Sometimes it seems that the lands of Katapesh and Osirion are not entirely the realm of men, but first and foremost the abode of jinn, those creatures whose souls are more akin to the tempers of nature than the passions of mortal-kind. These lands themselves are hostile to human life and full of elemental forces—sand, wind, water, and sun define the desert kingdoms. It’s not surprising, then, that genies find comfort in these lands. Yet most desert dwellers know little of geniekind, embracing centuries of legends and ancient fears, imagining these wanderers as creatures of story and song.
Perhaps rightfully so, for these radiant beings are kin to the elements, and fundamentally greater than those forced to suffer the whims of the multiverse. For untold centuries the peoples of the desert have told tales of the jinn, these stories spreading to faroff lands and capturing the imaginations of listeners across Golarion. Numerous wizards, researchers, and storytellers have sought to collect tales of these incredible creatures, hoping to find power within such tales, seeking wisdom of realms beyond the mortal plane, or merely entranced by the exotic tales of the desert. Regardless of such scholars’ intentions, presented here are many of the most celebrated “facts” about the jinn. While many jinn might laugh at the tales passed as truth among mortals, all five major races of genies prove notoriously tightlipped about the efforts and ways of their people, and thus the observers of mortal-kind must make due with stories and tales they hope hold the seeds of truth.
The forms of all true genies correspond to the four elements: the air is ruled by the djinn, the earth by the shaitans, the waters and oceans by the marids, and flames by the efreet. Then there are the jann, who combine all four elements into a clear and balanced whole. While the jinn prove tightlipped about the ways and workings of their great societies, countless legends and the songs of the desert reveal a number of supposed truths—some more dubious than others.
The body of a djinni is half cloud and half flesh, with pale skin, light eyes, and hair ranging through the colors of clouds. Their clothes always seem to ripple in the wind, even inside buildings or during a calm. They prefer flying over walking at all times, and their feet rarely touch the earth—their sandals often drifting just above the sands, leaving no footprints. Many djinn refuse to wear shirts even on the coldest days or on high mountain peaks. They favor tattoos, occasionally animating the ink within their skins to make them dance and move. Most are known for their flighty nature, but overall djinn seem good at heart and outgoing, and of all the jinn they prove the friendliest to the people of Golarion.
Creatures of fire and wrath, efreet delight in destruction and are said to be born of the smoke from burning tents and charred cities. Their bodies range through a variety of smoldering shades, from the brazen red of the setting sun to the blackness of a dampened fire’s smoke. Tales say their skin burns like a lit torch, their hair blazes like flame, and their appetites are as endless as fire. Efreet greatly enjoy the taste of flesh, both of animal and human sacrifices, and of creatures left to burn on pyres or battlefields. Failing that, they happily devour anything that burns: wood, cloth, coal, incense, and exotic flammable metals infused with phlogiston and phosphor. They consume these materials by the pound, and drink nothing but a strange slurry of wood shavings and coal dust.
The jann are the genies of the mortal plane, creatures of the world but still set apart from its other natives. In them, all the elements that empower the other races of genies unite, the contradictions and fundamental oppositions of these natural powers serving to weaken the jann rather than invigorate them. The weakest of all genies, the jann appear most akin to humans yet prove vastly more powerful. For them, elemental magic is second nature, physical form is an intrinsically changeable thing, and the bonds of reality are loose. Although these genies may travel to the domains of their kin on the Elemental Planes, they are not at home in such realms and must return to the mortal plane after a short time.
Marids are a tranquil yet powerful people well known through the tales of sailors and hopeful desert nomads. They concern themselves with the affairs of the seas and protection of bodies of water, rarely venturing far from ocean shores or lush desert oases. Marids have bodies covered in fine scales and hair like flowing kelp, most often blue, black, or green, though many can transform themselves into translucent, liquid forms that prove effectively invisible in water. Most are known to be flighty, impetuous, whimsical, or otherwise lacking in attention, moving from one topic or passion as swiftly as a surging river. Of all the genies, marids most often take human lovers, whom they lure into the waters from the shore, promising riches, lavish palaces, and a life of indolence. Surprisingly, they most often keep these promises, though their paramours might be little more than prisoners beneath the sea.
