Sphinx City Worldbuilding

>My rudimentary idea for her distant origins is that, when she was a young sphinx, she traveled for a long while with a human mage who wanted to study with her, and who wanted to set up a place where mages would be safe, as the local kingdoms were pretty anti-arcanist at the time. She grew quite attached to him and eventually bought into his dream as well - which may have something to do with the role he played in "helping" her after her failed first attempt at wooing an androsphinx, but that's an unimportant detail.
>"helping" her

>Beta orbiter wizard becomes Big Dick Consort to cute Sphinx Queen

How big is this Sphinx, anyway?

How big is the standard D&D sphinx? Given D&D sphinxes are Large sized, I figure somewhere around 12 feet long from head to haunches, and when she's standing on all fours, she's at least shoulder high to the average human.

Who lives in this city? What kind of people and what kind of aesthetic do you want?
If I get a vote, I'd say go either Ancient Mesopotamian or Ancient Persian as fuck, but that's just me. She could have a great big Ziggurat!

*flies in from the desert*
*zaps all the wizards*
*eats all the slaves*
*rips off gynosphinxes wings, puts out her eyes, and puts her on a chain as the guard-beast for his treasure*
*destroys ur magical realm*
nothin personnel kid

You know, you're talking shit, but a mean old dragon asshole that's a historic rival to the city isn't even a bad idea. Dragons are iconic and shit for a reason.

IN FACT, make Sphinx City this really cute, Persian-esque place, and then make your Blue Dragon asshole the despotic ruler of disparate tribes or clans of shitty, Arab-esque Bedouin-looking faggots that ruin everyone's fun and break things for no fucking reason.

Well, the dominant races I was thinking was humans, with a sizable maftet population (descended from the god-queen, yes), though other races could be in minority. Maybe even my "Empire of the Gnolls" from the Gnolls Thread could be a neighboring power.

Aesthetic... I hadn't considered. Ancient Persian would make sense, given sphinxes were native to Egypt & Asia, and were very similar to the Sumerian Lamassu & Shedu.

You know, I really don't know if this is /pol/ talk or not, but a rivalry against a despotic Blue Dragon - or even a really assholish Bronze/Copper Dragon - could work out well. Certainly explains the appeal in having a super-powerful, immortal magical cat-woman as your queen.

This amuses me.

Humans and maftets are way cool. The Persian thing is just my preference because I've got questionable taste, but I'd definitely recommend at least considering it.

As for the Dragon rival, I do actually think it's not a bad idea to have SOMETHING like that out there, even if the original user was just shitposting. Though, like you said, just making it a more belligerent metallic dragon would probably be comfier, and it sounds like your premise has a lot of potential to be comfy.

...

I know Bronze Dragons are more coastal, but, I'll be honest, their description (at least in the 4e draconomicon) always reminds me of the Harmonium, and the Harmonium's self-righteous blend of "I/We Know Best" and "For The Greater Good" always makes an interesting adversary. After all, a city of mages is probably not exactly inclined towards either group-think or meekly kowtowing to a single leader, right?

I mean, you can have the city near enough to a coastal region to avoid violating Bronze Dragon fluff, too, you know. There's an entire gulf near Persia.

>Certainly explains the appeal in having a super-powerful, immortal magical cat-woman as your queen.

Does this really need justification? I mean, I'd vote for a candidate like that tomorrow.

...

You just want a giant cat lady to pin you down with her paw while she rides you.

So? At least we're keeping on the thread topic. Go to /d/, or better yet, /trash/ if that's what you want to talk about.

Only if there's love, user.
If we've spent long nights together studying ancient lore, and gone on intrepid sojourns into ancient ruins together, and enjoyed fine dining and finer wine together, then yes, I'd love to take that next step in our relationship.

...

