Djinncraft: The Magic of Araby

"By far one of the most curious and foolish traits of my countrymen is the assumption that those who hail from a different culture to us are at once inherently exceptional and exotic, whilst also implicitly beholden to the same environmental contexts. Scholars of my birth nation would argue that someone from afar is capable of great acts unheard of at home, but that this is some consequence of blood or their alien culture... Rather than the vastly more rational fact that they live in a different place that plays by different rules."

Djinncraft: The Magic of Araby

Araby, as most of you will likely be aware, is a pretty shameless transplant of “Arabia” into the Warhammer setting. As with all non-Empire areas, Araby is pretty basically/sparsely sketched out in the fiction. And as with all non-Europe analogues in the setting, it’s… not great, even in those little tiny pieces that are shown. Araby is given the short end of the stick, and even that tiny piece of wood is termite-ridden and rotting.

So today I’m going to talk a little bit about the magic of Araby — a place I have written about before — and make the first steps towards an attempt at making it not awful. However, as with my other attempts at un-awfulling parts of the Warhammer lore, I am going to try to keep as much of the canon facts still true. Everything else that’s been written that isn’t 100% factual will be considered one of:

• Imperial propaganda,
• In-setting ignorance / racism,
• Or just consigned to bad writing, and ignored.

I’m going to go offbook a lot, obviously — adding my own spin and content to the lore — but I will try to keep in the facts that we know. However, this approach to keeping things as close to the canon as possible bumps into one serious and immediate stumbling block: genies. Genies are, sadly, inherent to the canon picture of Araby, so we’re going to have to talk about them…

Why “Sadly”?

I say “sadly” for two reasons:

1. Genies are a stereotype that are woefully overdone in “Arabian-inspired” things,
2. Genies often (this instance included) use the worst parts of that stereotype, and sadly ignore all the cool things about real-world djinni lore and mysticism.

As someone who grew up on folk stories of djinn (or jinn, as they’re known in Maltese), this is very frustrating: I am caught on the knife’s edge between keep the stupid stereotype and djinn are cool, actually.

So, I’m going to make Araby djinni awesome. That’s my main mission, today.

What Are Djinn?

Djinn, in the Warhammer world, are daemons of Chaos bound to the material plane, and trapped in some way, so that they can be forced to do the bidding of those who wield them. They are distinct from typical daemons in that they:

• Are made physical,
• Are anchored to the real world,
• And can be commanded with a level of reliance.

So, then, why are these special type of daemons only found in Araby? What causes this weird exceptionalism based on real-world Orientalism? Let’s figure some things out…

Why is Arabyan Magic Different?

Magic in Araby is different to magic found elsewhere in the Old World for many reasons:

1. Due to its location along the equator, Araby is one of the furthest nations from either polar Chaos Gate, meaning the Winds of Magic naturally flow slowest there,
2. Being almost equidistant from both results in the Winds from each Gate colliding often, causing sometimes intense Storms of Magic which can cause widespread destruction. Additionally, Dhar is more common in Araby, relative to the other Winds, than in most places (though in general, still in far lower amounts than places closer to the poles), because the Winds swirl together, and flow stagnantly.
3. Much of the sand of Araby’s deserts is comprised of minerals called “monazites”, which have a similar warping ability — though to a far lesser extent — as lead on the Winds of Magic. This means the Winds rarely settle in Araby — instead sliding over the desserts in waves — and have a tendency to be more erratic when they do blow across the sands.
4. Lastly, the Arabyan folk have a deep-seated wariness of magic, as they are more aware of what it can do, as opposed to the general hysteric fear of magic held further north.

These four points give rise to Djinncraft as the primary sorcery performed in Araby, though those gifted with the spark do sometimes travel to Altdorf in the Empire to learn from the Colleges of Magic, mostly gravitating towards the College of Light.

What is Djinncraft?

Djinncraft is focused on the creation of Monazic Vessels, and the summoning and binding of daemons into semi-stable forms. Monazic Vessels are glass jars, lanterns, or lamps blown from the monazite sands of Araby, and containing a simulacra of one of the natural elements — a precious stone, a candle’s flame, a measure of water, a vulture’s skull, a handful of sand, a golden coin, etc. The daemon which is summoned is bound into this elemental form, and trapped within the Vessel, in an attempt to force it into a stable state where it can perform sorcery on behalf of the Binder, rather than the Binder themselves performing the dangerous magic.

Whilst utterly heretical in the eyes of the northern nations, this practice is surprisingly safe, as — other than the initial daemon summoning — it relies on magic-by-proxy. However, it does come with several pitfalls that are not found in other forms of magic:

1. The daemon-turned-djinn must be kept appeased, and heavily warded, requiring intense upkeep and study by the Binders.
2. The djinn can be tricky, and if allowed too much free-will, may cause problems for the Binder in their attempts to escape.
3. The djinn is severely limited by their bound elemental forms, and thus their magic is curtailed significantly. For example: A djinn bound to a candle’s flame can only manipulate fire — it cannot create new fires like a Bright Wizard — though it can do so with unsurpassed skill and subtlety.
4. A Binder’s Monazic Vessels are vulnerable, and if broken, the djinn — or even the bound daemon within — is freed and able to wreak havoc. Usually, this is targeted first at those who bound it.

Due to the dangers of summoning daemons, most Binders focus on the manipulation of already bound djinn, and inherit their Vessels from their masters. All Binders are taught the creation and upkeep of new Vessels, as well as the Spells to transfer a djinn from one Vessel to the next, but the sorceries required to summon a new daemon, and bind it into a djinn, are jealously guarded by the most powerful and cautious Binders.

That’s All… For Now?

That’s enough for today: an explanation of what Djinncraft is, and how to make that aspect of Araby’s lore not just randomly thrown in Orientalism. Next time (if there is a next time, which there probably will be, at this rate), I might make some rules for putting Djinncraft in your campaigns!