I'm not sure yet if my character will use magic or not. I'd wager not, but if she does it'll likely just be spells to help her more easily move within the shadows undetected.

Perhaps one might consider a half-djinn sort of character. The character searching the land for his or her mortal parent. After all, he or she would never fit in among the djinni.

I was considering a D&D styled Sha'ir, one that uses the most minor of djinni as familiars, little one foot tall djinni that have very little power to speak of. They send the "gen" to fetch the spells they need.

Possibly interested. I'm looking for the role of one of them henchman for the Sultan.

I am more versed in pre-islamic faiths, beliefs and cultural motifs. Paganism, Zoroastrianism, Mithraism & the like. And also, don't forget the Islam is only one contemporary faith from the middle east. You also have Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism, the infamous Yezidi faith, etc.

Now, personally I've drawn my character Idea from the writings of HP Lovecraft, more than anything traditionally middle eastern. And I don't have a problem with that at all because 1) this is fictional and 2) I thought we were doing it for fun.

Anyway, if you'd like some more info on the "old ways" from the middle east, check these links out:

Gateways to Babylon

Chaldean Magic

Avesta.org

Nug Soth said
You also have Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism

Just wanted to point out, these three all originated on the Indian Subcontinent, quite a bit further East than the Middle East.

:) But yeah, all of those ancient mesopotamians and Persians and the like had some very interesting culture, and I can definitely see how you could draw on that to devise something Lovecraftian! I'm sorry if I've seemed standoffish, it's not because people were suggesting non-traditional folklore, but because a very well-established piece of folklore (jinn) was being misinterpreted, and it bothered me.

Anyway, I love Lovecraft, and I greatly look forward to seeing your character, Nug Soth.

EDIT:

Assallya said
Perhaps one might consider a half-djinn sort of character. The character searching the land for his or her mortal parent. After all, he or she would never fit in among the djinni.

I was considering a D&D styled Sha'ir, one that uses the most minor of djinni as familiars, little one foot tall djinni that have very little power to speak of. They send the "gen" to fetch the spells they need.

A little thing, I know, but the plural is d/jinn, and the singular is d/jinni. The collective noun would be "the d/jinn", as in "she would never fit in among the d/jinn." It's an easy mistake to make, definitely. I catch myself doing it all the time.

:) My real point is a question. The idea of the Sha'ir (a sorcerer who uses a small familiar as an envoy to the Outer Planes) works fine in D&D, considering that jinn in that game are natives of the those Planes and all, but how would it work without the defined Planes to travel to? The best I could come up with was that the Sha'ir sends the gen to make arrangements with various higher jinn, who then travel to her location and assist her with their power. Would she trade favors with them, or perhaps wealth? It's an interesting thought: what does a jinni want?

Imperfectionist said
Just wanted to point out, these three all originated on the Indian Subcontinent, quite a bit further East than the Middle East.

To be fair, so did a lot of the stories in the Arabian Nights. It's not really as middle eastern as people like to think, heck there are stories from Greece in there.

Onarax said
To be fair, so did a lot of the stories in the Arabian Nights. It's not really as middle eastern as people like to think, heck there are stories from Greece in there.

You're right... :P But a collection of tales and oral legends is a little different from "Gautama Buddha was born in Saudi Arabia." Lots of people from a wide swath of the world traveled through the area, it isn't hard to imagine that stories from India and Greece would be told and retold, given a muslim spin (or not), and eventually considered iconic tales of the classical Middle East.

EDIT: Nug Soth was saying that Islam wasn't the only religion to come out of "contemporary" Middle Eastern culture, but only the tiniest of the four examples came out of the Middle East at all. Those three religions originated in Indian culture, which was and remains entirely different.

Imperfectionist said The idea of the Sha'ir (a sorcerer who uses a small familiar as an envoy to the Outer Planes) works fine in D&D, considering that jinn in that game are natives of the those Planes and all, but how would it work without the defined Planes to travel to? The best I could come up with was that the Sha'ir sends the gen to make arrangements with various higher jinn, who then travel to her location and assist her with their power. Would she trade favors with them, or perhaps wealth? It's an interesting thought: what does a jinni ?

Well, we could go based on the concept of King Solomon who had the ability to bind Djinni. Perhaps the Sha'ir has done something similar but instead of binding Djinni into items like lamps and rings, he or she uses a smaller Djinni familiar to send to the far distant greater Djinni for the spells. Why they do this? Perhaps a Sha'ir summons the full on Djinni into circles and uses the implication that they could be bound into an item as a threat to coerce their compliance.

This also would mean that there are some Sha'ir out there that routinely entrap Djinni into items. These might have to deal with Djinni reprisals. Certain Djinni might deal with these "nicer" Sha'ir, trading favours in return for them taking down their tyrannical brethren.

The other question is, pre-Islamic, why do the Djinni simply make humanity extinct? They certainly have the ability. Maybe the gods dwelling in the Kaaba forbid this or maybe Bahamut, the great fish upon which the world resides, starts thrashing when the spirits threaten to wipe out humanity?

Which time period would this roughly be?