Alright... well, having finally had a chance to look at the 5e PHB, here's my draft for what the Sphinx Queen is like as a character:

Personality Trait:
I seek to nurture the seeds of magic wherever I find it. Those who possess the talent deserve to be given the freedom to develop it; those who would extinguish magic must be opposed.

Ideal:
Nurturing: I will always strive to better my people. I will fight to give them a better tomorrow, and shed my own blood to protect them.

Bond:
My city is more than some project; it is my family, my life's work. I will die before I let it fall.

Flaw:
The centuries as queen, with access to a series of loving mates and luxurious foods, have spoiled me. I have developed quite the hedonistic appetite and my passion for pleasure can sometimes lead me to make bad decisions.

Does this outline make sense to anybody?

Absolutely. She's all about fostering wizardry, and protecting her people, but she's kind of a lush and possibly a bit of a slut.

It all makes sense and jives together pretty well with the concept.

Check the 5e DMG. There's a section on NPCs that would be useful. You already answered the bit about traits and so forth, but it has other little checkboxes to help give you a skeleton to work with. Bare minimum, it gives you the kinds of questions you need to have answers to when you're crafting her, even if you don't actually use answers like those provided at all.

Riddles as currency. The more widespread they become the less value they hold so new ones need to be created constantly by the City-State mint (and you'd better believe unsanctioned trade houses are trying to get in on that racket).

Thanks. A big part of what inspired this concept is the fact that, per D&D traditional lore, gynosphinxes are the "base" sex. They're definitely intellectuals, but they aren't ascetics to go with it; unlike the males, they actively enjoy earthly pleasures like food and, especially, sex.

So, I figure, benevolent as she may be, any sphinx who's been a queen for a couple centuries is probably more than a little spoiled from being able to have feasts of expertly cooked meat and exotic liqueurs whenever she wants, to say nothing of having a string of husbands who don't view sex as a nasty but necessary chore to undertake maybe once every decade at its most frequent.

Many thanks, I'm looking at it now. Hmm... would folks enjoy throwing their own suggestions into the ring for Appearance, Mannerisms, etc, or would you anons rather pick apart my own suggestions when I post them here?

Just gonna leave this here

I would hate to dictate stuff to you, but if you really want suggestions, I could toss some out.

I would prefer that you feel like you really own your concept, you know? I like to help, but I'd hate to seize your means of production and convert them to my own use, you get me?

>Appearance
Alright, she gets:
>Flamboyant or Outlandish clothes
Give her a sexy hat/headress thing and call it a day, this is a great idea. Maybe something exotic-looking to keep the girls in check and avoid scandalizing the children of the city.
>Piercings
Hmm, maybe one of those that studs through the side of the nose and connects to the ear. The name escapes me, but they're way cool. Something like that could be neat.
>Unusual skin color
I mean, she's not human, so this is kind of a wash, but I guess she can have some strange hue that varies from the norm wherever the city is. Not even that unexpected, really.

This is ridiculous

>can sometimes lead me to make bad decisions.

Like what, Sphinxanon?

Expanding on my Conan God-Impersonation idea
>Rather then bringing all the tribe together into on group Queen Kittie the Cat lets them set up at the edge of her ever expanding city, or in some cases they may even choose to live some distance away
>Each tribe goes about their own way of worship and as such their is conflict with other tribes and jockeying for the Queens attention
>Sometimes this has led to duels between champions, skirmishing and recently a near civil war.

Tons of potential hooks right there.

Oh, I likes that a lot. Maybe a historical figure from an age past led a Cat Crusade to quash non-believers in the area, and she could even personally intervene to protect the people, and ironically make herself even more worthy of veneration by protecting all the tribes.

Alright, let me see what ideas I can come up with then...

Appearance:
Wears several pieces of jewelry, the most ornate being a face-framing headpiece (her "crown") and a complex necklace, contrasting comparatively simple bracelets around her wrists and ankles. All are actually enchanted in various practical ways.

Considering maybe making her rather dark skinned compared to the more fair-skinned humans around her, but that idea feels a little wonky to me...

