Djinni

This is a written work of mine, it is not really a game, but more a creative endeavour of mine. It will be presented in two parts, the first the plot as it is written so far (it is an incomplete story) and the second is the underlying "rules" behind djinni.





This is the story of a djinni and his master. It is essentially about the Djinni, but the master is what makes it interesting.

Essentially, he is a djinni in a lamp. He is millenia old, and has served countless masters throughout the years, all of them have been selfish with their wishes.

Which of course changes with the master. He came upon the lamp, and when asked to wish for his greatest desire, he couldn't think of what to ask for.

He is a traveller, a former monk, he comes upon the lamp surrounded by bodies. The djinni asks him his greatest wishes, and he can't come up with an answer. The following morning, he leaves the lamp, wishing to be rid of such temptation, unaware of the Djinni Rules.

When the friends of the dead arrive, they recover the lamp, but discover that they cannot master the djinni, which is now slave to the Master. The djinni in question senses this opportunity to transfer himself to greedier, more manipulatable hands, and informs them of the Monk's whereabouts.

The bandits grab the lamp and are guided by the djinni, who eventually catch up with him amidst a crowded city. They choose to strike at night, in the hopes of killing him in his sleep. He is staying at an inn, and they kill the innkeeper, then move to attack him. They are unsuccessful, and he manages to beat them up, injuring several, and while the djinni stays invisible, the monk notices the lamp among them.

In the aftermath of this, the monk notes that he seems to be cursed by that lamp, and is appalled when he observes that this curse of his has killed the innkeeper.

With this in mind, and no other leads, the monk decides to pursue the lamp, in the hopes that it will lead to it no longer haunting him, so that he wouldn't endanger any others like the innkeeper.

He doesn't really have any leads, he asks around about local gangs. He comes to understand that a local gang resides here, who run extortion and gambling rings in the town, and who have been acting up lately. He associates this gang with the raiders that attacked him, and after a few days of searching, he is approached by a few suspicious characters.

They bring him to a room where he is bound and confined. He is later approached by the leader of the local gang, who is under the impression that he is a Zoushi agent.

The Zouchi gang is a larger, more powerful gang that controls surrounding towns and villages with their sights set on this town. The local gang, the Sumi gang is outpowered, but well established in this town, and well hidden, making it difficult for a direct attack to succeed. The Zouchi's next logical step is to send in spies and agents to either identify the Sumi or to disrupt them enough by forcing them to hide to diminish them entirely.

The Sumi gang is set on opposing the Zouchi, but doesn't have the resources to fight them, despite the fact that they have started pushing the locals harder to get more money. The locals are unhappy being pushed by the Sumi. The Sumi leader thinks that it will be even worse if the Zouchi were to come in. The Sumi leader is an old man, and sees this as his chance to give back to his town.

Given the unique position of the monk in this situation, he volunteers himself to investigate the Zouchi, as if they are the ones pursuing him, then they might be able to solve both of their problems. The Sumi boss admits that he is taking a huge risk in doing so, but trusts the monk to conduct his investigation, seeing his honest face.

The monk leaves that town, happy to see it behind him. He follows directions given to him by the Sumi to the nearby city of Chosen. This is where one of the Zouchi underbosses resides, his current lead. He operates out of a restaurant, and is quickly tracked down by the monk. Our hero demands a meeting with the underboss when he arrives. He gets his meeting, but is heavily guarded.

The monk begins explaining himself, he is searching for a particular lamp in the hands of a group of criminals. The Zouchi, being a large criminal group in the same area seemed a likely candidate. The underboss has no idea of the true nature of the lamp, and just assumes it is valuable; he proceeds to laugh and applaud the audacity of the monk, walking into an enemy stronghold and demanding things. The monk begins to explain the curse it carries, and in doing so, accidentally gives away that it is a djinni's lamp he is pursuing.

