Genies
Made with Hero Forge
(from 5th Edition Monster Manual - 2014 - [credits])
Genies are rare elemental creatures out of story and legend. Only a few can be found on the Material Plane. The rest reside on the Elemental Planes, where they rule from lavish palaces and are attended by worshipful servants.
Genies are as brilliant as they are mighty, as proud as they are majestic. Haughty and decadent, they have a profound sense of entitlement that stems from the knowledge that few creatures except the gods and other genies can challenge their power.
Creatures of the Elements. A genie is born when the soul of a sentient living creature melds with the primordial matter of an elemental plane. Only under rare circumstances does such an elemental-infused soul coalesce into a manifest form and create a genie.
A genie usually retains no connection to the soul that gave it form. That life force is a building block that determines the genie’s form and apparent gender, as well as one or two key personality traits. Although they resemble humanoid beings, genies are elemental spirits given physical form. They don’t mate with other genies or produce genie offspring, as all new genies are born out of the same mysterious fusion of spirit energy and elemental power. A genie with a stronger connection to its mortal soul might choose to sire a child with a mortal, although such offspring are rare.
When a genie perishes, it leaves nothing behind except what it was wearing or carrying, along with a small trace of its native element: a pile of dust, a gust of wind, a flash of fire and smoke, or a burst of water and foam.
Rule or Be Ruled. Mortal servants validate a genie’s power and high self-opinion. A hundred flattering voices are music to a genie’s ears, while two hundred mortal servants prostrated at its feet are proof that it is lord and master. Many treat their servants as valued members of their households. Evil genies freely threaten and abuse their thralls, but never to the extent that they can no longer work.
In contrast to their love of servants, most genies loathe being bound to service themselves. A genie obeys the will of another only when bribed or compelled by magic. All genies command the power of their native element, but a rare few also possess the power to grant wishes. For both these reasons, mortal mages often seek to bind genies into service.
Decadent Nobility. Noble genies are the rarest of their kind. They are used to getting what they want, and have learned to trade their ability to grant wishes to attain the objects of their desire. This constant indulgence has made them decadent, while their supreme power over reality makes them haughty and arrogant. Their vast palaces overflow with wonders and sensory delights beyond imagination.
Noble genies cultivate the jealousy and envy of other genies, asserting their superiority at every opportunity. Other genies respect the influence of the noble genies, knowing how unwise it is to defy a creature that can alter reality at a whim. A genie isn’t beholden to any noble genie, however, and will sometimes choose to defy a noble genie’s will and risk the consequences.
The Power of Worship. Genies acknowledge the gods as powerful entities but have no desire to court or worship them. They find the endless fawning and mewling of religious devotees tiresome — except as it is directed toward them by their worshipful servants.
Their miraculous powers, the grandeur of their abodes, and the numbers of their servants allow some genies to deceive themselves into believing they are as powerful as the gods. Some go so far as to demand that mortals of other realms — even whole continents or worlds — bow down before them.
(from 2nd Edition Secrets of the Lamp: Genie Lore - 1993 - [credits])
INTRODUCTION - CONSORTING WITH GENIES:
Genies are the embodiment of magic, the physical form of the magic of the four elements. One of the four major genies - dao, djinn, efreet, and marid - rules each of the four provinces of magic - earth, air, fire, and water. They are the most dangerous of elemental spirits: capricious, arrogant, and very, very powerful. To face them is to face the storm, and the earth trembles at their touch.
In addition to the four major genie races there are the jann, the markeen, and the many types of tasked genies. The jann are the weakest of the genies, and are composed of all four elements. They are able to survive best in Zakhara because they, although they are not masters of any element, are the most adaptable of the genie races.
The markeen are outcasts, creatures that no longer deserve their standing among the great and powerful. The tasked genies are warped or cursed forms of the greater genies and the jann. They come in a hundred different shapes and sizes, all suited to special jobs, and most are very rare indeed.
The five great lords who rule the genies include the four lords of the major elemental genies and the emir of the jann. Tasked genies have no rulers of their own but most obey the ruler that they or their ancestors have served. The markeen are outcasts among all of the genie races and obey no rulers but their own. All genies consider themselves superior to the non-genie races.