Actually, coloration in general is something I want to discuss.

Wings and fur are kept immaculately groomed. Constant groomers tend to her with various aromatic oils and perfumes, giving her a noticeably sweet scent. The precise aroma changes with her mood and other circumstances.

Talent:
Omniglot - centuries of practice means she speaks, reads and even writes pretty much every language in existence. In fact, she actively collects "dead" languages, making her the ultimate authority in that field for some.

Near-eidetic memory, which she gets quite a lot of use out of. If only for to keep the names of her fairly sizable family straight by this point.

Actually a really good cook; she certainly enjoys hiring good chefs to cater to her, but she can prepare some pretty amazing meals herself. Does tend to be a little focused on meats and sweets, though.

Mannerisms:
Motherly, for the most part, with a slight propensity towards well-meaning overbearingness. She's been ruling over a kingdom (and her own impressively sized family) for so long, so it kind of bleeds into how she interacts with them. Think the loving mother who, nonetheless, can't resist saying "Now, are you sure you got everything?" at the last minute before you go on a trip.

Additionally/alternatively, there's the idea she's big on the "help thyself" approach. She will help you, but she doesn't want to encourage you to hold her hand all the time. You need to learn to stand on your own two feet (as it were).

Mannerisms cont.
When she gets angry, the "cat" side of her starts to come out. Eyes narrow to slits, lips curl back to show teeth, tail starts to flick in agitation, claws extend and are lightly scraped over the floor. When you really piss her off, things get more obvious; she growls like an angry big cat, and if she speaks, it's an almost feral roar of rage.

When distracted or thinking, she tends to stare off into the distance, often mumbling snippets of riddles or sonatas in foreign languages as she thinks.

Not sure what to add for interactions with others. I think maybe I covered that in the last post?

Can I just take a moment to say I'm surprised Veeky Forums actually took an interest in this bit of setting-building? I wouldn't have thought "magocracy ruled by a gynosphinx founder" would have been that unique.

And I'm trying to avoid pushing the interspecies thing. It's more of a quirk of hers that she keeps "the sacrifice" going, it's not supposed to be the defining end-all, be-all of the city's culture. She's a legitimate ruler, she just has a peculiar peccadillo.

Bumping, but I really don't know where to proceed from here.

See, you're getting it, OP. I like her already.
You mentioned coloration as needing extra attention. Do you not like tawny lion fur?

>In fact, she actively collects "dead" languages, making her the ultimate authority in that field for some.

She should have a little golem or possessed Tome that only speaks an obscure dead language that's a comic relief sidekick/attendant/pet

>gynosphinx
>god-queen
>builds a reverse harem

Why don't you put a bullet in your brain?

Well, that's the thing; we tend to presume sphinxes look like lions, but that's not necessarily the case, is it? After all, is there any reason that they can't resemble leopards or cheetahs, or even big cats from other continents, like tigers?

Plus, even if she does have the standard tawny color for her fur, what about her wings, the skin on her human-like parts, her eyes and her hair?

For example, can she have wings of purest white, etched with intricate calligraphy to the point some of her feathers actually double as spell-scrolls, and she may even give one of these feather-scrolls to a worthy supplicant? Or is that just pretentious garbage not worthy of Veeky Forums?

>Actually a really good cook; she certainly enjoys hiring good chefs to cater to her, but she can prepare some pretty amazing meals herself. Does tend to be a little focused on meats and sweets, though.

Give it to me straight, OP. Are you waifucrafting? Because she's a total qtp2t.

Not in the slightest. If some user adopts her and uses her + her city in their game, what they do with her is their business. I'll never be able to use her in a game of mine, after all.

I'd go with lion for the faux-Persian city, but tiger or leopard could be really cool-looking.

The Feather-Scroll idea sounds really awesome. Did she put the calligraphy on herself, or did one of her beaus help do it?