Many think of the shaitans as sinister creatures of the Darklands, but truly they are things of the earth, the empty caverns, and the high hills. Their skin is stone, their hearts molten lava, and their eyes jewel-like in their sparkle. Few shaitans share similar skins, either in color or texture, and some are smooth and delicate like polished lapis lazuli, while others are hulking and rugged like rough granite. Strands of jewels and sheets of beaten metals are the preferred clothing of these earthen jinn, and they wear them much as mortals wear linen, cotton, or silk. These jeweled garments are sometimes worth a prince’s ransom, but the death of a shaitan does more than make his killer wealthy: it typically buys a blood feud, as the shaitan’s brethren strive for compensation. Those who seek to escape retribution from the shaitan might take to a life spent upon the sea or amid the clouds, knowing that accusing shaitans lurk beneath every rock, field, and sand dune.
In the real world, the creatures commonly known in the West as genies have their roots in ancient Arabic tales of the jinn. In their earliest mythological incarnations, jinn are spirits or deities capable of bestowing aid or hardships upon humans. Islam explains that they are a race created alongside humans and angels, some proving virtuous but others acting as foul tempters akin to the corruptive spirits of other religions. Yet the legends of jinn probably best known to Western audiences come from interpretations of tales from The Thousand and One Nights following the exploits of the hero Aladdin and his genies.
It is from European translations of The Thousand and One Nights in the 1600s that the name jinn was first transliterated as “genie.” Drawing from the Latin genius (plural genii), protective personal spirits from Ancient Rome, French translators of these Arabic tales used their language’s version of this word, genie, due to its similar sound and meaning. Thus, countless Westerners were first introduced to tales of spirits, magic lamps, and sweeping romances featuring exotic creatures called genies, and the tradition has persisted ever since. Other names for specific genies and genies in general can be found throughout the folkloric tradition of the Middle East, a few examples being Azazil, Deev, Efrit, Ghaddar, Ghul, Jann, Marid, Nasnas, Shaytans, Shiqq, Silat, Sut, and Taus.
Tales say that in the rushing of winds, the shuddering of earthquakes, the crash of waves, and the roaring of great fires, one can hear the passions and songs of genies. Unlike many other beings of the Elemental Planes, genies are not born directly from flames or cracked from stony eggs, though elemental earth, air, fire, and water are always part of a genie’s birth. Genies are birthed much as many mortals—a rarity among the races of the planes. This speaks toward the strange heritages of the jinn race, being creatures part flesh and part elemental.
Newly born genies rarely enter their existence alone, but rather as twins or quadruplets, sometimes in litters as large as eight. These young genies grow into adults in a matter of years, far faster than creatures of the mortal plane. While djinn and efreet are fully grown by their sixth year, marids take 10 years to grow to adulthood, and shaitans and jann take 15. Genies seem to consider the longer periods of humanoid fertility a sign of inferiority, or at least laziness on the part of such simple creatures. The sizes of genies are often relative, however. As genies age they grow larger and more powerful, typically gathering ever-greater magical and elemental power that often takes concrete, physical form. Upon reaching adulthood, the size and apparent age of a genie is a sign of his power. Thus, small, thin genies might be young or powerless, while larger genies might be comparatively inexperienced but always filled with elemental power.
