Rahlmaat, reborn's page

Rahlmaat in her natural form is a large, powerfully-built sphinx, roughly seven feet tall at the shoulder and twice that in length. Her head is that of a Garundi woman, black-haired and brown-skinned, while her body is that of a large and muscular lioness with a broad pair of falcon’s wings (Like a Lanner falcon) on her back. Ancient hieroglyphs and arcane sigils decorate her flanks, forehead, and wings, seemingly painted or in a few cases somehow chiseled into her fur, feathers, and flesh, but are actually woven so deep into her being that they will regrow even if cut out.

Rahlmaat seems to view existence with a sort of detached amusement, save for when she’s on the trail of some new mystery, at which point she displays a fierce, unwavering focus. She views all existence as a sort of grand riddle, which she could solve if only she were to gather enough knowledge, and so she constantly searches for new lore and hidden secrets. She seems to care little for other people unless they prove themselves her intellectual equals--a rare feat, given her millenia of learning.

Deep in the deserts of Osirion on Golarion, far from any city or known oasis, an ancient temple carved into a cliffside sits within a hidden depression. Since ancient times this temple has been guarded by a sphinx, the responsibility passed from mother to daughter in an unbroken chain reaching back to the times of the earliest pharaohs. Potent wards and clever illusions hide this place from prying eyes, along with the harsh and barren desert around it.

Rahlmaat had known for a long time that she would take up her lineage’s responsibility, and so she used the time before she had to take up the charge to travel, returning every year or two to make certain all was well and spend some time being further taught of the wards and secrets of the temple before leaving again in search of more mysteries to unravel. The only breaks in this cycle were the three times she raised a litter of cubs, including beginning to teach her eldest daughter Akila about the responsibility to guard the temple.

For Rahlmaat from a young age was more driven and focused than the average sphinx, constantly thirsting for new challenges, new riddles to solve, new knowledge to learn, and new opponents to test her wits against. In so doing she grew in knowledge and power, as well as making contacts in many places… though of course most of them died of old age in less than a century. She came to view the universe itself as one grand riddle, of which all secrets were only smaller parts. Yet one riddle she never solved in spite of her best efforts was just what was contained within the temple her lineage guarded--for only the current guardian was allowed within, and in all her years of searching she could find no mention of it.

Almost as if information about the temple had been deliberately suppressed.

She was with her mother when the attack came. A blue dragon, having penetrated the illusions and wards around the area, assaulted the temple, convinced there must be treasures within. With typical draconic arrogance the attacker did not turn back even when faced with a trio of sphinxes, and so battle raged through the little valley. The match was fairly even, though in truth Akila could contribute but little compared to her elders.

Eventually the dragon got its fangs around Rahlmaat’s mother’s neck. Enraged, Rahlmaat leaped upon the dragon’s back, tenaciously clinging to it while ripping into it with her claws until it at last fell. Then she turned to her mother, just in time for her to proclaim Rahlmaat the defender of the temple with her dying breath.

The two surviving sphinxes feasted well on dragon flesh that night.

Rahlmaat wasted no time in making changes. Seeing the need for more guardians she invited a tribe of maftets to live in the little valley before delving into the temple herself. Within she found many treasures, both of books and scrolls and of gold and gems. But… little more. Nothing to justify such protections.

It was then she realized there was a riddle here--a riddle built into the very stones of the temple. Throwing herself into solving it, barely noticing the passing of days, Rahlmaat at length discovered a hidden sequence of stones which opened a way deeper into the temple. There she found hidden secrets of arcane power, enough to satisfy her for many years.

And when those ran out, she realized there was another level to the riddle.

Over the centuries she continued to unravel the secrets of the temple she guarded, each time emerging from its depths more powerful and more knowledgeable than before. But with her growing intellect came a growing dissatisfaction. She took to visiting the planes from time to time, searching for mental stimulation she no longer found on Golarion. During those times when she had to remain at the temple and guard it, she often spent nights scrying distant locations simply to keep herself amused.

Eventually she could take it no longer. She invested Akila with the full duties and powers of the guardian of the temple and left for the planes. By now an elder sphinx, Rahlmaat was not content to leave her body as a statue and explore with her mind alone like others of her kind. Instead she traveled bodily to the different planes, delving deeper and deeper into their mysteries, ever searching for more pieces of what she termed the “riddle of existence”.

She did not relent in using what she learned to improve herself, and of course her ever-growing knowledge of magic also increased her powers, meaning she was powerful enough to have little fear even in the most dangerous corners of the planes. This may well have contributed to her eventual demise.

While exploring the First World sometime after passing her fifth millennium of age, Rahlmaat found something she had been searching for for a long time--a fragment of the earliest days of creation, still clinging to existence in spite of long ages of neglect. Exploring it, she started to see patterns she had never encountered before in the underpinnings of the planar fragment. So engrossed was she in her discoveries that she almost didn’t notice the maddened creatures that had followed her into the fragment.

Annoyed by the interruption, she annihilated them with a powerful spell and returned to her study… unaware that her spell had disrupted the delicate balance keeping the ancient fragment intact. Slowly at first, then more swiftly, the very framework of reality began to crumble around her. Even so she noticed it happening in time to escape… but just as she was about to, she saw in the unraveling plane… something.

Transfixed by a moment of enlightenment and convinced of her own power, she lingered too long. By the time she remembered her peril the very nature of magic itself was warping about her, causing powers long familiar to twist and bend around her paws, slipping from her grasp as she tried to grip it with her will.

As the fragment shattered into nonexistence and Rahlmaat was annihilated along with it, three thoughts filled her mind. First, that it was a tragedy that she should die in the very moment of her greatest enlightenment. Second, regret that she had become too arrogant to escape when the opportunity had still been there.

And third… that there was a certain humor in the fact that she, arguably the greatest of all cats, was being felled at last by curiosity unrestrained.