Genies are even more fussy about precedence and status than humans and other ins (as the genies call other humanoid races). Though some wise men argue that this comes from their respect for the Loregiver and their love of order, wiser men know that it is simply because of their vanity and love of flattery. A man who understands this is well-armed against the dangers of the genies.
Rivalry and War:
Among themselves, the four major genie races act like factions in a quarreling family: they fuss and feud terribly with one another until someone else tries to intervene. Then they turn on the interloper and close ranks among themselves.
Dao hate marid and djinn, but they remain on speaking terms with efreet, who trade worked metal to them in exchange for minerals. The earth genies are interested in other elemental creatures only insofar as they can be exploited. Their servitude to the yakmen galls them, and the other genies often remind them of their bondage out of spite.
Djinn hate the efreet and will cooperate in any attempt to harm them. Despite their haughtiness, djinn respect individual achievement and will cooperate with other creatures of the elemental plane of Air rather than attempting to enslave them. The djinns' retainers may leave at any time, but many stay because they consider it an honor to serve.
Marid have the least impact on others of any of the genie races; their attitude toward the rest of the world is that all other creatures are lesser beings. The marids' own concerns take up so much of their time that they have little effort to waste on what they see as the trivialities and irrelevancies of others. This usually includes the affairs of common marid as well, which is why almost every marid declares [themself] a noble in order to get the attention of the truly noble marid. Their absorption in their own affairs is a blessing for others, given the dangerous level of power of the marid nobles. When they do want something, noble marid stop at nothing to get itentire fleets may disappear from the oceans, storms rage, and rivers dry up or overflow.
Efreet see all living things as either their servants or their enemies and they acknowledge no one but their caliphs and pashas as their masters. Their usual reaction to other races is either to force them into servitude or to destroy those who cannot be enslaved. This has made them greatly feared by other creatures of the elemental plane of Fire, but it has not won them any friends. Most salamanders, fire elementals, and other natives of the plane will gladly help those who wish to embarrass the efreeti. Common efreet are less concerned with enslaving others, but they have little choice but to obey their rulers.
Warfare Among the Genies:
Djinn and efreet hate each other, and they will often invade each other's realms. For the djinn, the rivalry is earnest but not all-consuming. For the efreet, it is a completely grim and serious war, conducted without mercy nor the expectation of it.
Marid occasionally go on punitive expeditions against the other genies, just to remind them of their power. When they organize a war party it is usually led by a single noble marid, accompanied by up to fifty common marid and a dozen or more creatures from the elemental plane of Water.
Code in Battle. Genies invariably think of themselves as honorable warriors, though they may not always act accordingly. Pointing out a genie's underhanded tactics is risky; the genie may apologize or might go into a berserk frenzy.
Genie Rulers:
The whims of genie rulers define the locations of their courts; for such are not settled in some fixed palace, fortress, or estate. Genie rulers can and do travel to the Prime Material plane, taking their courts along, to govern their particular elements as occasion demands. The marid do this most often and most unobtrusively; their expeditions to the salmon runs and red tides generally go unnoticed by land-dwellers. Likewise, the subterranean expeditions of the dao are only noticed because of the earthquakes they provoke. Of course, imagine what might happen if some wandering adventurers were to accidently stumble into a genie lord's court!
Great Khan of the Dao. Kabril Ali al-Sara al-Zalazil rules the dao with a sure eye and an iron heart. The Great Khan of the Dao is known by a multitude of titles and honorifics, among them: the Fountain of Wealth, the Perfect Compass, Atamen of the Mountain's Roots, the Stone Sultan, Carver of Destiny, Master of Traders, Caravaneer of the Sevenfold Path, and Balancer of All Earthly Accounts.
Kabril is always planning new engineering projects, and his followers surround him with new ideas for additions to the Mazework, new caravans, financial tricks to turn greater profits on his trade routes, and inventions to increase the efficiency of his slaves. His royal desmense is vast, profitable, and continually expanding. He is constantly accompanied and helped in his work by no more than a handful of builder genies, dozens of common merchant dao, about ten common warrior dao, and a smattering of nobles.