Upon doing so, everything changes in their meeting. The underboss orders the capture of the monk, who takes this as his cue to leave. He manages to escape, and in doing so delivers minor injuries to many of the Zouchi men, and kicks a cup of hot tea into the face of the underboss, which would give him some distinct burn scars around his left eye later on.

Seeing as how the Zouchi underboss did not know of the lamp, the monk takes the Zouchi off of his list of suspects, leaving him back at square one, now with two criminal groups after his blood. His first priority is to get the hell out of there. He departs Chosen without a backwards glance, now relying on the bandits to find him.

The bandits in question are still recovering from their first failed attempt. The djinni is still with them, though he isn't giving them any help. They are collectively unaware of the Zouchi's involvement in the situation. The Zouchi underboss, who is unaware of the rules of Djinni, sees getting this lamp as his priority; turning his focus to the bandits rather than the monk. He happens to be a greedy and ambitious man, and sees the lamp as a valuable tool to usurp his bosses. However, he does not know where to get the lamp, and sees the monk as an unuseful lead, given that he doesn't know where it is either; his only clue is that it is in the hands of a group of criminals.

The monk at this point decides to camp evasively on the far outskirts of Chosen. He concludes that he wants to confront the bandits, despite the obvious danger, in order to break the curse. Therefore, by camping evasively, he will be able to reduce the risk from the Zouchi, and will presumably be able to be found by the bandits, enabling him to confront them, as at this point he assumes that they can find him just about anywhere, though he doesn't know whether this is the curse or their intelligence network. He stays in the same area, despite the Zouchi risk, in order to not evade the bandits, who he believes to be a localized organization, though he doesn't have any information to back this up just yet.

In the following weeks the standoff continues; the bandits to prepare their attack; the monk camps out in hiding; while the Zouchi search for the monk and the lamp; when fate interjects, in the form a merchant caravan. It passes along a trail that is overlooked by the monk's hiding spot. It proves to be too much of a temptation for him, as he has survived for days off of whatever he can forage, leaving him quite hungry, and he goes down to buy some food.

As he is making his purchases, a small group of robbers steps out of the woods, demanding money, valuables, and whatever else they desire. The caravan sounds the alarm, a large and loud horn, and moves to defend itself. The robbers attack,  and the monk tosses aside his soup to defend both himself and the caravan. The monk, the robbers, and the guards have a brief scrap, and in the end, the robbers retreat, ending with two robbers dead, along with one guard, with several guards and robbers injured. The monk begins lining up the dead, although several members of the caravan protest him putting the robbers' bodies with their own; he explains that after death, there are only men, they are robbers and merchants no longer, as if we cannot forgive our enemies in the afterlife, our souls will never be at peace.

The merchants offer him goodwill, and they begin preparing the bodies. As they are doing so, it becomes apparent that they are not the only ones that heard the alarm. The bandits and the Zouchi approach the caravan from opposite sides of the forest, looking for a caravan in distress for easy pickings, but rather they both encounter something they much more desire, namely the monk.

The monk commands the merchants to flee from here, to avoid this battle entirely if possible. Many of them follow his advice, however many more of them stay, to defend their wares or out of duty to the stranger monk. The bandits and gangsters size each other up, largely ignoring the skitterings of the caravan-folk. When neither of them retreats upon seeing the other, the Zouchi figure that the bandits are the ones with the lamp, while the bandits just see the Zouchi as enemies, but have a reasonable guess as to their intentions.

And with that, the battle begins. All sides draw swords and rush into battle. There are three main parties, the two criminal groups, as well as a group of guards and armed merchants under the command of the monk. There are many scattered merchants throughout the caravan, but they play little purpose in this battle, just being killed as they desperately try to salvage or defend their wares. The monk leads his group to a withdrawn position, effectively forcing the other two groups to fight each other to get to them. They can see this move, and recognize that the two groups must fight to get at the third.

At this point, the djinni steps in and takes charge of the bandits. He takes on the Zouchi single-handedly, and wins impressively. He spares the Underboss, who he declares to be the newest bandit in their gang. The merchant guards, witnessing this slaughter, suddenly find themselves lacking courage, and the monk steps forward to defend them all.

