Sphinx (Honorverse)

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Sphinx is fictional planet in the "Honorverse", a series of books by David Weber. It is the fourth planet of Manticore A, which is a component of the Manticore binary star system. It is a heavy gravity world with gravity 1.35 times that of Earth. Its orbit gives it a long year compared to Terra, with cool if temperate summers and long extremely severe winters with very heavy snowfalls. By the beginning of the 20th Century post diaspora, Sphinx had a planetary population of 1,048 million. The economy of Sphinx is based upon mining, forestry and animal husbandry.

Sphinx is part of the Star Kingdom of Manticore and is also the native planet of a sentient species: Treecats. Native life is protected by Sphinx Forestry Service (SFS) and its rangers who are responsible for approximately 1/3 of Sphinx which has been exclusively reserved for native life. The SFS and the treecats' corporate claim to their third of the surface of Sphinx is authorized under the Ninth Amendment to the Manticoran Constitution; it is in large part the work of Stephanie Harrington, who discovered the treecats' existence and was the first human adoptee.

Honor Harrington was born, and grew up, on Sphinx.

Sphinxians tend to be the most socially and sexually conservative inhabitants of the Star Kingdom, and often are openly contemptuous of and disgusted by the liberal mores of the Star Kingdom's capital world of Manticore.