The lives of genies vary wildly in their often directly conflicting societies. Within their airy homes, djinn live amid floating palaces and lofty cities where they welcome strangers and embrace the endless experiences of the spheres. Many mortals mistake the domain of the efreet for Hell, as their metal towers rise from seas of flame and vast armies march the avenues of the fabled City of Brass. Jann follow the simplest lives of all genie-kind, wandering the deserts of the mortal realm, communing with the elements among natural extremes and avoiding the prying eyes of lesser beings. Within a decadent empire of gleaming shells and pearlescent cities, marids delight in the pleasures of the sea and wonders of the depths. And from the Opaline Vault of their realm of stone, the shaitans assemble vast treasuries, locking them away in impregnable earthen keeps. While untold numbers of each genie race embrace the fundamental natures of their people, there are always exceptions, and stoic marids and whimsical shaitans are not unknown.
As immortal beings, jinn do not view death as an inevitability, but as a terrible crime or punishment. Legends say that when jinn die violently, in feuds or battle, their ends are usually spectacular, with djinn departing as howling winds, efreet turning to smoldering columns of coals and ash that swiftly crumble, marids changing into fog and water that swiftly evaporates, and jann simply fading away. Supposedly only shaitans leave any real remains: strangely tubular bones of copper, iron, or even mithral, though few can prove that such metals truthfully come from the bones of genies. Other than this, it’s said that a dead genie leaves little trace.
The genie customs of mourning are primarily rooted in songs and sacrifices, and the creation of a memorial marker to honor the departed. These events can last for hours or days, and usually involve long speeches by genie nobles. A death marks a time of neutrality and peace, as feuds are set aside for the duration of the funeral and one day afterward. But a genie’s grief doesn’t necessarily last long. Most, once the mourning is past, turn immediately to the pressing business of revenge.
The lives of jinn are long and complicated. With each breed of genie having its own distinct culture, untold tomes could be written on the specifics of any one of these varied societies. Fortunately certain similarities exist between each of these ancient cultures and in the traditions followed by genies of all types. Noted here are just a few facts one might know regarding genies, though many of their societies’ other aspects prove far more complicated.
Knowledge (the planes)
DC Result
10 All genies are powerful spirits, part flesh and part living natural force. This status gives them humanlike desires and powers over the elements.
15 There are five dominant races of genies: djinn, with power over air; efreet, with mastery of fire; marids, with control over water; shaitans, with mastery of stone; and jann, who embody all of these elements.
20 Genies are well known for their power to grant wishes, either by specifically adjusting the fetters of reality or by drawing upon their great might and that of their brethren to do their masters’ will. Genies typically only grant such wishes when forced to by powerful magic or in reward for a great service.
25 Genies are very susceptible to flattery, and those who would deal with these creatures do well by offering them valuable gifts and artful praise. They are immortal and their memories are long, meaning that a scorned genie never forgets a slight or an enemy.
30 Although few genies cooperate with one another—having little tolerance for beings as arrogant as themselves—certain races hold particular animosity toward one another, with regular hostilities breaking out between efreet and djinn. This aggression increases to open war when it comes to the shaitans and efreet, who have long battled each other upon the planes and mortal realm.
Unlike most outsiders, genies can be corrupted, their souls forbidden from returning to the Elemental Planes of their creation upon their deaths. At least three types of corrupted jinn are known:
Div: Although slain jinn have their spirits reabsorbed by the Elemental Planes, it is said that the foulest souls of the first genies slipped the bonds of the Inner Sphere and found their way to Abbadon. There, amid the warped landscapes and fundametal foulness of that grim realm, these jinn souls underwent a centuries-long transmogrification, emerging as the first divs, sadistic fiends who seek to ruin mortal lives.
Statistics for a variety of divs and their ruler, Ahriman, can be found in the bestiaries of the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path.
Edimmu: Jinn slain upon the Material Plane yet magically compelled to remain there to complete a term of service find their bodies destroyed but their essences lingering on. These edimmu are tormented spirits that either endlessly act out the duties set by masters often long dead, or eternally rage against the mortal races they blame for barring them from their elemental homes. Statistics for edimmu appear in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #20.
