Editing Awnshegh (section)

==[[Sphinx| The Sphinx]]==
Originally, the Sphinx was a Blooded human [[wizard]] named Danil the Inquisitive, who went on an expedition to track one of the legendarily vicious dire lions known as "savannah cats" in the domain of Zikala, whose inhabitants hoped they were extinct. Turned out they were wrong, and Danil was eaten by one. Yet weirdly, this didn't kill him; instead, his spirit merged with the creature, placing his brain in control of the dire lion's body, and he became an awnshegh. Unfortunately, the lion's mind is still in there too, and it occasionally wrestles away control, making the Sphinx prone to fits of incredibly violent rage - which is very dangerous since he can literally rip a man limb from limb with one swipe of his bare paws!

The Sphinx resembles a massive lion whose forepaws have started to become more human-like, most notably gaining a primitive thumb, and whose muzzle has grown shorter and more human-like. This has accelerated within the last few decades, and restored his spellcasting abilities as a 12th level wizard again. In addition to his claw attack, which functions as a ''vorpal sword'', he can also unleash a Fear or Divine Aura blood ability with his roar, can intuitively command and control any cat, and he has the Regeneration (Great) trait, making him extra hard to kill.

The dry, broken badlands ruled over by the Sphinx have no formal name, but lie north of Zikala and east of Binsada. The locals are mostly subsistence hunter-gatherers and herdsmen, and consist of a mixture of [[human]]s, [[goblin]]s and [[gnoll]]s, as well as legions of large cats - cheetahs, leopards, jaguars, lions and savannah cats. The domain is also home to the Sphinx's offspring with various feline and human mates, ranging from unusually intelligent great cats to full-fledged [[catfolk]], although these Sphinx-kin aren't really described in any detail. The Sphinx rules over a strict caste system; the Sphinx at top, under which in descending order are the Paw caste (feline clan-leaders and the Sphinx-kin; makes up 1% of the population), the Slept caste (elite felines, humanoid business owners, spellcasters, and members of the ''khourseti alif'', or "Hands of the Sphinx", which are the Sphinx's direct servants - this caste accounts for 7% of the population), the Purr caste (any feline not part of the Paw or the Slept; makes up 92% of the feline population), and the Tuft caste (any humanoid that isn't part of the Slept), which has absolutely no rights and is basically a slave caste.