Ptricia winced. "Even a brief summary is going to take a couple of days... solid!"<br/><br/>"As to where I was born, it would be around 1250 BC by modern reckoning, or in other terms towards the end of the 19th dynasty. I honestly couldn't place it any better than that. The original sphinxes were created almost a century earlier, as guardians for the modt important temples and tombs. I trace my fathers line from Someti the Nubian, through Tolama the Lightning One. We Nubians sphinxes were designed as pursuit creatures trading off some of the strength and toughness of our lion component for enhanced speed and agility from the cheetah."<br/><br/>She shook her head. "It wasn't a sucessful experiment, since our main job was still guarding places, and we were weaker, but the demand was great enough that our line was bred back into the main group. I was the only one in my litter who showed the cheetah markings, and it caused... problems. I know you want to learn about this, but it's still a painful subject for me. Can we just say my cubhood was particularly happy. I was weakest of my siblings, and most of them... my elder sister was the worst."<br/><br/>"You have to remember we were designed as guard units, and like dogs bred for the same purpose we were _supposed_ to be vicious. Add that to the fact that it takes time, far longer than an emepheral to learn wisdom and restraint, partly because we weren't placed in the most nurturing environment... well, you've seen what happens when I go to full combat mode. A few years after I was born, I was taken away to guard the tomb of the High Priest Poliputaketlon, and spent pretty much the next century sealed up in the tunnels."