The djinni, realizing that he cannot directly confront his master, sends the bandits after the monk. The monk stands bravely against the bandits, but is being overwhelmed and is losing ground quickly, being so terribly outnumbered. The merchant guard, seeing his valiant efforts (as well as the fact that the djinni isn't fighting) gradually rejoin the fight, evening the odds.

Seeing his plan failing before him, the djinni intervenes. Knowing he cannot harm the side he wants to, he stops the fight, and tells the bandits to head for the hills. The bandits are unhappy about this, but the djinni is furious, and none of them dare protest.

The guards and monk emerge to survey the damage. The dead are numerous, a multitude of merchants, guards, bandits, and Zouchi. The wounded were taken care of, the merchants and guards by their own, while the monk worked on the rest.

Opinions are divided on the monk. He appeared to be the harbinger of three groups of undesirables, which cost them many of their comrades; however he also fought valiantly and effectively saved most of those remaining, as he was the only one who dared oppose the djinni and his forces, and they even managed to repel them under his leadership. The general consensus is that they can't wait to see the back of him, as even those that like him wish to get going soon, so as to arrive shortly in Chosen to lick their wounds and sell their wares. The monk is of a similar opinion, seeing the damage he brought on, he is eager to leave them, however, not without doing what he can for them first.

They work for the rest of the day without significant incident, the monk and a few merchants tend to the wounded firstoff, then begin burying the bodies. Many of the Zouchi bodies are dismembered, and they are assembled as best they can get them, so that each body is buried with its parts. By nightfall, they have erected a small burial mound on the side of the road, in honour of those fallen in this battle, on both sides, following the monk's counsel. They make a single collective monument for the fallen.

They prepare for the night, setting camp. They plan to rest the night here, pay their last respects, and then leave in the morning. The monk plans to leave tonight, eager to get himself away from the camp.

As everyone is settling in for the night, the monk prepares his departure. He is stopped by an aged storyteller within the group, who takes him aside to talk. The storyteller recognizes that the monk had some connection to the djinni, which is why the caravan was not slaughtered like the Zouchi were.

He reccomends that the monk leave before others start making this connection, but not before speaking with him. He gets right to the point and asks how the monk relates to the djinni. The monk denies any. The storyteller insists on the connection, as the djinni wanted to kill them all, regardless of what anyone else said; which means that either the djinni didn't want to kill the monk, or he couldn't.

If it is true that the monk doesn't know the djinni, then it wouldn't have been because he couldn't harm the monk - and the only way he couldn't have harmed the monk is if he was the djinni's master.

A startling revelation. The monk tells the storyteller that he rejected his mastership of the djinni, so he couldn't be his master. The storyteller reacts to this, as it is proof of their connection, and then proceeds to reject the monk's explanation, insisting on his own theory. The monk concedes, and asks him how to rid himself of the djinni. The storyteller is taken aback, because despite his great knowledge of djinni folklore, he has no idea how to reject a djinni, as noone in his stories has ever even considered that possibility.

The storyteller then reevaluates his position, as it was mastery of the djinni that saved the caravan. The monk responds that it was his mastery of the djinni that caused the attack in the first place. The storyteller assures him that if the attackers had mastery of the djinni instead of him, that it would only have been worse - and not just for them; but a gang like that would terrorize the entire county with that kind of power.

Seeing his point settle in, the storyteller wishes the monk a good night, and starts towards his own wagon, reminding the monk to leave as he intended now that they have spoken.

Slightly taken aback, the monk reciprocates the storyteller's good night and goodbye,  then promptly finishes packing and leaves the camp. He leaves, off into the night, his destination largely unknown to him, but with the ultimate intent to confront the djinni to prevent him from inflicting further tragedy.

-----------------

While the monk lacks a destination, he still has one immediate objective: to get away from the caravan. This he does, moving away from both the caravan and Chosen. So he takes to the road.

