Chapter Text
Excerpt from a tome:
"Ethnographic Histories — Autobiographical Legends". Scholomance Archive floor 35, authored by Pangur Bán in the year 4331.
In the words of a Sphinx woman from Kha; There’s the two of us now— the Sphinx and Manticore, but before us, there was only the Mau.
We came from jungles in the west. On four legs at first, then two. We found the waters of Heka and drank from them, the first of all Spoken. We walked under the shade of the (uncertain— changing wood?). When Apep descended from the sky, we saw Him tear the day into night; and when ancient Mušḫuššu’s children forced us from the jungles, we settled first along the (mother river) and in the (dark jungle).
We watched the (furless, long-eared) tend their herds and build their huts, so much smaller than our palaces. They made herds of themselves like deer and hunted in groups of many. It was easier to catch them at night. They looked always to the sky for guidance, direction; they did not watch the bushes at their feet.
They could not speak our language or read our writing, but we learned to speak theirs. We mimicked their voices and their gestures. We grew to resemble them in their faces but kept our claws and teeth, and our wits.
When their cities grew larger, it became harder to hunt them. They ate fatter meals and became fatter themselves, too big to be snatched away, too comfortable to shake from the herd. As they grew stronger, they became envious of our wealth. We could not defeat them in great numbers, but we also wanted their (large meat). So we began to trade. When the (uncertain— very tall, furless, child) found us, our cities grew even richer. We lived among one another, sharing our knowledge of the Gods and their gifts, as the (furless, long-eared) and (very tall, furless, child) supped of the same waters.
They grew wiser, but never as wise as we, the first of all Spoken.
— Author’s notes;
Kha’hash is a difficult language to translate, particularly when it is spoken within its native land. Many words are unpronounceable by non-Mau speakers. Some words have been left without interpretation out of respect for the speaker’s traditions, as these proper names are believed to have great power.