Sphinx

Advertisement

Powers and Abilities

The Sphinx possesses the incredible powers of the Ka stone, enabling him to control reality on many levels. He has access to a multitude of mental powers and controls matter and reality on very powerful levels.

When he has absorbed huge quantities of energy, such as those of the Xandarian supercomputers, he turns into a space god. In this state he’s nearly on-par with the likes of Galactus himself. Some have called his power near-infinite. His energy absorbing powers tend to increase once he has started absorbing energy, life-force or Ka-power.

The Ka stone makes the Sphinx immortal. As a result he is very hard to damage, heals damage quickly and seems to be capable of coming back to life anew.

During his five millennia long life he has learned many skills. These include archaeology, biology, chemistry, computer science, genetics, linguistics, medicine, occult, physics and mesmerism.

History

The man who would become the Sphinx used to be the chief wizard of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II . But the wizard’s apparent magical abilities proved to be inferior to the demonstrated powers of the captured Israeli leader Moses . As a result, Ramses banished the wizard.

Advertisement

The wizard began his long wanderings. After several years stumbled upon a temple of unknown origin inside which he found the Ka stone lying. This stone seemed to be semi-sentient. It seemed to bid him to touch his forehead with the stone. The moment he did so the stone affixed itself to him and imbued him with vast superhuman powers and immortality.

Dazed by the powerful energies the wizard collapsed and was nursed back to health by a lonely outcast woman. This woman, Meryet, fell in love with the Sphinx. She would later become the second Sphinx.

Immortal drifter

The transformed wizard assumed the name The Sphinx and spent the next 5000 years traveling around the world without purpose. He involved himself in whatever seemed interesting.

During some stage of his existence the Sphinx became utterly bored with his immortal life. He began to search for means to free him of the Ka stone in order to end his existence. Hearing of a mystic, enigmatic entity whose powers rivaled his own, he traveled to the Himalayas encountering the being Sayge.

However Sayge refused to help him. He instead tormented him with the picture of the Sphinx’s unalterable destiny of eternal life. The being Sayge, known to some as Veritas, met the Sphinx several times over the years that followed.

By the time of the mid-20^th century he had probed thousands of minds for means to end his existence. At one point probing the mind of Richard Rider aka Nova he found out about the planet Xandar and its planet-sized computer.

To Xandar

The Sphinx thought that this was the way of thwarting the Ka Stone. However, he was unable to probe all knowledge of this planet from Rider. Later the Sphinx learned about the planet Xandar from the being called the ’living computer‘ Quasimodo. The Sphinx thereafter pressured Rider and the latter’s allies into taking him to Xandar in Rider’s starship.

Reaching Xandar the Sphinx absorbed the total sum of that world’s accumulated knowledge. He also drained tremendous amounts of energy from its planet-sized computer. Now, at last, the Sphinx had the knowledge and power to end his own existence. He did, however, abandon his goals of suicide and instead decided on returning to Earth to destroy it.

Nova warned the Fantastic Four. Realizing this immense threat, the Four contacted and bargained with the world-devourer Galactus to battle the Sphinx. Galactus did defeat the Sphinx on Earth. He drained him of the absorbed energy, plucked the Ka Stone from his forehead and crushed it.

Galactus sent the Sphinx back in time to relieve his life over and over eternally in a time loop, fulfilling the prophesies of Sayge.

Groundhog life

But Galactus forgot to take into account that the Sphinx already existed in the time period where he sent him. In that time period there were now two Sphinxes. They met at the point in time where the Sphinx first discovered the Ka Stone. The future Sphinx told the other what Galactus had done. The two worked out a scheme by which they could escape the fate Galactus had planned for them.

Using the future Sphinx’s knowledge they built a machine able to reform the Ka Stone after Galactus had crushed it. The future Sphinx then hypnotized the young Sphinx into forgetting their meeting, and put himself into suspended animation.

Some months after Galactus had defeated the Sphinx, the Sphinx emerged from his five millennia of sleep. He then began using the machine to restore the Ka Stone, but clashed with the Thing before completely doing so. The Thing destroyed the machine and the Ka Stone began to slowly disintegrate.

The Sphinx, deprived of his immortality and enraged by this, tried to kill the thing. But the Thing’s enemy the Puppet Master, however, believed he owed the Thing a debt of gratitude and intervened, used one of his mystical puppets to take control of the Sphinx’s mind. The controlled Sphinx was ordered to take the Ka Stone from his brow and crush it into dust.

As soon as he did so the Sphinx’s body succumbed to rapid aging and withered, turning finally to dust itself.

Meryet Karim

The Sphinx’s existence, however, was not so easily destroyed. During one of the infinite time loops that would eventually lead to this demise, history was changed.

This wasn’t done by the Sphinx, but by the woman who married him, who’d become the second Sphinx. Subconsciously using the scepter of Ka, Meryet arranged for it so that the Sphinx defeated Moses before the Pharaoh’s court. This action that greatly changed all future history of the world.

