Sphinxes and gryphons
Sphinxes are carnivorous birds with feline-like behaviors, and Gryphons are carnivorous winged lion-like felines, both have snake tails and are known to have an important place in the history of almost all feline countries, they share most of their culture and can almost always be found together.
Social hierarchy
Sphinxes are distinguished by 4 main social hierarchy classes.
The snake tail
Sphinxes and gryphons have in common a snake tail with its own consciousness and personality, the inside of which is anatomically connected to their host's stomach, allowing the host to feed through them.
The interpretation of the role of the snake's tail is based on the premise that all animals become violent, irritable and irrational the more they are hungry, and as such, the lively, spontaneous snake tail symbolize the savagery that naturally come with intense hunger, in contrast to the sphinx/gryphon host, who has to remain calm under all circumstances. Sphinxes and gryphons felt they had to maintain self-control because, unlike other species, they had tails to express their more animalistic and instinctual behavior toward food, and this has contributed enormously to the non-violent, intellectual image that both species have today.
The interpretation of the tail's role has evolved over the centuries, and its original meaning has now disappeared. They hosts have come to understand that their tails are simply individuals in their own right, with moods and desires just like them.
Shamanism
Philosophy
Gryphons in particular used to practice shamanism, a godless religion whose main dogma is that magic does not impregnate blood and flesh, but the bones of animals, which they believe is the main reason why flesh rots while bones do not. As a result, they are known to wear the bones of their preys as ornaments, believing it increases their magical power.
These beliefs impact the way practitioners hunt, consume and interact with their prey, trying as little as possible to injure them in combat, thanks to weapons made paradoxically to damage as little as possible, fighting methods oriented towards the prey's submission, and an overemphasis on magics that immobilize the enemy without harming their flesh, such as sleep magics, or, as seen with Leona, magics that allow the user to feed on the victim's soul, the culmination of their magic powers.
Shamanism downfall
Scientific progress has shown that it is indeed the blood that circulates magic, and in response, shamanism has been considerably reduced over the years. Today, shamanism is seen as archaic by the vast majority of sphinxes and gryphons.
One of the counter-arguments of the remaining adepts is that the gryphon shamans of their time had overpowering magics, unlike today's gryphons, and were therefore in the right, which science counter-argues with the fact that their whole culture was centered on magic at the time, which helped them develop their powers, and that this has nothing to do with whether magic is in the bones or not.
Regain in popularity
Shamanism has been gaining popularity in recent years among some gryphons, who would like to see more gryphons among the megafauna and believe that the overpowering magic of shamans would help reach such a level.
Some other gryphons are pointing out that shamans were known to be excellent hunters but with a fundamentally pacifist ideology, they see shamanic philosophy as a non-violent lifestyle and even a way to honor the memory of preys by sanctifying their remaining bones once they've been eaten.