Noble Djinni [Genie]

Noble djinn rule every genie of elemental Air and command the province of wind. Telepathic and unforgiving, they never forget a favor or a slight. Proudly the tallest and handsomest of their race, they set themselves apart from common djinn with jewels and loose, light silks and cottons.

At home a train of 4-40 common djinn follows them as courtiers, guards, minstrels, grooms and fan-bearers. On the Prime Material they ride an elephant or camel or are borne in a palanquin by four servants, because their feet must never touch the ground. They hover pointedly above earthbound nobles of other races.

At 20th level a noble djinni can feed 4-24 people or supply as many with water or wine, make lasting nonmagical goods of tin, copper, brass, wood or cloth (up to 25, 16 or 9 cubic feet by material), short-lived iron, gold, platinum or silver items lasting about a day, and illusions with sight, sound, heat and touch that last until dispelled. It can also wind walk, turn invisible, become a cloud-like gas or raise a whirlwind. Gust of wind is at will, cloudkill daily, control weather weekly, airwalk for up to seven others daily and windtomb yearly.

It grants three wishes, only to Prime Material creatures; forced to, it performs no other service and goes free after the third.

Its whirlwind is 20 feet wide at the base, 60 at the top and 100 high, taking five rounds to form or dissolve and lasting while it concentrates. Ground creatures under 3 HD are swept away and killed; tougher ones take 3d6. Up to 15 man-sized or 6 genie-sized beings ride at 21 (maneuverability B), shielded if the noble wishes.

All air-based attacks are useless against it: poison gas, gaseous breath, cloudkill, wind control and every elemental air spell. Too clever to be caught physically, it obeys a magical master but holds back unless consulted, given replacement slaves and treated as an equal or better. It carries 2,000 pounds without slowing, double for three turns afoot or one aloft, plus a turn per 200 pounds under the maximum, then rests six turns. It prefers to command djinn and summoned allies, uses illusion and invisibility to avoid fights and never battles underground or in other hostile elements.

Most nobles are local caliphs, sheiks, sheriffs and maliks over 1-6 households, each holding 1-10 dim air elementals, 1-10 jann servants and 3-30 djinn under a maximum-hit-point headman; those living on the Prime usually rule one household. Females lead too and enjoy more freedom than commoners. An attacked holding sends invisible messengers to two others, which pass the warning on; some nobles use homing pigeons, and many are master falconers and breeders of fancy talking birds.

A smaller, mightier set, the viziers, beys and emirs, lives at the Great Caliph's Glacier Court, carved inside a vast block of ice hurtling through elemental Air. Wind howls through it except in rooms with every steel door shut, light is orange lanterns or blue ice-glow, and stairless, vertical halls admit only flyers, so visitors are escorted and watched. These nobles leave only when ordered to govern elsewhere or summoned by a strong genie-caller. They resent long service to humans and, if mistreated, return with half their subjects for revenge.

Served by their subjects, nobles still compete for the finest gems, cloth, spices and perfume, sometimes sending servants to the Prime for them, and manners rarely stop them. They hate efreet, cooperate rather than enslave other air natives, and keep retainers who are free to leave. Occasionally a zealous noble raids dao or efreet to free slaves, though such forays are rare since those genies are stronger.

The ruler of the djinn, known by grand titles such as Commander of the Four Winds and Master of the Air, has 15+6 Hit Dice with maximum hit points, all noble powers and each wind-province spell once a day. A constant breeze turns aside all hurled and fired weapons, permanently duplicating both missile-warding spells, normal and magical. His retinue numbers 10-100 common djinn, 40-400 jann and 4-20 nobles, half of them consorts and dancers. Fickle and easily bored but a capable ruler, he wins by wit, a habit common among djinn who face stronger efreet. Supplicants hover before him in a chamber of fluttering silks; those who cannot fly are buffeted by guards' whirlwinds for 3d6 per round, though he usually judges outsiders within minutes. Grand processions of 50 nobles and 100-1,000 djinn loop through the plane for weeks. A great gust heralds his arrival on the Prime, where his train is double a noble's.