The Great Khan is unusually fat for a dao, with none of the strength of limb that most of his nobles have. However, his eyes are bright with schemes and he has a quick wit. He has a great interest in mechanical improvements in fields such as optics, clockwork systems, alchemical research, metallurgy, and mining advancements such as new pumps, more practical shorings, and new refining techniques.
The audience chamber of the Great Khan is called the Hidden Fulcrum of the Dao. It lies deep within the Sevenfold Mazework, and not even all the noble dao know where it is. Visitors who desire an audience are expected to bribe guards and even noble dao to win entrance to the corridors of power. They often discuss these gifts or bribes quite bluntly: and the amounts vary from 10-80,000 gp. Once they take a bribe, nothing may happen or the fortunate visitor may be informed (within a month) that a few moments of the khan's time have become available. All visitors are blindfolded and led through the mazework to the court, a process that requires several hours depending on which path is taken to the center. The khan has cunningly seen to it that the Hidden Fulcrum is set with mirrors that reflect his image all around the supplicants who visit him, so that his true location is very difficult to determine. The khan, unlike other genie rulers, prefers to ask constant questions rather than listen to the pleading and presentations of visitors.
Supplicants should strip themselves of wealth before entering the mazework, for the khan prefers that his subjects and his audiences be humble and poor. Those unfortunate souls who arrive resplendent in their best finery and most valuable jewels must make gifts of their riches to the khan.
The Great Khan rarely leaves the environs of the Sevenfold Mazework; when he does it is generally to accompany some important caravan personally or to supervise the haggling for some great prize required for the magics found in the Mazework. His caravans are comprised of up to a hundred common dao and one or more noble dao. The khan prefers to travel incognito when traveling with merchants, as his well-known skill at appraising and haggling make others reluctant to deal with him if they recognize him.
When the Great Khan of the dao travels to the Prime Material plane, a powerful earthquake capable of shaking down fortress walls and altering the course of rivers precedes his arrival. Once he has arrived, he generally travels to the accompaniment of smaller earth tremors; his processions often take him through hills and mountains rather than over them. In the desert, his procession will create a huge sandstorm wherever he passes.
Great Caliph of the Djinn. Husam al-Balil ben Nafhat al-Yugayyim, Master of the Clouds and Son of the Breezes, is the ruler of the djinn. He is known by a long list of titles including, but not limited to, Ruler of All Djinn, Defender of the Heavens, Commander of the Four Winds, Prince of Birds, Storm of the Righteous, and Master of the Air. He is always attended by his courtiers; up to twenty noble djinn (half are his dancers and consorts), up to 400 jann, and as many as 100 common djinn at any given time.
The Great Caliph of the Djinn rarely leaves his Citadel of Ice and Steel, where he is perpetually called upon to decide matters of state, matters of law, and matters of politics among his nobles. When he does leave, it is generally with an entourage of nobles to go hunting elemental creatures, although they will go occasionally to the lands of Zakhara to stir up trouble among the cities there.
Infrequently, the Great Caliph will demand that a procession be held in his honor, such as at the anointment of a new noble djinn, or before a noble marriage. These processions are always grand affairs, involving at least 50 noble djinn, many hundreds of common djinn, and clouds of banners, flags, and streamers. The course of a procession often takes it in loops, rolls, and dives, and its meandering path often tours the plane of elemental Air for days or weeks. During these processions, hundreds of birds are released. Genie mages use wind magics to send clouds scattering across the sky in cloud races. Genie artists make cloud sculptures, building arches, minarets, and other places for djinn to gather while watching a procession pass through.
A gentle breeze always surrounds the Great Caliph, stirring his hair and flowing garments. All hurled and ranged missile weapons are ineffective against him, as the winds protect him.
Husam is fickle and easily bored, though he is not soft or incompetent. When great tasks are urgently required, he can rouse genie armies to victory and he can wrestle the fiercest monsters into submission. However, the Great Caliph prefers to win his battles by his wits rather than by the strength of his armies or his magic. Since the efreet that often harass the djinn are individually stronger than the djinn, this trait is common among lesser djinn as well.
