Genie

Genie

(Creature)

Type

Outsider
(varies)

CR

varies

Environment

Elemental planes or Universe

Alignment

varies

Images of genies

Source: Blood of the Elements, pg(s). 5

Update needed This article should be updated to reflect canon changes by the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project noted in Rage of Elements. Please help improve it if you can; the talk page might contain suggestions.

A genie (also known as jinni, plural jinn) is an outsider native to one of the Elemental Planes, and often composed primarily of elemental material. The five best known types of genies are jaathooms (of elemental air), ifrits (of elemental fire), faydhaans (of elemental water), jabalis (of elemental earth), and janns (composed of all elements, and native to the Universe). Other, lesser genie races exist, including the diminutive zhyen and malignant black jinn. Geniekind is a term used to describe the plethora of genies.

History

Genies are said to have come into being with the first act of creation. Their own stories call them "the first people", claiming that their suffering at the claws of Rovagug was the start of the war between him and the other gods.

Concurrent with the creation of the genies, the dark demigod Ahriman came into existence as the genies' destructive shadow. Ahriman hates the genies with ever fiber of his being. He created the corrupt divs from the souls of evil genies to bedevil them.

Early in their history, before mortals were created, many genies of all races were enslaved by the godlike tyrant Iblis, and the struggle to obtain and keep their freedom was the only time the warring genie races ever joined forces against a common foe.

Ecology

Unlike most outsiders, genies are born in the manner of mortals, usually in sets of twins or triplets, or even in litters of up to eight. They grow much faster than mortals, reaching adulthood at the age of six (for ifrits or djinn) to fifteen (for janns). The power of a genie is often linked to its physical size, with the oldest and/or most powerful being the largest.

Most genies, save the nomadic janns, live decadent lives in opulent palaces or cities on the elemental planes; the most magnificent are the Opaline Vault of the jabalis and the ifrits' Medina Mudii'a.

Genies are effectively immortal, immune to the ravages of time and old age. When struck down by violence, a genie's body evaporates, dissolves, or crumbles into its constituent elements. Upon its death, a genie's soul is reabsorbed into the elemental plane of its birth and reincarnated into a new body. However, some genies meet a terrible fate as an undead ghul or edimmu, and the most evil of all genies' souls find their way to Abaddon and are transfigured into divs.

Interactions with mortals

A bound genie.

Many genies can grant wishes to those who bind them, best them, or earn from them a favor. However, it is widely held that one must be very wary of the wording used in such a wish. When dealing with genies, the saying "be careful what you wished for" takes on a life and death meaning.

On Golarion, genies have had the most interaction with the humans of southern Casmaron and northern Garund. There even exist rumors that the Keleshites first gained the knowledge of agriculture and other building blocks of civilization from genies. The Padishah Empire of Kelesh binds them for all manner of purposes, and the master genie binder Sulesh the Great was a Keleshite. Likewise, the great maharajah Khiben-Sald of Vudra bound a veritable army of faydhaans to his will. In the Inner Sea region, they are most commonly encountered in Qadira, the westernmost satrapy of Kelesh, and on the island-nation of Jalmeray, although there are rumors that in Katapesh they are infused into the very land itself.

Genie kin

Genies are able to breed with mortals, giving rise to the races collectively known as genie kin. Naaris are the result of unions with ifrits, oreads with jabalis, sylphs with djinn, undines with faydhaans, and suli with janns. In the Inner Sea region, geniekin are most commonly encountered in Qadira.

Shuyookh

After the return of the Planes of Wood and Metal, noble genies are now called shuyookhs (sheikha if the genie in question is female or sheikh if male). Excluding janns, they can grant wishes unlike younger genies.

References

Paizo published major articles about genies in Rage of Elements, including updates as part of the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.