He continues in this manner for several weeks, foraging for himself, with neither hide nor hair of humanity, avoiding passersby, so as not to get them involved. He avoids roads and towns, moving away from populated areas entirely.

Meanwhile, the Djinni's gang is following the monk. While many of its members have lost heart in the matter, the Djinni's wrath is enough to keep them in line. Several members have already attempted to escape their obligations, and were horribly punished for it, to dissuade similar ambitions in any of the others.

They bring terror wherever they go, raiding and pillaging caravans and small towns to survive, and to replace their fallen and bolster their ranks. The gang is actually growing stronger as they go, being backed by an indestructible leader, as well as naturally excelling when a goal is in sight, as men tend to do.

As they move further away from civilization, they begin to lose their steam. Their attacks become less frequent and less intense, as they must divide their numbers between raiding parties and the pursuing force. However, they are quickly closing on the monk, as he is quickly running out of space to run.

The monk meanwhile is quite aware that he is cornered. Seeing only small, vulnerable villages ahead of him, he stops running, convinced that he has to confront the bandits - here and now. He sets up camp for the night, on the side of a mountain, giving him a view of the woodlands below.

As he prepares for the night, he is confronted by none other than the Djinni himself, who makes the comment that the monk has finally stopped running. The monk, expecting conflict, reacts suddenly. The djinni assures him that he intends no foul play, and rather he came to give him a piece of advice; his second in command, the zouchi underboss, is in possession of his lamp.

The monk does not find this particularly helpful. He asks the djinni how this is supposed to help him. The djinni explains that the bandits have a severe morale problem, and that he could destroy the entire band by killing the leader and stealing the lamp. This information seems very suspicious, as the djinni has worked this entire time to construct this gang, and is now working to undermine it.

He questions the djinni, as to why he is telling him this. The djinni explains that he is bound to him, as well as the lamp; and the separation of these two elements is his main problem; as such he wants him to fight his second in command, and the winner will take all. He continues to explain that trusting him is risky, although the djinni really has no reason to lie, as he has an entire gang hunting him, and if he wanted him dead, he wouldn't even have to make this offer.

The monk sees an opportunity to exploit the gang's morale and the djinni's presence, and attempts to wish for the djinni's freedom from his mastery. The djinni gives off an evil laugh and tells him that he needs the lamp in order to make a wish, and further encourages him to face his second in command this night, as the gang will make their attack tomorrow.

Seeing no alternative, the monk sneaks off into the darkness to infiltrate the camp. His intention is to steal the lamp and then disappear. He is successful in infiltrating the camp; the guards are incompetent and do not even know who they are looking for; however, when he reaches the underboss' tent, he comes face to face with the Zouchi underboss and the djinni, who are both awaiting his arrival.

The alarm is raised, and the monk is quickly subdued. The underboss orders his execution, but the order is overruled by the djinni, who insists on a fight to the death between the two of them. The Zouchan is offended by this betrayal, as this arrangement was not what was agreed upon. The djinni has the upper hand however, and his will is done.

Both the monk and gangster are thrown into the middle of a circle of bandits. Each is given a knife. The lamp is left in the leader's tent. The monk, not wishing to kill his opponent, tosses his knife aside as the fight begins. The two circle each other, and as they do, the underboss picks up the discarded knife. Seeing his advantage, he throws one of the knives at his opponent. The monk dodges it, but the knife strikes one of the onlookers to a ruthless cheer from the crowd. The monk takes the offensive, charging at his opponent, quickly disarming him and pinning him to the ground.

The onlookers are unsatisfied with the outcome of the fight. Though the victor is irrelevant to them, they were promised a fight to the death, and they cry out for a finishing blow. The djinni is foremost in demanding a killing blow, however the monk refuses to comply.

While everyone is occupied by the fighting, one of the bandit's captives makes use of this time to escape. She is a clever woman, and she recognizes that there should be a lamp to control the djinni, and has also figured out where it is being kept. She breaks into the leader's tent, and uses a spare blade of his to unbind her hands, she then takes the sword and the lamp, and begins running.