In the words of Sayge: “The mistake that made this a world of lies occurred in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. The Hebrew leader, Moses, confronted the Pharaoh and demanded his people be freed. He cast his staff to the ground and it turned into a giant snake. The Pharaoh’s wizard did likewise, and his snake proved to be superior to the one created by Moses – the Egyptian’s magic, superior to that of the Hebrew.

It was at this crucial moment that history was made wrong. Moses was defeated and promptly slain by the Pharaoh’s honor guard. The Pharaoh was very pleased by the performance of his great wizard. So pleased, in fact, that the wizard became the Pharaoh’s most trusted confidant – actively involved in every facet of the Empire’s growth over the following years.

Decades later, the life of the great wizard and that of the Egyptian Empire would be greatly altered.

The Bible retconned

While working on a sandstorm highway for travel between Cairo and Memphis, a work team found themselves engulfed in a sirocco  of tremendous proportions. The winds blew away the sand and revealed the fabled Temple of Ka.

The sole survivor of the sirocco was a peasant serving woman. She entered the temple and discovered the Ka stone. She returned to Cairo and she turned the stone over to the great wizard.

It sang to him, pulsing in his hands, as he nervously placed in on his forehead… In many ways, destiny was fulfilled. As in the main timeline  the great wizard was transformed into the immortal being known as the Sphinx ! A being with the ability to alter reality to his every whim, and the responsible conscience against doing so.

He took the woman that found the stone as his wife. He granted her, through his presence, the gift of immortality. Together, they advised a succession of Pharaohs, serving the rulers of Egypt over several centuries. The world proceeded apace with the discovery of the New World, the rebellion of the colonized states and the established United States of Assyria.

Brave new worlds

Decades later, an internal civil war wracked the Assyrian states. This resulted in the abolishment of slavery and freedom for pale-skinned peoples. Through this all, the Sphinx and his wife quietly, intelligently and passionately guided the course of modern civilization. Great through his powers were, he chose the open hand to the closed fist.

The beginning of this century saw the coming of the first Great War. The Anglo-Slavic states of Europa and Slovakia became embroiled in a deadly culture clash.

But the Sphinx (Meryet Karim) was eventually defeated by Nova and other heroes, aided by the mysterious Sayge. The original time-line reasserted itself.

Perpetual returns

The original Sphinx made another attempt to become a cosmic god anew by absorbing the memories of Xandar and its supercomputers from Nova. But he failed and was destroyed when Nova destroyed the second Ka-stone that the Sphinx was using to increase his powers.

The Sphinx made another appearance to destroy the Warriors and recreate the world in his image. But was stopped by the Warriors, Veritas the Sayge and Meryet Karim. In the end, the Sphinx chose to join Karim in a physical and spiritual union, giving him a new reason for living.

Description

The Sphinx has no hair. He has completely red eyes with black lines around both eyes. His face, often in a grin, appears to be a veiled evil. His skin has that weird grayish comic book Egyptian tone. Only his face and hands are visible beneath the clothing.

He wears a purple costume covering most of his body except his face and the hands. On-top he wears large green boots, a green toga, and a tight green hood with bat-ears covering his shoulders and his head except for the face.

Around his waist, over the toga, he wears a red metallic belt with a purple-orange Ankh, the symbol of eternal life. He also wears red metallic armbands around both arms apparently of the same material as his belt.

The Sphinx himself has an exceptional built and a remarkable physique and radiates power on all levels. He is immediately recognized as a powerful being or even entity by either friend or foe. His Egyptian origin is also very easily realized by a quick glance upon him and his clothes.

Personality

Through most of his life, the Sphinx was obsessed with finding a way to end his immortal life. He found eternal life to be utterly boring. He spent much time seeking release from the Ka Stone’s influence. One might say that he has lived to endure his many years, rather than choosing to live it.

After absorbing the power of the Xandar computer, the Sphinx forgot all thoughts of suicide. He now wanted more power to conquer and destroy. The Sphinx was a very vengeful man, never forgetting an insult. He was also a very intelligent and extremely resourceful man having lived for five millennia.

Having traveled around the entire world he had learned a large number of languages, sciences (both technological and mystical) and perfected the use of his powers. The driving force of information gathering had been so that he might end his existence. His technological/mystical knowledge was of such magnitude that he could build incredible machinery by using only the most basic of components.

Driven

The Sphinx preferred not to speak too much, but instead usually planned and got lost in deep thoughts, speaking only when need be. Usually under total control of himself, he could if feeling desperate, for example while meeting Sayge or failing to end his existence, lose control and fall into great rage lashing out against whatever was near.

The Sphinx was thus a very obsessed and straight-forward being doing what he felt was necessary to do to end his existence and later to destroy his enemies. Still, he has, on occasion, played the hero in earlier times in history.

