Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi
| Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi | |||||||
| Female Djinni | |||||||
| Player: Ven The Jen | |||||||
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| General Information | ||||||||||
| Full Name: | Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi | |||||||||
| Nicknames: | Sarah, Genie, Hafasa | |||||||||
| Age: | ||||||||||
| Deity: | Celestian | |||||||||
| Alignment: |
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| Occupation: | Anarchist | |||||||||
| Faction/Rank: | Independent | |||||||||
| Place of Birth: | Unknown | |||||||||
| Physical Attributes | ||||||||||
| Height: | 49'7" | |||||||||
| Weight: | 60.81lb at 0°C, not including debris | |||||||||
| Eyes: | Mirror-metallic | |||||||||
| Hair: | Azure | |||||||||
| Complexion: | Ciel | |||||||||
| Physical Build: | Nebulous | |||||||||
| Physical Features: | A vortex that rotates anti-clockwise | |||||||||
| Skills | ||||||||||
| Adversity, Intimidation, Creation, Ethereal Visage, Mega Fun Time, Telepathy, Invisibility, Persistent Illusion, Planar Survival, Planeshift, Scramble and Rip Portal, See Invisibility. | ||||||||||
| Equipment and Items | ||||||||||
| Tempest Mote, Horn of Silence, Silver Ring, Swift Guardian, Potion of Immortality, Mechanical Key, Rod of Wonder, Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals, Everfull Flask of Pure Element. | ||||||||||
One billion free minds,
So few who divine.
Changes are coming.
You'll soon know your side.
The Names
"Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi; Twice-Bound Yet No More; A True Traveller of the Astral Plane; Daughter of the Third Cloud; Fulfilling Freedom's Niche; Traitor Sentinel of Ice and Steel; Crusader of Smoke and Mirrors; A Mortal's Last Breath; Queen of Cotyttia."
"UL TANITTUM NABU INA EREŠ.KI.GAL INA INANIN.TI MA INA NINMULMULLA."
"Aefzs Foorss er au Ooerrsauoor; Zsrrrssemraauo oor zsre Rauke; Oormssemem."
"Nelphelh Fiyruoy A Vaolel; Yrel Vahasiyz; Yrel Vnavx Ic Yrel Vhuvx."
"Kte Giie Ktid Riee Ki Kte Tean Il Aaqa."
"Bound in Black Stone."
Out of Touch
The Court of Ice and Steel is a continent, a rich palace carved from glacial rock that forever hurtles through the Elemental Air. It is the centre of the Djinn territory volumes and is dominated by the Commander of the Four Winds, Ruler of all Djinn, Defender of the Heavens, Prince of Birds, Storm of the Righteous, and Master of the Air.
Its arcane passages are always open to the tornado passage of air. Here converge the four sacred winds of the people of the air: Boreas, Eurus, Notus and Zephyrus. Notus, the south wind, was associated with violent equinoctial storms and was praised as both the ripen-er of crops and feared as their potential destroyer. Zephyrus, the west wind, was associated with the welcome breezes of midsummer, wines and love; stories of Hellenistic deities carry on the westward streams. Eurus, the unlucky east wind, carried the association of death - a true taboo amongst the immortal society of the Djinn, so that it went rarely mentioned. Boreas, the north wind, was associated with winter rainstorms. It was also known as The Devouring One and was said to have a leadership over the other winds, the first born of a primal storm god.
The four sacred winds were offset by the Anemoi Thuelli - the sailing winds, so called for upstart mortals used them to travel through the Elemental Air. They were Kakias, Apeliotes, Lips and Skiron. The north eastern Kaikias was feared for its dark, violent hailstorms whilst the north western Skiron was known to unleash winter winds and rain. The south eastern Apeliotes had more positive associations, as the bringer of vital rains during the spring and was the preferred sailing wind of the most advanced nations that ventured through the infinite sky. South westerly Lips was also seen as benign, safely escorting merchant ships to their home ports.
The many-breached chambers and the piazzas of the Court of Ice and Steel were wind roses created through absolute art and design. It was said that, as the eight winds combined, there was a chance however slight that a Djinni might come to be. No hall, no rose, was as grand as that of the Master of Air. The howl of wind only ceased when every portal to his hall was closed fast.
The Ruler of all Djinn lived in perfection. His people had little need for the creatures of the 'verse. They could simply create all of life's necessities and the lesser Djinn, the bound Djinn, were put to work eternally creating luxuries and pleasing the noble caste.