Personally, the mental picture of her I like most has dusky skin, leopard-pelt patterned fur & hair, mint-green eyes, and the aforementioned "calligraphied" black-on-white wings.

I was thinking that using her wings to write on was a little jest from one of her earliest husbands, if not her first, and after he died, she kept it up and refined it as a way to to remember him. Plus, it has practical purposes, much like that "armor made of enchanted scrolls" from 4e.

Because I'm sure anons have seen the mentions and are sniggering, I'll be blunt: presupposing an average of 6 kittens to a litter, 10 litters per century, and a 99 to 1 maftet to gynosphinx rate, on this, her 600 year anniversary as queen, I figure "Asherah" here has a family consisting of 324 maftet daughters and 36 gynosphinx daughters. Not touching upon however many grandkids she may have.

Needless to say, even ignoring the magical realm possibilities, this ain't the city to visit if magical catgirls scare you.

...Actually, could a maftet work as a PC race in D&D 5e?

Just because I had to give it some thought...

Maftet, 1st Draft:
Ability Modifiers: +2 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
Wings: You have a Fly speed of 30 feet.
Training of the Sphinxkin: You have Proficiency with one of either Intelligence (Arcana) or the Scimitar.

So, like I touched upon above, why did anons take an interest in this character idea anyway?

Full disclosure: it hits some buttons I didn't know I had, which kinda scares me, now that I think about it.

Just Scimitar is pretty weak even compared to a freebie Arcana, imo.

Because I'm really more of an idea guy than anything else

>The city palace is built around a massive waterfall
>Beyond the waterfall is the ruins Queen Kitty the Cat came to research
>Having exhausted it of knowledge the Queen has turned to ruins into her a treasure trove of her accumulated knowledge that spell users of all sorts would kill for

>And I'm trying to avoid pushing the interspecies thing.
>Literally hundreds of mixed race descendants swarming around the city

Pick one.

But seriously, if you're worried about it overwhelming your concept, add some other institutions and events. Invent at least one holiday, festival, or other public event that she presides over on an annual basis right now!

Yeah, Maftets are that weird mix of weak and overpowered that makes it hard to wrangle a proper balance out of. Like a lot of Pathfinder stuff, more than anything.

For example, their actual best stats in PF are Dex (17) and Str/Con (16).

They favor scimitars, for cultural reasons - plus, as a +2 Dex race, scimitars actually work well with their Finesse trait - and specialize in dual-wielding. Yeah, I know, I can see the Drizzt comparisons, I don't want to make them like that.

Constant Magic Armor, Magic Weapon 3/day, Cat's Grace & Protection from Evil 1/day each, which obviously doesn't work for a racial trait in 5e.

"Runic Tattoos" that let it activate two SLAs with the same standard action.

40ft ground speed, 60ft flight.

So, yeah, I'm kind of struggling with what to let them have.

Do these count?

Festival of the Blooming Stars: A week-long celebration held once every year, in which the city's magic users compete to demonstrate new spells (or innovations for old spells) they have created. A celebration of magic's potential, feasts and festivities backed by magical illusions, fireworks, and arcane duels. She presides as the ultimate judge over some of the key events, and honors the most outstanding mages determined during the course of the festival - the greatest duellist, the most brilliant new spell created, etc - at its climax.

The Founder's Day Celebration: A solemn, day long ceremony held once every ten years, in which she leads the city's officials in both commemorating the founding of the city and promising to guide it into the future. Speeches, distribution of food and clothes to those in need, and a chance for any person to come to her and be given an audience about any problem they are having.

>10 litters per century
I would shave this down significantly. Even if the intent is to have a city full of of cat people you can accomplish that just as easily by having the first few generations intermarry with the other humans in the city.
I imagine the queen might have quite a lot of children at first, dropping off as the centuries go on. If there's a specific need for many children to maximize the chance of pureblood sphinxes then you can pick up the 'slack' of her aging and having less kids by some of her own kids having their own families.