The moment she moves the lamp, the djinni's focus is diverted from the fight to the lamp. Knowing that he will not be able to stop her himself, the djinni calls upon the bandits to get her. The bandits are meanwhile quite oblivious to the lamp's theft, and are much more concerned with the fight.

The djinni is furious. He attempts to gather up a party to chase after the escapee, asserting himself and barking orders, but the result is simply pandemonium. Everyone is startled and scared by the djinni's sudden and threatening change of mood, having gone from enjoying the fight to attacking the audience in a moment with no cause apparent to the rest of them. The bandits scatter, leaving only the two combatants on the ground amidst the chaos. Seeing no alternative, the djinni makes his request of them to end this conflict and find his lamp.

The monk misunderstands this, and again refuses to kill his opponent. The djinni explains that their contest has changed, and they now must find this thief rather than kill one another, as the prize for this contest has been stolen. The monk resists this new directive, but is silenced when the djinni asks him what happened the last time he left the lamp's ownership to fate.

The djinni sets out with the monk to find the girl, and as an incentive for him to stay true to this goal, he sends the underboss out as well, who will surely kill the girl if he finds her first.

They all set out into the forest as a group, led by the djinni. Both the monk and murderer are trying to outdo the other, racing through the trees and over the terrain recklessly.

The girl is lost in the woods, scared, and tired from running. She continues heading away from the camp, fuelled by fear, but running on empty. She is malnourished, dehydrated, carrying a weapon that is too heavy for her, and is varying her course to throw off pursuers. Her pursuers however are in excellent shape, are unburdened by baggage, and have the djinni's unerring guidance in tracking her.

The three of them continually gain ground on the girl, and the two humans vie to outpace the other


---this is where it ends for now. I may continue writing this in future. This is the document on google docs: link.

And here are the rules of Djinni; it includes many of my personal notes, which have not been edited out:

-------Djinni Rules--------

1. Any master may have up to three wishes.

1b. The first wish has no cost.

1c. The cost of the second wish is at the djinni's discretion. It may be the death of the master or nothing at all.

1d. The cost of the third wish is the master's soul. This will kill the master. The djinni gains ownership of the soul.

1e. The word 'wish' as well as a command must be present for it to count as a wish.

1f. A soul can only be taken by the third wish clause.

2. A djinni is bound to one master until the death of the master.

2b. The master is the first one who touches a lamp with a djinni in it who does not already have a slave djinni.

2c. If the master is not fit to be a master, for example if it becomes non-human, than mastership is revoked. This is most commonly done by humans becoming djinni.

2d. A master can only be human.

2e. A djinni will always know who and where its master is. He will also know exactly what and where his lamp is. This means that he cannot confuse two identical ones next to each other.

2f. A person can only be the master of one djinni at a time.

2g. A djinni cannot directly act against the will of his master, unless doing so would violate another one of these rules. Note that wish-interpretation overrides this clause, and that this only includes action against the master's will. He is free verbally and may refuse orders.

3. A djinni can only be destroyed by the destruction of its lamp, however, the lamp itself is indestructible, as is the djinni.

3b. As this implies, a djinni is immortal.

4. To be freed from this contract, a master must wish for the djinni's freedom on his third wish, costing him his soul, and binding the djinni within the human's body.

4b. This will make the djinni human, in every sense.

4c. Any souls owned by the djinni are returned to their original owners.

4d. This excludes the master's soul, which becomes property of the djinni-human.

5. A djinni is not obliged to tell the master of these rules, nor is he obliged to he honest in any way, and may lie outright at his own discretion.

5b. Despite this, a djinni cannot break these rules, nor can he cause another djinni to break these rules.

5c. A djinni does not have to tell the master the cost of his second wish, or that there is one. They may also lie about it.

6. A djinni's true power can only be used to grant wishes.

6b. A djinni does have lesser magicks to use at his discretion.

