariably has a single focus (such as listening to a philosopher speak), or breaks into pairs and/or solitary activity. Some sphinx historians claim there was once a great sphinx empire, thousands of years ago, and other creatures, such as humans, were their slaves.
Sphinx have their own language, which is distantly related to Aramaic (1/10 skill in Aramaic = skill in Sphinx). Most learn half a dozen or more languages as they grow up. They use local writing styles, but there is a written form of Sphinx, which is composed of elaborate hieroglyphics.
Sphinx normally use divine magic, and many are followers of knowledge gods, such as Thoth.
The sphinx given below is for a gynosphinx (female) androsphinx (males) have 3D6+15 STR, 3D6+15 SIZ, 2D6+6 INT, 2D6+8 POW |
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