The Sphinx always bore a strong hatred and fear of the being known as Veritas the Sayge, the Living Embodiment of Truth. He tends to mutter “Not you again…” when Veritas shows up, which he always eventually does before the Sphinx is defeated.

The Sphinx is convinced that Veritas shows up only to attempt to disturb his plans and to belittle him in every possible way at the worst possible occasion. Having lost to Nova on several occasions, he really dislikes the hero and will avoid him if possible. It has been suggested that the Sphinx has a wish fulfillment problem in which he desires to fail in his endeavors.

Forever again

After he was cursed by Galactus, the Sphinx was trapped in an eternal time loop. He immediately fell back from cosmic status to his usual self, and was once more denied the peace that he had as a higher being. With each loop, however, he could vaguely remember that which had passed before, and he had the power to change the events as they would otherwise have occurred.

Thus, each loop is filled with minor differences, and he’s gaining both knowledge and power from each new loop of time that he relives.

His loathing of the time-loops he experiences is so great that he gladly sends opponents into alternate realities to relive their lives much like he has been forced to do. After losing his cosmic status, he no longer wanted to die, but to attain utter godhood anew. His plans, therefore, took on more active roles in which he could drain the needed energies to attain his old glory again.

He also started to talk a lot more than before, even to himself. He even tended to gloat most of the time in battle. It is typical of him to muse to himself with a wry smile while insulting his opponents with a play of words. When his goals would be attained, he planned to destroy Earth, Xandar and Galactus himself and free him of the time-looping curse.

Pride immortal

Although the Sphinx wanted to die during most of his existence, he has always been a very proud and stubborn man. If his honor is insulted, he’s bound to seek out the reason behind such an insult and probably also execute the insulting party.

The glory of old Egypt is not to be trifled with either ; one of his fondest wishes is to see the glory of Ancient Egypt revitalized. In fact, once he has managed to increase his powers somehow, the first task he does, when he’s alone, is to remodel reality into a modern version of ancient Egypt.

What changes occurred to the Sphinx’s personality after he joined himself with the second Sphinx, who’d loved him for five millennia, remains to be seen. They appeared to be at peace and in happiness last time they were seen anywhere, though.

Quotes

“If I am ever to stop the incessant redundancy of my life, I must seek out once more a guardian of this universe – to absorb from him that which I require.”

“At last ! Vengeance will be mine ! Now you will give me that which I seek or I will destroy this very planet ! (thrak-kakadoom)”

“Your entire lives, filled as they are with love and sorrow and madness and joy are but the blinking of an eye to me !! And your words here today, and your valor, and ultimately your deaths, will mean but nothing to me when your bones are but dust in the ground ! Can you comprehend that ? Can you see why your lives, all lives, must have no relevance to mine ?”

DC Universe History

The Sphinx is an utterly powerful being and should not be used as anything else but as such. In a powerful campaign the Sphinx could cooperate with others to achieve the ending of his existence although it is more probable that he would work by himself.

In his cosmic form he will be a true destroyer backing against nothing and crushing all resistance. It is advised that this form only be used as letting the players witness the battles of cosmic beings and not battling him.

In the DC Universe, The Sphinx would have been a contemporary of Nabu and Prince Khufu in ancient Egypt. The Ka Stone is a Lord of Order, like Nabu within the helm. The Sphinx wants power and order, and his destiny is a perfectly predictable loop, which would be much to the liking of the Lords of Order.

The woman who first found the Ka Stone (and who’d later become the second Sphinx) was gifted/cursed with the power of conscious reincarnation, much like Hawkman and Hawkwoman. Clearly, there are similarities in their stories, and I’d be tempted to make the original Sphinx into the wizard of Khufu.

That slot, however, is already taken by Nabu, but perhaps the Pharaoh had two wizards under his service at one point of time, which would have been an uncommon and rivalrous situation.

Two options

There are two viable options: The Sphinx was the archmage of a later Pharaoh (which seems to be suggested by his Marvel Universe history) or the Sphinx was the original wizard, but was replaced by Nabu after he was cast out (by Prince Khufu?) after losing to Moses.

The Sphinx would have had a team-up with Black Adam at some early point of time, but would later on have gone on to ignore his status as an agent of the Lords of Order (consider him a failed experiment) and just went on in his quest to die. Then Nabu came along and fixed up the Dr Fate stuff etc, which was more to the Lords of Order’s liking (if there is such a thing).

Another interesting note; he was placed in a predictable time loop, a situation that the Lords of Order certainly would like, by Galactus. Perhaps then, Galactus is, in some way, an aspect of the Lords of Order himself. Given Galactus’s devastating line of work, though, I’d be tempted to say he’s a Lord of Chaos himself.

Best, however, might be to make him into an enigma working for both sides of the coin à la the In-Betweener.

By Dr. Peter S Piispanen.

Helper(s): Sébastien Andrivet, Danielle Mendus.

Source of Character: Fantastic Four, New Warriors & Nova comics, Marvel Universe.