DjinnTheBinding:Antagonists:TheBound

The Bound are djinn who have been enslaved by sorcerers, and are often used as weapons against other djinn. Most Bound djinn chafe against their restraints and seize every opportunity to subvert their masters' wishes and do them harm. However, a djinn's spirit breaks if it's Bound for too long, and it loses the capacity for free will or judgment. These "Chained" djinn are pitiable creatures and also dangerous, since they fulfill every command in the most literal fashion without consideration for intent or consequences.

The Chained

The Chained are quite possibly the most dangerous of all Djinn to everybody around them; after all, Vagabonds and Shaitan usually know their limits, and at least understand (if not care about, or worse, desire) the consequences of their actions, while the Chained comprehend neither limits nor consequences.

A djinn can only become one of the Chained under one of a limited number of circumstances, among them:

• Being bound to a Master who breaks the djinn's Will (whether knowingly or not) can cause this (but only the wickedest or most foolish of Sorcerers would set out to create a Chained djinn, for creating a Chained One is certain to attract the attentions of both djinn and Angels, both of whom go out of their way to make their displeasure at such practices known.)
• One possible result of a djinn ending up with 0 Stability is becoming one of the Chained.
• One way of getting away from a pack of Natija is to destroy your sense of self temporarily. The downside is, sometimes the djinn fails to come back from this state of stasis, resulting in one of the Chained.
• Sometimes, a new djinn just appears like this. Some theorize that they are amnesiac escapees from wherever the djinn are held (there are a few Vagabonds who claim to be escapees), some theorize that these are new djinn, created by the same means as the original djinn, some theorize (and a most worrying theory, this) that these are the results of a Natija stabilizing. There are many, many other theories besides, but these are the most common.

Regardless, all Chained are slightly different than an ordinary djinn mechanically, for they are considered to have always twisted the wish at a level of 0, and thus always regain any Rukh expended fulfilling it. They also never cause a Manifestation when causing Turbulence. On the slightly positive side, a Natija cannot order, tempt or force the Chained into creating Turbulence; they may target the Chained's Master, however.

A Chained djinn will fulfill the letter of any command given to it by it's Master, with the minimum amount of effort. A wish for a million dollars might result in the djinn creating one million copies of the same dollar bill, for example, or your bank account getting credited with one million dollars, with no explanation (and no protection from bank auditors and law enforcement asking where the money came from). The Chained never asks questions, resolving any ambiguity on the side of the most literal interpretation that costs the least amount of effort to fulfill.

The Chained condition can be cured quite easily; any variation on the command "Think for yourself" will work... but one must be obeyed by the Chained djinn in order to issue such a command, and must be willing to live with the consequences of such a wish.

Whether the result of such a wish is a new djinn or possesses the memories of the old djinn depends on how the djinn came to be Chained, how the command that releases the djinn is worded, and (sometimes) what previous commands were given to the djinn (although a Chained djinn will never forget a person who willfully caused him to enter into the Chained state, everything else is fair game for a "forget this ever happened" command).

Sometimes, there's nothing left to recover; if there isn't, or the command that frees the djinn from the Chained state is worded the right/wrong way, than the result is a completely new djinn. When this happens, the result is not just a new djinn philosophically and mentally, but also supernaturally as well; the djinn cannot be tracked by using sympathetic magic based on objects dating to before he was freed from the Chained state, for example.

Harold Murphy

Virtue: Charity Vice: Gluttony Morality: 6

Intelligence 3 Wits 3 Resolve 2

Strength 2 Dexterity 2 Stamina 3

Presence 2 Manipulation 3 Composure 3

Skills: Academics 3 (Law, Wishes) Politics 2 Investigation 2 Occult 1 (Djinn) Athletics 1 Drive 2 Survival 1 Socialise 3 (party) Persuasion 3 (courtroom) Empathy 2 Subterfuge 3 Intimidation 1 Expression 2

Merits: Resources 5 Striking Looks 4 Contacts 3 (police, courts, high society) Allies 1 (police) Allies 3 (court clerks) Toxin Resistance 2 Unseen Sense 3 (Djinn)

Special: making a wish is a rote action.

Harold was fresh out of law school, hard work and dedication got him a solid grade and a junior position in a modestly sized but respectable law firm. His first job was ensuring the last will and testament of one Leslie Nod a minor scholar of the Occult. While taking inventory he found it, a small ruby ring that sent tingles down his spine, there was something… alluring about that ring and it was marked to be sold and the precedes given to charity. Nothing unethical about buying it himself is there?

Like most Harold had no real knowledge of the occult beyond cultural and pop cultural flotsam but a being that lived in a ring offering wishes could be nothing else except a ‘genie’ and all the stories were clear ‘be careful what you wish for’. It just so happened that as a trained lawyer Harold was vigorously trained to write in the completely unambiguous language of contract law.

A few years later and Harold has never been happier, he won big in one of Vegas’ many casinos and made good investments with his winnings. Currently Harold is living large in his well stocked mansion surrounded by beautiful women attracted by his deep pockets and rugged Djinn crafted looks. When constant leisure becomes monotonous he has been known to stretch his mind by taking pro bono cases.

If confronted with the truth about his Djinn Harold would be surprisingly willing to setting his slave free, but he worries that without the Djinn everything he has would collapse with supernatural speed and would request assurances. However Harold worries that should he encounter the supernatural he will be dangerously unprepared and is likely to be nervous by the time any discussion starts, if threatened he could quickly descend into panic and a panicked man with a Chained Djinn is a dangerous situation.