The Court chamber itself is at the center of the Citadel of Ice and Steel, with clear shafts running to the outer surfaces in all directions. Creatures who (willingly or unwillingly) gain an audience with the Grand Caliph must hover before him. If they cannot fly under their own power, the whirlwinds of the djinn guards support and buffet them as long as they remain before the Caliph: presenting oneself as an earthbound creature before the Great Caliph can be exhausting. The chamber of the court itself seems to be in perpetual motion, as its many layers of silk streamers constantly flutter in and out. In dealing with creatures not of the Elemental Plane of Air, the Great Caliph is merciful and often ends his recitation and judgment within a few minutes.
When traveling to the Prime Material plane, a great blast of wind always signals the arrival of the Great Caliph of the Djinn. Once there, he will most often travel in a procession like one of the noble djinn, but the Caliph's procession will be of twice the usual size.
The Sultan of the Efreet. The master of the City of Brass is Marrake al-Sidan alHariq ben Lazan. He is also called the Lord of Flame, the Potentate Incandescent, the Tempering and Eternal Flame of Truth, the Most Puissant of Hunters, Marshall of the Order of the Fiery Heart, the Smoldering Dictator, and the Crimson Firebrand. He rules from the Charcoal Palace at the center of the City of Brass, and his holdings include six fiery realms on the Prime Material plane.
The Sultan observes few pleasures. Though he keeps a harim of a hundred and one courtesans, he rarely visits them. Instead, he lavishes his affections on two prize nightmares, steeds named Eversmoke and Black Onyx. It is whispered that he even sleeps in their stalls from time to time before important races. The Sultan wagers heavily, and his losses have sometimes beggared the city's treasury, but he always pays what he owes.
The Sultan of the Efreet is constantly accompanied by a horde of fifty common efreet bodyguards, up to twenty entertainers, and as many as forty noble efreet courtiers, all vying for his attention and approval. This circus can be quite comical, with courtiers pushing one another aside to bend the ear of the Sultan, fireworks going off to gain his attention for an instant, and the utter silence that descends whenever the Sultan chooses to speak. However, laughing in the presence of these efreet worthies is invariably fatal; they take themselves very seriously indeed.
The Sultan of the Efreet is immune to both magical and normal fire, and he is constantly surrounded by a nimbus of pale red fire and a halo of smoke. No amount of water or magic can douse his magical flames until he dies and is succeeded. Somehow the Sultan's Fire is transferred by the rites of succession.
The Sultan sports a tiny goatee, his hands end in very long, almost knifelike claws, and his eyes constantly spark like fire. Because of his aurora of flame, the Sultan wears garb able to withstand extreme heat: generally armor of white-hot iron, but sometimes delicate pantaloons and robes made of tiny blackened links of adamantite.
Audiences with the Sultan of the Efreet are held in an iron chamber at the center of his palace, a smoky blast furnace of a room with reddish light and little air, a stuffy and blazing court. Ornaments of alloyed gold and brass are everywhere, and chained fire elementals provide both heat and light.
In fulfilling his military duties, the Sultan often organizes drills, marches, and parades of spit-and-polish precision. These occasions require the entire population of the City of Brass to turn out and watch. The spectacle of the Sultan's might marching by is impressive: thousands of efreet and other soldiers march through the streets, turning the squares and suqs into drillgrounds.
When he travels to the Prime Material plane, the Sultan of the Efreet first appears as a firestorm that scorches the earth wherever he goes. He arrives in extremely hot environments like volcanoes, hot springs, and forest fires. The Sultan chooses these locations not out of any deference to ins' property or the lives of creatures unable to withstand fire, but simply for his own comfort in adjusting to the frigid temperatures of the Prime Material plane. Once arrived, he travels with a full military escort of 200 jann, up to twenty common efreet warriors, and a single noble efreet emir. These numbers are tripled when visiting the pashas of the Prime Material plane, whose loyalty he enforces with an iron fist.
Great Padisha of the Marid. Kalbari al-Durrat al-Amwaj ibn Jari has hundreds of titles, many of them copied from her followers or adopted by them. She is the Great Padisha of the Marid, the Keeper of the Empire, the Pearl of the Sea, the Mother of Foam, the Maharaja of the Oceans, Emir of All Currents, Mistress of Rivers, Grand Raj of the Monsoon, General of the Whales, Pasha of Corals, Savior of Fish, Marshall of Nets, and Patron of Waterspouts.