7. All djinni are bound by these rules.

7b. A djinni will never forget these rules, and know them instinctively.

8. A wish may be denied if it is impossible, or if it would violate any other rules.

8b. Under any other circumstances a wish cannot be denied, even if it is against the djinni's will.

9. A djinni may use his own interpretation of a wish, and he may violate its intentions, but must adhere to the meaning of it. This is especially true when a wish is made unclearly or in partial violation of these rules, and when the djinni is left to decide *how* to grant a particular wish.

10. There are innate limits on what may be wished for. These limits are not quantified, but are definite, and every djinni will know their limits.

10b. A person's body cannot be directly tampered with. That is to say that a djinni cannot modify their body or increase their strength directly. There are many loopholes to this.

10c. A person's mind cannot be directly tampered with. That is to say that djinnis cannot alter free will, nor can they directly grant skills or knowledge.

11. A djinni is bound within its lamp unless it has a master, at which time it cannot enter its lamp.

11b. A djinni cannot move its own lamp. Ordinarily, the lamp would feel infintely heavy to the djinni, however if the lamp is forced upon the Djinni, it will be ethereal to the djinni.

12. When the master touches the lamp, the djinni will be summoned if he is not already in the presence of the master.

12b. Therefore, a djinni cannot leave the master's presence so long as the master remains in contact with the lamp.

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X. This is so not a ripoff of deathnote.

XX. Note the many loopholes created by the interaction of these rules.

XXX. Read them carefully and pay attention to the details.

XY. Inspiration includes: deathnote (though indirectly), bartimaeus trilogy,
shi long pang, NNFB, samurai champloo (kinda) [links added for reference, not in original notes]

-most djinni are jerks. they will lie, cheat, and manipulate their way into the deaths of their master; usually.

-there are some nice djinni, but they are rare, and usually are occupied by masters who get two free wishes, and then don't use their third by the djinni's advice

-there is no central djinni culture, as each is either bound to a master or within their respective lamp.

-djinni can only be created by those wishing to become one, and can only be destroyed by becoming human. They cannot reproduce in the human sense.

-all ancient djinni are roughly equal in power, as there is a limit, and it is generally reached after 100 years. New djinni take time to master their powers, but must adhere to the rules regarding wish-granting.

-a djinni's magic is primarily illusion, but they are capable of various things with their magic. Note that this magic gets weaker as it is further from the djinni and as the djinni gets further from the lamp
-note that djinni are incapible of teleporation, except when summoned by the master touching the lamp, as specified in rule #12.

-djinni lore is mixed, between tricksy spirits, omnipotent wish-granters, and deceptive demons. That is to say, there are many views on them, especially whether one is lucky or unlucky to have a djinni slave.

-A person wishing to become a djinni on their third wish will become a wraith, a soulless magical horror. The soul will go to the djinni, and a soulless djinni is a wraith. Wraiths are a shadow of their former selves, they have vague memories and intentions.

-djinni are corporeal, but also have some magic at their disposal; they can bend the rules of physics around them to some extent

-granting most wishes is very painful for a djinni, as they usually are beyond the djinni's ability; however they cannot not carry out the wish, and work beyond their limit - this process would destroy them if it weren't for their invulnerablility.

-the motives of djinni varies; some want to be human, some want to be left alone, some want to rule the human world, some just like killing their masters, most don't like humans or granting them wishes, some want to help humanity, some collect souls, and several newer ones have far more specific motives, such as eternal romance - but it varies from djinni to djinni.

-djinni is pronounced genie.
-------------------Wraiths----------------------

-wraiths have no soul
-wraiths are ethereal
-wraiths are immortal
-wraiths' magic is *extremely* weak
-wraiths have no lamp
-wraiths can only be destroyed by returning their soul to them.

-----------------Characters----------------------

Master (monk)
Djinni
Gang Leader (sumi)
Zouchi Underboss
Captive Woman
Storyteller (one time character)