Greyland Sphinx
The Sphinx of the Greylands are oft compared to the Dragons of Miurag as powerfully magical, intelligent predators rarely glimpsed; when sighting one, it is advisable to tread lightly. Sphinx seem to be the natural guards to the various ins and outs of the Greylands, though they are so few that they do not draw the ire of the Greylords.
Sphinx will take up lairs near gates or roads and may also take up the guardianship of objects of specific note, though there are some rumored to guard even more vague things such as knowledge or truths. The details of what their 'guarding' entails also differs as some bar all passage and others simply restrict access to those who can prove themselves worthy.
This obsessive compulsion to guard seems built into the sphinx with the creatures helpless to stop themselves. Still, they have found ways to release themselves from their guardianships by setting forth challenges; in doing so they have become synonymous with riddles and puzzles. While they enjoy a bit of clever wordplay and mental gymnastics, their challenges can also include physical ones. The more famous tales of defeating a sphinx includes them dying of shame (hurling themselves from cliffs and not flying), though there never appear to be remains or even a third party account to support these stories.
Thought to be native to the Greylands, some sphinx have drifted to other planes from time to time. In either case their evolution wasn't natural though it isn't clear whether they are artificial or simply altered heavily by magic over time. Scholars muse they may have been a servitor race created by the Greylords that proved too independent and escaped their masters' control. Neither resident seems willing to divulge the validity of this claim.
Due to their skeletal head many believe them to be undead, but this is not the case. What many see at first to be the empty eye sockets of the skull are ear holes similar to a nocturnal bird of prey; the mask-like "face" on the skull contains the actual eyes and only the eyes.
Despite common first impressions, there is no secondary mouth and the nose is purely ornamental lacking nostrils. Within the large jaw, a pale blue light pulsates within when the sphinx talks. The symbol on the 'mask' does vary from individual to individual and is one of the few ways that outsiders can identify a specific sphinx.
The features of the mask and apparent breasts lead many to conclude that sphinx are all female, but when broached on the subject they indicate a lack of gender or a duality of gender even if, for the 'ease of lessers,' they use female pronouns and gender signifiers. No matings have been observed to date, nor any confirmed sightings of a 'young' sphinx. Despite their somewhat sedentary lifestyle, the remote locations in which they reside alongside how spread out they are makes determining the number of current sphinx nearly impossible; it is unclear if the sphinx population even fluctuates.
The wings of a sphinx are not developed for true flight but function in gathering and shaping ambient magical energies, which may give reason for their habit of 'sunning' themselves even in places such as the Greylands that lack a celestial light source. A sphinx is still capable of flight via purely magical means to generate the thrust and motion. Often a sphinx will 'glide' along Ley Lines to conserve its own energies. Due to the flexible and fluid nature of their 'feathers,' a sphinx can use gestural magic components with their wings just as easily as their hands.
Magically the sphinx focus upon the manipulation and warping of space and/or time. It is perhaps this reason that they find it so easy to locate portals between realms to guard. Unlike Dragons the sphinx do not seem to care to shapeshift, preferring instead to appear as they are. If their forms prove too large, they will warp space in order to pass through obstacles. Visually this effect varies between observers; some see the sphinx shrink, others the door grow large, etc. Sphinx are fully capable of using most forms of spellcraft and are quite practiced in several disciplines.
Sphinx don't seem to eat often and this may be due to their general lack of activity as well as their ability to take in power with their wings. Still it is not wrong to assume that they engage in carnivorous acts, especially with those that fail their challenge. They possess an incredibly long tongue with which they groom themselves much like a feline.
This race features in Tales of Miurag: Death.
SPHINX OF NOTE
Astrasza the Mad (not pictured)- Notable for goat-like horn spurs on her head and, far more obvious, the large sword that impales her skull. The sword itself radiates a very strong magical aura and it is believed that Astrasza has become obsessed with it; thus none may touch it to remove it and end her suffering.
More unfortunate is that the blade may have impaired her cognitive faculties as the riddles she gives seem to be mostly gibberish (ex. "What is the speed of blue?"), so it appears the sphinx will continue to suffer the constant pain of her predicament. It is said that the blade was put there by a Greylord that had taken offense to the sphinx's presence; that Astrasza found it to be the focus of her guardian compulsion is tragic.
Artist's Note-
The early hint given on Patreon that "hippo skulls are awesome" is actually a reference to what defined the sphinx skull design. Rather than a lion skull I based it on a hippo skull. Seriously, look at a hippo skull. Just amazing.
The design for this critter came about around the time that Etaski was penning the Cris bonus story. At one point she was looking for potential interactions within the Greylands and one of the ideas was to introduce a sphinx-like creature. Obviously that didn't happen, but the idea kept up in my head and I continued developing it.
Astrasza is based on the Spelljammer Astro-sphinx. Spelljammer has some pretty out-there designs.