Ghul: These undead rise from the corpses of jinn who attracted the foul attentions of the ruler of the divs, the fiend Ahriman, or were attacked by ancient and more powerful ghuls. Resembling the jinn they were in life—though rotted, sometimes to the point of being skeletal—ghuls are intelligent and often retain some control over their core element. They are a combination of elemental power and necromantic corruption, and all true genies consider them abominations. Statistics for ghuls can be found in Pathfinder Chronicles: Dark Markets, A Guide to Katapesh.
Genies are proud and eager for recognition by their peers, enjoying the opportunity to show off to others of their kind their sumptuous garments, wildly improbable magical vehicles, and manors and palaces suitable for pashas among pashas. Their gifts are often illusory, but even so, the energies invested in creating silver robes of pure starshine, building cities amid a realm of fire, or carrying glacial sherbets from the mountains to the middle of vast deserts are considerable.
This extravagance is due primarily to the simple fact that female genies are relatively rare, comprising no more than roughly a third of the race of genies. The reasons for this are unclear, but might reflect a deficit of female souls when the race was created, or perhaps a divine limitation required by the gods to keep the genies from growing into an unstoppably dominant race upon the planes. Whatever the cause, the effect is profound on genie mating customs, and female genies prove quite demanding of their male suitors. Female genies hold all the power in the mating game, with two or more suitors for every female hand, and eagerly exploit their prerogative to choose a mate.
Male genies eagerly strive to gain the attentions of the few female genies, and so prove boastful, loud peacocks always willing to dismiss other males. The only exceptions are efreet, who take to open warfare with other males to win the affections of their paramours—and ostensibly to reduce the number of living males. Efreet are also the only jinn to cloister their women away from view, and slavery among their own kind is not unknown.
Among the shaitans, marids, jann, and djinn, polyandry is quite common, with female genies keeping up to four husbands or consorts. This leads to frequent outbursts among jealous, feuding males, which is why the females prefer to keep their men busy with tasks: fetching pomegranates from distant lands, weaving enormous carpets of gold and red madder, or finding and harassing caravans that might pay bribes in perfume or silk. For most such households, the female genie remains in her palace, and the males fetch and carry goods, expand her house, organize her servants, and fight her wars.
Noble djinn, efreet, and marids can all grant wishes to non-genies, who bargain for such boons or otherwise compel these beings to use such great and dangerous magic. Considering the often selfish nature of many genies, the granting of wishes to lesser races seems unlikely at best. Storytellers suggest that all races of genies provide these wishes not out of fear of death when captured or enslaved, but rather to discharge some karmic debt or epic obligation. Some tales say that the first genies wagered with universal powers and lost, and now must serve the whims of lesser creatures when magically captured. While this is an interesting theory, the genies demur when questioned about it.
A few jinn have offered an alternative take on the origin of wishes. In their description, it is the genie’s ties to the Elemental Planes and to the deeper magic of Golarion that make them able and willing to grant wishes to those who capture them. They do this not out of obligation, but out of a sense of pity or fair play. Any of the mortal world’s creatures are lesser beings and, thus, if one of them manages to best a genie, certainly the poor creature deserves a wish or three. In this view, genies are indulgent elder brothers to mortals.
Genie wishes are generally honored as long as the wisher does not request too much. Braggarts, swaggering fools, and those who hold themselves in high regard irk the vast egos of most genies, who consider themselves to be doing the wisher a favor. The louder a wisher crows about his victory, the more inclined a genie is to undermine it.
Many tales of genies tell of wishes that go awry, imperiling the wisher or leaving him to some terrible, yet often deserved fate. More than moral lessons, such stories serve as warnings against the fickle and often cruel natures of these powerful beings. In any case, a genie’s wishes are powerful and might easily be bent or honored depending on the whims of the jinn granting them, how the genie is treated by his captors, and whether the genie is good or evil. Sometimes even the most seemingly beneficent jinn might attempt such trickery, viewing an overly literal or otherwise mischievous interpretation of a wisher’s commands as educational or character-building in some twisted sense. Any character attempting to have a genie grant his wish might make an opposed Sense Motive check to determine whether or not a genie might attempt to maliciously misconstrue his wish. In the cases of genies a character might find bound or otherwise enslaved to service, a GM might allow characters to make DC 25 Diplomacy, Knowledge (nobility and royalty), or Knowledge (the planes) checks to glean what offerings a genie might favor and thus make it more likely to grant a wish without mischief.