>The centuries as queen, with access to a series of loving mates and luxurious foods, have spoiled me. I have developed quite the hedonistic appetite and my passion for pleasure can sometimes lead me to make bad decisions.

So she's a fucking cat

Literally all that's needs to be said. Her meowjesty is a fucking cat and therefore weak to good food, dick, scritches, pampering and flattery

Veeky Forums is interested strictly because it's about a god queen with a reverse harem of nerds

>Invent at least one holiday, festival, or other public event that she presides over
Keeping with the God Ruler deal we could have some sort of day with the changing of the seasons where she uses magic to help benefit her people
>Spring, spell to fertilize the fields for coming harvest
>Summer, drawing wild game near the city for hunter
>Fall, I dunno enchant rakes to handle the leaves
>Winter, summon thunder to light bonfires throughout the city

>She presides as the ultimate judge over some of the key events, and honors the most outstanding mages determined during the course of the festival - the greatest duellist, the most brilliant new spell created, etc - at its climax.

What kind of favor does the Sphinx-Queen grant to these champions? That sounds like an awesome little scene.

It's not really a reverse harem if they're dying off and then being replaced after death, in fairness.

>Her meowjesty
>mfw

She needs a bitch usurper daughter that craves the throne!

I hadn't really thought about it, in all honesty. The first thing to come to mind is that she presents them with either special magical items from her personal hoard of items she has created, or else with enchanted talismans made from her spell-inked feathers.

Ni no kuni is full of puns like that

The feather gifts are cute! CUTE!

Honestly, I think the spell-inked feathers thing is probably what captures the imagination most. It's a nice touch and I can imagine that, visually, it'd be pretty stunning.

So, give what's been talked about for the Sphinx Queen so far, what else does she need? Or has this thread served its basic purpose now?

The thread hasn't served it's purpose till more sphinxes are posted.

...

Random query because I can't think of anything setting relevant: do anons prefer sphinxes with human hands, or feline forepaws?

Feline paws, it helps distinguish them as a creature which participates in civilized society, but remains entirely apart from it's duldrum flow of work and labor. In this case it also makes sense why one would find it handy to keep a bunch of humanoids around.

Those crafty hands are so useful for creating all manner of indulgence and amusement to while away the centuries (sorta why cats stay around humans.)

What's her favorite color? Which husband was her favorite and why?

Feline paws, definitely. It would just be odd for them to have human hands. Wouldn't look right.

>It would just be odd for them to have human hands
maybe that's the intention

>if you have the Edge

White Wolf WOULD have a mechanic called the Edge in their card game.

They totally do.

Heres something to think about. She is a God-Queen, therefor she has a religion around her. Does she order her people how to practice her religion or does she just let them go about it how they will? Then how do the people go about worship?

You know, I hadn't originally meant it as in she's literally deified, just that she's pretty much the only queen they've ever had or see themselves ever having - sphinx near-immortality and all. But, it makes sense if they start worshipping her as a protector goddess and a magic goddess (and maybe even a fertility goddess, if her family's big enough). Hmm...

Well, from my take on the character, she mostly tries not to intervene in the matter; she doesn't really think of herself as a god, but she accepts it as one of those things that happens. So, she mostly leaves them to it, though she does take steps to come down on anybody with unappealing ideas.

For example, if some yahoo decides to try offering her genuine human sacrifice, she'd more likely incinerate them and then free the sacrifice.

For the most part, worship would be an informal affair; using her name as an invocation for good luck or safety, thanking her when things turn out well, dedicating a new spell or magic item to her... fairly low-key stuff.

>Then how do the people go about worship?

Over history, charismatic followers have attempted to codify or establish protocols and rituals. Some she tolerates, but some she has quashed as contrary to her beliefs in the past.

We might not have to choose

That's strange. I don't like it as much.

>Rebecca Guay
>Edgy in any shape or form