City of Brass
The material world hums with wonder. To the mortals to eke out an existence
The Brass City of Kaf lies amid the planes, burning with ethereal fires and gleaming in the light of the Font of Creation above it. Amid its glowing streets and twisting allies walk beings of elemental and spiritual power, manifestations of raw potential. There, they deal in great commodities, like gold, slaves, souls, and even worlds, and engage in a thousand struggles for power and legitimacy under the Sultan's rule.
They are the Djinn, the first created.
A BM SD slated for a possible summer release. Rules inbound.
Element
Your element is the primal matter that comprises the core of your being. It defines your mannerisms, your appearance, and your affinities; Djinn have authority over their element and their powers
Earth: The solid element, representing dirt, metal, and stone. Djinn with this are often calm and reserved, and prone to obeying precedent.
Water: The fluid element, representing water, ice, acid, and blood. Djinn with this are mercurial and moody and are often working with animals and medicine.
Air: The vapourous element, representing wind, clouds, lightning and storms. Djinn with this element enjoy travel and discovery, and are often flightly.
Fire: The energetic element, representing flames, the sun, and life force. Djinn with this element are emotional and passionate, and are often craftsmen.
Aspects
Every Djinn, in addition to a governing element, has a particular concept that is core to their being. This Aspect is the abstract portion of their being where the Element is their concrete side. It defines them and their affinities, and also gives shape to their impulses and their thoughts.
Possible aspects include love, hate, jealousy, ships, weapons, slavery, government, wanderlust, dancing, rudeness, discomfort, snakes, or most other concepts. Ask your GM.
Powers
Your Powers, also called attributes, represent your natural and supernatural affinities, your abilities to manipulate the worlds. Attributes go from 1-5, with 1 representing a weak skill and 5 being superlative.
Shaping: The physical power, this represents your ability to alter your shape and that of other living things.
Mysticism: The ability to manipulate the elements of the world and other natural forces. This is your mental power, focused on wits and intelligence.
Domination: The social power, this represents your ability to influence and control the minds of others.
Tricks
In addition to mundane rolls using your Attributes, you may also use them to enact supernatural powers. Your Attributes ARE supernatural stats, in that they are directly applied to magical and superhuman feats - Djinn are not mundane. However, there are specific Tricks which a Djinn learns, which allows them to further enact wonders with their supernatural power.
Traits
There are other traits which don't fall into these categories, which have fundamental alterations to a Djinn, both beneficial and otherwise. Essentially, they are both merits and flaws, special circumstances that affect the Djinn on top of their natural state. These are defining qualities, and often shape the Djinn over.
Corruption
The material world is critical to Kaf's economy. Many essential commodities – humans, certain spirits, and raw materials – are not present in the City, nor in the easily accessible planes nearby. The Material is simply the easiest and most abundant source of commodities; given the adaptable and ambitious nature of humanity, it also tends to lead to occurences that directly concern the rest of the dimensions.
However, the material is a fundamentally alien place to the Djinn. it is a world where elements are merged, impure with various oddities and states that do not exist in Kaf or elsewhere. It has its own unique essence, which is a danger to the pure and undiluted emanation of spiritual essence. The Material Essence is thus often referred to by Djinn by the pejorative term 'Corruption', denoting its transforming effect on any outsider that comes in contact with it.
Corruption threatens any Djinn that travels to the material. Exposure to the material shapes the Djinn's essence, making subtle alterations. This buildup eventually leads to aberrant and erratic responses - temporary backlashes of power, personal alterations, strange phenomena, and mental warping. Extreme exposure eventually leaves the Djinn wholly maddened and addicted to the material essence, warping them into horrible monsters - creatures collectively referred to as 'dragons' by both Djinn and mortal scholars, though the latter are unaware of this.
Acquiring Corruption
Corruption is acquired when a Djinn exposes themselves to the material world, and its essence mixes and clashes with their own. Any Djinn who travels in the material in their true form is constantly exposed. As a strange paradox, possessing a denizen of the material allows one to protect themselves from Corruption by residing within a native creature or object. In theory, possessing Djinn are immune to corruption taint - in practice, however, this is not perfect.
Any time a Djinn uses one of is Powers - any supernatural ability pertaining to its own nature - the Djinn risks exposure to the elements. Roll a number of dice depending on your current host; every success on that dice is a point of Corruption.
Losing Corruption
Corruption builds, and then it releases. In certain situations, Corruption will suddenly manifest, the built-up tainted essence purging and twisting the Djinn and the host in kind.
Corruption bursts are triggered by
-botching any roll -failing a contested roll by more then three dice -subjected to spirit-damaging or banishing magic, regardless of result
Corruption remains even if you leave your host. Corruption bursts can happen in Kaf, as well - some of these require quarantining an area, though only for the extreme bursts.
When corruption bursts occur, the GM rolls a dice pool equal to how many 1s are rolled on the offending roll, plus the difference of any contested rolls, up to a max of how many corruption points one has. The successes on the roll determine the severity of the backlash, as does the circumstance in which the corruption occurs.
Possession
Possession was developed as a means to mitigate essence taint by buffering oneself against the Material, using natives as proxies. It also allows for Djinn to conceal knowledge of themselves from the general world, thus avoiding too much mortal involvement in their affairs.