It was said that The Defender of Heaven had not been required to live up to his name in millennia. Still, despite the opulence of the empire and decadence of its people, the volumes that the Djinn ruled were beset by constant strife. They were very much a part of the oldest war in the multi-verse, if far from the most destructive, the elemental chaos. The Great Enemy was the consumer, the fire, and the Genie people of the Efreet. Long had they savaged the Djinn peoples, marauding and enslaving for sport. So vast and connected to the other worlds, it was almost impossible to completely defend their aerial empire. Though, vast sky armies constantly vied for victory skirmish after skirmish.
The Education
It was with some surprise that Shareef Boutros 'Ismat Husam Alfarsi, Merchant Malik of Ice, discovered that one of his servants had an aptitude for the game of Life. A fashion of the time, Life was a magical diversion played in an enchanted void. The players manipulated an illusionary series of boards and pieces to change the manifest destiny of the distant figures that were represented in the game - occasionally malicious and often capricious, with no clear goal beyond the players' desire.
The servant, the attendant, had not yet warranted a name. But that was to change. Unexceptional in ability but a novelty, the bound Djinni that could play the sport of the nobles was given her place in the recreation halls of the Court of Ice and Steel. Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Bound, Tasked Artist, soon became acknowledged for her unique style of play. She formed narratives around the struggle for independence and inter-planar freedom only a few Djinn, noble or bound, could appreciate.
Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Bound, Tasked Artist had her time amongst the influential and the famous. She studied Life, studied art amongst those with the time to live such things, and in a few short centuries was privy to the experience of the imperial culture. The Bound Djinni watched as the winds came and went. She was there when the Djinni Martina Tacita Porcia Faustina, the First Sword of Stars, outmanoeuvred the Dao Sa'id Sulayman Wasim Ihab Abdulrashid to stop the portal war. It was diplomacy in excess - two ideologies put into practice on an unimportant prime world. A royal family was divided. Their people spread out into the multiverse. In the end, neither the Djinn nor the Dao way of life was superior. So an uneasy peace came, as both sides calculated what came next.
Smoke and Mirrors
"I greet you again mortal scholar."
"Hafsa... Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, may we continue where we finished yesterday?"
"But of course! Once, a long time ago, I was duty bound in the service of the Commander of the Four Winds, Ruler of all Djinn, Defender of the Heavens, Prince of Birds, Storm of the Righteous, and the Master of the Air. My people live in comfort, you understand, but there are those who threaten us..."
Indeed, for thousands of years the Djinn that went by the name of Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi served the great Caliph of the Djinn in the Court of Ice and Steel. She watched as her superiors were provided with all the necessities and luxuries of life. She saw the haughty cruelty of the noble Djinn for their visitors, outsiders and mortals. She was content; nothing was left for want in her life.
"Disaster struck, yes. I heard before that there was a great rift?"
"That is correct. Yes. There was a rift. It was not as great as certain stories remember. Write that down."
Messengers reached the Court of Ice and Steel. They spoke of Efreet war bands mustering at the far reaches of the Djinn territories. Parts of the great armies were summoned and sent forth. Many, many genie-folk and elemental battle-servants were sent far from their stronghold homes to meet the widespread threat. Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Twice Bound, Tasked Artist, Tasked Sentinel was among their number. She had begged to join the armed forces to see the great gulfs of the Plane of Air, to travel far from the Court. Her mind was romantic - accustomed to great tales of valour and heroism, to seeing war at a remove in the great game of Life. The Djinni had lived a life of plenty, protected, and she never truly understood the threat that the elemental wars presented.
Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Twice Bound, Tasked Artist, Tasked Sentinel carried no weapons. A Djinni is unique from mortal counterparts in its ability to become a great destructive whirlwind. Terrible damage has been wrought by furious genie-folk. The war party took the form of a wild wind, blasting at unfathomable speed through the tremendous currents of the Plane of Air. Some Djinn also brought with them great bound servants capable but thoughtless and able to inflict terrible harm. Others had warriors in their service, natives of the Plane of Air. Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Twice Bound, Tasked Artist, Tasked Sentinel travelled alone amongst them. There was no stopping. The Djinni people do not require food or drink for sustenance and, for the first time in her living memory, she went without fine edibles. Even comforts as basic as a pillow were not afforded for her. The creation would take too long and lives were said to be in danger.
