Belltower Sphinx

Unlike sphinxes found elsewhere, the sphinxes of Ravnica are both relatively common to find, and nothing like the monstrously dangerous creatures adventurers might be used to. Instead, sphinxes on Ravnica are most often found in service of the Azoriius Senate, keeping law and order for the citizens of Ravnica, and using the wisdom granted to them by their long lives and affinity for magical study to devise new laws for Ravnica, and magical ways of ensuring those laws remain unbroken. But while most sphinxes choose to work for Ravnica, a few, such as the belltower sphinx, might be found in other types of work, such as serving as spies and informants for the highest bidders, or those with access to materials and resources a sphinx might otherwise have trouble accessing.   Eye Over the Streets A belltower sphinx takes its name from the habit such creatures have of perching on the stone gargoyles and buttresses of these same buildings, using the fact that belltowers are placed above other nearby buildings to more easily watch over the actions of those below. For a belltower sphinx, information is the ultimate form of currency, used by the sphinx as payment to members of the guilds in return for other goods and services. The people of Ravnica rarely look up as they go about their daily business, with their view of the open sky usually obscured by the looming towers above them, meaning a belltower sphinx is capable of watching a target for hours or days without detection, perhaps longer if thir quarry doesn’t regularly check for someone who might be tailing them. This watching and waiting is made all the easier by the belltower sphinx’s appearance- with skin made of rock, and hard and craggy facial features that look like they’ve been carved from stone, a belltower sphinx passes easily for one of the any hundreds of statues found on every Ravnican building of importance.   Legacy of Stone A belltower sphinx doesn’t just look to be made of stone- every part of their body is actually animated rock, with the same toughness and durability of a stone building. This unusual trait is the result of a Simic program, which attempted to mix the traits of the righteous sphinxes with those of the more readily wicked gargoyles, in an attempt by the guild to make their own sphinx watchers. The Simic succeeded in their program, but the gargoyle blood in the resulting sphinxes diluted their magical power and incredible intelligence, and the Simic considered their not-quite-perfect results to be total failures, discarding them to the streets, where the sphinxes found little sympathy from their larger and more lawful brethren. With little other choice, the belltower sphinxes turned to mercenary work, making money selling information on each guild to the others. By doing so, many of these sphinxes hope to fund research which might some day find a way to cure them of their stone visage, changing them into true sphinxes that might find acceptance among their kind.