Her courtiers always include a sprinkling of noble marid, several hundred common marid, and dozens of visiting creatures of elemental Water ranging from tritons to hippocampi to giant seahorses. The Great Padisha can detect any spoken lie, which doesn't seem to stop her from enjoying outrageous flattery. She simply recognizes it for what it is and doesn't allow it to influence her actions as a ruler.
The current Great Padisha's appearance is subject to dispute. At times it is said she has ebony skin the color of black pearl, a rounded face, and long tresses of coral red bound about her head like a turban and set with black opals. At other times it is said her skin is lustrous pearly white, with hair dark as barnacles, and lips like conch shells. She prefers slashed robes of gold, silver, or blue that reveal richer cloth beneath.
The marid court meets in the depths of the Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls. The Padisha prefers to dazzle visitors with an initial display of her command of the seas, including unbalancing tides, schools of colorful fish swimming in dazzling patterns, or displays of bizarre luminescent creatures from the darkest recesses of the ocean's trenches.
The Padisha's whim determines the type of audience her supplicants receive. Some are richly rewarded for merely reciting her titles and honorifics; others are cast forth from the citadel and told never to return. Those she takes more seriously (generally noble marid, commoners who can boast well, and the occasional egotistical or flattering sha'ir) are given her undivided attention and probed and questioned on every statement they make. She always appreciates unusual gifts, though she feels no sense of obligation to grant favors in exchange for treasures freely given. Gifts need not be material ones; beggars capable of spinning rich tales and richer compliments have won her favor, as have ancient mystics who have little wealth but great understanding.
The Padisha has kept her position by her political acumen, skill at maneuvering in the politics of honor, her competitive generosity, and her knack of making the haughty marid feel like members of the same tribe, rather than bitter rivals.
Although the Great Padisha loves display for its own sake, she rarely joins processions beyond the confines of the Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls because of the political danger of leaving her nobles to scheme. The migrations of the whales and salmon and the blooming of the red tides are state occasions, however, requiring the presence of both the Padisha and her nobles. At these times, and others when she must travel, she relocates her entire court, thus preventing any coup while she is away.
When the Great Padisha appears on the Prime Material plane, she arrives as a localized monsoon, driving ships ashore, spitting waterspouts, drenching the countryside with flooding rains, flattening palms, and whipping up enormous waves. Once arrived, she generally travels with whales, sea monsters, and entire tribes of intelligent sea creatures such as mermen or tritons.
(from 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium: Al-Qadim Appendix - 1992 - [credits])
TASKED GENIES:
Tasked genies may once have been genies of one of the four elemental realms. However, tasked genies have performed a single type of labor for so long that their forms have been permanently sculpted to suit their work. Their profession defines them and rules them; a tasked genie taken away from its work grows weak and sickly. Unlike most genies, tasked genies are not always uneasy or hostile in the presence of humans. They are still very proud of their superior skills, but their sense of worth is based on achievements, not birth. As long as they share an interest and aptitude for their craft and a willingness to defer to the genies' greater knowledge, humans can consort with tasked genies with no ill effect.
Just as faerie creatures are more than mortal but less than divine, so are tasked genies among the most powerful spirits of the Land of Fate. Specifically, genies are elemental spirits which serve the unsympathetic forces of nature. They are free-willed, civilized, and highly intelligent. They eat, drink and reproduce just like humans, and they can die just as humans die. Their powers, however, inspire such fear and awe in the minds of [nongenies] that they are still worshipped and offered sacrifices as gods in remote and savage areas of the Burning Land. They can raise buildings overnight, their armies can appear and disappear from the field of battle, and their magic can whisk a person hundreds of miles in moments.
Most genies prefer to dwell apart from humans, but tasked genies are equally at home in the wilderness and in the cities. Genies that live on the elemental planes rarely come to the Land of Fate unless called, but elemental genies and some tasked genies who live in the Burning World prefer uninhabited wildernesses, ruins, deserted houses, cemeteries, rivers, and abandoned wells. Those who trespass on the home of a genie are usually warned off by an attempt to frighten; stones are thrown at the intruders by invisible genies or sudden sandstorms spring up to blind, confuse, and misdirect. If the trespassing continues, the travelers are attacked and shown no mercy.