The war party drifted then from stronghold to stronghold, querying Sheik, Sharif and Malik for direction towards the threat. Eventually the great evil was revealed as a series of new and inconspicuous portals. Each had a very remote destination but all seemed linked to the para-elemental Plane of Smoke. Yet there was no opposing war band. Words with the natives showed that the warnings that had reached the Court of Ice and Steel were greatly exaggerated in the retelling of a dozen different messengers. Efreet slavers were merely snatching beings near the vicinity of the portals - no Djinni had actually been harmed. Half of the Djinn forces subsequently departed, as little glory remained in the coming battles. The remaining genie-folk were a bloodthirsty bunch, driven by a variety of causes: Vengeance towards their elemental adversaries and the desire to steal the Efreet spiritual energy. Ultimately there would be battle. Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Twice Bound, Tasked Artist, Tasked Sentinel learned first hand the conflict of the elemental powers.
"Was it a terrible battle you fought in?"
"No. I actually battled no Efreet, myself, at that time. What was so terrible came after."
Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Twice Bound, Tasked Artist, Tasked Sentinel was not truly prepared for battle but she followed admirably. The Djinni shifted through a planar rift and into the swirling vapours of the Plane of Smoke. They descended through static-charged whorls of soot down to a floating world of ash and charred matter. Lightning arced and blasted about their number. Thunder heralded the whirlwind battle, fire against the storm. Efreet vanished quickly, outnumbered and plane shifting, leaving their one time allies and servants to fend for themselves. The battle, if the short exchange could be called such, was over as quickly as it begun. As Air Elementals thundered with Efreet only briefly, opposing Fire Elementals were subsequently overwhelmed and quenched.
When Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Twice Bound, Tasked Artist, Tasked Sentinel descended and threw aside her veil of invisibility, powerful hands were already smothering the throat and mouth of a Fire Mephit - ruining it. Foul servant of the enemy! Other Mephits scattered, fleeing the range of any potential whirlwind that she may summon. The diminutive Outsider's struggle failed. She carefully, purposefully broke its neck and cast it aside. Regret, the Djinni remembered the thought to this very day: It was cruelty. Slaughter wasn't necessary. The Efreet and their servants would have fled before their numbers, if only they had made themselves known.
To the victors went the spoils. Meagre treasures both mundane and magical were recovered. Evidently the planar nexus spilled over to various points in the Prime Material Plane, as well as the Astral. Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Twice Bound, Tasked Artist, Tasked Sentinel was picking over a collection of magical artefacts even as her Djinn allies returned to their home volumes. It was then that she came across an electrum banded cell. Within its locked, enchanted confines were mortals. They were Humans, in fact, and one Gith.
"I still remember my first words to those friends."
"What did you say?"
"'Who dares hold allegiance to the Efreet menace?'"
Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Twice Bound, Tasked Artist, Tasked Sentinel learned that they were on a pilgrimage, of sorts, when they were snatched from the Astral Plane. She also learned that the Gith was in fact a Githzerai (some sort of unimportant distinction in their society that had occurred since the last time that the Djinni had left the court) and a servant of an intermediate Power. She released the true travellers and showed them the way back to their Plane of origin. They queried the treasure horde. The Djinn was disinterested and gifted it all to them.
"You gave them all the riches?"
"To my people, the value of such material riches is entirely the sum of the act of its surrender. We gained its value in power when we liberated it from the Efreet. The remaining items were not important to us."
"Still, that seems very generous of you, Hafsa."
"I have a name. It is Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi."
"Yes. Of course it is, Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi."
The Djinni slowly made her way back to the Court of Ice and Steel. She was a warrior now, bound in the service as a Sentinel, a watcher, a guardian and when the time came: A slayer.
In truth, Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Twice Bound, Tasked Artist, Tasked Sentinel expected to be released from service the moment that she returned. However, there was an upheaval between those who had vacated the flight to war and those who stayed to fight. The Commander of the Four Winds, Ruler of all Djinn, Defender of the Heavens, Prince of Birds, Storm of the Righteous, and Master of the Air in his infinite wisdom assigned her to his central court as a guardian. He was already familiar with her service, saw that she could be trusted to complete a task that he set and, oddly enough, now bound this Artist to the permanent role of a watcher and a defender.
Hafsa Sarah Shadiya Tabassum Alfarsi, Twice Bound, Tasked Artist, Tasked Sentinel kept her doubts to herself, as any good Bound Djinni must. For so long, she served without question. Honour demanded that, as a volunteer, she would work until her services were no longer required or until a greater debt of service was incurred. She did not count the planar cycles that passed, or the number of visitors to the whirlwind central court. She met eyes with ambassadors, Kings and Queens of races beyond her imagination. She never spoke a word.
"Then, you mentioned before, the Githzerai came to court."