#archaeosapient

A few days ago, I touched on my exomemories as an anymic sphinx in the Community of Time, a Dreamwidth community for archaeosapiens. “Treasure Sphinxes", as I've come to nickname my kind, are ancient beings who are not native to Earth. Although we're visually similar to sphinxes as seen in Earthen (specifically Greco-Roman) mythology, our relationship to the peoples of our home is rather different.

We were not guardians of sacred spaces, nor were we hunters of men. In my time, we were collectors and traders. We speak what we consider to be a universal language, that language being the art of bartering. From what I recall, we hold knowledge that is often kept hidden. It was in our very conception that we store the secrets and intrigue of men, as not everything in life is truly kept secret for long. If traded information or items of equal value, we unveil what is hidden. What happens beyond that lies in the hands of those who seek us.

I wouldn’t exactly call our practice a kind of “wish-granting”, per se. It’s an exchange between parties mundane and the mystical, but it is one of mutual gain. Typically, we share nothing if we aren’t given anything of our own to learn from or chew on. Sometimes, when men cannot exchange wits with us, they offer precious materials for our trades instead. While we do not accumulate these metals and gemstones for the sake of wealth as our visitors do, we still regard them as valuable for their nutritional properties. If not for our sustenance, they make fine displays of our individuality as Treasure Sphinxes. I expanded upon this in my original Dreamwidth journal:

“These properties strengthen our golden claws and gold-plated "faces"; they are still and statuesque, serving as protection for our real faces…. Adornments are also a big part of our culture as beings. After all, not all offerings made by neighboring civilians are eaten. Some of which are repurposed into personal accessories for our manes. Others are worn around our necks or tails.”

- Mythic Archaeosapience, Anymic Sphinxes and Other Exomemories (2024)

From this information by itself, one could gather that my kind are ornate entities in the past we hail from. Sculpted, gold-plated faces that protect our true visages, gilded claws and jewelry that we’ve collected from our visitors each are ways that embody why I’ve come to refer my species as “Treasure Sphinxes” in passing. Although we are do not exclusively eat “treasures” (we are also carnivorous), our consumption of these materials also earns us this nickname.

Based on our features, however, one can imagine that we aren’t always sought for what we know. It is common for the “heroes” of men to hunt us for our physical assets. I recall seeing sphinxes whose true faces were left exposed and damaged because their gold-plated faces were forcibly hacked off by these “heroes”. Others were held prisoner and declawed. Some were fully taken down like big game and had their adornments stolen. It is a violation that I wish on no being.

In many myths on Earth, heroes slain beasts like me as a test of strength or as a means of pursuing their destinies. In the myths of the world I’m still piecing together, these “heroes” have nothing to prove but their own greed. I can at least understand how mythic heroes of Earth are meant to represent human triumph over adversity, but I am afraid that the people within my exomemories cannot afraid an excuse like that. They abandon balance in favor of access, and this is where the problem arises.

The reality of my lived mythos is that I rarely express distrust of civilians as they are not eager to harm me. Instead, for me, the image of a mythic “hero” has become one of hubris. Within these specific exomemories, mythic “heroes” are the epitome of feeling above authority, of feeling that their desires trump any and all consequences. Poachers and hunters do not feel like a proper word to describe these individuals as we sphinxes are equal parts animalistic and sapient. We prefer to assume a form that is closer to animality, but we can easily assume forms that are closer to anthropomorphism as well. Neither matters in the grand scheme of things as we etched into the stories of many as either beings of unending knowledge and awareness or beings to be sought by the arrogant and the cruel.

I experience a duality in perspective based on my exomemories as an anymic sphinx and as a current resident of Earth. As a sphinx that is not known to exist on Earth, my feelings towards heroes of ancient times are hostile. While no figure on Earth has brought me harm, I have exotrauma pertaining to the violence committed by these figures. I had a damaged wing because of it. Although I came out of that encounter alive, that does not make it any less of an intense experience.

However, Earth’s own ancient heroes had become subjects of interest to me both as a writer and as a student in the humanities field. In this world, my fascinations with antiquity, specifically cultural mythos and folklore within various civilizations, is what inspired me to take up cultural anthropology as a focus in college. From mythicized kings (such as Ban of Benoic, Sundiata and Goldemar) to heroes of epic journeys (such as Gilgamesh, Odysseus and Sun Wukong), the stories tied to these individuals invoked something within me. Their storytelling, their cultural importance, their timeless presence, all of it had made me appreciative of what these figures meant to the people of this world.

At first, it felt strange to have such an impasse in emotions. These were figures that I loathed. Then, I realized that I had such contrasting perspectives on them because I had come to see what they were like to others beyond where my species came from. That isn’t to say the heroes of Earth don’t also have their flaws— they most certainly do as hubris can exist anywhere — however, I knew in the long run that I knew of people like this in a completely separate context to Earth’s own heroes of the past. From where my species hailed, there was not much recognition of these individuals given their actions against entities such as myself. It feels almost like looking into a parallel world seeing how different the relationship between the mundane and the mythic, based on my exomemories of my species and where we actually come from:

“Plenty of townfolks would regard us as divine beings. I have come across the occasional mural, sculpture or pottery in our likeness. That said, I do not feel all that divine in this form. Perhaps, it's to be expected with archaic periods of time. I can understand how people could see the existence of beings such as myself as an act of their gods. I don’t know the full details myself, so who am I to deny them that?”

- Mythic Archaeosapience, Anymic Sphinxes and Other Exomemories (2024)

Furthermore, as I said before, it is not a matter of disdain to their people as a whole. The average person of this particular world and its time have not harmed those like me. I am more likely to feel safer around a petty thief from a nearby village, who largely can’t offer me anything or do me any physical harm, than I would with an armored brute on the lookout for a self-fulling prophecy. I’ve found attempted theft from the former has led to less deadly encounters than that of the latter. Normally, if they needed a necklace or a gold piece on my mane so boldly, I would simply take it off and give it to them. They clearly have more use for it than I do. Moreover, they appear a lot more fearful than audacious. Given the amount of greed I’ve seen on Earth, I figured a little understanding could go a long way for a petty thief in an antiquitous age.

The same cannot be said about “heroes”, for they do not respect the connection that our communities share. In the beginning, it sounds like a very elaborate symbiotic relationship in the grand scheme of things. Yet, I’ve found that it is a bit more deeper than that. We understand each other as beings just trying to live and make sense of our place in this world. We instill a bit of wonder and curiosity within each other, and we act accordingly based on it:

“It's not a matter of being a spectacle to others as there have been moments where I've entered full-blown scholarly discussions with visiting villagers or have even taught some simply because I felt like it and was already accommodated in some way… We equally depend on each other at times, and for a moment, we confide in each other… There is a point where the mundane and the mythic agree that we all share the world, no matter how far apart in experience we may be.”

- Mythic Archaeosapience, Anymic Sphinxes and Other Exomemories (2024)

In the aging, mythic world that my species originates from, we are not the enemy along the way. We are not the imposing entity that stands between you and your destiny. We are not the voracious monster that kills for the sake of killing. We share this earth as any other. It is no fault of our own that we are targeted for the parts of bodies that may give a man a sense of accomplishment. Our faces, our claws, our very being is for us and us alone. Sometimes, it is hard to draw the line between respect and reverence but I know enough to recognize that those who understand this truth are our neighbors and companions.

I still have much to uncover when it comes to my species and our place of origin, but I am well aware of how it exists within my archaeosapience. Part of me also speculates on whether or not it is both folcinteric and archaeosapient in nature, but that is an introspection for another day.