Most of The genies of Zakhara are nomads of a sort; their camps among the desert and ruins and their lodgings in the cities may disappear in an instant (usually at dawn or dusk), whenever a genie tribe decides to move on. But their camps don't resemble the camps of nomads. They are often huge mansions or fortresses, yet they may vanish into the sands when discovered, like a dream fading in the morning light. At other times, however, genies in the wilderness take their discovery by others rather badly, and, instead of moving on, they try to force their discoverers away by throwing stones at them or by carrying them on the wind for many miles. For this reason, travelers through the desert often call out to the genies when approaching desolate lands and ask them for permission to pass through.
Unlike the genies of the four elements, tasked genies have very little regard for the castes, classes, and social distinctions of humans, as their lives and their status among their kind are almost entirely dependant on merit. Tasked genies have no nobility, only masters of their craft. They will as soon work for a pauper as for a sultan, as long as there is work to be done.
This lack of elitism does not mean that genies do not understand the nuances of politeness and proper etiquette. They may not think much of their master, but they will be unstintingly polite. Of course, genies can and do turn social conventions topsy-turvy when they are free to harass someone who has offended them or even just when the mood strikes them.
Tasked genies fall into two main categories: those bound by their profession to a certain location and those kept inactive in some way for long periods between bouts of servitude. The first group comprises the helpful tasked genies, those who create fantastic foods, art, and monuments. The second group has nothing to do when not called upon by genie nobles or powerful sha'irs. They are slowly driven insane by their magical isolation, and for this reason they delight in shedding blood when released from service. These include the warmonger, slayer, and guardian genies.
Tasked genies must always be either paid or enslaved before they will render service to a nongenie. Architect, artist, guardian, herdsman, and winemaker tasked genies are almost always simply paid for their work, as enslaving them decreases the quality and length of their service. Slayers are almost always enslaved, as they are too dangerous to be allowed to roam free and they cannot be expected to uphold any bargain they make. Warmonger tasked genies may either be paid or enslaved, but in either case their true reward is the sight of victory on the battlefield. The sweeping events they set in motion often continue long after the warmonger genie has been imprisoned or sent away.
Binding a particular tasked genie is a difficult undertaking requiring great wealth, wisdom, and patience. The procedure is equivalent to spell research, with the same costs and chances of success. Only a sha'ir may successfully learn the rituals for binding a tasked genie. The determination of success is made with the level of the spell being researched treated as equal to the tasked genie hit dice divided in half (round up). Thus, learning to bind a herdsman tasked genie requires as much effort as learning a second-level spell, while the ritual for commanding a guardian tasked genie will be discovered as if it were a seventh level spell. Once the initial research is done, the tasked genie may be bound or commanded as detailed for sha'ir abilities.
Though only a single genie may be bound by a spell, some tasked genies will request aid from their brethren when commanded to undertake a large, short-term project for their masters such as shearing a huge herd of sheep or building fortifications in time to hold off invaders. Herdsman and builder tasked genies are particularly prone to calling on their kinfolk when presented with a huge task. These genies serve without demanding pay from the sha'ir so as to free their cousin from service more quickly. A sha'ir may bind no more than one tasked genie per year or face the wrath of the genie princes when he asks for an audience.
All tasked genies are extremely long-lived. Guardians are the tasked genies with the greatest longevity; they can serve for 1,001 years, so their age is truly great. Others, such as winemaker and herdsman tasked genies, are more closely tied to the seasonal cycles of the Land of Fate, and this seems to have made them shorter-lived than most genies. Their lifetime is only twice that of a human. The other tasked genies fall somewhere in between, with a great deal of individual variation. Tasked genies kept from their tasks invariably live short lives.
Genies occasionally take human lovers, but the result is almost always tragic. Those who love the genies lose all sense of reason and judgement and are often destroyed by their love for such a powerful spirit. Occasionally, however, the pair makes its peace and lives happily, almost always after a stormy courtship and almost always only after leaving human society. These liasons rarely produce children, but when they do the offspring have the powers, strength, and abilities of markeen, though they do not have a human double.