Genies are all fond of servitors, steeds, and troops who can carry on their feuds for them. The types vary, but generally any elemental creature might serve a genie of the proper elemental type. In addition, some other monsters serve out of ancient loyalty, or are captured and tamed by the genies because of their powers.
Djinn: Djinn are fond of rocs, giant eagles, invisible stalkers, cloud giants, and the strange torthune (from Kobold Quarterly #7). Anything that flies is a friend of theirs, though belkers and some mephits are less welcome than others. Earthbound creatures mostly evoke their pity and scorn, and the djinn have a talent for considering even their friends beneath their notice when some new artistry or magic entrances them. Most other genies consider djinn shallow narcissists.
Efreet: All fire creatures are either friends of the efreet, eager to share in their cruelties, or deathly afraid of being caught and enslaved by them. These genies’ more willing allies include salamanders, fire giants, iron golems, various mephits, and fire wisps (see Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #23). Less willing slaves include azers, ogres, and firesnakes. For some reason, pale and sickly elves are especially popular as concubines among the efreet. Few of them last long in the genies’ fiery embrace, though.
Marids: These water genies favor whales, dolphins, and giant sea horses as servants, as well as locathah, nixies, hippocampi, and devilfish (see Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #7). Marid lords consider storm giants their equals, and are also known to speak with brine dragons on matters of concern to the greater depths. For the most part, though, marids consider merfolk and other aquatic species little more interesting than talking fish.
Shaitans: Shaitans use a wide variety of monsters to serve their needs below the earth, from xorn and delvers to purple worms, sandmen, clay golems, and sandwalkers (from Kobold Quarterly #7). They often buy dwarves, pech, svirfneblin, and other Darklands races as slaves, or trade great wealth for such minions. The shaitans’ desire for gems makes them push their servants to search ever deeper for riches. Slaves of shaitan masters often survive for years, as their labor, while forced, is not wholly unpleasant, with the genies allowing their prisoners rotating periods of rest and rewards for exemplary work.
Some savants believe there is no greater doom than to become enmeshed in the affairs of the genies. Jinn see things differently: all those who are not their friend must, perforce, be their vilest enemies. Although they enjoy civilized haggling over prices, terms, and quality for goods or services, they have surprisingly little patience for diplomacy, which involves meeting other creatures and pretending at equality or at least treating them with respect.
Nearly all genies are extraordinarily proud, meaning that even the best-natured of their kind often come off as insufferable at best and insulting at worst. This arrogance often leads to intense feuds among genies as those of equal standing seek to prove their dominance.
As a result, the long hatred of the efreet for the djinn, and the shaitans for the marids, grows and festers and multiplies, sometimes even drawing in their jann cousins. Genies fight more among themselves than they do against other creatures of the planes, such as demons or devils. In this way, the typical approach to manipulating genies involves appealing to their vanity while disparaging their enemies—and implying a willingness to aid their most hated foes if they become difficult.
Although many tales of jinn bear distinct similarities and hints of veracity, few beyond genies themselves can be sure what aspects of these stories are truth and which are pure fiction. More than one brazen mortal has dared the fury of a genie, believing to possess knowledge to keep him at bay or some magical word to coerce his obedience. No interaction with genie-kind ever proves so simple, though, and such bold souls often become the newest slaves of fundamentally more powerful masters. Thus, a word of caution to all who would deal with jinn, as even the most benevolent genies hold the power to unwittingly crush the unwary.