| Thomas Jones |
In the Classic Monsters it is stated that
"Of all the males, only the criosphinx willingly helps rear its own young, often as part of the bargain for mating in the first place"
Why are the Androsphinxes unwilling to help raise their children? This does not seem to be in keeping with their good alignment.
Also, given that they are the product of a gynosphinxe being brutally raped by a Hieracosphinx why do gynosphinxes allow their hieracosphinx offspring to survive?
and as Yqatuba
pointed out
https://paizo.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Store.woa/wa/DirectAction/createNewPos t?post=v5748gbit9s7k&thread=v5748rzs42jqk#newPost
How a hieracosphinx would even be able to rape a gynosphinx in the first place since they are a lot more powerful. Plus a hieracosphinx has 6 int and a gynosphinx has 18 int so even if she was outnumbered seems like it would be easy for her to outsmart them and escape.
| Meirril |
First thing, don't get too caught up in the stats. All of this relationship stuff is related to the mythology that Sphinx came from.
Androsphinxes loathe Gynosphinxes as 'inferior' and the reason they won't raise their own young is because they leave the Gynosphinx as soon as they possibly can. Androsphinxes don't willingly seek out mates. They have to be cohersed into the act.
Gynosphinx is kind of a long suffering steriotype that loves her children no matter how much tragedy surrounds the circumstances. And considering her 3 possible types of partners, it is always a tragedy.
Hieracosphinx may not be bright, but they recognize blackmail and hostages just fine. If a Hieracosphinx can get any kind of leverage over a Gynosphinx they have no trouble using it to get their way.
And Criosphinx is just persistent. Their day comes eventually. And the relationship ends when the Gynosphinx leaves in disgust.
| thejeff |
I don't think the relationship stuff is really tied to the myths. The different variations in D&D are just attempts to reconcile various different mythological traditions of sphinxes, which weren't intended to interact with each other.
The interrelations between each kind seemed to have been invented out of whole cloth for D&D.
This ties into the Male versions of archetypically female monsters thread, since it's all based on crappy gender stereotypes.